Brave New World for Hollywood as Aldous Huxley feud ends

The Times ^ | 3/23/2008 | John Harlow

[FormerACLUmember]

Oh my Ford! Are they going to finally make a film version of this old anachronism? Who is going to watch this turkey?

[HoosierHawk]

The movie might not be a bad idea, if it remains faithful to the book, and most viewers understand that "A Brave New World" is where American society is curently heading.

But I doubt it. The movie will be distorted, or the media will play on the "powerful performance" of DiCrapio.

I'd like to think I'm wrong, but, (cynic that I am), I can imagine movie-goers leaving the theater and asking where they can purchase Soma.

[blackbart.223]

"DiCaprio will play John the Savage, who lives a “natural” life on a reservation while the rest of cloned humanity is lulled into docility with sex, soma (drugs) and feelies (films that also involve the senses of smell and touch). He finally escapes celebrity to become a lighthouse keeper."

And in the end he knocks himself off if I remember correctly. I haven't read the book for some time.

[Bobalu]

Seems a weak choice for a big-budget film.

[Philo-Junius]

Shut up and take the soma; I’m glad I’m a beta.

[Ronin]

I wonder how they are going to handle the eugenics aspects of the movie. If I recall correctly, (it’s been 20 years since I read the book) that was it’s primary thrust.

Although, like you, I think most movie-goers are going to be more enthralled with the sensualistic aspects of the story and ignore anything that smacks of the original message.

[endthematrix]

"Laura always wanted a film made of Brave New World, but the technology was not there to make it look convincing."

That's what Stanley Kubrick always thought of AI, then he saw Spielberg's Jurassic Park and knew it could be done. The rest is history. Too bad Spielberg directed.

[buwaya]

There was a BBC mini-series, oh, over 20 years ago.

It wasn’t half-bad if I recall correctly. It was true to the book.

I don’t see the box-office potential for this as a 2-hour movie, if done as per the book. The romance is pretty perfunctory, there are no real thrills or action or spectacle. It is a fairly humorous novel about ideas, not good material for money-making. I would compare to Mike Judge’s “Idiocracy”.

[HoosierHawk]

With today's technology, I imagine the eugenics portion will be handled beautifully. Classifying, catogorizing and determining the numbers of Deltas, Alphas, Epsilons, etc. is no problem for the leftists; they do it all the time. They're racist to the core.

Voluntary euthanasia at age 30 is a liberal wet dream, as long as they're running the show and not subject to the rules.

[endthematrix]

Re: “how they are going to handle the eugenics aspects “

You mean technically or politically correctly?
The can film any biotech factory to get the cloning, and study any public school to get how to indoctrinate children.

BRAVE NEW WORLD
http://www.huxley.net/bnw/

[bruinbirdman]

"It is a fairly humorous novel about ideas, not good material for money-making."

Plenty of room for a good, leftist, Hollywood, screen writer, eh?

yitbos

[buwaya]

I always saw BNW as a rather conservative novel, in the old style of conservatism of course.

Old-fashioned British conservatives like, say, Tolkien and Lewis, were skeptical of all sorts of modernisms, whether socialist or capitalist or moral or technological. BNW hits at many targets.

What a screenwriter will do with that is pretty much up to the screen writer.

[kb2614]

I think I’ll just stick to reading the book. Hollywood isn’t very smart and will screw this up. DiCrapio is soooo overrated its ridiculous.

[Wiseghy]

I saw the book as about an out of control state imposing total Socialism, over mind, body and soul. The spooky part was how the Nazi's immediately made the book's fantasy world seem suddenly real, in all it's horrid detail.

As always, Hollywood will try to spin this into a Right Wing horror tale. They will destroy the story and ruin the film as a result.

They really can't see past their hatred for big corporations as the source of the world's evil, (a la Blade Runner) even as they use big corporations to produce and distribute their films.

[struggle]

Plus all of his pot smoking and ‘relations’ with Toby McGuire are very, very Brave New World-esque. If only Leo wasn’t born a Gamma....

[Zeon Cowboy]

This is one of my favorite books, and Ridley Scott is one of my favorite directors! I’m looking forward to this one.

[Blind Eye Jones]

They should have Huxley meet George Orwell and both write a story that ended up being buried in a monastery on Mullholland Dr. where certain monks know of its existence and kill other monks to keep it safe. Until Sean Connery shows up...

[norton]

It was a warning then,
it was a good read since then,
it will be a yawner on the screen today.

[weegee]

Will it be PC like Ridley Scott’s film on the Crusades?