Finarvyn Administrator Dungeon Master member is offline
Joined: Jun 2007 Gender: Male Posts: 4,676 Location: Near Chicago Karma: 178
Re: 2013 ERB Film "Pirates of Venus" « Reply #2 on Aug 23, 2012, 5:14am »
I had heard nothing of this project.
I read the entire Venus series a few years ago. I still have all five paperbacks on my shelf. I don't remember much about it, but remember that I liked it and that it was similar in style to the Mars books.
My worry is that Mars is much more popular than Venus, and if the John Carter movie couldn't make it big then what hope is there for Carson Napier?
Marv / Finarvyn DCC playtester (2011) C&C playtester (2003) I'm partly responsible for the S&W WhiteBox Builder of the TrollBridge Master of Mutants; MA since 1976 OD&D Player since 1975
"Don't ask me what you need to hit. Just roll the die and I will let you know!" - Dave Arneson
crusssdaddy Level 5 Thaumaturgist member is offline
Joined: Nov 2008 Gender: Male Posts: 329 Karma: 20
Re: 2013 ERB Film "Pirates of Venus" « Reply #3 on Aug 23, 2012, 11:24am »
Angelic Pictures says they were founded in 1997, yet have no production credits that I can find. Their company website is pretty cheesy and includes a link to what looks like a pay-for-play script mill. I assume these books are in the public domain? These guys are vaporware vendors.
« Last Edit: Aug 23, 2012, 11:25am by crusssdaddy »
In any event, I can only hope it's for real as I would like to see it.
The Venus series has some tremendous material, Finarvyn. I absoultely loved it--it is cliffhanger page turner stuff with races, monsters and cultures that would inspire any DM. There is even a castle and city of re-animated corpses controlled telepathically by an evil prince on Venus...an undead army! Eat your heart out Romero.
Frankly, it is not as good as the Mars series, being slightly less majestic and sweeping in it's panorama of a world. However, this is like saying that gold is not as good as platinum.
Be forewarned that the books have a whiff of ERB's politics here and there which, one can be sure, are not politically correct. There is an overt nod to the KKK in one chapter, and unmistakable praise for racialist scientific theories that were conventions of ERB's day.
This does not bother me in the least--the book was written in the 30's and during that period of American history... before expose journalism became vogue...the Klan enjoyed very widespread popularity and politicians routinely pandered to them if they wanted even a chance of being elected. Take in in the context of it's era and it would not be offensive to anyone in the least.
The chief antagonists of the books I read were "Thorists", Thorism being a very thinly veiled motif of Marxism. You can't read the first book and fail to guess what ERB thought about Marxism/Socialism...he hated it, obviously, and regarded it with all the horror of his American contemporaries.
If none of these things bother you (and they comprise mere sentences of the books) you will love the stuff! I read both books in two days and wished I lived on Amtor!
I think ERB's materials can be interpreted and re-interpreted for many years to come--and I imagine that when you watch a lot of sci fi TV and theater films of the 50's and 60's, you are probably getting treated by people who were heavily inspired by ERB and his counterparts.
Be forewarned that the books have a whiff of ERB's politics here and there which, one can be sure, are not politically correct. There is an overt nod to the KKK in one chapter, and unmistakable praise for racialist scientific theories that were conventions of ERB's day.
This does not bother me in the least--the book was written in the 30's and during that period of American history... before expose journalism became vogue...the Klan enjoyed very widespread popularity and politicians routinely pandered to them if they wanted even a chance of being elected. Take in in the context of it's era and it would not be offensive to anyone in the least.
The chief antagonists of the books I read were "Thorists", Thorism being a very thinly veiled motif of Marxism. You can't read the first book and fail to guess what ERB thought about Marxism/Socialism...he hated it, obviously, and regarded it with all the horror of his American contemporaries.
Well, speaking as a marxist/socialist, some of my favorite authors are Lovecraft, Howard and Burroughs and I'm not the least disturbed by the fact that their fiction often contain political views that are entirely contrary to my own. I read science fiction and fantasy for interesting weird ideas and entertaining adventures, and as long as any political content doesnt take too much space I dont care if its reactionary or progressive.
But if John Carter was an overpriced yet wonderful flick, all signs point to Carson Napier being a Z-grade low budget affair fit only for mockery on "bad movie night."
Joined: Sept 2009 Gender: Male Posts: 67 Location: Los Angeles, California Karma: 0
Re: 2013 ERB Film "Pirates of Venus" « Reply #9 on Sept 6, 2012, 8:08pm »
I'm a huge fan of the Venus stories, and just recently re-read them. Unfortunately I expect this movie will be pretty bad, but I'll keep my eyes open nonetheless. Going to set a campaign on Venus one day.
Hopefully, if you do so please post some specifics about how you run the rules, background for Venus, etc.
I know we have some "OD&D Mars" threads here and I suspect that would be a great starting point, but I for one don't remember much about ERB's Venus at all. I'd love to see a list of characters, any history or place names, special technology or weapons, whatever.
Marv / Finarvyn DCC playtester (2011) C&C playtester (2003) I'm partly responsible for the S&W WhiteBox Builder of the TrollBridge Master of Mutants; MA since 1976 OD&D Player since 1975
"Don't ask me what you need to hit. Just roll the die and I will let you know!" - Dave Arneson
Well, speaking as a marxist/socialist, some of my favorite authors are Lovecraft, Howard and Burroughs and I'm not the least disturbed by the fact that their fiction often contain political views that are entirely contrary to my own. I read science fiction and fantasy for interesting weird ideas and entertaining adventures, and as long as any political content doesnt take too much space I dont care if its reactionary or progressive.
Not to derail, but I just thought I'd comment that I'm in the same boat as you here being a marxist and at the same time a huge fan of vintage sci-fi and fantasy which often expresses what I'd consider to be some pretty nasty sentiments.
As you say it's all about how much focus there is on the fun parts of the story vs. the politics. ERB isn't usually that bad in this regard, but I haven't read the Venus books yet and have heard that they are much worse in this regard than the Mars books. I've also heard it mentioned that there is a major villain who is a Wobbly, which I find rather amusing as I've spent a fair bit of time in Wob circles myself and really hardly anybody knows who the IWW were nowadays.
But yeah, ERB clearly had some pretty racist views which does come out in his fiction in a lot of places... but the stories are bloody entertaining.
Joined: Sept 2009 Gender: Male Posts: 67 Location: Los Angeles, California Karma: 0
Re: 2013 ERB Film "Pirates of Venus" « Reply #12 on Sept 7, 2012, 2:51pm »
If I end up running Venus, I would certainly share, and I would start by looking at Barsoom materials.
Just as something of an aside, IMO I don't find ERB's politics or views on race to be particularly prominent. Not more so than in the works of your average author. There are heroes and villains in every group or subset you choose to write about. Considering that much of his writing was serialized, and consists of heroes moving from one bizarre location to the next, I would think it quite a challenge to come up with something new every month. Thus on Venus he has ship battles at sea, then 'ship' battles on land! (Land-battleships.) He has kingdoms and meritocracies and collectives. Forest adventures/cultures, mountain adventures/cultures, and so on. Pirates and zombies.
Not that I would support anything rascist, and not that I have anything against socialism. But whatever level might exist in ERB's writing hasn't made me uncomfortable, and passed beneath my notice in the years before the internet. OTOH, if he were writing about things that I personally am sensitive about, then I might feel uncomfortable. But I don't think I would at the level that exists in the Venus books. If you like Barsoom, I think you'll like ERB's Venus.
If you like Barsoom, I think you'll like ERB's Venus.
That's good to know as I think it would be pretty much impossible to not like Barsoom. Venus was already high on my reading list anyhow.
As for the film, the information available online makes the whole thing seem fairly suspect although I would love to see it happen as there aren't nearly enough pulp-adventure/sword&planet based movies in existence.
With the commercial failure of John Carter however, I think the odds are stacked heavily against us here.
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