Progress on the Elric Blockbuster

[Anonymous]

Hello Mr Moorcock,
How are things going with the production of the Elric Film? Will it be made with British Talent as I'd like to know who to contact should there be any work?

Thanks

[Michael Moorcock]

Can't answer any of that yet. But keep an eye on things.

[VonWeiner]

Can't wait for the trailers...

[PsychicWarVeteran]

I read the following blog comment posted somewhere on the net regarding the Elric movie and it made me shudder...

"I've never read that series, but if its as good as LOTR or the Potter films then it sounds good to me."

Ugh. I am sometimes deeply saddened by the ways in which people miss out. Having a taste for Tolkein when you haven't read Moorcock is like thinking Taco Bell is fine Mexican cuisine because you've never left the Pacific Northwest.

Fortunately, someone replied with: "It is a million times better than LOTR (yawn) and Harry Potter. It has a storyline that is geared for adults and it is packed with a hell of a lot more action and violence than LOTR and Potter. The best way to tell describe it is that it is the thinking mans version of Conan the Barbarian."

Huzzah!

[Anonymous]

Do not despair. There are many book and movie apreciators out there who will have a different perspective on things.
The Elric saga is fantastic. In my opinion: better than LOTR.

However, I do expect that not a lot a get changed in the movie. Most of the times (as is the case for LOTR) the movie is very different from the book. Even the characters are different (sometimes not only physically but mentally as well), which is wquite disappointing for fans. In the case of LOTR I don't blame them because the movie did need a lot more action than the book actually has.

Well, what I want to say is, I just hope that whatever gets changed from the book to the movie (adaptations/changes for movies are inevitable, let's face it) does not disappoint the faithful fans.

I'm looking foward to it! This movie will me a thousand times more evil than LOTR!!!

[DyvimTvarsBodyguard]

Plus the major factor over LOTR=

MM is the executive producer
and no character/plot alteration shall be done
unless he approves of it.
We won't see the movie until it meets his standards,
which means,
to me, its going to make movie history.

[Michael Moorcock]

It's probably worth saying this again -- but the Weitz brothers simply don't want to compromise. They are not looking to LOTR for their
model, as it were -- but to things like The Matrix. Their vision and my vision is very close. That said, I actually want to rewrite the story somewhat so that it will make three good movies. The first one follows
much of the plot of Elric of Melnibone and The Dreaming City (short) and keeps to the spirit of the character and his relationship with the sword and so on. The second movie would incorporate story elements from
books like Sailor on the Seas of Fate and the third movie would pretty
much follow the same story as Stormbringer. We want to make these
stories work for the screen without losing any of the ambience of the books. If anything, the Weitz brothers want to stick more closely to the spirit of the stories than I do! I think they're wise, because by keeping tht sort of integrity, the movies should persuade an audience that they weren't just seeing a remake of something which had already happened and I think that's important these days. I'm hoping that the days of
studios cloning material to death are over. It looks as if they are learning that lesson to some extent.

[Wormwalk]

Two comments:

1.) I don't know why so many people bash the lord of the rings (the books, not the movie). Jsut because someone likes Moorcock doesn't mean that one can't like Tolkien. I think that the movies took Tolkien and made him commercial and childish in a sense, but Lord of the Rings (and esp. the Simarillion) has a very complex and adult theme as well.

2.) Trilogy? So many movies today come in threes. And now with LOTR fame, all three are being done at once. Now, I personally would like to see all the Eternal Champion movies be done, but I would stick with two instead of three.

[Darren]

Two comments:

1.) I don't know why so many people bash the lord of the rings (the books, not the movie). Jsut because someone likes Moorcock doesn't mean that one can't like Tolkien. I think that the movies took Tolkien and made him commercial and childish in a sense, but Lord of the Rings (and esp. the Simarillion) has a very complex and adult theme as well.

2.) Trilogy? So many movies today come in threes. And now with LOTR fame, all three are being done at once. Now, I personally would like to see all the Eternal Champion movies be done, but I would stick with two instead of three.

But his only relevance is the first world war, and he was a Boorish Sarf Afrikaan that people will bash his mustard-gas hallucination that is the LOTR because he took, not Took it all too seriously.
Forgive me, but to me, Wormwalk (what kind of name is that!) Adult means having three instead of your two movies because then what kind of Trilogy is that?[/i]

Another great Man came out of the tenches, in my view, Sir Mortimer Wheeler, 'Rikki' to his friends, founded the Museum of London and someone who supercedes Tolkien in that he did not get mustard-gassed.

Kindly

Darren
:oops:

[Michael Moorcock]

Hang on there. Yes, it's perfectly possible to like me and Tolkien and believe it or not most readers of both do like both. My criticism of Tolkien is in a sense a criticism of much of the writing which, if you like, 'emerged' from WW1. I find it sentimental. They are not sentiments I especially like. I found it threatening, if you like, because it represented a generation which seemed to be repressing mine. But
Tolkien was scarcely a 'Boer' and his experience in the trenches has to be respected. I continue to have personal respect for Tolkien, who was uvuncular and kindly on the one brief occasion I met him, but I don't happen to like the 'feel' of the books, neither did their stories engage me, I fear. That's a matter of taste and, if you like, critical argument, but let's not descend to the level of politicians, please!

[EverKing]

Here here! You said it Mr. M!

Personally I have great respect for Tolkein as a scholar and a man. I even respect alot fo the hard work he put into Middle Earth and LotR. That being said, I don't like the final outcome of LotR. I've discussed alot of this in greater detail in various other threads, so I'll send you that way if you really want to know.

[broken link]

and

[broken link]

Peace!

E

[Darren]

!!!!!

I guess I was unnecessarily harsh with my reaction to wormwoods post. sorry...


:oops:

[Jerico]

I am one who has the LOTR books and am unable to read them even when I try hard to. In short, the "voice" just isn't interesting or convincing to me. I am however, a fan of the movies, but now not as big of a fan since hearing all the criticism on here-- especially that of Michael!
It's true... wondering why the great eagles didn't carry the cursed ring into Mt. Doom destroys the whole story! Perhaps the eagles are too fearful of the ring, or the ring could destroy the eagles much more easily than a humanoid creature? Ah... I dunno.
My favorite LOTR related book is a simple book that speculates on where Tokien got all his ideas from, and all the symbolism and such.
Try to get me to read the Silmarillion, you'd have to pay me a lot of money or put the gun's muzzle to the back o me head! :o

[DyvimTvarsBodyguard]

One Eagle tried to carry the ring and it went bald,
so none of the rest would go near it.
I have to admit LOTR is a good set of books
and was complimentarily translated into
3 way above average movies.

When you reach their level of writing,
debating who is better falls into a matter of opinion.
But like high school,(LOTR) when it's finished
and your ready to move on to the next level,
where do you go?
You go to college. (Elric)

That's how I would compare the two.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The basic plot for The Hobbit is probably borrowed from this offhand line in Beowulf (translation by Seamus Heaney): "...a dragon on the prowl from the sleep vaults of a stone-roofed barrow where he guarded a hoard; there was a hidden passage, unknown to men, but someone managed to enter by it and interfere with the heathen trove. He had handled and removed a gem-studded goblet; it gained him nothing, though with a thief's wiles he had outwitted the sleeping dragon; that drove him into rage, as the people of that country would soon discover."

http://www.jitterbug.com/origins/lotr.html
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[Wormwalk]

Listen, a few points for Darren:

1. What the hell are you saying in your post because I can understand any of it?
2. Why do you have a problem with my name so much? You don't see me busting on your name Darren. When you do that, it just means you have nothing better to attack when it comes to writing about actual points (so you settle for mispellings and my name).
3. See, what you have done is piss me off to the point that I have to be an a-hole on a site that I enjoy to converse with others with out getting into fights in.

So, in conclusion: I apologize to Mike, Barry, and everyone else on multiverse.org for causing this kind of ruckus. And I hope that Darren and I can just check this stuff at the door and be cool with each other.