Which Ligotti Stories Should be Filmed?

[starrysothoth]

"Dr. Voke and Mr. Veech" demands an animated adaptation more than ever. Just thought I would share, since scenes from it have been on my mind more than ever lately after reading the revised version from the new SOADD a couple times. I actually have a hard time "seeing" this tale in my mind with real people/actors playing their parts. Everyone is a dummy, or a clay figure, or a Tim Burtonesque animated thing.

The Doctor and Mr. Veech are as much marionettes as the Ticket Man. I wouldn't have it any other way if someone ever tries to make this story into a short film.

	SOADD Songs of a Dead Dreamer   Songs of a Dead Dreamer was the first book published featuring a collection stories by Thomas Ligotti. Original Printing Revised Printing

[Steve Dekorte]

Quote Originally Posted by Mr. D.

I see Ligotti's stories as an excellent source of puppet plays.

Great idea. Would love to see Erik Sanko do this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=af4nNNNREjw

[DEVILinIRON]

I think Purity would make a good film by Todd Solondz.

[Corman]

I think that what would work best for Ligotti's stories is that staple of 70s' and 80s' horror, the anthology film. I'd love to see an interpretation of "The Nyctalops Trilogy" that blended stop-motion animation (the puppet theater of the silver screen) and live action, perhaps using "Notes On The Writing Of Horror" as a framing device. Except for My Work Is Not Yet Done, Ligotti's stories would be best served by short films, which can function in much the same way as his stories - just long enough to introduce an atmosphere of nameless dread without pulling the curtain off entirely. Plus, with an anthology film, there's the possibility of multiple directors. How great would it be to see Henry Selick, The Brothers Quay, and Jan Svankmajer pursuing separate visions of Ligotti?

[Allyson]

'I think the great short film adaption of The Frolic earlier this year proved that Ligotti isn't unfilmable. I was curious as to what TLO members think about other Ligotti tales being filmed? Which do you find most suitable for cinema?

Personally, I think many of the Teatro Grottesco stories would be a good place to start. "The Bungalow House," "The Clown Puppet," or "My Case for Retributive Action" seem very doable. I believe elements of the dreamy selections from "In a Foreign Town, In a Foreign Land" might also be appropriate as short films. Of course, "The Last Feast of Harlequin" holds an enduring charm for me that would be incredible to see on screen, if well executed.'

Yes.. my vote would go to 'The Last Feast of Harleqiun.'

www.birdsnest.me.uk

[Corman]

Besides what stories to adapt to film, there's also the issue of what stories are available to adapt to film. At one point, Fox Atomic had exclusive film rights to any material from The Nightmare Factory omnibus, but since that division of Fox collapsed last year, I wonder whether those rights were transferred to 21st Century Fox or if the exclusivity contract dissolved along with that division.

I also wonder if the revised SOADD stories fall under these restrictions, or whether the case could be made that, since these are technically different versions of the stories that appeared in TNF, the contract no longer applies to them. Not that many would have the money or time to wage that legal war with Fox, but it's certainly something to think about.

	TNF The Nightmare Factory

	SOADD Songs of a Dead Dreamer   Songs of a Dead Dreamer was the first book published featuring a collection stories by Thomas Ligotti. Original Printing Revised Printing

[trieffiewiles]

Basically I am going to suggest a more elaborate version of what Corman had just said.

Anyone here ever see that rather uneven short film anthology Spirits of the Dead -

Amazon.com: Spirits of the Dead: Brigitte Bardot, Alain Delon, Jane Fonda, Terence Stamp, James Robertson Justice, Salvo Randone, Françoise Prévost, Peter Fonda, Marlène Alexandre, Marie-Ange Aniès, David Bresson, Katia Christine, Peter Dane, Georges Douking, Philippe Lemaire, Carla Marlier, Serge Marquand, Umberto D'Orsi, Renzo Palmer, Monica Pardo: Movies & TV

 

Amazon.com: Spirits of the Dead: Brigitte Bardot, Alain Delon, Jane Fonda, Terence Stamp, James Robertson Justice, Salvo Randone, Françoise Prévost, Peter Fonda, Marlène Alexandre, Marie-Ange Aniès, David Bresson, Katia Christine, Peter Dane, Georges Douking, Philippe Lemaire, Carla Marlier, Serge Marquand, Umberto D'Orsi, Renzo Palmer, Monica Pardo: Movies & TV

? Three different directors working on a separate story by Poe, with very mixed results.

Well, a Ligotti film anthology in three parts, all of which could be directed in drastically different styles, would be very appealing to me as well. Each director could follow a style that emphasizes one of the handful of recurring obsessions/themes in Ligotti's fiction.

One director could take a rainy, shadowy, film-noirish path through a largely crumbling urban setting where the true nature of the weird and fantastic events menacing the characters would be either partially or mainly obscured by the labyrinthine environment swallowing everything in sight. Something like The Voice in the Bones or The Clown Puppet.

Another director might run with Ligotti's more decadent, carnivalesque/sideshow glamour and come up with something, though possessing the unique feeling of all Ligotti's stories, would visually resemble something by Peter Greeneway, Derek Jarman, or Kenneth Anger's Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome.

The remaining piece, whichever order they were to fall in, could play out on Ligotti's fascination with dolls and puppets, and though men like the Brothers Quay and Jan Svankmajer have proven they can also handle live acting just as effectively, one of them would have to take this one obviously. It just depends on how the story is to be interpreted. The Brothers Quay are more eerie and ambivalent while Svankmajer's work is rife with black humor. One of the more ambitious stories could go like this. Or imagine playing out nearly all of Nethescurial in puppet form, but towards the end, during the puppet-show itself, the dolls onstage are portrayed by painted up live actors hanging by strings and as it pans out, the audience are done in a similar way, all wearing wax masks with that malevolent expression on them. Then promptly swithing back to all puppeteering.

What films or stories rather would go into such an anthology? I couldn't even begin to recommend anything for sure. I kind of think Tsalal would interesting for someone like Svankmajer.
Though it would never happen, imagine Lynch doing The Voice in the Bones or Teatro Grottesco. For some reason, I can't say why, but The Library of Byzantium always stayed with me. Maybe we could dig up Ingmar Bergman's remains and clone him and subsequently force his clone to adapt that. Takashe Miike's actually proven he can be fairly chaste every now and then, imagine what he could do.

[luciferfell]

David lynch- Gas Station Carnivals. Gaspar noe- Purity. Lars VanTrier- The Shadow at the Bottom of the World.

[Nicole Cushing]

I think the best of Tom's work is unfilmable...in the best sense of that word. Tom's stuff makes the most of the prose form...there's no way to accurately translate it to another medium (nor really, any reason to translate it to another medium).

Just my two cents...

[Mr. D.]

Dear Nicole,
To a degree I would have to disagree with you. I think that Mr. Ligotti's stories could serve as a basis for the best television series ever made. I can envision something like the old "Friday the 13th" series. I'm sure most members are aware of it but for those who aren't, a young man inherits a store full of magical items and he has to recover the ones that have been sold before disaster strikes the buyers, for all of the items are evil. If someone could come up with a framework like this where the protagonist(s) get involved in one Ligotti story after another I think great television could happen. The problem would be keeping the continuing cast members alive and (reasonably) sane throughout the series. If the individual episodes could be kept true to Ligotti's writing then this would be one television series I would definitely watch.