Comments on: Mission Of Honor – Snippet 01

By: Bret Hooper

Bret Hooper — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 03:54:01 +0000

@several of you: I agree: I prefer real books to screens, which is why I never considered a kindle. And the movies I would most like to see are 1632, 1633, 1634, 1635 (so far).

By: Thirdbase

Thirdbase — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 04:46:47 +0000

If Peter Jackson gets his hands on the rights to make anything from the Honorverse, I am burning my copies of the books, erasing all digital copies, and beating DW about the head with a wet noodle.

The only way to give the series the proper treatment would be to do it as an animated series. That way DW can approve of the way the characters all look, and the ships, etc.

By: Daryl

Daryl — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 03:42:24 +0000

Sigh, I have to agree with the pessimism about translating the stories to film. Possibly Peter Jackson might be able to do it, as I had no disconnect between my concept from the Lord of the Rings books and the movies. The distant weapon scenes could be handled by a combination of holographic battle displays and switching to close ups of the action at the right time.

By: robert

robert — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 03:18:13 +0000

Something else occurs to me. This book, Mission of Honor, promises to be a rich, detailed, action-packed work with a lot of emotional moments. It probably could translate to the screen. But I cannot see how War of Honor, for example, could. There are maybe five cinematic bits in it. All the back and forth with the Haven cabinet and those machinations would empty the theater.

By: robert

robert — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 03:11:25 +0000

@22 John, I hope that you are right. I would love to see it. But not 100% animation. I’d pass on that. The trouble is that it takes at least 2 – 3 years to get a project from conception to the screen, especially one like this, and only a very few film makers have the clout to get it done at whatever the cost and understand the genre well enough to do a decent job. And they are both cornballs when it comes to a screenplay. Maybe DW can learn how to write a screenplay…in his spare time. If Curt Siodmak or better yet, Leigh Brackett were still alive it could work.

By: John Roth

John Roth — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 01:58:27 +0000

@18 Robert.

We can always hope. Most of those problems are solvable, given a decent creative team and not too much interference from the suits in the head office. Some of the stuff would go better with total animation rather than a mix of live and animation.

As far as space battles go, I’d imagine them seen from the bridge. You can get just as much dramatic tension with the right display and the people’s faces as they go “oh SHIT!” And all those meetings are dialog. It would just take a bit of creativity (and good acting) to play the scene where Barregos and Roszak decide Lt. whatzisname has become a liability, and they hope he takes care while grav-skiing. Or maybe that’s a skippable detail.

By: robert

robert — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 00:49:01 +0000

I keep hitting the y instead of the t..I meant “titles” Sorry.

By: robert

robert — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 00:48:01 +0000

@19 And that is number 5, for certain!
One more thing. Thus far the series has covered the better part of what, 3 decades? Just think of all the tiyles reading something like
“Five years later, in space orbiting Trevor’s Star…” Gaaa!

By: d

Sun, 14 Feb 2010 22:35:36 +0000

@18.3 have to agree with that, the distances that weapons get fired in the Honorverse is too far away for film. I would bet that in film battles end up being so close you can see the ships with the naked eye through a window.

By: robert

robert — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 20:00:36 +0000

@17 If Hollywood ever gets its hands on the Honorverse, you will not recognize it. I promise that you will hate it because
1. They chose the wrong person to play Honor (or somebody you like). She is only 5’3″ and looks anorexic, etc.
2. They screwed around with the story and it is no longer recognizable. Go ahead-strip out all the weaponry exposition, the political exposition, the long discussions among the bad guys about what they are gonna do, etc. and try to substitute action and dialog for that. It won’t work. And when they do get a decent script, the director or the studio will insist on changes that make it totally dopey.
3. The weaponry is all wrong. You know they won’t get that right. Just like the ships will be all wrong. Too much like Star Wars stuff.
4. Nimitz/Treecats will look like stretched-out chipmunks. Look how wrong they look in the cover art, for goodness sake. Do you think the film makers will do better?
5. As the lyric goes, I could go on all day.

Sure, I would love to see that movie and if they do a cable show I might even get cable. More likely I’ll get the DVDs for each season from Netflix. But I will be bitterly disappointed.