[is0tope]

Indeed, I've always thought there is a veritable bounty of great SciFi stories to put into film. The recent popularity of SciFi shows suggests to me that we will start to see more works transferred to the big (or small) screen, though as always this seems to be a very hit or miss process.

Personally, I'd love to see e.g. The Culture novels be made into a show, or series of films. There was talk of making a Consider Phlebas TV show some time back, though I don't think it went anywhere. Heinlein's "The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress" could also do well as a stand alone movie, though possibly with Heinlein you would need to tone down the polygamy themes.

As to why PKD became such a cinematic mainstay I can't quite tell. I would think part of it would be to do with the fact that many of his stories were less about the "lasers and spaceships" part of SciFi, and more about the moral and human aspect, meaning costs could be saved on big budget set pieces ala Star Wars.

[kcplate]

> As to why PKD became such a cinematic mainstay I can't quite tell. I would think part of it would be to do with the fact that many of his stories were less about the "lasers and spaceships" part of SciFi, and more about the moral and human aspect, meaning costs could be saved on big budget set pieces ala Star Wars.

I have always felt that they always seem to skirt the edges of plausibility much more than other sci-fi. But I think you are right, the “tech” takes a backseat to the personal story.

[ianburrell]

They should turn stories from Love, Death, Robots animated anthology into longer episodes. There were some stories that could do with longer treatment or dive more into the universe. With streaming service, they could have variable length, most being hour long with a few making to movie length.

[lazide]

I’m guessing because:

Heinlein embeds too many weird sexual themes in non-trivial ways in his stories.

Culture is too difficult to convey in a movie. The relationship of the AIs to the humans in particular is too subtle to come across well, and it’s too easy to make it into a giant party with occasional inexplicable violence.

[rsynnott]

There's nothing _that_ weird in Moon is a Harsh Mistress, is there? Long time since I've read it, but I think some sort of polyamory was about as out-there as it got. If they can make a docudrama about FTX (and they will) they can make that :)

Even some of the others... I mean, they made the Handmaid's Tale, and that's way more distressing than most of Heinlein's Weird Sex Stuff.

[thaumasiotes]

> Heinlein embeds too many weird sexual themes in non-trivial ways in his stories.

Didn't seem to be a problem for A Song of Ice and Fire.