heinleinblog

If you didn’t want to to slug Casper Van Dien before for just being in the cast of the first Starship Troopers, you’ll change your mind with this quote:

“Ed has a dark, sick sense of humor that is absolutely wonderful and just delicious. If you’re sick,” he continues with a laugh. “I love that sense of humor, I love the way he writes. I love that most people miss stuff when they watch his films or even read them. They go ‘Wait a minute, was that supposed to be like that? Because it’s really pissing me off.’ Starship Troopers had a sense of humor, Robocop had a sense of humor and this new Starship Troopers has the political fascism like the first one - and then some - it also has a religious twist that I think only Ed can do really well.”

Ugh.

So, I’m flipping through channels last night, and I landed on TBS and they’re playing that God-awful movie.

The bugs are shooting plasma out of their asses at the orbiting starships. The captain of the Rodger Young issues this helpful order “Evasive maneuvers.”

One of many reasons to hate this movie.

But then, how many times did they use “attack pattern delta” or some such tripe in Star Trek?

Feh.

Is Hollywood capable to doing an accurate representation of a Heinlein novel?

Leave Robert Heinlein Alone. Please stop making crappy as Starship Troopers Movies. Please quit bleeding the legacy of a perfectly good novel. Please, Just Leave Robert Heinlein Alone!

I dunno. Hollywood really mucked up “The Puppet Masters,” a novel I think would work really well as a mini-series. But that’s nothing considered the campy, poorly acted farce that was “Starship Troopers.”

[tags]Heinlein, Starship Troopers, Robert A. Heinlein[/tags]

Globe and Mail discusses ‘Masters of Science Fiction’:

Though six episodes were produced, just four of the hour-long adaptations of sci-fi stories ran, including Robert A. Heinlein's Jerry Was a Man and Harlan … …

Not much to it really.

Original post by Robert Heinlein - Google News

[tag]Jolene Blalock[/tag] (right), who was the hot Vulcan in the skin-tight catsuit on Enterprise (how telling is it that I cannot even remember her character’s name) will be a lead character in the third Starship Troopers movie.

Yeah. Me too.

Anyway, this blogger is about as enthused about it as I am.

When I was growing up I read [tag]Robert Heinlein[/tag]’s [tag]Starship Troopers[/tag] novel many, many times and was pretty thrilled to actually get to work on the first movie. I was less thrilled with how it came out and the direct-to-video sequel left me even colder, with little hope for the franchise — at least in movie form. Sadly, this third go-around doesn’t do much to change my perception, even with the inclusion of Blalock. I guess we’ll find out one way or another when the film comes to the local Blockbuster later this year.

It’s going to take more than a hot Vulcan chick to get me to watch anything derived from that horrid monstrosity of a movie.

Yeah, it’s bad. But still more believable than Verhoxen’s movie.

The Cranky Insomniac says he’s a:

US Army veteran, libertarian hawk, musician, gun rights advocate, PR consultant and NASCAR fan who worked for NBC News in Washington for three years, in Hollywood for ten years and has a BA in political science from Columbia University.

OK …he passes.

But his email to me includes some interesting questions:

PS: I’d be forever grateful if you could explain to me how The Moon is a Harsh Mistress didn’t make that list of 100 SF books you have to read…

PPS: Am I the only hardcore Heinlein fan who thinks Starship Troopers was a really good film, as long as you forget that it’s based on the book?

The first question is easy: You are I are biased. Were we creating this list, we would gleafully and unashamedly fill it with Heinlein works, and fill whatever open spots remain with Heinlein’s Children.

Still, it’s hard to believe that JUST THREE of the Master’s works made the cut.

As to the other question, I agree that the movie Starship Troopers SHOULD have been promoted as an original work and not an adaptation of a novel, since there were so many departures in plot and characters from Heinlein’s classic.

Let’s say, for a moment, the movie had a different title and the characters had different names. It’s entirely possible that this movie would have been able to run WITHOUT traggering a copyright infringement suit from the Heinlein Estate. The departures were that significant. The bugs shooting plasma out of their asses and starships flying around in defiance of the laws of motion were enough, IMHO.

But would it have been a good movie? Granted, I might have cringed a little but less. But the over-the-top acting and the Nazi imagery would still have put me off.

No. It was NOT a good film. Even the shower scene — normally something that perks me right up — left me feeling exploited and sorry for the actresses who had to film it.

[tags]Cranky Insomniac,Starship Troopers[/tags]

From the Arkansas Democrat & Gazette:

ABC has tapped a number of its stars to feature in the midseason anthology series Masters of Science Fiction.

The six-episode series will adapt stories from such noted writers as Harlan Ellison, Robert Heinlein and Robert Sheckley. Physicist and author Stephen Hawking will introduce each episode.

Signed on to star in the series are Terry O’Quinn (Lost ), Anne Heche (Men in Trees ) and James Denton (Desperate Housewives ). Others include Judy Davis (Life with Judy Garland ), Malcolm McDowell (Entourage ) and Sam Waterston (Law & Order ).

Wanna guess who is staring in what segment?

BTW: The Heinlein segment will be an adaptation of the short story “Jerry Was a Man.”

[tags]Heinlein,Masters of Science Fiction[/tags]

Just for kicks, I typed “heinlein” into the search bar at YouTube.com and this was what I found:

The graphics are really cool. Too bad they don’t have hip television commercials for science fiction novels.

[tags]YouTube,Number of the Beast,666[/tags]

The Master’s name is used to describe the Great Basin:

Today there are likely more scorpions, spiders and snakes living in the Great Basin than people. If you’re fortunate, you will cross paths with bizarre-looking reptiles and bugs that could have crawled out from the pages of Robert Heinlein’s Starship Troopers. Much of the scenery is harshly unappealing, a face only a mother could love, but those who slow down enough may discover an unheralded beauty equal to any scene imaginable.

Methinks the writer is confusing the book with that God-awful abomination of a movie. But thanks for the plug anyway.