Good question - I don't know how much of it is

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: : Original screenplays seem to be where View Askew is strongest, but : : since the "Non-Askew Summaries" lists various adaptations that : : Kevin Smith has worked on I'll ask my question here. There are vast : : amounts of script adaptations from books that don't get made for : : various reasons. (The one I've heard the best things about but not : : seen is the "Childhood's End" script from the '60's, the best one I've : : read was Ellison's adaptation of Asimov's "I, Robot".) Disney's : : attempts to do The Lord of The Rings but abandoning the project : : when they "couldn't get a script for a film that wasn't rated PG or : : higher" comes to mind. : : Occasionally you find a book that odd enough it just goes out there : : and sinks like a stone, so I'm glad that Kevin Smith was able to get : : "Sex and Rockets" to the attention of someone willing to option it. : : The other problem, it seems to me are the books that would take too : : many resources to do. : : For example: one of the best fantasies of the last quarter of the : : Twentieth Century in my opinion is "Bridge of Birds" by Barry Hughart : : which, as his first novel, won the World Fantasy Award--pretty damn : : good pedigree. It's funny, heroic, a *wonderful* read, and the main : : reason my wife-to-be took a second look at me after I gave it to her. (I : : fit in the catagory of "Pleasantly Ugly.") Anyway, as I see it, it's got : : three strikes against it as a American studio movie: It's set it China, it : : takes place in AD 600, and there are a few hairsbreath escapes that : : make Indiana Jones look like Encyclopedia Brown which woud be : : hard to eliminate. : : I can't picture a major studio in the U.S. making material like this : : currently--they wouldn't want to spend the cash to make the : : necessary "eye candy" to adapt it faithfully, and it's not something you : : could throw the box office hunk or cutie of the year into. While View : : Askew doesn't make effects pictures, and is well out of the : : "struggling independent" phase, I'd like to know if anyone there thinks : : the support technology level is getting cheap enough to allow : : independent film folk (who take more risks than studio films do as far : : as subject matter) to handle more visually elaborate films, or if : : independent film needs to stay "quick and local" as most have in the : : past? : : And, no, I am not related to or in the pay of Mr. Hughart. Although the : : accounting department at DelRey Books must wonder why there's a : : sudden peak in sales just before Christmas in the Seattle area. (His : : luck with publishers is supposed to be the reason he's quit writing-- : : it's certainly why the trade paperback of his third book sells for up to : : $75.00 a copy if you can find one.) Hell, if I buy and give away enough : : copies maybe Hughart will make enough in royalties to get a car : : wash or something... : PRODUCTION costs, and how much is after you've produced it for the distribution, etc. : I encourage people to believe what stories you can tell should not be limited by technology. Animation is great for that. Great storytelling can help you visualize what you can't create realistically on the screen. : On the other hand, if you want to do a visual masterpiece, I think you need the bucks.

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