Traxan

I just finished reading "Airframe," first time in 20 years, and wondered why it wasn't adapted. It seemed almost written for a movie adaptation. Then in looking at the adaptations, they seemed to stop after "The Lost World," even though he kept writing up until his death (way too early).

Did he get disenchanted with Hollywood, or did Hollywood take a disliking to him?

SterlingBen

Wasn't there several kinda lousy adaptations of his work before the end, seems like the situation is fairly self explainitory.

Why So Blu?

Funny enough, I just watched 13th Warrior this morning via PRIME (I rented it) and it was the first time in years that I watched it and the first time watching it in actual anamorphic widescreen. The SD release was non-anamorphic.

Why So Blu?

Timeline was his. It had Paul Walker and Gerard Butler. It always looked horrible, so I never watched it. The film came out in 2003.

BobO'Link

That's not correct. I own a copy of the US 2000 DVD release and it *is* anamorphic WS.

Josh-da-man

Because he was a horribly over-rated author?

E Unit

Whatever. His stuff wasn't deep, but highly entertaining and fast short reads. I loved his mostly techno fueled stories. The only thing that sucked in his books were how badly he wrote characters. Airframe was going to be made into a movie with Demi Moore playing the lead. That fell by the wayside when Disclosure wasn't well received even though it did fairly well at the box office. That and the fact that Demi did Striptease which bombed. Then the next Crichton adaptation was Sphere which did worse than Disclosure. I hope someone will go revisit some of his stuff and make Airframe, and Prey, and re-make Timeline and Eaters of the Dead (or let us see the original version John McTiernan did).

And while not from a book, Crichton's Westworld movie has been remade into a mini-series that HBO will have sometime this year. And Andromeda Strain was made into a mini-series in 2008.

Why So Blu?

Runaway is a guilty pleasure and I love 13th Warrior. Hate the Jurassic Park films. Congo the novel is awesome but the movie is horrible. Sphere the film is ass.

I agree about Airframe not getting made on those accounts, tres, and would say that after Turbulence bombed (starring Lauren Holly) - didn't help the case neither. Seems like films with women involving planes don't do well. Granted, I enjoyed Flightplan but still.

DaveNinja

what was his "environmental" book? i think it came out right before or after Prey. seems like it would be good for a movie

starseed1981

Pirate Latitudes would've been a great hard-R action flick.

E Unit

State of Fear. Add that to the list of books to potentially be made into a movie.

Supermallet

He was significantly better than many of his contemporary popular authors. Not the best out there but not bad.

Traxan

You really think Hollywood would ever touch a book skeptical of environmental chicken little-ism? Especially after they gave Leo all that time for his screed at the Oscars?

Geofferson

If you look back at Crichton's output, virtually every major novel of his was adapted for film up until Airframe. They seemed to skip that and adapt Timeline (which was terrible). That was the end of it. State of Fear would have been good material (though difficult to get made in Hollywood). Prey wasn't a bad read. Next was so-so. Pirate Latitudes wasn't teribly inventive. Never got around to reading Micro.

I'd like to see some of his early "John Lange" pulp books get adapted.

E Unit

Not that hard of a sell considering it's a Crichton novel and the majority of the story is a worldwide hunt for environmental terrorists. Complete with big special effects of natural disasters.

Traxan

I just finished reading it. I suppose if you take all the preachy monologues out you got a movie, but I still doubt Hollywood would touch it, especially with that actor character.

The Bus

Timeline was the first disappointing "new" Crichton book I read. It read like a novelization of the film (which didn't exist yet).

I don't think Airframe would make a good film today because (Spotlight aside) there's no real audience for a film about investigative reporting or corporate espionage.