A benefit, though, is if it does materialize as a miniseries. A TV movie will quickly simplify anything, just as much as any movie will when it adapts a work of literature. A miniseries allows for those details to breath and is really designed to adapt books.
"How Few Remain" TV Miniseries in the Works
- Thread starter Emperor Norton I
- Start date
A benefit, though, is if it does materialize as a miniseries. A TV movie will quickly simplify anything, just as much as any movie will when it adapts a work of literature. A miniseries allows for those details to breath and is really designed to adapt books.
This is a mini I'd be glad to see. Though I'd also like to see a Red Storm Rising Miniseries as well.....
I wonder if we may hear from these guys. We are their demographic, or at least a portion of it. The average guy will be up for this sort of thing too (all the better because you can't be a success just on us AH nerds), but we're the dedicated demo. We're advertising it and spreading amongst ourselves, creating a viewer base that can be tapped into. And we have heard from people who did this thing for a living before.
I just thought of something terrifying:
What if this is successful, and inspires Spike to take another go at its Alternate History show?
What if this is successful, and inspires Spike to take another go at its Alternate History show?
I just thought of something terrifying:
What if this is successful, and inspires Spike to take another go at its Alternate History show?
Frankly, I doubt Spike TV will revisit their concept after their infamous debacle.
I hope they'll remain within the bounds of reality, even if some of the designs might be a little outlandish.
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I hope not. I talked before about my fear of oversimplifying the story, but this would be the opposite: overcomplicating things. Having Confederate tanks, death camps in the South, and both fascism and socialism in America speaks for itself, and should be enough to intrigue people. If anything, adding sci-fi technology would probably scare off people who decide "oh, I thought this was a serious story, but this is too nerdy for me."
I've been trying to get my family and friends into Alternate History. I even just gave my dad my copies of the TL-191 series books (he likes history, and in particular, he's very interested in both the American Civil War and World War II, so I sold it to him as "why not have both at the same time?"). I might let him know about this adaptation, but I think he'd prefer one that stuck to realistic tech. For people who aren't sci-fi fans, more realistic PODs and stories are an easier introduction to the genre, imo.
It is likely that they'll just stick to America, but I hope not, tbh. One of my biggest dissapointments with TL-191 was that Turtledove didn't talk enough about what was going on in Europe. I thought there was a lot to explore with the idea of a Europe with a victorious German Empire, a surviving Austria-Hungary and Ottoman Empire, a Russia where the Romanovs manage to cling to power, Action Francaise France, and a fascist Britain. I don't think it would hurt the films to include some details about these events and what the culture is like across the Atlantic with this scenario. The focus should remain on North America, of course, but, like I said, it wouldn't hurt.
They say it's a ten-episode mini-series. At 40 minutes per episode, that would mean 400 minutes to cover the book.
So long as they refrain from George Armstrong Custer explaining coitus interruptus in graphic detail, I think they can fit in most of the characters with no problem.
Network and basic cable one hour programs have 44 minutes of content, and premium cable averages the full 60 minutes or so. 440 minutes of content seems just about right for HFR, minus the filler. For 600, they'd actually have to add a lot. The first Game of Thrones book was about 33% longer, and came to about 600 minutes on screen.
personally, i hope that they leave in mention of the US being one of the Central Powers, because that's one of the things i liked about the series--that US, traditionally cast as the good guys, are with the typical bad guys and the usually antagonistic Confederacy with allied with traditional good guys Britain and France