4 ms·

"I, Robot" was a great movie, but not based on the book. "Starship Troopers" was, as I like to repeat a quip, "based on the back cover of a novel by Robert Hei

"I, Robot" was a great movie, but not based on the book. "Starship Troopers" was, as I like to repeat a quip, "based on the back cover of a novel by Robert Heinlein". "Frozen", while not involving a contract to the long-deceased author, is allegedly based on "The Snow Queen" though I fail to see the connection. There are numerous other examples of a movie being almost entirely unlike the book for which rights were purchased at significant cost. Producers seem to often go to great lengths to ensure an even tangentially involved author is at least satisfactorily paid. Sure, there are famous examples where the reverse is true ("Forrest Gump", IIRC), but it seems in everyone's interests to err on the side of generosity where due, lest a case like this one codify outright screwing of the sources of ideas - and their eventual defense in substantially less profitable ways.

dragonwriter 12y ago
> "Starship Troopers" was, as I like to repeat a quip, "based on the back cover of a novel by Robert Heinlein". ST was actually written as a script completely unrelated to the book, and the rights to the book later purchased and superficial changes (character names, etc.) made to align with the book.
- rjaco31 12y ago
  Uh? The story is not the same, but the whole universe and political system are exactly the ones of the book, they just basically removed the mech-armors stuff.
  - vidarh 12y ago
    The original script was called "Bug Hunt at Outpost Nine". It's possible that the writing team was influenced by the book, but there's no clear indication of that, and in fact the claim is that they were not really aware of the book until well into the process. The universe and political system are depicted the way those critical of Heinlein likes to depict them, but largely because Verhoeven decided to make a "perfect fascist world" to satirise and criticise it, and Heinlein is often criticised for militarist viewpoints close to fascism. The absence of the mech-armors stuff reflects this: He's mimicked nazism (the opening has shot-for-shop parallels to a scene from Riefenstahls "Triump of the Will"; the uniforms are modelled on the Gestapo; the architecture is modelled on Speer; the weapons are WWII inspired; the newsreel clips are mimicking WWII era propaganda movies) as he saw it growing up in nazi-occupied Netherlands. Verhoeven is quoted as saying this about the book: > I stopped after two chapters because it was so boring,...It is really quite a bad book. I asked Ed Neumeier to tell me the story because I just couldn't read the thing. It's a very right-wing book.
  - ansible 12y ago
    Yeah. That is basically what happened with "I, Robot", but not, AFAIK what happened with Starship Troopers.
    - deleted 12y ago
      [deleted]
    - dragonwriter 12y ago
      Its what happened with ST as well. The Wikipedia page for the movie covers it pretty well, with sources. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starship_Troopers_%28film%29 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starship_Troopers_%28film%29
Fuzzwah 12y ago
I'd like to add "The Running Man" to your list.

dragonwriter 12y ago

> "Starship Troopers" was, as I like to repeat a quip, "based on the back cover of a novel by Robert Heinlein". ST was actually written as a script completely unrelated to the book, and the rights to the book later purchased and superficial changes (character names, etc.) made to align with the book.

rjaco31 12y ago
Uh? The story is not the same, but the whole universe and political system are exactly the ones of the book, they just basically removed the mech-armors stuff.
- vidarh 12y ago
  The original script was called "Bug Hunt at Outpost Nine". It's possible that the writing team was influenced by the book, but there's no clear indication of that, and in fact the claim is that they were not really aware of the book until well into the process. The universe and political system are depicted the way those critical of Heinlein likes to depict them, but largely because Verhoeven decided to make a "perfect fascist world" to satirise and criticise it, and Heinlein is often criticised for militarist viewpoints close to fascism. The absence of the mech-armors stuff reflects this: He's mimicked nazism (the opening has shot-for-shop parallels to a scene from Riefenstahls "Triump of the Will"; the uniforms are modelled on the Gestapo; the architecture is modelled on Speer; the weapons are WWII inspired; the newsreel clips are mimicking WWII era propaganda movies) as he saw it growing up in nazi-occupied Netherlands. Verhoeven is quoted as saying this about the book: > I stopped after two chapters because it was so boring,...It is really quite a bad book. I asked Ed Neumeier to tell me the story because I just couldn't read the thing. It's a very right-wing book.
- ansible 12y ago
  Yeah. That is basically what happened with "I, Robot", but not, AFAIK what happened with Starship Troopers.
  - deleted 12y ago
    [deleted]
  - dragonwriter 12y ago
    Its what happened with ST as well. The Wikipedia page for the movie covers it pretty well, with sources. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starship_Troopers_%28film%29 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starship_Troopers_%28film%29

Fuzzwah 12y ago

I'd like to add "The Running Man" to your list.