Wait... what?

[kickaha]

You know, it's been a while since I read the Shannara books, but I really don't remember skyscraper and subway remnants...

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/film/news/e3iafcae22cb7023ba6f6f5a63e2d91531d

WTF? Did they get as far as 'Sha...' and confuse Shannara with Shadowrun??

Comments

[dhw.livejournal.com]

So it would seem.

[eridan.livejournal.com]

wow. serious WTF moment there.

[badger.livejournal.com]

Perhaps they're filming Stephen Boyett's _Ariel_ instead? I'd like that more.

[georgmi.livejournal.com]

No, I think that's consistent. In _Wishsong_, which is as far as I got before I couldn't take it anymore, there was at least one ruined city that they passed by, and ruins and subway remnants are probably what they had going on in Druids' Keep, now that I think about it, with a nuclear reactor keeping everything running. The Druids' magic is very strongly implied to be advanced tech, wrapped up in mysticism to keep people from figuring out anybody can do it, and re-inventing the Bomb.

It's been a long time since I read 'em, too, but I've had mental associations between _Mad Max_ and _Shannara_ forever, as my two introductions to post-apocalyptic settings.

I agree that it could be hard to see it, if you get hung up on the Tolkien plagiarism, which I grant is hard to get past. :)

[kickaha.livejournal.com]

Hmm. While I always felt that it was hinted at/assumed that it was a future time from ours, and that the various races (except elves) had been created through mutations from a nuclear war, I don't recall anything *explicit*. Frankly, I think making it obvious would have diluted it. Instead, it made it kind of timeless, adding a certain cyclic nature to the story, by hinting at it being set in the future, but using elements from our past myths.

So yeah, if subways and skyscraper ruins show up explicitly in a Planet of the Apes way, I'll be gravely disappointed. Then again, I'm not sure how you'd do even a single Shannara book as less than a miniseries, and do it any sort of justice. *shrug*

[georgmi.livejournal.com]

I have a vivid mental image of an illo from (I'm pretty sure it was) _Wishsong_, with Allanon descending a hillside with ruined skyscrapers in the background. I had the trade paper edition, but M. culled them years ago, so I can't check my memory.

I have yet to see true justice done to any novel of reasonable depth and complexity; Peter Jackson did as good a job as I think is possible with the medium, and I was still very often annoyed by the LOTR movies.

I'll be interested to see the reviews, if it ever comes out. I might even go see it. But I won't reread the novel first. Or even after, probably. :)

[georgmi.livejournal.com]

The studio is eyeing the second book, "The Elfstones of Shannara," as the book most likely to serve as the jumping off point.

Presumably because "Sword" would look a wee bit too familiar to New Line's lawyers...

[marq.livejournal.com]

I think they're just confusing it with The Sword of Sha Na Na.

That's all.

[jason0x21.livejournal.com]

Wasn't that actually in Lord Bowser's Feign?

[marq.livejournal.com]

Owch! I call Foul!

[kickaha.livejournal.com]

See what you started?

[jason0x21.livejournal.com]

That's two obscure rude puns for today. I'm going to mark this in my diary.

[badger.livejournal.com]

PUNSTER OUTCAST UNCLEAN!

[kickaha.livejournal.com]

Oh look who's *talking*...

[badger.livejournal.com]

If I say "Hey, he started it!", does that get me any further than it did with my vat maintainersparents?