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Richard Morgan + Netflix = ALTERED CARBON TV series


Werthead

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I don't think that's correct. A lot of shows now do something called "amberlighting" (as opposed to greenlighting) where they will get prep work done on the next season and even spend some upfront money on booking effects companies and studio time, but if the show isn't renewed they will cancel all of that. Game of Thrones was actually kind of a pioneer in that idea, with Season 2 "amberlit" and the writers putting scripts down before the formal renewal because otherwise they'd never hit the production deadline.

Meanwhile, meet the cast via a Comic-Con in Brazil. I'm liking these guys.

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Seems to provide an explanation to how the Quell change works with the passing reference to how much time passes between his time on Harlan's World and his sleeving at the start of Altered Carbon.

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That clip is cool in the sense it's suggesting the earlier Kovacs and the characters from his past have a much larger role than i initially thought. I quite like the idea of seeing the two actors play Kovacs as it helps drum the SF concept into viewers. Interesting one for the two actors having to merge their approach to the same character .Also very curious about the deal with Kovacs' sister being hyped up as having a really surprising role. Can't remember his sister from the books.

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  • 4 weeks later...

New, official trailer:

Apparently at the start of the month critics received all 10 episodes for review, so there'll be series reviews around the time it releases. Not sure if any critics have hinted at reactions as of yet, but I imagine those are embargoed.

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On 1/11/2018 at 7:57 PM, Ran said:

New, official trailer:

Apparently at the start of the month critics received all 10 episodes for review, so there'll be series reviews around the time it releases. Not sure if any critics have hinted at reactions as of yet, but I imagine those are embargoed.

That was pretty sweet. I'm allowing myself to get jazzed up for this. 

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It's certainly looking good but I am a bit mystified as to why they've made Kovacs an immortality-hating, 1%-hating rebel. That's not what he was in the books and it feels lazy and obvious. Sure, he had a code but it wasn't that simplistic. I'm also worried that the searing dislike of religion in the book has been chopped out. Netflix are apparently chasing big ratings expansion opportunities in South America (which they should have done before cancelling Sense8, their biggest show in that market, but whatever) and pissing off the big Christian countries down there is not a good idea.

We'll have to see the results when it airs but I am detecting a certain level of "dumbed-downness" going on from the trailers. Hopefully that isn't the case.

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25 minutes ago, Werthead said:

1%-hating rebel. That's not what he was in the books and it feels lazy and obvious. Sure, he had a code but it wasn't that simplistic. I'm also worried that the searing dislike of religion in the book has been chopped out.


There were elements of that in Altered Carbon but yeah, it wasn't his big motivation. It does seem like they might be replacing the religion thing with more of a focus on the class elements, but that will need some changes to the central thread if it is the case so it is a bit concerning.

The rebel thing, they seem to have (series book spoilers here)

borrowed elements from his future in the books and chucked them into his past instead. Which is an odd move I have to say.

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15 hours ago, Werthead said:

It's certainly looking good but I am a bit mystified as to why they've made Kovacs an immortality-hating, 1%-hating rebel. That's not what he was in the books and it feels lazy and obvious. Sure, he had a code but it wasn't that simplistic. I'm also worried that the searing dislike of religion in the book has been chopped out. Netflix are apparently chasing big ratings expansion opportunities in South America (which they should have done before cancelling Sense8, their biggest show in that market, but whatever) and pissing off the big Christian countries down there is not a good idea.

We'll have to see the results when it airs but I am detecting a certain level of "dumbed-downness" going on from the trailers. Hopefully that isn't the case.

The immortality hating is odd and somewhat hypocritical - he doesn't have to be essentially immortal himself if he so chooses. The 1% hating appeals to assumedly younger audiences and is usually a plus when it comes to socially minded reviewers and online buzz.

For me the relgious aspect that has to be kept is the resistance towards immortality from a "how would I get to heaven" stand. I think that's worth covering and doesn't necessarily have to be done in such a way that Kovacs has to hate them or that they are villains/wrong. I'd agree it's playing it too safe if they avoid this completely but handled correctly and I think it would be far from dumbed down. Some could argue the book's negative look on religion is a little dumbed down in it's "they are all idiots" Dawkins-esque approach.

 

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19 hours ago, Werthead said:

We'll have to see the results when it airs but I am detecting a certain level of "dumbed-downness" going on from the trailers. Hopefully that isn't the case.

Considering how dumbed down certain other high profile adaptations have been of late a small amount of that here wouldn't phase me as much. But yeah the ceiling is high here, and the floor is quite low. Let's let's hope they didn't fuck it up.

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I wouldn't judge too much from trailers. They're emphasizing VFX and action and basic premise, but that's hardly a surprise. 

That said, where are people getting the idea that Kovacs is a hater of functional immortality or the 1%, per se? Something elsewhere? An assumption based on the changes being made with Quell? The trailer certainly doesn't seem to have anything related to the idea, short of his suggesting he didn't want to be embodied on Earth.

ETA: Nevermind, found the behind the scenes concerning "Birth Kovac" being anti-immortality, allegedly. Also didn't realize how many clips they've released at the AltCarb Twitter.

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5 hours ago, Ran said:

I wouldn't judge too much from trailers. They're emphasizing VFX and action and basic premise, but that's hardly a surprise. 

That said, where are people getting the idea that Kovacs is a hater of functional immortality or the 1%, per se? Something elsewhere? An assumption based on the changes being made with Quell? The trailer certainly doesn't seem to have anything related to the idea, short of his suggesting he didn't want to be embodied on Earth.

ETA: Nevermind, found the behind the scenes concerning "Birth Kovac" being anti-immortality, allegedly. Also didn't realize how many clips they've released at the AltCarb Twitter.

Yup, also the official series descriptions they've been releasing. Something about the Envoys being anti-government rebels, which seemed a bit weird.

Now trying to work out if I should reread the book before the show airs. I read it about twelve years ago and seem to have forgotten most of it. OTOH, if it's not the most faithful adaptation that could be beneficial.

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2 hours ago, Werthead said:

Now trying to work out if I should reread the book before the show airs. I read it about twelve years ago and seem to have forgotten most of it. OTOH, if it's not the most faithful adaptation that could be beneficial.

Yeah I'm in the same boat. I originally planned to re-read the book but now I think it might be detrimental if they've taken liberties with the source material.

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10 hours ago, Werthead said:

Now trying to work out if I should reread the book before the show airs. I read it about twelve years ago and seem to have forgotten most of it. OTOH, if it's not the most faithful adaptation that could be beneficial.

I remember reading it and thinking that it was a very cinematic book that would translate very well onto the big screen. It's almost as if it were written to be a movie. 

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11 minutes ago, Relic said:

I remember reading it and thinking that it was a very cinematic book that would translate very well onto the big screen. It's almost as if it were written to be a movie. 

We had dinner with him, John Clute, and a few others in Spain a couple of years ago, and I distinctly recall Morgan talking about this precisely (I think the context was part of a wider discussion of cinema) , that he fully visualizes these scenes like they're a film in his head, and beyond that he's very sense-driven in general; he wants to engage the senses, wants readers to smell the lingering traces of high explosives, hear the sound of bullets puncturing flesh, taste the metallic flavor in the back of your throat as a character's adrenlaine ramps up, etc.

I think he's definitely one of the most cinematic -- and skillfully cinematic -- writers I've read in the genre. He has a real flair for it all. I think someone on Reddit described the recent trailer as "John Woo directs Jason Bourne on the Bladerunner 2049 set" and it made me think, well, yeah.

(As far as cinematic influences go, I can report with sadness that he's not a fan of Kurosawa -- Clute and I were both flabbergasted -- but he does have the very good taste to appreciate Takeshi Kitano's films such as Hana-Bi.)

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8 hours ago, Ran said:

I think he's definitely one of the most cinematic -- and skillfully cinematic -- writers I've read in the genre. He has a real flair for it all.

I seem to remember him saying that Market Forces was originally written as a screenplay before being converted into a novel.

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