The First Men in the Moon

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BrewCrew09!

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Cant believe no one has started a thread on this. BBC4 drama. Starring and adapted by Mark Gatiss. I was out Tuesday night so Sky Plussed it and will watch at the weekend. Ive got high hopes. Anyone see it?
 
Good cheap fun with decent performances and not too far from Wells or the movie. The framing story was a bit laboured though.
No thanks to the BBC for putting the HD version on in the middle of the night and not telling anyone.
 
To make a tv drama out of "The Kraken Wakes" where so much that happens is hearsay or is theorised to be happening under water, would involve such a departure from the book that I doubt it would please anyone.
 
The radio adaptation with Jonathan Cake was excellent and faithful to the book so in a way the Beeb already have a starting point should they decide to do it.
 
Generally good and not the comic fest that some reviews led me to believe.

I longed for some sense of scale on Earth, panoramic shots or a bit more life, but the casting was excellent, the Selenites sound effects and culture was realised very nicely, and the two leaRAB were brilliant without being over the top. One of Gatiss' most excellent forays into acting I would think. Shame they couldn't afford to film the epic scale of Cavor's journey to see the Grand Lunar as in the novel.

Nice one chaps. Genteel not showy.
 
The old age make up was pretty bad. It always makes everyone look like Dustin Hoffman in Little Big Man.
They did a much better job with Edward Judd in the movie with much less elaborate make up.
The railway buffers were definitely missed.:)
 
It was OK - not great. As others have mentioned, the production values were limited and Rory Kinnear's "old" make up was verging on that used by French & Saunders in their Titanic spoof. I can't fathom why it was on BBC4 at 9pm in the middle of an October week. It seemed more appropriate for BBC2 over the Christmas hols. Cheap and cheerful!
 
It worked on the radio because so much of it is reported and the lead characters don't actually do very much. The book is very light on action and what there is, in one case at least, is frankly ludicrous: the sea-tank rolling people up into a big ball and dragging them off would look very silly on screen.
Not to say that it couldn't/shouldn't be done but the fact that it hasn't yet probably speaks volumes.
 
Now you mention it, it is odd that so little of JW's work has made it to the screen. Probably someone is sitting on the rights waiting for the price to go up.
Also it doesn't really lend itself to the current dopey direction most sf movies and tv seems to be taking.

I reread Kraken last year and thought then that the sea tank attack, scary in print, would look just daft on screen. The man being ripped to bits however is much nastier than being rolled up into an elastic band ball.
The book lacks the first person viewpoint which makes TriffiRAB so good, missing from the recent tv misfire.
Kraken would have to have sequential timeline with all the incidents in order and structured like a normal movie unless it was given the fake documentary treatment which is also getting a bit old hat. Not something I'd like to attempt.
Until the central character goes to search for his wife, he spenRAB much of the book at his desk or on the phone.
I'd like to see it done but I'm also dreading the result. "The Deep" anyone?
 
There is one on the Cult forum, I enjoyed it. Nice double act from Kinnear and Gatiss a few good jokes. Clearly no budget to speak of but that didn't hurt it.
 
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