Travails with the Alien: The Film That Was Never Made and Other Adventures with Science Fiction
- ISBN-10
- 9352779169
- ISBN-13
- 9789352779161
- Category
- Performing Arts
- Pages
- 224
- Language
- English
- Published
- 2018-04-25
- Publisher
- Harper Collins
- Author
- Satyajit Ray
Description
Satyajit Ray was a master of science fiction writing. Through his Professor Shonku stories and other fiction and non-fiction pieces, he explored the genre from various angles. In the 1960s, Ray wrote a screenplay for what would have been the first-of-its-kind sci-fi film to be made in India. It was called The Alien and was based on his own short story "Bonkubabur Bandhu". On being prompted by Arthur C. Clarke, who found the screenplay promising, Ray sent the script to Columbia Pictures in Hollywood, who agreed to back it, and Peter Sellers was approached to play a prominent role. Then started the "Ordeals of the Alien" as Ray calls it, as even after a series of trips to the US, UK and France, the film was never made, and more shockingly, some fifteen years later, Ray watched Steven Spielberg's film Close Encounters of the Third Kind and later E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial, and realized these bore uncanny resemblances to his script The Alien, including the way the ET was designed! A slice of hitherto undocumented cinema history, Travails with the Alien includes Ray's detailed essay on the project with the full script of The Alien, as well as the original short story on which the screenplay was based. These, presented alongside correspondence between Ray and Peter Sellers, Arthur C. Clarke, Marlon Brando, Hollywood producers who showed interest, and a fascinating essay by the young student at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism who broke the Spielberg story, make this book a rare and compelling read on science fiction, cinema and the art of adaptation.
Get the book
Similar books
-
The Business of American Theatre
By William GrangeScheurer, Timothy E. The Nineteenth Century and Tin Pan Alley. Bowling Green, OH: Bowling Green ... Timberlake, Craig. The Bishop of Broadway: The Life ...
-
Shooting Action Sports: The Ultimate Guide to Extreme Filmmaking
By Todd GrossmanDeal. with. Them. There«s one constant in the world of action sports, and that«sthe recurring issue with authority figures. The concernis justifiable when ...
-
Mycommunicationkit Student Access Code Card
By Bryan A Pearson, Pearson Education, Inc., Prentice Hall PearsonMycommunicationkit Student Access Code Card
-
Reframing Culture: The Case of the Vitagraph Quality Films
By William Uricchio, Roberta E. Pearson... Rare Books Room, and Ruth Senior and the staff, interlibrary loan, Pattee Library, Penn State; Elaine Burrows, Jackie Morris, Roger Holman, Markku Salmi ...
-
Star Trek and American Television
By Roberta Pearson, Máire Messenger DaviesWith the exception of the actors, the majority of the Star Trek production staff were male, except for the wardrobe staff whom we've mentioned.
-
Leadership in the Performing Arts
By Tobie S. SteinTodd of course has been leading the Roundabout since 1983 and, after many years at the helm, ... Notes 1 Terrence E. Deal and Allan A. Kennedy, Corporate.
-
The Complete Films of Alfred Hitchcock
By Robert A. Harris, Michael S. Lasky... and it took eight years to complete his four - picture deal . ... Money was no object Valli , Ann Todd , and Hitchcock during filming of The Paradine ...
-
Broadway Plays and Musicals: Descriptions and Essential Facts of More Than 14,000 Shows through 2007
By Thomas S. HischakMichael Todd's Peep Show [28 June 1950] musical revue by Bobby Clark, ... an emergency and the crew has to deal with the two women on board for some time, ...
-
Timberlake Wertenbaker Plays 1: New Anatomies; Grace of Mary Traverse; Our Country's Good; Love of a Nightingale; Three Birds Alighting...
By Timberlake WertenbakerNew Anatomies, Grace of Mary Traverse, Our Country's Good, Love of a Nightingale & Three Birds Alighting on a Field
-
The Ash Girl
By Timberlake WertenbakerIn this wondrous drama Timberlake Wertenbaker explores the beauty and terror inherent in growing up. The Ash Girl premiered at Birmingham Rep in 2001.