Ringworld movie update

I’ve just heard from someone who talked to Larry
Niven himself. (She’s one of the people who
co-adminstrates http://www.larryniven.org,
an unofficial fan site.) She says: “He does not
confirm this report, but says that it is not
accurate. He did not give more details.” It
sounds like the first person (who sent the e-mail
to someone on the Larry Niven discussion e-mail
list), from which it spread across the Web, may
have been making things up. So, all we have is
past confirmations that Robert Mandel owns the
rights, and Phil Tippett is interested. James
Cameron’s involvement cannot be confirmed, and is
starting to look like it’s simply not true.

2 replies on “Ringworld movie update”

  1. Doesn’t mean it can’t be partially true
    Not confirming doesn’t mean it isn’t true, and saying it’s inacurate could just mean that one small detail is wrong.

  2. News of the movie can kill the movie
    Hollywood is a strange place. I haven’t asked Larry myself, so this is speculation, but suppose someone has bought the rights to Ringworld. Suppose it’s someone influential like Cameron. If word gets out, dozens of execs are suddenly going to perk up and say, “Hey, if Cameron likes it, it’s got to be good.”
    A year later, a couple of bad Ringworld knockoff movies show up and interest in the real thing is killed off.

    That’s one of the reasons why people involved in a project aren’t going to be really forthcoming confirming or denying stuff, since they could kill the deal or the movie. And even if the story is optioned, that’s still a really long way from going into production.

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