China Mieville's THE CITY AND THE CITY coming to TV

[Werthead]

The BBC are bringing The City and The City to TV in 2016/17.

 

It's going to be a four-part mini-series written by the guy who co-wrote Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Tideland. Seems an interesting and worthy choice, although not as interesting as if they'd convinced his occasional writing partner Terry Gilliam to direct it ;)

 

I believe this is the first time one of Mieville's works is going to be adapted for the screen.

[Derfel Cadarn]

Gradually revealing the twist on TV will be a challenge.

[polishgenius]

Gradually revealing the twist on TV will be a challenge.

 

 

Genuinely can't see how it can be done.

[Werthead]

Genuinely can't see how it can be done.

 

My first thought is that people in the other city would be in black and white, or kind of blurred until someone looks at them, then realises they've made a mistake and looks away.

 

It's a tricky literary conceit that is impossible to pull of on screen without some kind of camera trick. Depending on the direction and the performances, it'll either be sold or will just look preposterous.

[williamjm]

Genuinely can't see how it can be done.

It's a great book but I agree it's difficult to see how to film this. I could imagine it being easier to adapt the central conceit as a stage play because audiences would be used to not seeing the wider picture and they could only have things from one city on stage at any one time but I don't really know how to do it on TV.

 

My first thought is that people in the other city would be in black and white, or kind of blurred until someone looks at them, then realises they've made a mistake and looks away.

 

I think having such an obvious visual discrepancy would work against the ambiguity in the book about whether there really are two separate cities or if it is entirely in the minds of their inhabitants.

[felice]

 

My first thought is that people in the other city would be in black and white, or kind of blurred until someone looks at them, then realises they've made a mistake and looks away.

 

Blurred would work nicely; the people in one city aren't focusing on anything in the other city. It wouldn't be cheap, though, since pretty much every exterior scene will need processing.

[polishgenius]

I think having such an obvious visual discrepancy would work against the ambiguity in the book about whether there really are two separate cities or if it is entirely in the minds of their inhabitants.

 

 

Yeah, exactly. And even if you go with 'it's just an entirely practical mind thing, no question', in the book that's unveiled slooooooowly. Visually, it's just going to be impossible to represent in the same way.

[williamjm]

Blurred would work nicely; the people in one city aren't focusing on anything in the other city. It wouldn't be cheap, though, since pretty much every exterior scene will need processing.

If you wanted to do it that way then I suppose you could have the actors acting against greenscreen for the entire filming and do all the backdrops along the lines of [i]Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow[/i], although it wouldn't really be feasible on the BBC's budget.

[Kalbear]

I'd think they'd not do anything more than practical effects. Let the viewers figure out how the city looks and how it blends in in subtly different ways, just like us. They might highlight it a couple times, but otherwise they just show it as they show everything else.

[unJon]

I'd think they'd not do anything more than practical effects. Let the viewers figure out how the city looks and how it blends in in subtly different ways, just like us. They might highlight it a couple times, but otherwise they just show it as they show everything else.

This. The viewer sees both cities but doesn't realize it is two cities at first.