My boss is complaining about how they’re just making remakes of movies when there are so many good books to movie-fy.
Thinking sadly about Redwall.
But the more I think about it the more I just want Mossflower. Other than Redwall itself I feel like Mossflower would be one of the best possible choices out of the series. Thoughts?
Definitely Redwall, Mossflower, and Mattimeo.
Martin the Warrior, maybe, but for some reason I can also see Eulalia!, Mariel of Redwall, the Bellmaker, Pearls of Lutra, and Marlfox being movies as well.
But the first three for sure need to be some sort of trilogy.
I was definitely thinking of Mariel of Redwall and Bellmaker too!
Also Taggerung but that’s probably more my love of the book and less “it would make a good movie” lol.
Marlfox though! I hadn’t thought about that one.
I’m not as interested in seeing Martin the Warrior but honestly we already all know why SO MOVING ON. Also I think we can all agree that Legend of Luke is definitely not up for election here.
What about Salamandastron though? That one could be good I think.
All the books would make good movies. And while I would love to see a decent MTW adaptation, (MY CHILDREN WERE BUTCHERED OR NONEXISTENT IN THE SHOW) frankly, some of the other books need more love in the fandom. However, any adaptations are probably going to be one of the first two.
While I agree the books need more love, especially weirder ones that people don’t talk about, I disagree that every book would make a good movie.
Movies need streamlined plots and definitely not all the Redwall books have those. Mini-series and Made-for-TV movie events? Yes. Actual theater released movies? Nope.
Granted I would watch any Redwall movie that got made but if you wanted it to make money there are books in the series that would be considered “unfilmable” for various reasons. At least not without butchering the plot which none of us want.
I disagree. There’s a lot of highly successful theatre-released movies nowadays that don’t have streamlined plots. I don’t think the only options are “100% faithful adaptation” or “completely butchered”. It’s possible to make alterations while staying faithful to the spirit of the book. Also, I wasn’t aware that we were taking what hollywood wants into account in this conversation.
I missed your part about Legend of Luke, and I disagree with that one as well. I think that one could be done, but the structure would have to be changed.
Why wouldn’t we take Hollywood into account? I’m trying to realistically figure out what the strongest and easiest book-to-movie would be. And as someone who watches a lot of book-to-movie movies there are things I’ve noticed. That books with winding, long, character heavy plots don’t tend to do as well at the box office over all. I like them, but this isn’t about what I like.
We have to balance what we want with what will make more money so we can get more of what we want (hypothetically). And while I don’t need things to be 100% (we know how consistent Redwall is from book to book…) I think the way the stories are told is a big part of what makes a Redwall book a Redwall book.
So, we can agree to disagree on this I guess!
I made the assumption because it wasn’t indicated in the conversation beforehand, which seemed to be structured around personal desire.
Moving a Redwall book to the screen immediately loses the way the story is told. The big screen is a completely different animal than a novel, and any perfect adaptations are impossible. Even the good ones, like Holes and the first Narnia movie, made some changes to the plot. Changes aren’t inherently bad, they just need to be in the hands of a competent writer who knows the workings of the series.
Sorry I didn’t indicate it because that’s an inherent part of the way I think. I always talk to tumblr like I’m talking to people who have known me for years and I always forget you guys don’t.
And yes, I understand that. I don’t want a Redwall book, perfectly distilled and poured onto a roll of film. I mean that would be cool and all but I don’t need that. I just think a lot of Redwall books are very clunky. You can have clunky movies that work and movies based on character arcs that also work but it’s hard to have both in a 1.5 hour movie.
So many of them focus on two or three plots and groups of characters and it’s really hard to have that in a movie and make people care.
And I don’t think you can count on a script writer actually reading the book they’re adapting. Some do. Some skim. Some don’t read them at all (the only possible explanation for I Am Legend being such a fucking disgrace). They’re busy.
Unless you find someone who is/was a Redwall fan finding the right balance will be hard. Much easier to start with a movie that’s already more self-contained.
You don’t need to apologize.
The multiple plotlines and the length limitation is a valid point.
Considering how under the radar the series is, I can only see it getting greenlit by fans who work in Hollywood, because Hollywood won’t do so in an attempt to ride off popularity like they did with Hunger Games and Percy Jackson.
Overall, I’d still rather have miniseries than movies because it would allow more freedom with the structure.
It’s true that it’ll probably only get “noticed” because of fans so that’s already a strong point.
Maybe the best situation would be to get a Redwall movie as a first “episode” of a mini-series. They do work well like that, as the cartoon showed, but it’ll need something big in order to draw in a new group of fans. I don’t know if leaping straight into a mini-series would do the trick since Redwall seems to stay consistently out of the public eye.
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