Kitchen Sink Science Fiction
May 29, 2023 4:50 PM Subscribe
Simon Stålenhag, artist, musician, and designer specialising in retro-futuristic digital images, may have a new production coming out... The Electric State.
"In late 1997, a runaway teenager and her yellow toy robot travel west through a strange USA, where the ruins of gigantic battle drones litter the countryside along with the discarded trash of a high tech consumerist society in decline. As their car nears the edge of the continent, the world outside the window seems to unravel at an ever faster pace, as if somewhere beyond the horizon, the hollow core of civilization has finally caved in."
Simon's Soundtrack
Previously: Metafilter: Ripple Dot Zero. And Metailter: Hector Plays Piano. Previously on Fanfare: Tales from the Loop.
"In late 1997, a runaway teenager and her yellow toy robot travel west through a strange USA, where the ruins of gigantic battle drones litter the countryside along with the discarded trash of a high tech consumerist society in decline. As their car nears the edge of the continent, the world outside the window seems to unravel at an ever faster pace, as if somewhere beyond the horizon, the hollow core of civilization has finally caved in."
Simon's Soundtrack
Previously: Metafilter: Ripple Dot Zero. And Metailter: Hector Plays Piano. Previously on Fanfare: Tales from the Loop.
I hope they didn't learn the wrong lessons from the not-quite-success of the Tales from the Loop show (which I unreservedly love, but demands a lot of patience). If they can keep the mood of the Halperin-helmed show while focusing on a more tightly-bound story..... well, it may never be a hit, but they can make a stone-cold classic.
posted by tclark at 5:26 PM on May 29, 2023 [5 favorites]
posted by tclark at 5:26 PM on May 29, 2023 [5 favorites]
Fuckin' Chris Pratt, though.
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 6:07 PM on May 29, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 6:07 PM on May 29, 2023 [3 favorites]
Yeah he was a great Andy Dwyer but can we let someone else have a chance at this sometime? It could even just be a *slightly different* affable white dude who has decent timing and makes good faces.
posted by SaltySalticid at 6:19 PM on May 29, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by SaltySalticid at 6:19 PM on May 29, 2023 [1 favorite]
That's a larger cast than I would have expected from the book, which I read when I first heard about the adaption, but I suppose some character expansion is needed for a film adaptation plot.
Perhaps Pratt will be playing a less savory role, of which there are plenty in the bleak setting of the story, though I suspect that may be tweaked as well.
posted by audi alteram partem at 8:08 PM on May 29, 2023
Perhaps Pratt will be playing a less savory role, of which there are plenty in the bleak setting of the story, though I suspect that may be tweaked as well.
posted by audi alteram partem at 8:08 PM on May 29, 2023
I think of Stålenhag as my own "knew before they were mainstream" thing, as he was illustrating some Swedish RPGs about ten years ago. I thought it was cool enough to buy his first book, but I'm actually a bit surprised at how popular his art has become since.
posted by Harald74 at 2:53 AM on May 30, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by Harald74 at 2:53 AM on May 30, 2023 [1 favorite]
tclark: I hope they didn't learn the wrong lessons from the not-quite-success of the Tales from the Loop show (which I unreservedly love, but demands a lot of patience). If they can keep the mood of the Halperin-helmed show while focusing on a more tightly-bound story..... well, it may never be a hit, but they can make a stone-cold classic.
That’s what made the show so interesting. Instead of the technology and its origins/backstory being the focus of the show, it’s derelict scrap heap stuff. Otherworldly anti-gravity machines, consciousness transferers, time manipulators are just strewn about for anyone to find. Tech that had been developed, used, and discarded well before the events of show with no replacement, just abandonment with zero explanation. That’s original.
posted by dr_dank at 3:27 AM on May 30, 2023 [4 favorites]
That’s what made the show so interesting. Instead of the technology and its origins/backstory being the focus of the show, it’s derelict scrap heap stuff. Otherworldly anti-gravity machines, consciousness transferers, time manipulators are just strewn about for anyone to find. Tech that had been developed, used, and discarded well before the events of show with no replacement, just abandonment with zero explanation. That’s original.
posted by dr_dank at 3:27 AM on May 30, 2023 [4 favorites]
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posted by shoesfullofdust at 4:55 PM on May 29, 2023