Harlan Ellison on Saving Mr. Banks

[HaplessCrewman]

Basically, he says that Mary Poppins author P.L. Travers hated Disney's movie version.

BTW, Ellison's review is spoiler-free.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNIFEHN1_cY

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Thanks! Good to see him posting.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

She hated the movie but probably liked the money -- 5% of the producer’s gross with a $100,000 down payment -- a huge amount in the late 1950s.

She refused the rights to any sequels.

 

[t_smitts]

There's a long history of film adaptations taking HUGE licenses with the source books. Check out the novels from which Norman Bates and Forrest Gump originated. You'd hardly recognize them

The film version of "Angels and Demons" completely cut out one of the principal characters and gave his lines and actions to another character. The film version of "Absolute Power" went as far as to cut out the MAIN character and keeps the focus on the cat burglar that Clint Eastwood plays (in the book, he gets killed off partway through, which, in retrospect might have been an interesting way to shock viewers partway through).

Roald Dahl HATED the adaptation of "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" (I agree it lacks the dark humor of the book) and therefore denied them the right to adapt the sequel. Stephen King felt the same about Kubrick's "The Shining" (Jack Torrance is supposed to be a relatively stable family man being driven to madness, but you don't cast Jack freakin' Nicholson to play someone stable).

I'd be interested to hear of any authors who LIKED the film version of their work. (The only one I can think of is William Goldman with "The Princess Bride" and that's probably because he wrote the screenplay).

 

[E-DUB]

For a little background, check out Ellison's essay.

"The 3 Most Important Things in Life" offers moments from Harlan's life that deal with sex, violence, and labor relations. The latter of which is an incident that occurred when he was hired to write for Disney...and fired within hours of arrival.

(From the "library thing").

 

[CorporalCaptain]

I'd be interested to hear of any authors who LIKED the film version of their work. (The only one I can think of is William Goldman with "The Princess Bride" and that's probably because he wrote the screenplay).

Frank Herbert had mostly positive things to say about Lynch's Dune. Arthur C. Clarke was pleased with both 2001 and 2010. I'm pretty sure that Michael Crichton considered Jurassic Park to be a good thing.

 

[Aragorn]

I'd be interested to hear of any authors who LIKED the film version of their work. (The only one I can think of is William Goldman with "The Princess Bride" and that's probably because he wrote the screenplay).

From articles I've read, John Grisham is fine with every one of his adaptations except for The Chamber. I think he's had minor quibbles about how The Firm ended and Denzel Washington being cast in The Pelican Brief.

 

[Starbreaker]

Basically, he says that Mary Poppins author P.L. Travers hated Disney's movie version.

I thought that was common knowledge

 

[Harvey]

Ellison is certainly right. This article goes into a little more detail about the difference between truth and fiction.

 

[Admiral2]

For a little background, check out Ellison's essay.

"The 3 Most Important Things in Life" offers moments from Harlan's life that deal with sex, violence, and labor relations. The latter of which is an incident that occurred when he was hired to write for Disney...and fired within hours of arrival.

(From the "library thing").

Read it. That was hilarious, and i'll be sure not to talk about pornifying Disney should i ever get a job there.

 

[Velocity]

i loved the Mary Poppins books as a child and I read every one. The movie doesn't have the same feel as the books, (MP was not pretty and she was rather sharp tongued) but I do like the movie apart from that. The books were better than the movie, but musicals are different anyway.
I think the PL Travers books and those of Edward Eager started my enjoyment of fantasy as a genre.

 

[ThunderAeroI]

For a little background, check out Ellison's essay.

"The 3 Most Important Things in Life" offers moments from Harlan's life that deal with sex, violence, and labor relations. The latter of which is an incident that occurred when he was hired to write for Disney...and fired within hours of arrival.

(From the "library thing").

Read it. That was hilarious, and i'll be sure not to talk about pornifying Disney should i ever get a job there.

He is also clueless. Everyone around him was sending bat signals higher than the moon to shut the hell up and he ignored it.