By jmw7989 on Thursday, January 07, 2010 - 02:17 am:

I first read For Love of Mother-Not when I was 11, the year it was published. re-read it several times over the years. I wrote you a letter back in 1984 asking you to push for the movie. I'm asking again. With all that can be done with movies now, I think Hollywood is finally ready to capture some of the worlds you've created and I'd really like to see Flinx and Pip in action. Introduce them to the rest of the world.

By adf on Thursday, January 07, 2010 - 08:39 am:

We can all dream. Spellsinger, too. All it takes is money.

By Flinxerone on Sunday, January 17, 2010 - 10:41 am:

I thought interest is the guarantee. Studio Madhouse (they did Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust), one of numerous reputable and outstanding Japanese animation production companies, could probably rock it, of course, with you being accepted in the endeavor to make sure they follow your input in retaining the content of this series.

By adf on Monday, January 18, 2010 - 06:37 am:

If interest was the guarantee, then we'd have a nice filmed version of Arthur C. Clarke's CHILDHOOD'S END, which has been under continuous option since it came out in 1955. You need a major star, or a push from studio heads, or you need to raise the money yourself, to get something made these days.

By adf on Monday, January 18, 2010 - 06:38 am:

Or someone in the industry with clout who actually grew up reading the material, like Peter Jackson with Tolkien or Steven Spielberg with Tintin.

By Flinxerone on Saturday, February 06, 2010 - 10:04 pm:

Hell, if Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs, (a book I have never heard of) can break through into production, then so can Flinx, Pip and the whole gang....

By jeff the sith on Sunday, February 07, 2010 - 12:09 am:

Perhaps the problem is that studios want a book that they can totally exploit by someone who is looking for a quick payout and not literary integrity. Look at what they've done to poor Philip K. Dick. I know that when one of Alan's works comes to the screen, it will maintain the standards of his stories that we all know and love (but just in case, be sure to keep the merchandising rights!)

By Flinxerone on Monday, February 08, 2010 - 07:39 pm:

Word. I cite the recent Japanese adaptation into animation author Ursula Le Guin's Earthsea stories by son of master animator and founder of Studio Ghibli, Mr. Hayao Miyazaki. Goto Miyazaki, who reportedly had no experience in the animation field, took on the task of the adaptation but from what I gather Ms. Le Guin was immensely disappointed.

By adf@alandeanfoster.com on Wednesday, February 10, 2010 - 08:05 pm:

The same thing happened with the Syfy Channel's adaptation of her work, which Ursula completely (and rightly) disowned.

By Julie on Thursday, February 11, 2010 - 10:49 pm:

I remember that tv show. It was a disappointment. Nothing at all like the books. What's with "SyFy", why did they change the name? Trying to appeal to the cool kids, er, kul kidz? It's almost insulting.

By adf@alandeanfoster.com on Friday, February 12, 2010 - 07:51 am:

Sci-Fi, you see, appeals only to nerds. SyFy is, um, cooler. Like their wrestling shows. That's what they said, anyway. But what the hey, much of TV is insulting.

By Julie on Friday, February 12, 2010 - 09:03 pm:

These days it seems it's chic to call yourself a geek. I don't get it. I'm certainly not tech-savvy enough to be a geek, heck, I can barely operate my cel phone. I just checked Wikipedia for the popular definition of nerd, to see if I am one (though I suppose I am since I enjoy SF&F). "At some point, the word took on connotations of bookishness and social ineptitude." Ok, that's me. egads. Interesting tidbit from the wiki: The first documented appearance of the word "nerd" is as the name of a creature in Dr. Seuss's book _If I Ran the Zoo_ (1950). Back to the SyFy channel. I really enjoy the show "Eureka", it's so quirky.

By Flinxerone on Saturday, February 13, 2010 - 10:30 am:

'These days it seems chic to call yourself a geek. I don't get it. I'm certainly not tech-savvy enough to be a geek...' Same here. I love technology (particularly if it does good for the environment and inhabitants) but I'm not going to stand around for hours on end to ascertain out the technical details of a component of a device and such.

By Marty on Saturday, February 13, 2010 - 05:38 pm:

It's funny that a lot of the channels that started out to appeal to a specific genre end up moving away from that once they get popular. SyFy no longer focusing on science fiction. History doing monster hunting MTV taking "Music Television" out of their logo. Etc. I think SyFy has done the most to alienate it's previous core audience, but I do still like Eureka when I can remember when it's on. I also thought Warehouse 13 was pretty good, not sure if that has been picked up for another season. Sanctuary was promising but I sort of lost interest in it.

By Flinxerone on Tuesday, February 16, 2010 - 07:47 pm:

Ditch it.

By adf@alandeanfoster.com on Wednesday, February 17, 2010 - 06:57 am:

If you're an executive at a TV network (or for that matter in any business) and you don't make significant changes, then it becomes difficult to justify continuing your position. Monkeying with success is all too common in industry (look up "new Coke").

By Marty on Wednesday, February 17, 2010 - 08:00 pm:

Can't remember what show it was but recently I watched an interview with someone at Coke about that time and there were people that hadn't had a Coke in decades complaining about the change. You don't mess with childhood memories (cough/Lucas/cough/starwars/cough)... It's great to have New Coke as an example, what would we use instead when talking about messing with success... That blunder got Coke back on top though with Coke Classic, then quietly remove the "Classic". I don't see that happening with SyFy, no chance they will go back.

By adf@alandeanfoster.com on Thursday, February 18, 2010 - 10:24 am:

Hmm...makes one wonder if the name, for a TV network, "Classic Sci-Fi" is copyrighted....

By Julie on Sunday, February 21, 2010 - 02:34 pm:

Ditch Sanctuary, Flinxerone? There've been a coupla real stinker episodes, but I enjoy it in general. New Coke was so nasty when I first tasted it that I thought I'd been given a diet soda. Now showing on the Classic Sci-Fi channel: "The Blob" (1958) and "The Day of the Triffids". I saw "The Lightning Thief" last night and loved it. Haven't read that book, but it's Greek mythology, so it's familiar. Great scenes of Hades. There was a preview for the "Karate Kid" remake, it looks just as awesome as the original.

By Flinxerone on Monday, February 22, 2010 - 07:52 pm:

I meant ditch Syfy, well, it's really what I've done several years ago. Before it's dreadful reincarnation into Syfy,I cauht the bizarre and intriguing Lexx series.