Sorry, a moment of frustration

“We are making a film that is adapted from a novel.”

Interesting…

I was posting a link to everyone on msn, forums, etc.. and the first reaction that i got was the same. Myst isn’t only about the game, it’s not only about the books. It’s everything combined, the community, experiences, everything… but that’s often hard to explain to ‘outsiders’

Goro, no big clue there. Rand was clear about that much in his forward.

So glad to hear! I have always wanted to see one of the Myst novels done into a movie. Which one? Book of Atrus or Ti’anna? Those seem like the best choices. Nothing against the Book of D’ni but it seems to require knowledge of the previous books or games to get it. Book of Atrus would seem like the logical choice even though B.O.T. is a richer story. Book of Atrus connects better to Myst as far as back story and the ending ties perfectly into the games.

Just ordered the three books. I need to catch up on what will be a wonderful, colorful motion picture

Well, I’m seeing “The Book of Ti’Ana” under the word “Myst” up there, so that might be a clue. Chronologically it comes first too.

Well, most people only know Myst as “That boring as heck game from the 90’s that was for some reason really popular.” I know a lot of people who’ve played it, and their immediate reaction when I say “Man, I’ve been getting back into the Myst series and it’s SO great!” is “… that game was so boring. I think I played it when I was eleven…?”

For me it was never the game. It was the story. The first was not a game: it was a series of riddles wrapped around a -story- about a father and his wayward sons. Riven was even less so, to me - it was an immersive… thing, it was another world unbound from its plastic, silicon, and metal casings and made into something I wished with all my heart was real. It was a world, it was a people, it was a story about a father and a son, a man and his wife, a woman and her people, a dying world, the whispers of an empire long dead…

So has the entire series been for me. While it has largely been presented through interactive media, Myst is more a universe than anything else - something made almost alive through the efforts of its creators and fans. It is more than the games, it is more than the books and it will be more than this film (no offense!!!). These are merely the media through which the story is presented.

Hrmm.

Also: I feel that video games have in general just gotten bad treatments in film. I think it IS possible to make a good film about a game; it just hasn’t been done yet becuase there seem to be few people who take games seriously as a storytelling medium. It used to be that you couldn’t get any good films based on fantasy books - then along came Peter Jackson and that changed (somewhat. you still get tripe. Golden Compass, anyone?)

There is one fear I have, though - that people are going to go to this film and EXPECT it to be a film about the first game, and then get very bent out of shape and confused when it ISN’T and it is from the novels, and thus dismiss it as some derivative thing, while the fans weakly cry out that it IS something from the continuity which would make a much better film than the first game (which, quite frankly, would be a dead boring film in my opinion!)

I can only hope that the acting, directing, visual effects and, of course, the script are good enough to overcome this and for it to stand alone as not just a film based on the Myst universe, but as a creature unto itself.

… and once again, long comment is long.

Are you going to be starting the movie during Aitrus’ time, Atrus’ time, or Yeesha’s time? From what point of view are you doing it, and are you going to be adding any of the current happenings in the film? Anything about the restoration efforts, Dr. Watson or the DRC? Are you just sticking with the novels?

“Well, I’m seeing “The Book of Ti’Ana” under the word “Myst” up there, so that might be a clue.”

Is that new today? I don’t remember seeing it there before.

Oh cool, I never noticed the Book of Ti’ana title until Zander mentioned it. When did that go up? I also just noticed the copyright notice below. All wrongs reversed, huh? After reading Tony Fryman’s description of the old Myst miniseries synopsis, I say AMEN to that!

Actually, the first RE movie was somewhat okay. The true epitomes of VG-movie disasters are Street Fighter II and Super Mario Bros.

There was one good thing about Super Mario Bros. : Samantha Mathis.
There is one really, really good thing about the Resident Evil movies : Milla Jovovich.

I know a lot of Myst fans out there are excited about this, but will this be a movie your average “joe beargut” could see and like without knowing or caring about Myst?

I don’t see anything about BoT…

Video game movies thus far have pretty much all been epic fails in my opinion, with the slight exception of FF: Advent Children.
In no particular order (read as: as I think of them):
Resident Evil…too many zombie movies as it is, so it’s just one more of the horde.
Super Mario Bros., Street Fighter, and Mortal Kombat…don’t get me started…they are dead and gone, and should remain thus.
Doom…the most plotless game this side of Pong.
Silent Hill…a bit gratuitous in several scenes (though I realize that the games are of this nature), and the plot was a bit askew.
Advent Children…if you haven’t played/read the storyline of FF7, you are completely and utterly lost (and they reused several monologue-camera-panning scenes).
Tomb Raider…better than most, but still not terribly great.
Hitman…completely lost the spirit of the games…nowhere in a Hitman derivative should there ever be gratuitous gunfights or needless explosions. Also, Timothy Olyphant is way too young and too verbose to be Agent 47.
In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale…didn’t see it, wasn’t impressed with the ratings.
(There are many I didn’t mention, because they just go downhill from there.)

The #1 problem with most of these choices? If the game’s plot can be summarized in three sentences or less, so can the movie’s. If you can summarize the plot of a movie in three sentences or less…you should really consider exactly why you are making said movie.

My guess as to why most video game film adaptations haven’t tackled games with better plots…the less plot there is, the less you can screw it up. But if you take on a Planescape: Torment, or a Baldur’s Gate, or even Half-Life, something that has at least something resembling a coherent storyline, then you run the risk of messing it up in some way that the fans of the game will bring out the torches and pitchforks for.

So, all of that is said to say this: This film does not need the stigma of “video game movie” tagged onto it. And said phrase will remain a stigma until someone does tackle one of the aforementioned games, or a comparable one, and pulls it off satisfactorily to at least 80% of said games diehard fans. (Because if they don’t pull it off, it will be figuratively burned at the stake of those self-same fans. [No pressure, Adrian and Patrick, I have faith in you.].)

Also, the Myst-mythos is no more a video game than Middle-Earth is a series of books. It is a world, a mythos, a culture, a language, and a people that have been brought to life, both by the creators and by the community that has grown up around it. (If you doubt me, try listening to poetry in spoken Elvish, or writing a paragraph in grammatical D’ni…they may be artificially invented languages, but, then again, *all* languages were artificially invented at some point in time.)

Ok, I release you all from my random ramblings.

/me wanders off grumbling about insomnia and its detrimental effects on mental stability.

Herhtar, yesterday the Myst logo at the top left said “The Book of Tiana” under it. Today it’s back to “The Motion Picture”. I wonder why it changed?

Unless you clearly spell out what you guys are doing, fans and communities WILL discuss, theorize, and apply labels to what you are doing that will likely wrong.

I suggest you be clear about what you are pursuing to keep the false rumors down and set proper expectations. It’s much easier to do this up front than clean up a mess generated from someone’s incorrect theory, idea, or rumor.

“I wonder why it changed?” My guess is that they changed their mind about revealing the story. To date, this has been one of the unanswered questions regarding the movie.

All I can say is: you’re too late, Mysteriacs! The truth is out there!

I look at Myst as a work of art. To me, it’s not the story, the environments, the drama, or the creative aspect that make the D’niverse what it is. It’s how it’s done and how it exists as a spherical entity. Everything in Myst has been constructed in a way and delivered in a way that encourages thought. It’s the fact that Myst does not answer or heed to people’s questions, interests, or desires, no matter how high of a level they may be, but demands questions. All in all, it’s how the Myst universe works as a whole in entertaining us through a play of ideas - of all sorts ranging from the music to the art, to the creative concepts like the Art of Linking - that makes Myst something that is not only a work of rich fiction, but a work of art - art in the highest degree possible. Myst, because of its delivery through the interface of virtual entertainment, reaches a form of art that is the most complex and sophisticated that the world has ever known.

This is 21st Century art: the art of Genesis. Myst has for the first time realized art in the medium of 4 dimensions - 2d imagery, 3d environments, and time, with the addition of sound and human interaction. Myst is the fruition of art in the medium of world creation because, as stated above, it exists as an entity - it’s wired together tightly, it sustains itself, by nature it demands thought from the user but never cedes a direct answer, and thus it rolls and rolls like a big rolling, living brain.

This is why a Myst film must NOT be a movie. It must be a film - a work that should act as a means of presenting the D’niverse to a larger audience, and doing so in complete respect of the living entity Cyan has created.

Peace

Yali

Re: Tay - Yeah, I’ve already seen a bunch of people theorizing that it’s going to be in the Uru/End of Ages plotline, which I hope to god it isn’t going to be. I’ve… expressed my opinion on Uru/EoA elsewhere though and will spare everyone the agony.

But things that I’ve seen and heard strongly suggest a novel-based plotline. Which makes me happy. and will probably make me even happier once I’ve read them (two more days…)

“I know a lot of Myst fans out there are excited about this, but will this be a movie your average “joe beargut” could see and like without knowing or caring about Myst?”

Man, we sure hope so.

Thank God for that! I am so glad you are adapting the *novels* and not the games. The games work perfectly well in their own genre as an addition to the lore behind the “Myst” universe and any attempt to put them into movie form would be misguided at best.

The novels are beautifully rich stories with real depth behind them. I look forward to someday seeing what you can do with them!

<— is not a Myst fan … knows nothing at all about it … and likes the bits and pieces she’s been shown/told about.

So I think you’re safe in that area, Adrian.

Thanks, Tira It’s been a long time since we’ve talked, so hi!

As has been previously stated, this is more than a game. And even good books can be butchered beyond recognition (Eragon? I was seething as I left the theater. I had been following that movie since the day they signed the contracts. It was the biggest dissapointment EVER!!). My biggest question: Where will you place the cleft? Where it is in the novels or in Uru?

You know, KatrAnna, that’s a good question! But I guess if they are going by the book, wouldn’t they place the cleft where the novels place it? Well, let’s hope so. I believe if they made that rant about not wanting to be associated with game movies, then they aren’t going to go by the games at all. Well, I hope not, because that would be contradicting what they’re wanting to avoid!

So it *is* based on a novel. Good. I would’ve been REALLY miffed if it were some Uru Live spinoff or something.

I’m hoping that it’s either Book of Ti’Ana or Book of Atrus. I don’t know about anyone else, but I didn’t think Book of D’ni was very good compared to the rest of the trilogy.

I think the biggest factor involved whenever any popular franchise is turned into a movie that is a horrible failure is simply … they’re not fans. Sure, they may have researched it … read the books … played the game … or what have you. And they may like it themselves. But that alone can’t duplicate the same passion and knowledge and understanding of the material that someone who has followed the franchise for years.

Case in point … as I’ve said in a previous post, I’m not a Myst fan. I know nothing beyond what Patrick’s told me of it on the phone. The closest I’ve come is that I’ve bought Uru … but never installed or played it. So, if we leveled the playing field and said that I was just as good at script writing or directing as either Patrick or Adrian … and I then went back and read the books, and played Uru, and researched the community … who do you think would make the better movie?

So that’s why I think this Myst movie (and by “this” I mean the one Patrick and Adrian are working on … should some studio step in and yank the carpet out from under them, all bets are off then, because then you have a scenario like I said before) will be different from other such films. Because it IS being made by fans, who DO know the ins and outs of the whole Myst universe, and DO have the passion to create a film befitting it.

Of course, I’m also biased … so take what I say with a grain of salt.

There’s also something else that must be taken into account. No matter WHO makes the movie … be it some production studio, or 2 fans, or Cyan itself … NOT EVERYONE is going to be pleased with the product. Why? Because whenever you read a novel, or play a game, or whatever … YOU make it your own. YOU bring your own life experiences into play and form your own vision of it. And no two people’s visions are going to be alike. So, while Patrick and Adrian may see something one way, someone else may see it a drastically different way. And that may cause them to like the end product less, because it’s not what THEY envisioned.

Another example that comes to mind: Patrick and I were talking about the Twilight series of books by Stephanie Meyer last night. And, as that book is also being made into a movie, he was going down the list of actors and agreed with very few of them. Why? Because he brought his own experiences in whenever he read the books, and created his own idea of how the characters should look … how they should act … and it simply does not match the ideas of the producers or the author herself (who I believe approved all the actors). Hell, the vision I have of the character Alice is TOTALLY different from how she’s described in the book (from short, black spikey hair in the book … to long, dirty blonde victorian curls in my vision). Is that going to affect how I receive the movie? Most likely yes.

And so it will be with anyone who has developed their own vision of something they love and feel passionate about.

So yeah, it’s inevitable …. not everyone is going to like the movie. But hopefully, as it is being made by fans, it will be far more palatable than other attempts out there.

Amen!!! when the idea of a movie first came into my head, i’ll admit i scoffed at it. there is no way in heaven or on earth that they can create a movie out of a game like Myst. i can see those other stupid shooter games ( i’ve tried them, stupid) becoming movies, but Myst is way too deep. How in the world would it be interesting in the least bit? just moving leavers, solving puzzles? even the most dedicated fan would fall asleep! so good on you for clarifying. i can sleep better now ; )

oh, and just one question. are you going to be using any of the game soundtracks in any way? Uru is fantastic, listen to it’s soundtrack every day. and if you are doing the Fall of D’ni (no need to answer if you are) there is actually a song that the people made for the games called that. it is perfect. but, it’s just a question.

Doom was made by some of the Doom fans, or at least people in the Movie industry that are fans. That came out okay. Or am I the only one who thinks so?

Don’t worry, I do this a lot too