An update on Tim Minear’s project to adapt Robert A. Heinlein’s The Moon is a Harsh Mistress mentions a second version of the script has been delivered to producers. This quote from Minear is quite illuminating:
“This is about a revolution. It’s big and it has a lot of really complex political ideas. It’s hard in that respect. How do you personalize this? There’s a lot of talking in the book – theoretical talking about Libertarian ideals and political structure and that sort of thing – how do you take that and make it immediate and dramatic and emotional? How do you say that stuff through scenes and action, as opposed to characters sitting around and having a conversation? That’s difficult.
“The other thing is to make sure the powers that be in Hollywood don’t force you to turn it into some Marxist screed on socialism, when Heinlein was a Libertarian and it’s about free-market capitalism. You want to try and not make it about an evil corporation. That’s the trick.”
Let’s hope he manages to deliver a great picture that retains the best of this novel, translated to the very different medium of film.
