Tim Minear's "The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress" Script.
Tim's unproduced movie adaptation of Robert A. Heinlein's 1966 science fiction novel in .PDF format.
[ edited by zeitgeist -slight edit at Tim's request- on 2008-06-25 21:26 ]
June 25 2008
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@theonetruebix | June 25, 14:59 CET
Good stuff...if only it could be made
oregon | June 25, 15:03 CET
danregal | June 25, 15:13 CET
I asked Tim about some of the similarities to Firefly-such as the political dominance of North America & China. He said that there were several similarities between the world of Luna and the Firefly 'Verse- and that's why he thinks that he got the job doing the book adaptation.
I also am left wishing that this was something that would have been made. The script was a joy to read and full of Tim's great humor. I hadn't read this particular Heinlein book- but will definitely pick it up now.
MikeTMC (Jayne_Statue) | June 25, 15:20 CET
Fenchurch | June 25, 15:24 CET
MindEclipse | June 25, 15:28 CET
NYPinTA | June 25, 15:30 CET
zeitgeist | June 25, 15:31 CET
Take your pick. :)
danregal | June 25, 15:46 CET
zeitgeist | June 25, 15:49 CET
Simon | June 25, 15:59 CET
Since I haven't read this particular RAH book yet- I don't know which humor comes from Tim and which from Heinlein himself.
Either way- it had me laughing when I should have been working!
[ edited by MikeTMC on 2008-06-25 22:10 ]
MikeTMC (Jayne_Statue) | June 25, 16:08 CET
Simon | June 25, 16:13 CET
Saje | June 25, 16:19 CET
Hmm... hope they don't notice that I printed this on the office printers. Hey, at least I did it double-sided, two to a page!
AnotherFireflyfan | June 25, 16:27 CET
AnotherFireflyfan | June 25, 16:31 CET
As a Tim-Minear-aside, I'm honestly completely distraught that Wonderfalls and The Inside were cancelled so early. 13 episode runs are fine if you know in advance that's all you have... at least Wonderfalls had something of a conclusion. Like many people, I'm still dying for The Inside to come out on DVD (I followed the recent news about another fan campaign, hopefully it'll bear some fruit this time). Now that Joss Whedon's involved with Fox again, could he maybe put in a good word?
MattK | June 25, 16:43 CET
Simon | June 25, 16:53 CET
AnotherFireflyfan | June 25, 16:53 CET
cheapapproachable. Also we don't want our rival site Whedonverse.com to get the scoop on us.Did you read the scripts at TimMinear.net? Some stuff got revealed from what I remember people saying. Not everything mind.
Simon | June 25, 17:10 CET
archon | June 25, 17:20 CET
I'm reading this when I'm supposed to be designing an ugly ad for Women's Wear Daily, which on a scale from none to lots doesn't even register as fun. This is just one of the many things that reading is good for.
*loves this book, and Tim's writing - is happy.*
Shhhh, all y'all, I'm reading... and many thanks for this, everyone involved.
QuoterGal | June 25, 17:20 CET
lordsketch | June 25, 17:49 CET
danregal | June 25, 17:53 CET
[ edited by theonetruebix on 2008-06-26 00:15 ]
@theonetruebix | June 25, 18:10 CET
Note to above - so far the humor is mostly Heinlein's, with some Tim additions and some twists on the original.
C. A. Bridges | June 25, 18:16 CET
SoddingNancyTribe | June 25, 21:21 CET
Can I wait that long?
Lioness | June 25, 22:29 CET
Oh, g'won, read it, read it! I'll send you other pdfs to read on the trip.
(The first one's free...)
QuoterGal | June 25, 22:56 CET
ManEnoughToAdmitIt | June 25, 23:42 CET
Well, I am not sure I would call myself a 'scholar' but I have extensively read his work, and have every book he ever wrote in several different editions! Including Firsts!
That said...I've only had a chance to read the first couple of pages and honestly? I'm not impressed. No where in the book does Manny have a fight while out in space. No where in the book does RAH talk about the beginning of man.
RAH doesn't need embellishment. I don't think *any* of his books would make good movies. He was more than a scifi writer, he was, in some aspects, a philosopher. I enjoyed the movie Starship Troopers, but, even with dialogue directly lifted, it was *not* RAH's story of the same name.
Tee | June 26, 01:51 CET
Madhatter | June 26, 02:22 CET
This got to me too. I understand that adaptations don't and can't follow the book word for word, but this was unnecessary.
This is the danger all writers face when mucking around with classic stories by legendary authors. Sometimes it's better to leave well enough alone.
resa | June 26, 08:48 CET
It wasn't the original. It couldn't have been, not in a 2-hour movie.
That said, I would prefer to see this done in a maxi-series format, like 6 hour episodes or something, to really get the layers Heinlein loaded in. But for the format it's in, this wasn't bad at all, especially when you consider that some of the amazing things Mike could do in the original novel would sound dated now. The changes and altered motivations didn't bother me and I could see why he made the choices that he did.
And now I'm going to go reread the book. Again.
C. A. Bridges | June 26, 11:13 CET
2005 Tim interview
MikeTMC (Jayne_Statue) | June 26, 13:45 CET
I've only gone through the first twenty pages, but I can see why Minear did this. Basically, page 7 of the script matches page 1 of the book, and the story is unchanged for the next dozen script pages. The first six pages are to set the environment for the movie audience. As much as I love reading RAH, the movie audience would be lost without some kind of introduction. And the exposition of the lunar history (penal colony/economics) would kill the movie momentum if it was done later (as it was in the book).
And I think Tim is being a clever SOB with the cavemen tossing rocks at the moon. Sets up the audience for one of the main story payoffs much later.
OneTeV | June 26, 14:48 CET
Its an excellent story. But it is *not* Robert Anson Heinlein's The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.
There is no way it could be. So much of that book is more or less a recipe for how to run a revolution if you have a self aware computer to help you. Or even how to run one if you don't. And while RAH's theories on this make interesting reading, it would be a fairly boring movie.
But what really bothered me was the way Minear twisted some *major* plot points that didn't need to be twisted in order to make this a movie.
The biggest one, which leads to a *huge* continuity error, is TANSTAAFL as it relates to women. In the book, women are sacred. There are 2M men, only 1M women on RAH's Luna. So women get to call all the shots. This is seen in Stuart's introduction to the Revolution. It is contradicted earlier in the script when Warden is humiliated by his wife's infidelity. According to Heinlein, he'd have no say in the matter. So not only did Minear dismiss one of the major points of RAH's story, he contradicted himself over it.
I could go on and on. And I might in my blog later. Suffice it to say that this RAH 'scholar' (to quote my husband) is not impressed. And is hoping that the reason it will never be a movie is because RAH's estate wasn't impressed either. But she doubts that's the reason after Starship Troopers. Of which they are making third one. ::shudder::
Tee | June 26, 23:44 CET
My Dad's favorite author is Heinlein, so I handed him the script to check out, and so far he is really loving it too.
AnotherFireflyfan | June 27, 12:42 CET