(Morgan) Freeman's Rendevous With Rama Close To Reality?

[Forkboy]

Morgan Freeman told SCI FI Wire that his long-held dream of producing and starring in a big-screen adaptation of Arthur C. Clarke's SF novel Rendezvous With Rama is closer than ever to becoming a reality.

"That is going to happen," Freeman said in an interview while promoting his latest film, The Bucket List. "Thank heaven, that is going to happen. We're looking for that to start in the next year."

Rendezvous With Rama, which was published in 1972, follows a group of human explorers who intercept and try to unlock the secrets of an alien spaceship that has approached Earth. Freeman would play the commander of the Endeavor, the deep-space maintenance ship used to rendezvous with the alien craft.

"The story itself is the idea that we can be visited from outer space," Freeman said. "The idea that we're the only living intelligent creatures is ... you can't really believe that. Well, you can, but if you think about it for a while, what if there are other intelligent creatures--and I firmly believe there are--what does that tell us? We're going to imagine that they're going to have to look something like us, and if they don't look like us, what does that tell us about God?"

Freeman has had Rendezvous With Rama on his radar for nearly a decade, but this is the closest it's been to happening. Not only is it listed as "announced" on the Internet Movie Database, but it's also on the Web site of Freeman's production company, Revelations Entertainment, which classifies it as "in development."

http://www.scifi.com/sfw/news/sfw_news_20071224.html

[Orrex]

1. That would be incredibly cool, but... (SPOILERS)

There's no interplanetary warfare or destruction (well, outside of the asteroid strike in the prologue).

How could such a story possibly find traction with today's audiences?!?

:sarcasm:

I really like Rendezvous with Rama, and IMO it may be Clarke's best novel overall. A film version would be great to see, especially with a solid actor who clearly loves the source material.

[Forkboy]

2. I've thought the same thing over the years whenever talk of a movie came up.

Will it be exciting enough for the audiences weened on car crashes and explosions?

I'm psyched about it. I love hard sci-fi, and this is one of the classics, action packed or not. It's been awhile since I've seen a thinking man's sci-fi story (the remake of Solaris might be the last one, and that was awhile ago).

[phantom power]

3. I have a bad feeling they will fuck it up.

Exactly because they will feel an unstoppable need to insert some hostile aliens, or explosions, or something that completely undermines the atmosphere of the original.

Rendezvous with Rama might be the only Clarke story that I actually like anymore. It's one of the few stories where he didn't indulge in his weird closeted christianity.

[krispos42]

4. With the CGI we have now... it can be pretty cool.

Update the technology in the human spacecraft, and let the wonder and mystery begin!

[Orrex]

5. Admit it--you're just looking forward to seeing "an unholstered lady officer"

Oh, Arthur--you're so naughty!

[krispos42]

6. boobies in zero-g?

Why, the thought never even occured to me!!!!

O8)

[PetrusMonsFormicarum]

7. I'd prefer to see Childhood's End

as it is a multi-generational story with the potential for plenty of surprises, and its themes resonate today. All the same, I'd be happy to see anybody do a quality adaptation of Clarke. I know it will happen, as Hollywood is running out of Phillip K. Dick stories to adapt (nobody has tried "Man in the High Castle" yet).