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I disagree. I grew up reading Rama and all directors I want to adapt it, Fincher is easily at the top. No person can give the darkness and claustrophobia that I had always thought was there in the book. The story is very dark and unsettling and I think Fincher could do it. It made my day when I read the news how ever many months ago but this saddens me.

How exactly did "Independence Day" rip off Rama? ID4 was just "War of the Worlds" with a computer virus instead of a biological virus as the key plot point. If anything, they ripped off Wells since I don't recall ever seeing H.G. cited for inspiration during the movie's opening credit.

James Cameron. If there's anyone who can pull this off, it's him.

I must agree with several of the comments already posted here that adapting Rama to the tastes and preferences of today's FX focued, action oriented audiences would be daunting. The challenge is made more so by the sentiments of the books many fans that it remain true to Mr. Clarke's original text. It's also a great disappointment that Mr. Freeman's recent health problems and the economy have contributed to the financial challenges. I still hope this project is undertaken since the book remains one of the best examples of Clarke's persistent theme of mankind's awakening to the nature of the universe. In the forty years I have been a fan of Clarke's work, I continue to discover even more of its potential and its depth. The main problem in getting this project completed is to create a foundation for the script. I say "foundation" to mean a distilled set of theme's that the professional script writer and the director can then make a workable storyline from. Since RWR has obvious thematic problems in rendering the movie storyline from just the first RWR book then we have to try to draw from Clarke's other works. The the others RWR books that followed were more commercial ventures instead of addition work by Clarke to 'finish' the first RWR story. They add dimensions to the characters in the first RWR book, but they failed to make Clarke's overriding theme of how mankind's perception of the Universe (big "u") matures and is shaken by our 'First Contact' encounter. Clarke tried in 2001: and "A Childhood's End" to suggest that our First Contact experience could revel to us a very different destiny for the human race than the one we expect. In the end, the themetic roadblocks this project now faces will remain unless a better development strategy is used. I'm not suggesting I could design such a strategy alone, but the book does have a large fan base and most of these fans are hard sci-fi geeks like myself who have solved much greater probems I'm sure. What I am suggesting here is we follow an 'open source' strategy for building the foundation of ideas I mentioned earlier. I am a firm believer in the idea that "no problem is opaque if enough eyes are looking at it (all bugs are shallow ...). Clearly the RWR has enough fans to meet this criteria. I'll posts my initial thoughts here and later continue them in a blog which I am hoping others will contribute to. This idea of open source development of the script/storyline foundation has to have a structure and I'll be responsible for setting up a starting point. My first contribution is we don't expect that the official script writer and director will 'faithfully' follow the material we create. I accept that as a possibility. We all must recognize that if a bunch of amatuer Sci-Fi geeks help to write a commercially successful FC movie storyline it will generate a great deal of buzz, perhaps even more buzz than the picture itself. Another OSS (Open Source Software) idea: 'Good programmer's borrow, great programmer's steal and rewrite (the 'lazy programmer principle). I'd suggest the foundation of material draw from Clark's other works on the same First Contact theme like his novel "A Childhood's End'. Even though this work takes the opposite approach to FC and man is prohibited from leaving the Earth, (" the stars are not for man") it shares with RWR similar FC themes: the mystery of not knowing what the alien race we first meet looks like or what their intentions really are. ACE and other Clark stories hold several themes like this which can help bring the mystery and suspense of RWR to a level where the professionals can see the project it is both commercially viable and has a foundation for motion picture production. follows the same one as the books: a three part movie series that bridges across this book and Clarke's other work

Response to Malcolm I envy you Malcom. I first read RWR over 30 years ago and I still recall the experience with vivid detail. I picked it up at a trade book store in Chicago, started reading it on the train ride home, skipped my workout, skipped dinner, skipped going to bed, and even took it to the bathroom with me. When I finished it about 4am the next morning, I put it down and just sat there trying to take it all in. The early morning quiet added more impact to the book's ending ... "they always do things in threes." What makes RWR so different from every other First Contact book I have read since remains the challenge Clark makes, subtly at first and then a deafening roar at the end, to the stock ending of other FC novels: What if the grand destiny man thinks we will find out among the stars turns out to be that as a species we really don't matter? What if we discover that the grand design of the cosmos is built around another race? What if we are simply an interesting, but ultimately unimportant margin note in Creation's vast history book? Yes, I agree that a successful motion picture project of RWR would have to take themes from more than Clark's first book. However, neither Krubrick or Ridely Scott (whose work in the genre I do admire and respect) are suitable to direct RWR. Also while I agree that RWR gives any FX production house a wide canvas to work on, it's bot enough. You need a script and characterizations to give voice to the story's many theme about FC. Otherwise, the book's many fans, the motion picture's audiences, especially critics, will very likely pan it as just another eye candy movie with very little human drama or interest. Yes Malcolm, Alien and Blade Runner worked as films because they used the visuals and tension as a base for their appeal. Implicit in RWR this tension is invoked immediately when the 'object' is first detected and thought to be a meteor. The 'discovery' that Rama is this immense object; that it's not a natural phenomenon, and is transiting our solar system with a definite purpose; one that lies far beyond us is another source that has to be used to draw the audience into the film's plot. Also, remember the tension created by Rama transit time table, the investigation crew has to leave Rama well before they can make any extensive survey of the ship. As I've said before, Clark's second RWR book was not written by him as a sequel to 'answer' the questions raised by RWR 1. If my research is correct, the book's original publisher (Ballentine I believe), and Clark's literary agent pushed him into the deal after the first book's success became obvious. Clark resisted owing to his desire to write his autobiography, but he eventually caved in to the pressure. However, he wisely insisted that he only co-author the second RWR book. That said, the RWR 2 book is 'tainted' and you should carefully consider how the much of Clark's original theme about Rama and it's significance as a FC artifact remains undiluted in RWR 2. My own reading of RWR 2 is there is more focus on human civilization's "reaction" to the Rama engineers technical prowess. Yes the NYC trip could be a way of refocusing the audience on the human elements in the story, but it isn't much more than a pit stop. realizing

Maybe this needs to be adapted into a miniseries rather than a full-length movie. I was going to say sci-fi channel, but then it'd probably be horribly done... the special effects would be horrible.

I find it most disturbing that the film is not going to happen. I'll probably end up watching Star Trek 47 before someone is bright enough to produce such a great production as Rendezvous with Rama. It's a sad day in the SF realm when we not only lose Sir Arthur C. Clarke (he passed away in Sri Lanka last year), but we also lose a film adaption of one of the greatest Sf novels ever written. RWR would have been one the greatest SF films of all time...I have no doubt about it! I would have savored every second of it. God Bless you Sir Arthur C. Clarke...I will miss you. Guess I'm stuck with watching films like Vampire Lesbians from Gorema...sigh* Jay Cox

Mmmm.... mixed emotions about this. On one hand I was very excited about the prospect of a Clarke Klassic going to the big screen again (would have prefered S.O.D.E), but now that Clarke has, alas, taken the ultimate journey, I am glad this project has stalled. No Directory/Screen Writer could have mastered this story without consultation with it's creator... it would be destined to fail as a simple parody of the original otherwise. I agree though that Ridley Scott would be best choice to Direct - one of the few Directors who could master the scope of this story.

Brad, (and Malcolm) you're darn right about that actually, Mr Scott would absolutely be another director capable of tackling such a feat. Maybe James Cameron and him should team up This film would have to be heavily CGI'd too so a top notch group to do that is important. And whoever does it...no noise in space! PLEASE!!! The only sci-fi production I've seen who adheres to this rule of late is Serenity/Firefly. Cheers Joss! Sometimes I block my ears when there's a space scene unless there's dialog over it, and it's usually accompanied by rolling eyes.

How About Greg Bears EON insteas

Hi clarkefan, I agree with your comments, KSR has a brilliant mind, The Mars books would be a massive undertaking, and would require a dedicated fan base, however he has written some pretty good, shorter one off tales, Antarctica for example. Another off beat idea- "Star Trek" is being revisited, No Leonard Nimmoy or William Shatner or any originals come to that how, so about a fresh look at 2001 and the subsequent sequels. I am an avid fan of fifties SciFi, how about someone paying homage to the genre by making any of the early ACC novels come to life on the big screen, they were years ahead of thier time, and all fairly do-able, as long as they were`nt too kitsch. What do you think?

Looks like it is NOT dead after all. Fincher paid a visit to the AVATAR set and seems to be ramping up performance capture 3D tips for RWR.

Oh, I forgot theres actually a 3rd reason this film will be made. 3) IT'S AN AMAZING AND PROFOUND STORY THAT STANDS OUT ABOVE SO MUCH ELSE!

I agree Malcolm Hey, I can act, have you got a camera? My brother can paint the backdrops and my girlfriend can play Nicole

This may be a bit naive, but Jonathan Frakes would make a great director for this. For most of his known career he has been involved with if not directing Sci-Fi. Being a part of the Star Trek saga, he should know about the exploration of new thing. The beauty of Rama is not that it is an exploration of an alien species, but an alien species' exploration of us. I think he could pull this off. When it comes to actors for this film, hell, I know plenty of local actors, in Huntsville, including myself, who would do a great job with this project. The sad thing is, the movie industry is so focused on hiring big names to act and direct, that they overlook people who are actually good actors and directors. If I were wrong, Ben Affleck and Nicholas Cage would not have made more than one film a piece.

I´ll try to write in english, but i´m afraid that my redaction will not so clean for all of you, dear fellows. I´m a mexican fan of the master Clarke since a couple of dozen years ago, and I ever believe that the first book is a truly masterpiece. I need to accept that I´m not read the other three novels (is very dificult find them in Mexico, but I realize that that´s not a reason enough), but I think that the very first one is a brilliant story and enough to make a great movie. I´m suprised: I read intelligent and bright comments about the idea of make a movie about RWR (either I think that the comments in this blog are made by very intelligent and sensitive minds, which is explained by the kind of SF that writed Arthur C. Clarke and his readers). However, I think that theres al least one possible movie director that is not considered, but is mentionated: Peter Jackson. PJ has shown what he can make with a very dificut book to translate in a very decent group of movies. His capabilities of make great scenes and situations are clear for me; translate the complexity of LOTR (the book) in three very profitable and commercial films is there; the care of the visuals and effects; and the making of spectaculars scenes make me to believe that he could be another possibility to direct RWR. Of course, I´m totaly agree with the directors suggested above... but what do you think about my reflections? And I´m agree: WE NEED RENDESVOUZ WITH RAMA TRANSLATE IN A GREAT MOVIE!!

I have to admit that I would not be disappointed if this movie never got made. Very few books easily translate to good movies if they are followed faithfully, and RWR is certainly not one of those. How many classic SF books have been made into great movies? Even when the writers try to remain faithful to the plot line the result usually cannot compare to the visual story I have visualized when reading the book. Most of the time the writers don't even try that hard to follow the original storyline because it is so difficult (I never saw a Heinlein movie that resembled the book's plot more than superficially). It is not fair to criticize the script writers- if the book is very good and lights a fire under your imagination (as RWR does), how could a script writer compare to the intricate visual storyline the novel engenders in your mind? RWR is primarily an introspective psychological drama with a lot of open questions and I am sure it would need to be jazzed up with more action to be commercially viable. The sequels, which Clarke co-wrote, seem to bear this out in that, for me, they lack the lyrical pace and sense of wonder that the original had. If it is made, I will go watch it, of course.