Decisions, decisions...

[Nenwen]

Hypothetical questions for everyone who loves Pern:

1) If you were writing the screenplay for the movie of Pern which would encompass all of its history from the beginning when the EEC team first explored it thru the 'Skies of Pern' book, what would you leave in and what would you leave out as being too much of a "sidetrip"?

2) Keeping in mind that the film would be done in the same mode as The Lord of the Rings, meaning that it would be filmed and released one part at a time, do you think Peter Jackson and his Weta Team financed by New Line Cinema could manage to pull off such an Epic Adventure?

3) Would you agree that Howard Shore should handle the problem of scoring the movie or would you rather have Sir John Williams(Star Wars) in charge of the movie soundtrack?

4) Considering that everyone from the 9th Pass of the Red Star was descended from those who originally landed before the First Pass, would you think it okay to have the same people playing different parts throughout the history of Pern or would you want to cast different people for the different "episodes"/generations/Passes of the film installments?

5) Would you want to end the first installment after the founding of Benden Weyr or after the Rescue of the people at Honshu Stake?

6) Who would you cast to play the various characters who played major roles in the entire history of Pern from start to finish?

7) Would you include the stuff written by Todd or only the original stuff written by Anne?

8) Would you want Ngila Dickson to be in charge of the costume department for such an Epic Adventure as Pern?

[granath]

LotR was filmed all at once and released one movie at a time.

I would skip MHoP completely, since it contradicts so much of what was written earlier.

I would skip the 3rd Pass (written by Todd) and the 6th Pass (much as I'd hate to, since I absolutely adore Moreta).

It would be very difficult to stick to just three movies, there are so many events I'd like to include. However, the DDawn bit could be just a prologue to the last movie, as told by AIVAS.

Different actors definitely.

[Dux]

Hypothetical questions for everyone who loves Pern:

1) If you were writing the screenplay for the movie of Pern which would encompass all of its history from the beginning when the EEC team first explored it thru the 'Skies of Pern' book, what would you leave in and what would you leave out as being too much of a "sidetrip"?
I wouldn't do the entire thing from beginning to end. I would stick with the three original books. Then do sequels.

2) Keeping in mind that the film would be done in the same mode as The Lord of the Rings, meaning that it would be filmed and released one part at a time, do you think Peter Jackson and his Weta Team financed by New Line Cinema could manage to pull off such an Epic Adventure?
yes

3) Would you agree that Howard Shore should handle the problem of scoring the movie or would you rather have Sir John Williams(Star Wars) in charge of the movie soundtrack?
John Williams!

4) Considering that everyone from the 9th Pass of the Red Star was descended from those who originally landed before the First Pass, would you think it okay to have the same people playing different parts throughout the history of Pern or would you want to cast different people for the different "episodes"/generations/Passes of the film installments?
Different people

5) Would you want to end the first installment after the founding of Benden Weyr or after the Rescue of the people at Honshu Stake?
Neither - I would make Dragonflight the first installment

6) Who would you cast to play the various characters who played major roles in the entire history of Pern from start to finish?
Have you got a few free hours? I will just refer you back to the OKT where you can see the results of all the old polls.

7) Would you include the stuff written by Todd or only the original stuff written by Anne?
As a future sequel - sure.

8) Would you want Ngila Dickson to be in charge of the costume department for such an Epic Adventure as Pern?
Don't know her, and really don't think it matters. The costuming for Pern is really not all that complicated.

[Nenwen]

Bumped 'cuz I'm hoping a lot more people will answer these questions.

[Milo]

I wouldnt do all the books. LIke Granath and Dux said, I would start with Dragonflight. Casting... I think I would cast myself as F'nor (in 5-10 years, anyway) :D

[Bronze-Dragonrider]

Hypothetical questions for everyone who loves Pern:

1) If you were writing the screenplay for the movie of Pern which would encompass all of its history from the beginning when the EEC team first explored it thru the 'Skies of Pern' book, what would you leave in and what would you leave out as being too much of a "sidetrip"?
I like to read the books in order of first to last chronologically, but for movies I'd make it a QUADrilogy. Start off Dragonflight with short intro of the events in DragonsDawn, then Dragonquest, The White Dragon and for the last movie the latter part of Renegades meshed with All the Weyrs of Pern.

For sequels you have Moreta, You may be able to fit Dragonsong/singer into one movie. I don't think that the HH trilogy is 'epic' enough to make into a film trilogy. Then a full length DragonsDawn and if you could fit it in, ending with what happened in Rescue Run. A final shot of the old fisherman seeing a faint spaceship take off, meaning that they would forever be alone on Pern.

2) Keeping in mind that the film would be done in the same mode as The Lord of the Rings, meaning that it would be filmed and released one part at a time, do you think Peter Jackson and his Weta Team financed by New Line Cinema could manage to pull off such an Epic Adventure?
Please God, don't let Peter Jackson touch this franchise!!! He has a superb visual style, but LotR only turned out as well as it did because he LOVED those books, yet some people still think it was a disaster. Give him a beloved series which he knows nothing about and it will be a travesty. I'd be happy with WETA doing special effects though, only the best for creating our Dragons on film ;)

3) Would you agree that Howard Shore should handle the problem of scoring the movie or would you rather have Sir John Williams(Star Wars) in charge of the movie soundtrack?
As long as they can give Pern the sort of Celtic/Irish folk sound given in the MHoP cd, I don't have any preference over who does the music.

4) Considering that everyone from the 9th Pass of the Red Star was descended from those who originally landed before the First Pass, would you think it okay to have the same people playing different parts throughout the history of Pern or would you want to cast different people for the different "episodes"/generations/Passes of the film installments?
A couple double roles might be alright, as long as they can get the makeup right. But mostly they should get different people.

5) Would you want to end the first installment after the founding of Benden Weyr or after the Rescue of the people at Honshu Stake?
Neither. See above answer.

6) Who would you cast to play the various characters who played major roles in the entire history of Pern from start to finish?
They should definately get lesser known people to play the characters, and only a well known actor if he/she very well fits the character. We want to see the PERNESE person, not the actor as we've all seen them before. But since I don't know any lesser known actors, you can see my list of choices in my 'Cast of Pern' thread.

7) Would you include the stuff written by Todd or only the original stuff written by Anne? As much as I would love to see EVERY Pern book as a movie, it's just not realistic. So I'd say only the major books by Anne. But Dragonsblood may work as a sequel to come if it could be tightened up a bit and a few problems (like whers eating Thread :crazy: ) were fixed.

8) Would you want Ngila Dickson to be in charge of the costume department for such an Epic Adventure as Pern?
I don't know who that person is, but any talented costume designer should suffice. Pernese clothing is quite simple and even riding leathers can't be all that difficult if every rider makes his own.

[Anareth]

1) If you were writing the screenplay for the movie of Pern which would encompass all of its history from the beginning when the EEC team first explored it thru the 'Skies of Pern' book, what would you leave in and what would you leave out as being too much of a "sidetrip"?

Uh...okay, first, I wouldn't. To go with your LOTR analogy, Jackson didn't start with the Simar-whatever-it's-called (sorry, bored of the Rings.) He took the three big books and got a big pair of scissors. What you're talking about is too much even for a mini-series. I would probably take Dragonflight and concentrate on that. If I were going to do a series of MFTVM, I would take Ddawn, DE/RSR, Moreta, DF, DQ, TWD, and ATWOP. Dsong and Dsinger I would make separately as a single film aimed for a younger market. The short stories and novellas are too specialist, RoP is too cliche and badly-done to bother with because it would require extensive rewrites, and SoP is a slow-motion train wreck with no logical end point. ATWOP on the other hand has a fantastically theatrical ending.


2) Keeping in mind that the film would be done in the same mode as The Lord of the Rings, meaning that it would be filmed and released one part at a time, do you think Peter Jackson and his Weta Team financed by New Line Cinema could manage to pull off such an Epic Adventure?

Uh...I think they're technically capable, but I doubt they'd be interested, certainly not in putting in the sort of time and devotion they did on LOTR.

3) Would you agree that Howard Shore should handle the problem of scoring the movie or would you rather have Sir John Williams(Star Wars) in charge of the movie soundtrack?

Any competant composer could. Shore to me has a similar problem as James Horner; ie he finds a melodic line he likes and repeats it ad nauseam, but they're both generally pleasant to hear. Williams, when paired with the right material (a "Star Wars" or a "Shindler's List") is very versatile, but pretty much anyone who scores movies would probably do.

4) Considering that everyone from the 9th Pass of the Red Star was descended from those who originally landed before the First Pass, would you think it okay to have the same people playing different parts throughout the history of Pern or would you want to cast different people for the different "episodes"/generations/Passes of the film installments?

No. To the audience that screams "too cheap to hire a full cast." And it's annoying because it doesn't fool anyone.

5) Would you want to end the first installment after the founding of Benden Weyr or after the Rescue of the people at Honshu Stake?

Even if you skipped the Survey and started at the beginning of Ddawn, either one is vastly too long for an audience. You'd be at a minimum of four hours and have a lot of detail no one but hyper-obsessive fans would care about. I'd trim Ddawn to a manageable length and end it with Sean's line as it does in the book. (Probably what would have to go would be a lot of the Avril/Sallah/Tarvi stuff, as it's practically a different book and is only of interest in the sense of naming backstory for Telgar hold. The dragons are the interesting part, the sooner you get to them, the better.)

6) Who would you cast to play the various characters who played major roles in the entire history of Pern from start to finish?

People who can act. I'm not being flippant, I'm being practical. I don't see getting a huge cast of A-listers, for cost alone (remember most LOTR people were B-list before that film at best, in some cases UK workhorse actors.)

7) Would you include the stuff written by Todd or only the original stuff written by Anne?

Even sticking strictly to Anne's novels, there is far too much material for a financially feasible project. I woudn't include DK or DB.

8) Would you want Ngila Dickson to be in charge of the costume department for such an Epic Adventure as Pern?

That would be fine. Or Trisha Biggar (Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones, Revenge of the Sith.) Anyone who is good at working with good fabrics and designing for alien cultures.

[Nenwen]

Still hoping for more replies on this one... :wave:

For those who don't know, Nglia Dickson did the costumes for Lord of the Rings for which she won an Oscar for Return of the King.

Personally I think that since the Ninth Pass people would be descendants of the First colonists, they'd look a lot like their ancestors so it wouldn't be too much of a stretch for at least some of the characters of each generation or Pass to be played by the same people. For instance, Larad was rather tall and lean like Tarvi Andiyar(later called Telgar) so it wouldn't be a stretch to have both characters played by the same guy and maybe just change his hair color or something.

Also, the clothing style did change over time so it's not like people wouldn't realize it's a different character being played by the same person.

I look like one of my ancestors from more than 200 years ago and there are absolutely no other descendents between us that look like us at all. So having the looks show up the same generations later isn't a really big stretch.

[Bronze-Dragonrider]

If you really wanted some of the characters to look similar, I'd prefer if they just got similar looking actors, not the same person. The only instance in which the same actor for different characters didn't seem cheap and tacked on to me was in Bicentennial Man.