OT: Burton to Produce "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter"

[Gothick]

Dear God.  Poor David.  Still, they say there's no such thing as bad publicity. 

sigh.

G.

[D_Friedlander]

The difference between these latest literary fads and fan fiction is that most fan-fiction writers do not expect to have a million people pay for the privilege of reading their flights of fantasy, which is based on someone else's intellectual property anyway and thus subject to restrictions.
The restrictions can be tight or loose--- DS is one of the loosest in that regard, I guess, as long as the writer doesn't try to sell it to a regular publisher without official permission.  Recall when S.E. Hinton had to "file off the serial numbers" to publish her book as HAWKES HARBOR when it was rejected by DCP as a DS novel, a few years ago.

Abraham Lincoln "belongs to the ages", and Victoria has been the subject of speculative fiction (including her "guest appearance" in the new DR.WHO.)  Being real famous people who did not have a copyright on their existence, they are fair game.  Though there are limits--- it's not like they lived 500 years ago, when one could fudge around the facts.  Their day-to-day lives are too well documented, and there's even photographs!

And not so many years ago, early in my lifetime anyway, there were still people alive who had personal memories of the both of them.  Plus (and this is a BIG plus) the events they lived through were often terrible and full of REAL horrors, and IMO, not to be trifled with by adding cheesy supernatural themes.  It's almost, for want of a better word, sacrilegious.

On the other hand, ABRAHAM LINCOLN: VAMPIRE HUNTER certainly could NOT be worse than THIS little gem I was recently reminded of:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0168373/

Better a horror story than a horrible situation comedy.  (David Selby was well-spared from THAT!)

Before I die, I fully expect to see a best-selling novel about Hitler or Stalin or Mao  (or all three!) in cahoots with demonic space aliens.  Hopefully, this will not be until the year 2065 or so, but my hopes have been dashed before.

Actually, the worst part, as relates to DS, is, again, the saturation problem.  Too darn many vampire (and other supernatural critters) stories equals a dilution of interest, to my mind.  I really doubt there is anything unique or original that can still be wrung from this theme, at least not for the next five years.  Perhaps Burton and Depp are wise to put their DS film at the tail end of their to-do list--- give the public a chance to recover from the current epidemic of vampire themed media.

[Mary]

I'm looking forward to reading the book and seeing the movie!  Sounds cool!

[MsCriseyde]

Before I die, I fully expect to see a best-selling novel about Hitler or Stalin or Mao  (or all three!) in cahoots with demonic space aliens.  Hopefully, this will not be until the year 2065 or so, but my hopes have been dashed before.

You won't have to wait that long. You can find that sort of thing being published contemporaneously with the events in question. One need look no further than the exploits of comic book heroes during World War II.

[Miss_Winthrop]

Jane Austen is whirling in her grave over what they've done to her masterpieces Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility.

No doubt next up will be War and Peace and Werewolves...

I hear you on this one.  They recently destroyed my favorite 'Persuasion' on the new Masterpiece Theater' remake.  Just saw the 'Emma' remake which wasn't too bad but no on can match Doran Godwin as Emma.  I think they are trying too hard to condense the storylines in her novels  perhaps due to budget constraints.  In particular 'Persuasion' needs to be moved along at a slower pace and the characters need time to fully develop.