The Martian Child

[zeldafitzgerald]

I'm getting very interested in the short book, The Martian Child by David Gerrold. I just put a reserve on it at my library.

It's about a man who adopts a son who thinks he's from Mars.

This summer a movie version of it is being released, starring one of my favorite actors, John Cusack.

Unfortunately, there is a lot of controversy surrounding the choices made in adapting this movie. The book is a well loved book in the gay community - the main character is a homosexual. In the movie, he is not - and has a female love interest.

The book is also loosely autobiographical.

It seems extremely horrible that they pulled that from the movie adaptation. I'm very interested in reading the book now so I can understand better why this book is so beloved, and decide whether or not to see the movie.

The movie, by itself, does look cute. You can watch a preview here:
www.apple.com/trailers/newline/martianchild/

[Bina]

Sounds very interesting. I don´t get why they would make him a heterosexual though. It would probably be better if I didn´t read the book before watching the film or I wouldn´t give the adaptation a chance.

[lindsay]

I hate it when they do that. I can understand changing the movie from the original if maybe it was too long and they had to cut some out or if something was just to graphic for the screen but this is blatently just trying to make more money off of it because there are more heterosexual people out there . Sorry about the rant!

[Michelle]

Plus, in the post Will and Grace/Brokeback Mountain world, why would they need to make him straight to sell the movie? I can see why there is controversy.

[squishy]

Besides the point that it's just the thought of money that counts...it's also a fundamental mistake. Either make a whole new movie, or do the adaption the way it's supposed to be.
In a way the director changes the essence of the book this way!!
That's just not tolerable.
First I thought this movie could be really cute, mostly because of John, but now that I know it's an adaption and a poor one at that, I doubt I'll watch it.