168.

Lola's alive (alive... alive... alive)!

In other news, I just have to repost here a comment to the IO9 article on Machine Man being optioned for a movie.

http://io9.com/5397999/max-barrys-weird-cyborg-publishing-experiment-could-be-a-movie)

Comment by SJ_Edwards
"
This seems like a huge lost opportunity.

Surely the best way to deliver the 'Machine Man' experience to the audience would be in the form of 43 one minute, 'blipverts/pages', delivered online and on broadcast TV, over 43 consecutive days.

That would add up to exactly one 'TV hour'.
For the one-off, TV 'event', reprise.

Then the theatrical, DVD and online release of the whole 120 minute film the next day.

For $6.95.

Just like the book.

But why would a film studio use an innovative and hugely profitable new business model?"

IMHO that is a totally frickin' awesome idea?

For this MM movie I'm seeing Tom Cruise as Charlie - he's got the emotional depth and empathy the role requires. Besides, who wouldn't love to watch him being dismembered bit by bit?

And Kylie Minogue as Lola. As for the snuffler, maybe the woman who played Six in BSG?

So hold on, does this mean that Carl and Lola are surgically joined somehow? Wouldn't he have noticed something when Carl was beating on him up close? Or am I reading this wrong and inventing my own story? :S

@David: I can't see Tom Cruise playing a credible scientist at all. I could see Edward Norton playing Charlie though! And I think of Carl being Vinnie Jones.

@Electrichead: Good call on the Vinnie Jones == Carl.

Your suggesting he fell far enough to blow up a car and wound up shooting off enough concrete rubble from the parkade to create a walkway back up?

But seriously though, are you?

While this could technically be possible, it would take forever to blast that much off without a bomb. A large bomb. Even during the battle of Stalingrad that level of devastation was not accomplished. Perhaps I am simply misinterpreting the following:
"So much of it had slid into the alley that the Contours could walk on a shifting hill of rubble and broken concrete slabs almost all the way up the level from which we had fallen."

Either way, I am not sure enough concrete would be readily available to allow a bridge back up to a level which allowed a car to fall from far enough to detonate the car.


As to the rest, Im intrigued by todays Friffhanger. Im interested to see what happens now.

I don't agree at all on the Vinnie Jones = Carl thing.

I'm going with Adam Baldwin for Carl,
and for Charlie
Wayne Knight

Come on Ben, if this is gonna be a movie it needs an exploding car. Cars which drop down always explode in movies, even when there's no technical reason why a regular car would do such a thing. Not even from a high altitude. And, yes, parking garages tend to be built as steel-reinforced concrete structures, to make them relatively cheap and strong enough to hold all the weight. But perhaps a few slabs of concrete could partly break off creating an angular walkway up? Anyway, the contours should be able to jump up. The first could, so v3 should be able to do the same.


And congrats to Max on this (maybe, hopefully) becoming a movie! You know you're doing very well as an author when your work gets this kind of consideration to become a movie even before you're finished writing.


The advantage of the story not being finished yet is that Max can still write in a small part for a weirdo Dutch guy (yes, I'm Dutch) to play... :p


As for whom should play which parts...

Lola needs someone with a naturally endearing quality, but the part requires far more complex emotions to be delivered... Natalie Portman.

For Cassandra I'm thinking Carrie-Anne Moss. Beautiful, but oh so capable of delivering a chilling cold stare when it's called for.

Carl... I'm imagining Forest Whitaker. Perhaps a tad too old in years, but the camera has always been kind to him in that regard. He can provide the character more depth, which is IMHO a tad lacking in Machine Man at this point. Carl developed to become a central character, and I think it would be fitting to have his part be expanded a bit earlier on. This is where the current format bites, cause it's impossible to go back and give him a few more lines since those pages were already sent out.

Then, the most important part, Charlie. No, not Tom Cruise. He's too slick/handsome for the part.
Charlie is a techy nerd with a severe mental obsession, combining a disassociation between himself and his body and a love for technology, with an emotional and irrational side. And the audience will have to like him at the same time. How about Tobey Maguire? Spiderman nerdy, but he can do so much more as he shows in his recent movie Brothers.


Ballotonia

Why not Max as Charlie?

I finally bought the book! Mow I just got to read 120 + pages of this awesome story to catch up!

I am very confused. "The section of Carl’s body that didn’t make sense turned. It was Lola." You haven't given us enough information to imagine this. What does this mean? Let us see into your creative mind.

Tobey Maguire for Charlie? No way. Much too young for such an accomplished engineer. Also, I don't think that it would be good to have the superhero undercurent brought in. (Tobey would do that to the story.) Charlie is obviously unstable and unable to undertake such aspirations. The whole, "With great power comes great responsibility," thing is not going to work here.

Ok Justin, you have a point there with 'too young'.

How about Kevin Spacey then?

Ballotonia