d32123
Banned
It's no wonder that AH has such a bad reputation with the general public considering the type of schlock that gets peddled under the label in the mainstream.
"How Few Remain" TV Miniseries in the Works
- Thread starter Emperor Norton I
- Start date
It's no wonder that AH has such a bad reputation with the general public considering the type of schlock that gets peddled under the label in the mainstream.
The book is fine if a bit light on realistic PODS, but the movie? Nazi Germany take's over all of Europe after repulsing D-Day? It's pretty much the Spike show, although I guess at least this one didn't have them taking over America as well.
On the one hand, I'm really afraid they're going to badly mangle it. As in, find new and exciting ways to make it totally ludicrously xerox OTL, and feature a level of original thought that would make Fifty Shades of Gray look like To Kill a Mockingbird.
But then thinking about it, that's already the case with the source material, and it wasn't actually that bad. It'll make a fair AH series so long as the acting or some other TV-specific aspect isn't mangled, or they radically change it by putting the CSA with the Central Powers, or something idiotic like that.
On the other hand, I find it somewhat telling that things are going to stop at Breakthroughs. I imagine Confederacy apologists, and the south at large, would probably go apeshit at the very idea of Population Reduction.
But then thinking about it, that's already the case with the source material, and it wasn't actually that bad. It'll make a fair AH series so long as the acting or some other TV-specific aspect isn't mangled, or they radically change it by putting the CSA with the Central Powers, or something idiotic like that.
On the other hand, I find it somewhat telling that things are going to stop at Breakthroughs. I imagine Confederacy apologists, and the south at large, would probably go apeshit at the very idea of Population Reduction.
I think it's more likely that the production company couldn't afford the rights to AE and SA as well. They have a single credit on IMDB as of now, a small-budget horror/action movie (which incidentally - ugh) and the eponymous Andrew Wyly is most well known for writing a piece of Texas boosterism. Not exactly Bad Robot or Mutant Enemy here. Film rights, even to lesser known works, aren't cheap.
well fuck those guys then; if they wish the Confederates had won then they oughta just suck it up and see how much of an authoritarian hellhole it would be. in fact, the CSA (at least in the earlier parts) of TL-191 is probably better than it would be if they had actually won
Oh. That makes sense.
To be honest, it's probable this won't make very much of a blip. Game of Thrones was a gigantic wave; but GoT had millions and millions of dollars; and the series was already very popular and reasonably well-known.
Turtledove, well, he really is still very much a "b-fiction" author.
Or maybe it's because you can kiss Southern broadcasting goodbye, or make any producer leave the meeting in disgust when you get to the part where Americans, of any kind, start shoving people in gas vans and stocking up on Cyclonium, or shooting civilian hostages for that matter.
The broadcast networks wouldn't greenlight it anyway, so no one is going to care what a handful of Southern affiliates think.
If I was the producer I'd have TR simply listen to Custer and continue the war until the nation is reunified right then and there.
An adapted alternate history of Turtledoves work? Very meta, and a good idea.
I'm kinda surprised that they are starting the series with HFR... it's kind of a downer of a story, and it's a really obscure kind of story, pretty much unfathomable to those who don't have a real understanding of OTL history. Now, starting with the Great War trilogy would make a lot more sense... "WW1 between the USA and CSA" is a lot more understandable...
True enough, but even though late 19th century American history is not so well-known, I think HFR would still serve a purpose by addressing some of the questions about the people and culture immediately following the alternate Civil War. "What happened to Lincoln afterwards?" "How long would slavery last?" "Who became president in both the CSA and USA once the war was over?" And things like that. It would be a good bridge between the two more familiar time periods of the Civil War and WWI.
Plus Lincoln, Custer, TR, and Mark Twain are a bigger draw than Coffee Shop Girl and Zinc Oxide.
In fact if they ever get that far, I hope they drop some of the least interesting GW storylines in favor of more top-level characters.
this is something i'd always wondered about concerning adapting books like this, since there're just soo many characters in them and spread across such an enormous area
though the only one i'd recommend leaving out is Carsten; his parts of the story just aren't as entertaining as the others
though if there's going to be ten episodes devoted to HFR, i doubt they're gonna be leaving anything out of the story; it'll be with the longer Great War Trilogy that they'll trim down some of the fat
Yeah. In fact, that was one of the most jarring things when I first read the series. When I read How Few Remain, I got used to the idea of reading from the perspective of major historical figures like TR, Custer, Stonewall, etc. I went into the Great War trilogy expecting to see more of Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, and other historical figures, so it was a little jarring at first that they decided to switch to having it be from the perspective only of everyday people. It might be jarring for casual viewers too, who might watch a scene with one of the characters and ask "who are these people? Where's Theodore Roosevelt? Oh wait, there he is-no, now he's gone again."
To say nothing of the fact that this made it so that most of the scenes that followed were scenes of people in the trenches, which got repetitive and dull after a while, imo.
By the end of the series, it was clear that this was done so as to show the coming of age of a generation of people who lived through the two world wars, some of whom rose from simple soldier in the First Great War to the leaders of the Second Great War. If this series does decide to do the same, then I agree, they should cut out the less significant characters and focus on those who do remain significant throughout the series. Featherston, Flora Hamburger, Anne Colleton, Clarence Potter, Jefferson Pinkard, Irving Morrell, Abner Dowling, Scipio, Cassius, and people like that.
There's also the possibility that they avoid using historical figure altogether and have stand-ins or vague allusion to them. Avoids alienating people who would say "he wouldn't have done that !" if they are fans.
I hope that this does end up getting filmed. I am 2/3rds the way through Walk In Hell, and would like to see how it would look on screen.