shaun3000

After Michael Crichton's book, Airframe, came out, there was talk that the movie had begun production.

Did anything ever come of it? It was a really good book; one of his last, in my opinion, before he started going downhill and relying on formulas.

Pants

Great book, but it would be a dull movie.

Oh wow, a movie about investigating and airplane crash! woop-de-do

Post 9/11 this probably wouldn't get made anyway.

metaridley

I read the book "Airframe" and it was great stuff. Michael Crichton writes excellent and interesting material, yet he is constantly betrayed by Hollywood's film adaptations of his novels. You'd think that since he's seen novel after novel trashed, he'd be a bit more cautious in offering up film rights. Maybe he's learned not to trust Hollywood, especially after Timeline. So far, Jurassic Park was the only film that was as good as his book.

Still, being the sci-fi sucker and Crichton fan I am, I'd probably shell out some clams to see an Airframe movie, provided of course the reviews and trailers don't expose it to be as bad-looking as Timeline.

Pants

What about Andromeda Strain? I think that movie is great...and probably the most faithful adaptation of his work.

shaun3000

It was very good. Pretty old, though. When was it made?

Geofferson

I too remember hearing rumors of this being made into a movie, but it was estimated that the costs would be grossly outrageous to adapt this novel to film.

metaridley

It's on my rental list...I haven't seen it, but it's good to hear reassuring praise for Andromeda Strain, especially because it's easily one of Crichton's best novels and I'd hate to see a bad film adaptation of it.

Pants

1971

tanman

Two things:

1. Jurassic Park was nothing like the book (although still a good movie IMHO).

2. Airframe was not a sci-fi novel by any definition of the term.



Airframe would make a dull movie IMHO, It was a dull book. And Timeline could have been SO much better.

UAIOE

I'm still wondering what happened to "Sphere" & "Congo"

From what i saw, "Spehere" was rather faithful to the book but it made a really, really dull movie

And "Congo"....well, i'll leave it at that.

Both good books IMO.

syphon00

thought sphere was actually pretty good,
though I think the movie skipped out on a couple of the big sequences in the book

haven't seen Andromeda Strain but Sphere and JP are probably the only 2 movie deserve to see the light of day went it comes adopting crichton's novel

also when I was reading Air Frame I constantly thought to myself it would be great for Jodie Foster to play the female lead

metaridley

Actually, there were more than enough elements in the Jurassic Park movie that were also in the book. Being a fan of both the book and the movie, and having read/seen them both numerous times, I can attest to that. Sure, it wasn't a smooth or incredibly faithful adaptation, but to say that the movie is *nothing* like the book is dumbfounding to me.

And I didn't mean to say Airframe was a sci-fi novel. I just meant I was a sci-fi fan. And I enjoyed the novel, perhaps it could be made into a movie that is similar to "The Insider" film?

Finally, from what I have heard, you are definitely not alone in your opinion of the Timeline movie. I was actually thinking about seeing it until I heard how bad it was.

UAIOE

Jurassic Park is a good movie, basically the "meat" of the book was done in the movie and that worked out ok.

"The Lost World"....wow dont get me started. Loved the book and i dont mind the movie, but the book is 1,000,000 times better. (For some reason the "RV hanging off the cliff" scene was much more intense in the book than in the movie)

gondorspit

To get off on the wrong foot, firstly: Michael Chrichton's ideas are always better than his writing. 2nd; the movies that people make from them are always worse than the book.

Airframe was an interesting, but not captivating, book, and -- using my #2 rule of Chrichton-- shouldn't be made into a movie.

metaridley

I agree. And it's a shame that the best scene in The Lost Word movie *was* the RV hanging off the cliff! The book could have made a very excellent film.

The Zizz

I remember airframe being listed as in preproduction on hollywood stock exchange 5 years ago or something, with demi moore attached to be in it.

But nowadays I don't think you could ever make a movie about that topic.

UAIOE

Yeah, but you would lose alot of people when trying to explain how the main bad guy is a really minor character from "Jurassic Park".

metaridley

Damn clueless mass audiences...

Breakfast with Girls

Are you kidding? He could care less. He cashes the check and takes a vacation.

metaridley

I'm glad you have the personal insights into the mind of Michael Crichton.

UAIOE

They love thier "girl kicking dinosaur ass with gymnastics"


The writers for the movie had started a good idea...InGen going after the dinos. Various factions of InGen (or the former InGen) battling over the dinos would have been nice, however we got the "money loving head of InGen evil son" instead.

And i would say something similar about JP3. Grant talking about the events of his life AFTER his visit to Jurassic Park was far more interesting than a visit to the island.

metaridley

I just watched The Lost World again yesterday, after having not seen it for quite a while. Overall, I felt lukewarm about it, but there were still parts I really liked. The trailer segment is the most thrilling sequence, IMHO, and the raptors are still good for suspense (although the gymanstics scene made me cringe with how unnecessary and dumb it was). Plus, as you said, they had started a good idea, and some of the InGen characters (like Roland the hunter) were interesting, but they never developed it as far as they could have. Also, the ending with the T-Rex in San Diego made things go on for a little while longer than I would have liked.

And yes, Jurassic Park III just seemed like another excuse to get Grant onto the island, which is where the movie fell apart, oddly enough.

tanman

See I really had no beef with JPIII because I was expecting it to soil all over the original. So with the popcorn mentality in mind I enjoyed it. For JPII I was sorely disappointed, although when I look at more recent sequels (coughMiBIIcough) it isn't nearly as bad. I was just very disappointed that the magic wasn't there.

UAIOE

Well the magic of the orginal was lost after the first (obviously). What made the orginal special was the fact that you got lost in the idea of an island like that exsisting and that kid inside wanted to be able to GO to that island.

In JP3 once everyone was on the island the movie degraded into "run away from the movie monster" type film. Take the Raptors out and replace them with slug monsters from Venus and you really havent changed much of anything. While the first movie had a similar plot going on, by JP3 the childhood fantasy that JP1 had was lost.

Give me Grant discussing his change in views of dinosaurs since his visit to Jurassic Park or even his thoughts on the events of "Lost World" over another run in the jungle with a kid.

Alvis

Personally, I think Crichton writes all his books, lately, with them in mind as films.