/Film shouted from the rooftops that an adaptation of the short story “A Gift From The Culture” – from the popular sci-fi novel series The Culture, penned by Iain M. Banks – will be coming to a theater near you. The film will be directed by the man who helmed White Lightnin’, Dominic Murphy. The novel-to-script adaptation will be handled by Murphy and Shane Smith, another member of the Lightnin’ team.
What is The Culture? Well, it’s a post-scarcity society. No one wants for anything. As you probably guessed, this was brought about by unbelievable advancements in technology, including the existence of a group of artificially intelligent beings who’s intellectual capacity is light years beyond humanity’s greatest thinkers. Incredibly, these beings don’t want to destroy or enslave humanity, but to care for us and make sure we’re havin’ fun.
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The science of The Culture has advanced to the point where diseases have basically been eradicated and people generally live as long as they’d like. Society has progressed beyond social and economic classes and all humans and artificially intelligent beings share the same status. The stories, by and large, follow the fringe members of the culture who must do its dirty work (like you didn’t see that comin’). Tell your friends and neighbors that the stories revolve around an ‘anarchist, socialist and utopian society’ and watch their brains explode. Then watch as they quickly decide to either pretend they have a clue what that means, or call you out for using words you don’t understand. Big fun.
Anyway, the film will be produced by Mass Productions, who brought us the British-German-French produced black comedy The Young Poisoner’s Handbook (or Das Handbuch des jungen Giftmischers) back in 1995. Screendaily told me that Murphy won the Hitchcock D’Or Grand Prix for best picture at the Dinard film festival for the aforementioned White Lightnin’ and that Banks’ books are imaginative and rich in detail. Sounds like a good combination.
No word on when this A Gift From The Culture adaptation will be in theaters.
Source: /Film, Screendaily
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7 Comments
The books sound interesting and if they are a good read then it couldnt hurt to make a movie out of them.
@ Scott Miller
gotta love wikipedia
Yeah, I got more interested in the books than the movie. Are definately going to read them soon.
This is a fantastic series of books, and I hope the mentioned filmakers can do it justice.
I have been day-dreaming about how these books might possibly be rendered on the screen. If the moviemakers acheve even a modicum of the richness inherent in the whole idea of The Culture then I will quite possibly wet myself.
I am so looking forward to this already.
oh sweet! However I’m sure I’m not the only one who’d rather see ‘Consider Phlebas’ turned into a movie (Banks himself has remarked the same thing) – or ‘Use of Weapons’ – he’s my favourite author & his sci-fi deserves to be put on the big screen. Peter Jackson would be a great choice to direct (look at ‘District 9′ & the fact he was considering directing ‘Halo’)….but as an introduction to ‘The Culture’ this’ll have to do I guess….
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