by CSLFAN » March 15th, 2010, 1:48 pm
I read the Space Trilogy a few months ago and also found myself trying to visualize what they'd be like in films. While I am a stickler for accuracy in book-based films, I also would like to see a little "real world accuracy" as well. Here are the ideas I came up with.
For "Out of the Silent Planet", a neat scene would be Weston's ship (maybe with sail-like panels to harness the "Weston rays", aka solar radiation) flying into the Martian atmosphere, a nice panning shot of the planet's rock, dusty surface, and then follow the ship down into a misty valley where the rock becomes green, the vegetation purple, and basically follow the rest of the description from the book. Maybe even show a few petrified trees near the top of the valley. Another idea would be to have the shot of the Martian surface come later, when Ransom is on the Sorn's shoulder, having him glimpse the surface for a moment before descending to Meldilorn.
I had to put in a great deal more thought into Perelandra, but the answer that came to me was much simpler. For a film version, at the end, before Ransom gets into the angelic coffin ship (best name I could think of, sorry), he would voice his concern to Tor and Tinidril about other humans like Weston discovering their paradise. They would then tell him that he needn't worry, that Maleldil has graced their world so that one looking in from outside, if their gaze could pierce the atmosphere (with telescopes, satellites, etc.), would see only a barren, inhospitable world (maybe even hint at how only a select few can come/return to Perelandra, which would be a little hint at Hideous Strength's reference to Arthur).
And as for Tinidril's nudity, I think it could be handled modestly without making her seem to non-human (like Mystique from X-men). As for Ransom's, as well as Weston's and Devine's (from OOTSP), that could be reasonably ignored for a film version, as space could be presented as colder than in the books (at least when traveling in Weston's ship, maybe the Eldil ship wouldn't have that problem).
Just my thoughts.