Good news: you can download the script for Robert Heinlein's 1966 award-winning sci-fi novel The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, as adapted by Tim Minear (Firefly, Buffy).
Bad news: the fact that Minear isn't discouraging circulation of the script is a sure sign that this project -- this script, at least -- has gotten a "pass" from the studio and is dead in the water. Which is too bad because this is a good adaptation of a good novel. It
doesn't push the envelope or re-invent the genre. It's just smart,
sturdy science-fiction, and it's a pity we don't see more of this sort
of thing from Hollywood.
I never was a big Heinlein fan. I didn't read his acclaimed juvenile novels until I was long out of my teens, though I can see how many come to Heinlein this way. I liked the pulp pacing of The Puppet Masters and Starship Troopers well enough, and some of his short stories knock it outta the park (like "The Roads Must Roll" and "By His Bootstraps"). But I found his "masterpiece," the much ballyhooed Stranger in a Strange Land, to be one huge pretentious bore. Moon, on the other hand, is a good, solid read told by a storyteller in high gear.
Minear expertly streamlines Heinlein's saga of a futuristic Moon-based rebellion. Yes, telling such an epic story in two hours requires the ditching of many plot points. Minear, to his credit, not only preserves the story's libertarian soul, he also keeps the characters' hopes and fears front and center. This story is funny and exciting and thought-provoking and, in places, genuinely touching.
If there's a better way to adapt this novel for the big screen, I can't imagine what it would be like. So why's this script been turned down? Maybe Minear's script is budgeted too high (though I can't imagine how you could downsize it and tell the story at all). Or maybe the producers just don't get Heinlein's story (in which case, why option the novel in the first place?).
Aspiring screenwriters can learn a lot from reading unproduced scripts. Shooting scripts written after a movie's been released are usually lifeless transcriptions that don't give you a feel for what really goes into screenwriting. For that alone, Minear's script is worth checking out. This is how specs and assignments are done. Minear's a great writer and I learned a lot from his economy of line and motion throughout.
As I read Moon, I couldn't help but picture Nathan Fillion in the lead role. Who would of course rock.
link via Whedonesque
Recent Comments