Sawfish Wrote:
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> CAS, for those who read his stuff, has mystique,
> in spades...and for some odd reason, this is
> extremely important to me.
>
> Would it survive being made into a B movie?
I'm wary of turning his stories into cinema, unless it's an artfully inspired film. That's not to say I'm a raving fan who would cry "they ruined the book!", and I would definitely find any attempt interesting, but I guess I'd rather avoid the whole issue. Most likely they'd have to alter the story to suit a generic audience's tastes, which means dumbing down or entirely removing the most unique and nuanced qualities. Based on my narrow understanding, most young people wouldn't like the sort of fantasy CAS writes. PG-rated young adult dystopian fiction is what's most popular these days, especially the kind that have predictable plots and cliched character types, since they keep adapting those into films. Also the type of story in which an adolescent becomes the messiah of some hidden world.
Universal Studios considered turning the stories "The Dark Eidolon" and "The Colossus of Ylourgne" into movies, and CAS was okay with this. Personally I don't think any Hollywood production would do the first one justice, but I can see a decent chance in the latter, with its dramatic mystery, definite hero and villain, and somewhat action-oriented plot. Whether as a black-and-white flick or a CGI-laden drama, this probably wouldn't be too hard to adapt well.
"The House of Haon-Dor" is little more than a synopsis and a fragment, so my comment was rather reckless, but I think the synopsis is the sort of thing Universal could have picked up for a black-and-white monster movie, and it would probably be easier to produce than "The Dark Eidolon" since at least half of the story takes place in a mundane setting.
Quote:Sawfish
I'm unfamiliar with the idea for the story under discussion.
The synopsis can be found in CAS' Black Book, and a small fragment of the story can be read in the story section of this site.
Here's CAS' synopsis:
Quote:A tumbledown cabin on the verge of the deep hydraulic diggings at Cougar Hollow, which some believe to be deserted, and others say is haunted or inhabited. A youth named Robert Farway, living for the summer near the diggings, and prospecting for his health, enters the cabin in spite of the warnings he has received from the members of a society of occultists, the Brotherhood of the Sun, who have their establishment in the neighborhood. He comes out an utterly different person, and it becomes evident that some alien and demoniac entity has taken possession of him. When he attempts an act of vampirism, the nature of the entity is obvious. The narrator, Wiley Hastane, uncle of the youth, and the head of the colony of occultists, one Antonius Mer((goin))la, ((enter the cabin)) follow the youth to the cabin in an effort to rescue him-and entering at night, find themselves in a vast, fiend-haunted edifice of which the cabin is merely the vestible. Here, beleaguered by elementals, opposed by unthinkable monstrosities, they ((find them in)) fight their way from depth to depth in search of the master of the house, the evil magician Haon-Dor, who has ensouled the youth with one of his attendant vampires, and has confined the youth's soul in a monstrous form. Haon-Dor, in the shape of a fifteen foot rattlesnake, ((de)) guards the ultimate vault of abominations and [the] vampire corpse, and a terrible struggle ensues between the snake and the white master, Antonius. With the vanquishing of the serpent, the vampire leaves the youth, and returns to its own body, that of a prehistoric mummy.
Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 31 Aug 20 | 06:44PM by Hespire.