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Jon Katz' "Geeks" Goes Hollywood 256

Posted by CmdrTaco from the way-to-go-jon dept.
ChrisCrosby was the first to notice that Hollywood Reporter has a story about our own Jon Katz' soon-to-be-released book "Geeks" being picked up by New Line Cinema for a feature film. Lawrence Bender (producer of Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs, Good Will Hunting and more) and Laurie Bickford are producing. I'm really excited for Jon, and I just wanted to congratulate him: He's been working so hard on this, and the parts of the story that I've read have been really wonderful. And Hemos and I get cameos! Now since Bender has produced all of Quentin Tarantino's films, wouldn't it be fabulous if he directed this?Update: 01/14 04:09 by H : BTW, the actual book is available for pre-order through ThinkGeek. Check it out.
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Jon Katz' "Geeks" Goes Hollywood More

Jon Katz' "Geeks" Goes Hollywood

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  • Quentin Tarantino may be a film geek, but he doesn't have any understanding of computer geek culture.

    He can barely find the power switch to a computer.

    You can forget about him even thinking about doing this project for a nanosecond. My guess is that Lawrence is smart enough to know that there's a number of other directors who understand geek culture better. Besides, Quentin is busy doing other things.

    -Roger Avary (Academy Award winner for "Pulp Fiction", Director of "Killing Zoe", and daily /. reader)

  • all I have to say is... (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Can I be in the movie to post some annoying first posts?


    McDougal the Llama
  • Geeks will never be as intelligent as Lain. I don't think Hollywood would be capable of producing something that in-depth without screwing it up somehow.
  • I, for one, am QUITE tired of the bragging that goes on with the admins of this site. I want to read NEWS, not the simple musings of the admins opinions, or how they get to have a cameo role in a movie I'm not going to see. Big fucking deal, show me the news, or shut up. You're admins, not celebrities. Stick with what you're good at, running SlashDot.
  • I think you'll find killing Piggy doesn't make people love you.

    Sucks to your ass-mar.
  • Oh that's just great. A bunch of overpaid underskilled Hollywood wankers are going to tell the world how to pigeon hole me with the help of Jon Katz, the man who tried to make out that religious software was evil, can't use a computer, and generally has not the slightest idea of what it meant to grow up with a Commodore64 as your best friend, and then spend your fun filled college years playing muds and usenet when it was still good, and before the goddam www screwed the whole lot up.

    I can't friggin wait. It'll be full of 'wild 'n' wacky' characters who are growing up in a bright shiny future where their skills are so in demand and they are the great young revolutionaries of the brave new world with exciting paradigms for a new millenium.

    hurt maim destroy

    Still, compared with the crap we've endured so far from 'hackers' and the like, I'm sure it will be great in comparison.
  • Right On! Katz's article was ridiculous. He went looking for a couple of downtrodden "geeks," in some hick place, and the fact that he could back-hand the Mormons clinched the deal.

    I especially liked the part where our heros make fake IDs.

    After all, that can't be geeks if they aren't using their computers to BREAK THE LAW.
  • I think you're being much too hard on FascDot; his comments are in no way "out of line". So, you have a nice conversation with Katz and he won you over; good for you. If other people choose to see him as a self-promoting hypocritical one-note-johnny media whore using a parasitical relationship with some young impressionable guys to grab the brass ring of big media recognition (whew) you should consider that possibly there's a good reason for it. Because that's just what he's doing. If he thought pets were in the desirable teen-twentysomething demographic necessary to get big media exposure he'd be writing about poodle culture, not geek culture.

    And for your information, I haven't been an angry adolescent in decades. Or maybe I'm not a geek at all. Hell, when I was a tech at your lovely university's Plasma Physics Labs we programmed micro-sequencers, ran fiber optics and built trackballs from scratch so we could instrument the reactor. Geeky enough? But then we all took off Fridays during the summer, loaded up the gun club with beer and visiting co-eds and got laid once in awhile. As Zappa once said: It's fucking great to be alive. So you'll pardon me if I don't buy into Jon's gloomy navel-gazing vision of the "geek" world he can never really know.

    Is that a bad enough attitude for you?
  • Wasn't one of the complaints about the AOL/TW merger the issue of a media company reporting on itself? And now we have SlashDot reporting on... "our Jon Katz"? Can't wait for the movie review. Or the SlashDot product placement in the movie. It'll be great for corporate branding. Oops... I said a baaaad word.... Yes kids, the revolutionaries become the establishment, every time. Same as it ever was, same as it ever was....
  • Judging by today's movie length standards, it'll be more along the lines of 3 hours of the slowest thing you've ever seen, with a shitty, meaningless ending.

    thanks.
  • Will Smith somehow. He'll make witty comments, wear sharp clothes, and have wacky, exciting, sexy adventures all over the city! We'll add in some expensive special effects, a busty actress, and a hip-hop song written by Will Smith himself!

    I can tell that this movie will be unique, and the total opposite of the Hollywood standard! How exciting! Finally, a movie that will accurately portray geeks, a movie with no stereotypes or dumbed down plots!

  • He said "...his flaws were in his content and his organization."

    You replied "Specifically on what basis are his arguments bad? how is the content bad?"

    Nobody said there was anything wrong with his arguments. I disagree with many of them, but they're simply different points of view.

    As for content, what little content there is, is not "bad", I just think there needs to be much more of it. His Hellmouth bit, though lengthy, was one of the very few Katz articles I almost enjoyed.

    The original author of this thread is not alone in his sentiments. Jon would be a much more effective writer if he put a little more emphasis on the facts and did not blither on paragraph after paragraph.

  • I second that.

    Everybody seems to have a very strong opinion about Katz. I think he's a lousy author. Others love his writing. I haven't a clue as to why, but I can't argue with their dollars.

    I'll have to give one of his books a read some time. They simply can't be as bad as his columns. Can they?

  • The tone makes it seem like there *may* be a movie. Lots of movie studios buy the movie options on lots of books/screenplays every week. I dare say that most never end up on the screen. But wouldn't it be cool to see the /. effect on Loews or Hoyts? :) JLEWIS
  • When Katz started out here he was a perfect example of a person who wanted to infiltrate the "geek" culture. He didn't know $#^+ about Linux and he misquoted himself time after time. Shortly after he start posting at Slashdot, Rob added the ability to ignore all articles written be selected authors (thank god).

    I was one of the many that pretty much choked on every article that he wrote and I wanted to get him banned as an author here, but it now seems that Katz and Rob were in cahoots.

    This is a really sorry state of affairs for Slashdot. They've effectivly sold out and I have lost tons of respect for them.

    Q: Now that Katz has gotten his "inside scoop", can we finially ban him from the system?
    --
    Steven Webb
    System Administrator II - Juneau and TECOM projects
    NCAR - Research Applications Program
  • Besides, anyone who knows anything about Hollywood, knows that most screenplays don't even make it to production.
  • What do you want to see done?

    Malachi

  • Indeed! Seems *very* convenient that Katz hangs around Slashdot for awhile, writes a book/instant movie about Geeks, and now CmdrTaco and Hemos get the payoff for Katz's squatting.
  • well, JK is part of a mainstream and a larger industry, which is why he only "sort of kind of" fits on slashdot. he's never hidden that; he's fascinated by geeks, but not a geek himself. considering where he comes from, i'm not *too* surprised that his book got picked. i'm glad for him, but i don't think i'll care enough to see the movie if and when it comes out.
  • We'll be fighting in the streets
    With our children at our feet
    And the morals that they worship will be gone
    And the men who spurred us on
    Sit in judgment of all wrong
    They decide and a shotgun sings the song
    I'll tip my hat to the new constitution
    Take a bow for the new revolution
    Smile and grin at the change all around
    Pick up my guitar and play
    Just like yesterday
    Then I'll get on my knees and pray
    We don't get fooled again
    I'll move myself and my family aside
    If we happen to be left half alive
    Get all my papers and smile at the sky
    Tho' I know that the hypnotized never lie

    There's nothing in the street
    Looks any different to me
    And the slogans are replaced by the by
    The parting on the left
    Is now the parting on the right
    And the beards have all grown longer overnight
    Make the new boss, same as the old boss



    --Pete Townshend

  • A few months ago Jon Katz was the Arch Enemy of the movie industry. If you go back and read his posts you will see that unless the film was made on stolen film stock by hipply dressed college students it was a afront to the intelect of all right thinking citizens.

    Well now the table sare turning and Jon Salieri Katz is becoming the center of his own hatred. I cant wait for the article from Katz's MS Word driven creativity to hit slashdot.

    "Voices From Hollywood, Geeks FOR $ale"

    In it he will interview kids who saw the movie and were harmed by its blatant consumeristic messages. He will ride the author, himself, for being a tool to the white power base that hold down everyone.

    Yes, Katz will be profiting not only from the film he will be giving himself more things to pontificate on. He will become the selfperpetuating Crumudgeon.

    I cant wait for Katz to hit the silver screen. I m sur it will do well, in fact I pray that it does better than Titanic. I can think of no better reward for Katz then to become the great mass marketed hero of the Geeks. Relegated to live in a world he so depises it will be both his just reward and his self made cell.

    So heres to Jon Katz, lets all hope he make sit big soon.

  • Ahhhh. (Score:1)

    by Dast ( 10275 )
    Shit, don't scare me like that.

    You should have put a warning on that.

    ;)
  • Jesus...these complaints are almost as bad as the ones about the millenium not starting until next year. Hollywood fucks up lots of things, it just so happens that you know about computers so you can see how wrong it is. Remember that movies are meant as ENTERTAINMENT. Personally I have no interest in seeing someone using vi (or Emacs) on the big screen.

    That being said the best protrayal of copmuters in film that I remember is Real Genius. Besides Hackers of course.
  • Okay, I recall the "Geeks" story. It seems to me it's been in print before, but I can't recall where. Anyone seen it before?

    They end up in Chicago, livin' la vida malo for a while and finally get hired and then things turn around. Nice heartstring tugging story... really. One of the five archetypal stories (Horatio Alger style).

    Anyway, did Katz originally do this in a Wired or Time mag? And besides the obvious draw for wonderful artistic license (not the Artistic License Perl has) with Hollywood dramatization, do we really need another Rags to Riches story (only this time ala Geek)?

    This will not go down as one of the top ten geek movies. Those spaces are reserved for classics like Tron, Wargames, Sneakers, The Matrix, and the original trilogy, etc.

    Maybe this movie will bolster public opinion that geeks are people too, but I'm going to say that they still want action like the nefarious identity thief in The Net (a movie that has no doubt influenced Katz greatly).

    In short, Katz has continued to follow the rules set by many English teachers. And no writer can become great until s/he can understand those rules to a point where s/he can break them.

  • Congratulations, Jon. And congrats to all you geeks. I promise not to beat you up anymore. Unless the movie sucks. Then I'll beat you up and take your lunch.
  • OK, what is the definition of troll? The above got moderated as troll, why? There is a lot of strong anti-Katz sentiment on /., is it troll behaviour to dislike a /. contributor these days? If so, perhaps the / code should be changed so that anyone who checks an exclude based on contributor in account setup gets all their posts instantly moderated to troll? I thought troll meant a comment posted in order to annoy as many other /. readers as possible, the above was clearly intended to be a genuine request to the /. crew.
  • ...is there a Slashdot check-box that we can tick so that we don't have to watch the movie?

    :-)



    (For the humour impaired, please note the smiley)

    --
  • Yeah many hoops first... not even shure a movie will EVER be produced...
    But I hope it dose and it dose well.
    Yes I am a Katz fan but byond that I'd like to see OTHER Geek titles make it to the movie screen.

    After Y2K the Movie.. based on strips from 1-1-1999 to 1-1-2000.. only instead of the alternet universe ending (that lets the commic continue) a happly ever after ending...

    Sluggy Freelance The Movie.. A unique storyline made exclusively for the movie... Live action and lots of specal effects... exposions.. show off that lazer cannon... I wonder who'd play Riff and Torg...
    "Let me check my notes"...
    My suggestion.. go with all NEW tallent... no stars... hunrgy actors who have proven themselfs in theator for a long time...

    User Friendly the movie: No opinion.. I stopped reading the strip but it dose have the cult folowing needed for a big cashin movie.. as long as Illiad retains artistic control it's shure to retain the charm that makes it populare and make it a smash hit.

    Keven and Kelly/Heardthiners: The Movie
    Animated with Bill Kean in artistic control...

    There are HUGE ammounts of strips that would made a sucessful move to the movie screen... a few that wouldn't...
    I don't think GPF would make a good movie for example simply becouse it's life is an ongoing commic strip. It's GREAT as a strip. You want to folow the lifes of the carricters...
    But for a movie it wouldn't work.. The storys arn't that intresting themselfs.. it's all the ongoing plots.. the stuff that never really resolves itself.. that makes GPF.. That stuff won't translate to a movie becouse the movie ends.. But GPF storys never really do end... The cult of the twisted pair is still around.. the Pookel/Ki storyline is still going.. Fred is still a profesor, Trudys still around... etc... It never ends just stops for a while and lets annother story resume. Dosn't work for a movie format but for a commic strip it's pritty smart.. and addicting...

    Sluggy more than the rest sence it's just an ongoing action movie in commic strip form.
    I wonder what Goats the movie would look like... ohhh....
  • You want Tarramtino to direct this?!? Are you mad?

    How many Geeks "bitch slap" people? How many of them cut off ears? Taratino is a loser and I think would violate anything of vague interest to /. readers.

    Actually, he probably would actually show anything of vague interest to /. readers being violated.

    Uhg, no thanks.
  • I love your articles. Glad to see your book turned into a feature film! Your hard work, and unique style are deserving of a film treatment. Lets hope the film treatment is true to the book :)
  • Take a look at the last ST movie for an example of what you should *not* do

    And what, pray tell, is that? bore your audience to tears? Make jokes about klingon puberty? Make 'boob' jokes? Make Troi and Riker amorous again? Waste millions of dollars on a dull movie?

    I guess I answered my own question.

    Expect it from an odd numbered Trek movie
  • Why dosen't Slashdot use some of the money they are now rolling in and hire some interesting columnist. A weekly column from Neal Stephenson or Bruce Sterling would be better and much more sincere than the trite, "me too" junk that Katz puts out.
  • There is a difference between criticizing someone on general ideas, and being asshole spelling nazi

    "Suble Mind control? why do html buttons say submit?",
  • ...the treacherous terrain of her face...

    What is it about her face that makes it so treacherous for the tear? I mean, I'd rather read "tears streamed down her face" then what you wrote. If you want to be creative how about: "It couldn't be true, she told herself, feeling the warm saline on her cheeks"

    "Suble Mind control? why do html buttons say submit?",
  • Who has had a greater positive effect on the computer world? Linus, obviously. But that doesn't mean Katz's work is any less valuable.

    So, Linus has done more Then Katz. And yet Katz has not done less then Linus? I think there is a hole in your logic there...

    "Suble Mind control? why do html buttons say submit?",
  • I agree with you.

    and to emphasize your point: How can your well thought-out comment score a 3 and a post labeled TROLL get a 5?

    what's going on here? We will just have to wait to see if the movie sucks or not. Regardless, this IS newsworthy and I would be interested in seeing it.

  • Gahhh... stop taunting me... my copy of Lain is still on hold at dvdexpress until my BGC boxset comes in :((( *grumble*
    ----
    Dave
    Purity Of Essence
  • He's a clueless hack. I thought filtering out his articles in my Slashdot preferences would ensure I'd never hear about him again. But no, no, it's great that he's found an outlet for his work where journalistic standards are low enough that proper spelling and college-freshman-level compositions gain him such wide-eyed adoration. Anyway, Jon, with the movie maybe you'll be able to quit the day job... for a while.
  • Do you know something about this book/movie that the rest of us don't? I only ask because all that I know about either is that it's a nonfictional account of two people from Idaho who meet over the internet. That's _really_ vague. The only movie that I remember that this even remotely resembles is "You've Got Mail", which better reminds me of "Sleepless in Seattle".

    I can't say that watching a couple of lonely geeks using usenet and e-mail makes for an intriguing plot, though. Nevertheless, I hope that I'm underestimating it.

    -Jennifer

  • Cameos (Score:2)

    by Anonymous Coward
    How can you do a cameo?! I have never even seen your face!

    Vote for Linus doing the cameo! At least someone can recognize HIM!

  • Jon Katz (Score:2)

    by Anonymous Coward
    It's quite amazing how a persons image can shine high above their abilities. Since Jon Katz is a self professed source for all that is worthy in technology news, that makes him a prime example for what I'm saying. Although Jon Katz seems to be well educated, his written skills leave something to be desired. As many have pointed out his writing style is trite and not creative. One get's the feeling that he does this to boost his already inflated public image, and in so doing keeping the dollar signs rolling in. It's hard to blame him though, money can make people do strange things. Best of luck your endevours Mr. Katz as I'm sure you know exactly what it is you're doing.
  • I spoke to John for awhile about being interviewed for this book. He was going to fly out and put me in there but it never happened. I think he wanted to focus more on geeks whose lives were saved by their "geekiness" or something. I'm just a "normal" geek I guess, never had to program to feed my family and wasn't really bullied in school (the fact that I'm 6'1" and have the physique of an offensive lineman probably helped that) so I never knew how interesting I would have been anyway. Oh well, now I'll just have to get famous on my accomplishments instead of just because I'm a geek. :)
  • Expect several MAKING OF articles. Like at least three, touching on how empowering it is for these poor obscure computer geeks to be lifted out of the drab and unrewarding surroundings of... well, reality... and immortalized, thanks to Jon Katz, in images from Hollywood!

    *gag*

    Seriously, what the hell is going on here? I'm not so concerned with Taco and Hemos et al, they're just running a site and having a great time seeing what trouble they can stir up. I'm shocked (and some would say I shouldn't be) by what Katz will go along with.

    Is it in fact true that Jon Katz is exactly the type of corrosive media trendy powerworshipper he purports to be against?

    Does he have rationalizations already in place about how he's not really leveraging his new-media connections to gain special privileges with the very same corporate media dinosaur he claims to hate and fear?

    Which would he choose, to have his film carefully sterilized to be suitable for general audiences, or to have 'his people' sneak children into theaters to see his film?

    *sigh* really, this whole business is disgusting. I would have no gripe with Katz doing this if he was sincere in his desire to align himself with the existing power structures of media that so many of us have to fight against. But he is not- something is wrong with his mind, that he can't see the phenomenal hypocrisy of his actions and desires.

    I'm looking at Jon's reaction to the AOL/Time Warner merger, and it's bitterly funny how the whole first paragraph is bitching not about social issues, or the media implications, but the gripes of a _disgruntled_ _consumer_. And then, the relevance... "Is individualism, free expression, diverse opinion advanced when the information economy breaks down into two or three "old and new" media conglomerates that control virtually all of the archived news and entertainment information online, and increasingly, the means to deliver it?"

    Well, Jon, never mind that, eh? Which one of the media conglomerates do you like the best for your movie? It's true that taking an option doesn't mean squat in the biz, and the movie may never be made- but as we watch you dance with big media, first Amazon now the film industry in your ever-broadening search for an audience that will accept you as their guru, it's impossible to overlook some things now.

    If your dream continues, you may continue to mouth the same words you've been reciting for years, and you may continue to make a pretense of outrage against corporatism and big media: but the truth will be this: You are not only supporting corporatism and big media... let me spell it out.

    You. Are. In. Their. Pay.

    Traitor.

  • It will be interesting to have read articles directly from Katz himself, and have the real book open to examine, and then compare them to the actual movie produced. It could be a real chance to reverse engineer the "Hollywood filter".

    Regardless, congradulations, Jon. Well done, sir.

    --

  • "Type rm -rf /, once more, motherfucker. I dare ya, I double dare ya."

    "Big KahunaLinux? That's that new Hawaiian RedHat variant, isn't it?"

    I now declare the Pulp Fiction parodies over...
    (if only t'were true)
    --
  • I've read an early release version of it and really liked it. I was very insightful and I saw a lot of myself in the characters. A BIG CONGRATULATIONS! to Jon. Job well done. Thanks also for the early release book. I give it 5 penguins out of 5.

    ----------------

    "Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds." - Albert Einstein
  • I do not mean to disparage anything or anyone here - I'm a faithful /.er, and I actually enjoy most of Katz's stuff. Here's where the "synergy" lies:

    Katz writes for Slashdot. He also writes books. Slashdot features Katz's book as coming out RSN. This is good. And there may be a movie, with bit parts for the fellows who run Slashdot. Also neat.

    Tacked on at the end of the article is an opportunity to pre-order the book from ThinkGeek, a cool online store that just happens to be owned by Slashdot's parent - Andover.net. So Andover, Slashdot, and ThinkGeek have turned an interesting story into a revenue opportunity. This is the future, folks - get used to it.

    There's nothing wrong with cross-selling within your properties, but you'll see a lot more of it from companies a lot less trustworthy than Andover. Be prepared.

    That said, congratulations, Jon. I'll be one of the first to buy a copy when it comes out!

    - -Josh Turiel
  • Not bad, but how about:

    "Terse: The gratuitously sententious explication of an undeniable superfluity of informational concepts best reserved for the interior surface of the pressed wood pulp integument hereof."
  • It's the little differences. A lotta the same news we got here they got there,
    but there they're little different.

    Example? (8

    I'm sorry. What I meant to say was 'please excuse me.'
    what came out of my mouth was 'Move or I'll kill you!'

  • Here's a US Census report [census.gov] showing that Idaho had the third largest percentage growth in population from 1990 through 1999. The news outlets of the Treasure Valley (which includes Boise, Meridian, Nampa, and Caldwell) continually report surveys and studies showing that the area is growing at a phenomenal rate -- but I hadn't found any links to those yet.

    Don't forget, the low population density, clean air, wide open spaces, and outdoor recreation make this (and other Western states besides California) seem like paradise to disenchanted high-tech workers who have money and jobs to offer.

    --

  • Well, lemme add my own contribution to the "Reservoir Geeks" script...

    JOE: But once again, at the risk of being redundant, if I even think I hear somebody telling or referring to somebody by their Christian name... you won't want to be you. Okay, quickly. (pointing at the men as he gives them a name) Mr. VMS, Mr. X-Windows, Mr. Palm, Mr. BeOS, Mr. Solaris, and Mr. Mac.

    MR. MAC: Why do I gotta be Mr. Mac?

    JOE: 'Cuz you're a wussie.

    MR. MAC: Why can't we pick our own operating systems?

    JOE: I tried that once, it don't work. You get four guys fighting over who's gonna be Mr. Linux. Since nobody knows anybody else, nobody wants to back down. So forget it, I pick. Be thankful you're not Mr. Windows 3.1.

    MR. VMS: Yeah, but Mr. VMS? That's too much like Mr. Penis.

    (Everybody laughs.)

    MR. MAC: Yeah, Mr. Mac sounds like Mr. Macarena. Tell you what, let me be Mr. NextStep. That sounds good to me, I'm Mr. NextStep.

    JOE: You're not Mr. NextStep, somebody from another job's Mr. NextStep. You're Mr. Mac.

    MR. PALM: Who cares what your name is? Who cares if you're Mr. Mac, Mr. NextStep, Mr. FAQ, Mr. Maca...

    MR. MAC: Oh that's really easy for you to say, you're Mr. Palm. You gotta cool-sounding name. So tell me, Mr. Palm, if you think "Mr. Mac" is no big deal, you wanna trade?

    JOE: Nobody's trading with anybody! Look, this ain't a f------ city counsel meeting! Listen up Mr. Mac. We got two ways here, my way or the information superhighway. And you can go down either of 'em. So what's it gonna be, Mr. Mac?

    MR. MAC: Jeez, Joe. F----- forget it. This is beneath me. I'm Mr. Mac, let's move on.

  • I'm a geek and I HAVE bitch slapped people, I've also broken bones. So what? Being a geek has NOTHING to do with whether or not you can take care of yourself.

    LK
  • "And you will know my name is the root when I bring my vengence upon thee!" - types rm -Rf / &

    Reminds me of Pulp Simpsons [jinxworld.com]. Especially the picture of Homer... "Hmmm, big KARMA burger!!" Oooh! That's FUNNY!! Ahh...
  • Hmm..

    a movie about real geeks who 'find a community on the internet'.
    While that could be an interesting story, I wonder how they will be able to visualise it. Are we going to have to look at two geeks surfing and chatting for 90 minutes? :-)

    Greetings,
    Ivo
  • Whatever happened to the film of Microserfs by D. Coupland? I remember hearing about it, and thinking, "Great book, but it didn't really have an action packed movie storyline"


    But then again, neither did the story of Nick Leeson and it was made into a film.
  • > No I don't think *everyone* wanted it.

    I didn't say that. I said "Seems to enjoy".
    Music and films are all based on trends.
    The trends are followed to make the maximum money.
    It was just a coincidence that there's about 20girl bands all being formed at the same time.
    It was just a coincidence that last summer (UK)
    nearly every movie was a teen highschool romantic comedy (She's al that, 10TIHAY, Never been kissed, American Pie, Election)

    I also never implied it would continue along the same lines, everyone gets bored, the trends change, the movie/music moguls follow where they are lead.

    And most people do buy into the hype.
    QV: The Phantom Menace, Jurassic Park, The Matrix, The Spice Girls, and many many more.
  • Oh dear.
    I don't really see Matthew Perry as the nerdy M$ programmer trying to find himself type. Ick
  • Pander to what the public wants.
    If the public seems to enjoy one prequel released 22 years after the original, then they want every movie to have a prequel released 22years afterwards. If they like "scary" movies that have no visible scary entity, they want all movies to have no visible scary entity.
    If we liked one girl band, then we'll love it when there's 1000 of them

    It's all about money, and trends.






    Unfortunatly.
  • How many people die in the book? Will there be nudity? If this thing is touchy feely crap, I'm gonn puke. Hmmm, would Katz write touchy feely crap? aaaah whatever, tgif....

  • First, congrats, Jon!

    Now on for the real stuff. I'm sure Katz has sent more than a few people on /. an advanced readers editition. If you've read it, I'm really wondering how they are going to handle the story as Katz himself becomes intertwined with the story. The book isn't written as a third-person narrative; rather, Katz is there. Are we going to see someone playing Katz or are we going to see a rewrite to third-person?

    ----

  • There's got to be nudity and violence, so that it gets an R rating, so that Katz can complain about it and sneak 13-year-olds into the movie theater.
    --
  • I'm sorry, no offense to jon katz or anyone, but haven't we seen this film already. yes, I know that this one hasn't been made yet, but it simply sounds like a rehash of several films, once artistic, now turned into a cliche. I still wanna find a new film that hollywood can do. Enough of the warm and fuzzy crap.
  • (joke)

    Theoretical situation:
    Enter Jon Katz
    "Hi, I'm Jon Katz, here to introduce my movie. I'll start by briefly discussing how technology affects the many people in society. Why, just recently I was ...."
    Eye's heavy. Can't think.. Sleepy.. fading..
    The geeks fall asleep. The marketters in the audience are enthralled.

    72 minutes later...

    "So that's how I got to work with the cool Slashdot guys. Here's the movie."
    Jon Katz steps to the side to watch the responce.
    A familiar [thesync.com] theme song starts up.

    Geeks in audience start to groggily wake.
    "WHAT THE HELL!? This is just Geeks In Space playing! Wait, what's that on the screen..."

    On the screen, an image that is sometimes a mandelbrot set and sometimes a julia set is jiggling through a tunnel like image. It is not anti-aliased, and looks very pixelated.

    "Hey, I recognize that, that's a sonqiue visualisation plugin. That bastard is making money from boring us to tears, and the slashdot crew's own music! And using a pathetic Windows MP3 player with no anti-aliasing.. LET'S GET 'IM!"

    The geeks swarm over Jon, leaving nothing behind but a laptop with a pre-release of Windows 2000 Professional on it. On their way out the theatre, they also start mobbing the marketters in the audience, and incite a few riots around Radio Shack.

    [fin]

    Yeah, so if this movie is just Jon/Mp3 visualisation, we'll be on you like stink on a monkey. We at Echsuh (the Elite Cabal of High School and University Hackers) are not to be toyed with!


    (/joke)

    At-choo :-)
    ---
  • Congratulations Jon first of all. On a humorous side (read: no flames please :-P) shouldn't the guys be getting royalties from this? I thought the book was about them (kindof). Anyway, like I said, this isn't completely serious :)
  • He's obviously a very opinionated writer, and that's what also screws him in the end - you've got to back yourself up as a writer, you can't just rail against everyone and anyone and expect people to understand what the heck you're talking about. But that's no reason to dis him like everyone's doing. It's just part of the Hollywood infrastructure that the sensationally trite stuff floats to the top, like terds jingling around the surface of a toiletbowl.

    *lol*
  • I personally like Mr. Katz and his writtings, the part that is amusing is that there are some many people here who seem to dislike him on a personal level and therefore they find it nessacary to blast him for his writing style, what they (the posters) don't realize is that they are still reading his articles and still looking at his views and ideas. so all the people who flame Katz need to realize that no matter what you post about him, he has already won whatever battle you are trying to start, so what I am basicly saying is, if you don't want to hear John Katz, DON'T READ HIS ARTICLES! or better yet write your own essay,get it submited, and see what happens, I would like to see what other people espesecialy those people who have blasted Katz for not being creative or using cliches, write a creative cliche free essay and make it interesting, then start complaing about how other people write essays,

    ok??

    thanks,
    and have a nice day :-)
  • Pander to what the public wants.
    If the public seems to enjoy one prequel released 22 years after the original, then they want every movie to have a prequel released 22years afterwards. If they like "scary" movies that
    have no visible scary entity, they want all movies to have no visible scary entity.
    If we liked one girl band, then we'll love it when there's 1000 of them

    No I don't think *everyone* wanted it. I thought it was a stupid move just for fanatics of the movies in the 70s but I guess that's just me. The future of the world isn't going to change at all it's just what one person decides to do with their time. Why do people always see conspiracies in areas that don't really have the brains to create them? Movie producers and people in the music industry are the last people I would actually credit with anything significant.

    It's all about money, and trends.

    Maybe but not everyone buys into hype and such. Just wait until all of the people who are living now get a little older and start to throw their weight around a little more. I very much doubt that anything you see will continue.
  • What do you want to see done?

    Movies should take advantage of all the actual technology that we have nowadays. Failing that we should have movies that actualy have acturate depictions or proper decision making and perhaps more utilitarian concepts. Take a look at the last ST movie for an example of what you should *not* do. People are not and should not be portrayed as fools. Making them appear to be foolish makes the entire plot less believable.

    Generally you should not let a group of individuals who have little to gain affect the general betterment of the group. In real life such sacrifices do not get anywhere because they are pointless except for allegorical purposes for future generations nothing more.
  • Do you know something about this book/movie that the rest of us don't? I only ask because all that I know about either is that it's a nonfictional account of two people from Idaho
    who meet over the internet. That's _really_ vague. The only movie that I remember that this even remotely resembles is "You've Got Mail", which better reminds me of "Sleepless
    in Seattle".

    Well that's really not that interesting at all. Geeks by their very nature are not lonely but are a social amalgm between computers and humans. I for one if I had a good enough computer would never leave my house only for the most basic of necessities.

    I can't say that watching a couple of lonely geeks using usenet and e-mail makes for an intriguing plot, though. Nevertheless, I hope that I'm underestimating it.

    Not only that I can't really see a logical group (which I assume most of slashdot is) would actual type of thing. Logic is the norm of the universe so says chaso theory.
  • It's quite amazing how a persons image can shine high above their abilities. Since Jon Katz is a self professed source for all that is worthy in technology news, that makes him a
    prime example for what I'm saying. Although Jon Katz seems to be well educated, his written skills leave something to be desired. As many have pointed out his writing style is
    trite and not creative. One get's the feeling that he does this to boost his already inflated public image, and in so doing keeping the dollar signs rolling in. It's hard to blame him
    though, money can make people do strange things. Best of luck your endevours Mr. Katz as I'm sure you know exactly what it is you're doing.

    Why all this emphasis on what we term "creativity"? There eventually comes a time when all literary forms become trite and obsolete and boring. The only thing left after about 1950 that was absolutely really new and groundbreaking in terms of literature was perhaps random groups of text that meant nothing; and even that can be done in emacs with the dissociated press program. Just because this guy is probably as old as my father and that he has a very traditional concept of what the future is dosn't mean that his opioion is crap. I mean if you look at things like The Wizard of Oz (basically a kind of projection about what the future city would look like) you can see this in action. How about old crappy science fiction things. There is no chance that people will ever do anything in such a tacky manner.
  • What I was trying to point out is that the way Jon Katz presents his ideas is trite and not creative. One of the many so-called "no-no's" of writing is the use of cliches. Cliches are,
    by definition, trite. An example of a cliche is: "Tears streamed down her face". You could rephrase this to make it non-cliche: "Tears spasmed over the boundaries of her eye lids,
    cascading down the trecherous terrain of her face". Do you consider the second one more creative? I do.

    Well the mental image of the first seems to be a tender one perhaps evoking sympathy more. The second is indeed creative but it just seems more to concentrate on the physical features of the person in question. Perhaps the second would be good perhaps if the person in question had just fallen down a hill or perhaps we are attempting to impart some sense of the tramatic nature of the event that the tears are being produced for. Not all cliches are bad. If you read a great deal of romance novels I am sure that the first would be perhaps a cliche. But what if you are exposed to say classical literature? How can you effectively judge something to be a cliche? What happens if we run out of effective methods of describing the act of crying? Well in English we have at least one method in creating a continum of words in severity or emotional impact. Consider the act of crying.

    We have:

    1. watering eyes -- perhaps slight crying
    2. crying -- the actual act itself without too much
    3. sobbing -- more intense than crying and involves more emphasis.
    4. bawling -- more "earthy" generally used to refer to "simple" people or situations less human

    Those 4 examples are the only ones that I can come up without stepping too deeply into the metaphor but as you can see there are ways to do it but even the cliche is still necessary to give that sensation.
  • Katz got snowed by those kids, that's what happened. They fed him some line about how their lives sucked because the only things in Idaho are potato farms, that sugar beet
    plant, and rusty old pickups with shotguns and loud radios tuned to the country music station, and he bought it. I don't know anyone in the area who read the Wired article and
    took it seriously. GASP! It's hard to imagine a mind as sharp as Katz being "snowballed" he's the smartest guy ever ever EVER!!! His writing can ONLY be compared to the bible.
    I mean, both have such strong grasps on LOGIC AND REALITY!

    Like people in the modern age reality is seen in the eye of the beholder. Maybe it *was* reality in the community that those kids lived in. Perhaps they did live in the sticks and it was true. Unless you live there and could relate the actual physical/social/political conditions of the area you cannot say he was snowballed.
  • Quite. The Katz PR machine is on overdrive: a reality check is essential, for which see the following:


    Is there anything better? Could andover afford these people? Come on this isn't Time or US News and World Report or even Variety this is an internet site and because of this and it's theme "News for Nerds: Stuff that Matters" we have a rather low selection because this isn't a trade magazine or anything like that. I think the more information that is posted to slashdot the better in terms of idea flow. The flow ideas is what created the open source movement and it is the only thing preventing it's demise. I would really like to see someone (from slashdot that is) produce an essay on the same topic as John Katz and have people judge if it is better. I don't think it's as easy as it looks.

    PS. (And no random perl scripts that use syntastic english grammer parsers to recreate not so funny combinations of "essays" are only funny for about 2.567334 minutes exactly).
  • Now if the subtitle of the movie is "How a gullible journalist got taken in by a couple of lazy kids who can't find jobs in the 3rd fastest growing area in the U.S.", maybe it'll be
    worth watching as something other than a parody.

    How did Idaho get that rating in the first place? What's the source I wold be quite suprised at this considering the low population density of most of the state and your earlier descriptions of the place being possibly home to large quantities of hillbillies.
  • Well, you obviouslly didn't read what I was talking about. At no point did I say his spelling, grammar, or punctuation was where his flaws were at. I said his flaws were in his
    content and his organization. I'll thank you for thinking before you're cynical next time.

    Specifically on what basis are the arguments bad? How is the content bad? Are there any ways to actually conclusively proving him wrong? Has anything he said actually been documented as wrong. People such as I need hard and conclusive evidence that what is being said is actually the truth. The only thing that I see is that he tries to make predictions on events and social situations that are not easily predictable in most ways. Like some of the sci-fi people in years past. I remember reading a book back in elementary school which said that by the 1990s we would have moon bases and be on our way to mars. Well have any of these things happened? No because people would rather live out their pathetic lives on good ol' planet earth and not actually explore space. Let me give you a little prediction of mine. ST TNG level of technology will be about 30,000 years in the future there is no way that we will have it in 2390 or so.

  • Is the movie supposed to be a documentary or something? Somehow I was under the impression that Katz's book 'Geeks' was not a work of fiction -- or at least not fiction in the same sense that 'Microserfs' was.

    So which is it? Is 'Geeks' a novel with some real-world characters or is it a 'non-fictional' 'real-life' depiction of us geeks at work and play? And what does either possibility say about the movie deal? Someone help me out here!

    Jack

  • Methinks KS will be tied up with Clerks, the Animated Series, and then Clerks 2 for some time to come...

    For more Kevin Smith info try here [viewaskew.com]

  • *My favorite scene is going to be when the geeks get beat up by the jocks, and then the geeks get older and get rich. Then the jocks beat them up again anyway. *

    "extrapolation": you are old, bitter, and unhappy with your life, and wish the days of you whupping someone for their lunch money would come back so you could have some value again?

    Strangely enough, the jocks that used to do that same thing to me in school have mostly passed from this world into whatever lies after, due to their inability to grasp that the real world is NOT high school, and people OUTSIDE of school are ALLOWED to carry weapons, not prohibited from doing it, for the very reason they get used for. Stopping obnoxious bully's and thiefs for once and for all.

    *grin*

    Geeks with guns.. we're everywhere, we're everywhere.

    Maeryk

  • - It's the little differences. A lotta the same news we got here they got there, but there they're little different.

    :-)

    Regards,

    j.

    P.S. Now describe to me what JonKatz looks like!

  • Yes, please no ultra slow long dorky user interface and CG sequence showing the internet bright lights zooming into each other.

    I gag every time I see that in movies.

    Remeber Jurassic Park: "I know this. This is Unix."

    Yup their "emergency" system is a 3D interface they have to navigate to shut down the darn thing. That is really smart.


    Corrinne Yu
    3D Game Engine Programmer
  • The MST2K crew, Tom Servo, et. al. can be the movie moderators.


    Corrinne Yu
    3D Game Engine Programmer
  • Katz PR machine on overdrive: reality check essential.

  • Linux Pulp Fiction (Score:3)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 14, 2000 @06:44AM (#1373101)
    ...know what they call Linux in France?

    What, OS Royale?

    Actually, I think they still call it Linux.

  • Re:Congrats With A Question (Score:3)

    by chromatic ( 9471 ) on Friday January 14, 2000 @06:51AM (#1373102) Homepage

    The book is about those two kids Katz interviewed, huh? I grew up in Idaho, 20 miles from where those kids did. It's not exactly Silicon Valley, but there are a whole lot of technology companies there right now, like HP and Micron and Extended Systems and dozens of smaller firms, as well as the headquarters of other companies like Albertsons and Boise Cascade.

    Katz got snowed by those kids, that's what happened. They fed him some line about how their lives sucked because the only things in Idaho are potato farms, that sugar beet plant, and rusty old pickups with shotguns and loud radios tuned to the country music station, and he bought it. I don't know anyone in the area who read the Wired article and took it seriously.

    Now if the subtitle of the movie is "How a gullible journalist got taken in by a couple of lazy kids who can't find jobs in the 3rd fastest growing area in the U.S.", maybe it'll be worth watching as something other than a parody.

    --

  • Samuel L. Jackson as a geek (Score:3)

    by Stiletto ( 12066 ) on Friday January 14, 2000 @06:57AM (#1373103)
    "Put down that motherfucking mouse before I bust your motherfucking hand off!"
    ________________________________

  • When a major multi-national corporation distributes a book it crushes all competition and it is the end of print media.

    This is compounded by the backing of a media powerhouse like a studio. First they make one movie and before you know it, they are making all of the movies and they control the world.

    This move is a corruption of the OpenSource spirit and the sky is falling and the world is ending.



    Congratulations on your new deal!


  • Re:???Maybe Kevin Smith??? (Score:3)

    by brianvan ( 42539 ) on Friday January 14, 2000 @06:40AM (#1373105)
    Jay and Silent Bob as CmdrTaco and Hemos?

    (shudder)

  • How about Slashdot the Sitcom? (Score:3)

    by karb ( 66692 ) on Friday January 14, 2000 @07:57AM (#1373106)
    You'd be appealing to a lot of young professionals with lots of disposable income.

    There are lots of easy plot ideas. The guys meet one of the "first post" guys, who turns out to be some famous celebrity (preferably an attractive female one). Hemo's hamster gets killed by crawling into a computer, the guys have an adventure replacing it, etc.

    Eventually, however, they'd end up transferring Lt. Worf to the geek compound to boost ratings.

    It would turn out to be a boon to the writers, who finally get the chance to eliminate Jon Katz' character, despite his immense popularity as a result of being played by michael richards. ("Katz!")

    Worf : Katz! In writing these articles you insult my Klingon Ancestors! [Worf cleaves Katz]

  • topical? (Score:3)

    by Maeryk ( 87865 ) on Friday January 14, 2000 @08:32AM (#1373107) Journal
    It amazes me how a discussion of a post about the option rights bought by a publishing company can become an unmitigated thread of Katzbashing. Regardless of what he says, he DOES have a right to say it, and /. has a right to post it. Im amazed by the fact that people who put silly little snarky comments towards /. always have almost nothing valid to say towards the thread, but yet complain that they are moderated. *sigh*

    As for this news, I think it is GOOD news.. I find myself in agreeance with Jon's views in a lot of cases, but the convoluted way he gets to it sometimes leads me to wish he had an editor. However, remember, Einstein could barely write legibly, let alone grammatically correctly. So what? do we ignore everything he had to say because the man wrote badly? No, we hail him as a genius and work around his learning disorders.

    I personally WELCOME a geek movie from Jon.. at least he has read enough comments FROM the geek community to get a feel for it, even if he doesnt share that communitys viewpoints in the majority (or the vocal minority, im still not sure which applies here). But, im sure the film will turn (if made) out better than Hackers, or any of the other stupid films that have attempted to paint uber-geeks as gutter punks with antique hardware whose life revolves around boy meets girl and hacking el evil corporation.

    I realy hope that this film gets made, and I hope Jon holds some sway over the final outcome. (if he is true to his beliefs, I think he would anyway, or would block the production of it, much as Gibson did with all the characters out of Neuromancer cept Johnny).

    Anyway.. Kudos to you Katz, good luck, and have fun!

  • cameo, phbbbt! (Score:3)

    by ChristTrekker ( 91442 ) on Friday January 14, 2000 @06:45AM (#1373108)

    Hey, I'll stunt-double for CmdrTaco. You never know when you might be swapping out some RAM and get a nasty shock. Wouldn't want that to happen on film. The girl geeks would definitely not dig it. OTOH, stunt men are chick magnets, as anyone knows.... ;)

    It would be perfect! We even share the same initials! Really, dude, you gotta have me as your stunt man.

    CT

  • Ya know... (Score:4)

    by Chris Johnson ( 580 ) on Friday January 14, 2000 @10:09AM (#1373109) Homepage Journal
    ...this is really not unlike the hippie phenomenon.

    Back when Katz was young and hadn't smoked too much dope, there was a subculture called 'hippies'. There were a certain amount of hippies that were perfectly sincere, and quite a lot of plastic imitations cruising over to the Haight on the weekends. (No, I wasn't one of the latter, I was about 3 months old at the time).

    Eventually hippieness became a media explosion, infighting set in, and now hippie is largely an epithet, a term of abuse or embarrassment and something to be repudiated.

    Thanks to Jon Katz, I can foresee a time when geek becomes equally an embarrassment. Where hippie became synonymous with an airheaded spacecase, geek will become synonymous with a sociopathic, daylight-fearing danger to society.

    And maybe that's good, because then we can get back to being people for a change. :P

  • Unfortunate (Score:4)

    by Herbmaster ( 1486 ) on Friday January 14, 2000 @08:13AM (#1373110)

    I find it really unfortunate that Lawrence Bender and his people are doing this, because it means it probably won't completely suck, and it deserves to. I must say I'm surprised, one thing about Bender's movies is that they've always been in some way new and original, and not typical Hollywood rehashing of the same themes we've already seen before. Not JonKatz. JonKatz is pro-Geek, anti-Censorship, anti-American/Establishment, anti-Conservative, anti-Religious, pro-Conspiracy-Theory, pro-Porn, pro-mp3, pro-linux, anti-MS. Wow, what an amazing set of original creeds! (or not) I can't wait to see all the twists and surprises in this movie!

    JonKatz loves to play off the contradiction which is the popularity of 'alternative' culture. Geeks are alternative, so JonKatz has to write good things about them. Same with linux and mp3s and everything else. The y2k bug became too mainstream, so JonKatz had to say that it was a stupid overhyped thing which didn't matter.

    The problem is that he doesn't actually think for himself too often. If you remember any of the old articles he posted (the ones where he stilled talked about computers, and used the word 'geek' 3 times per paragraph), it was obvious he had no idea what he was talking about or being a geek was. Of course sometimes he got the main point correct, but only incidentally, and without a lot of depth of discussion behind it.

    The best part of JonKatz's articles has always been the user comments. I don't think we'll get that in the movie.

    Besides, JonKatz once called Contact a failure, how can he ever be involved with the making of a good movie?

    I can't wait to see how many times he uses the word 'geek' and uses microsoft-html in his movie.

  • It's perfect! (Score:4)

    by FascDot Killed My Pr ( 24021 ) on Friday January 14, 2000 @06:49AM (#1373111)
    Katz and Hollywood were meant for each other. Both represent the cream of the pseudo-intellectual crop.

    "And Hemos and I get cameos!"

    This explains why Katz is still around, I guess.

    (goodbye 70+ karma...)
    ---

  • Resevoir Geeks? Pulp Slashdot? (Score:4)

    by darylp ( 41915 ) on Friday January 14, 2000 @06:31AM (#1373112)

    Are you SURE that Tarantino directing would be such a good idea?

    Mind you, the thought of CmdrTaco in a Gimp mask is kinda appropriate...

  • ???Maybe Kevin Smith??? (Score:4)

    by Cplus ( 79286 ) on Friday January 14, 2000 @06:34AM (#1373113) Homepage Journal
    Who produced Goodwill Hunting, directed Clerks, Mallrats, Chasing Amy, and Dogma. He's worked with Lawrence Bender in the past and when I first heard of this it was his name that was mentioned. Actually my friend wasn't familiar with John Katz and said that it was the proposed new Kevin Smith flick.
    It would be great if there were cameos (or parts) for Silent Bob (KS) and Jay (I'll never get enough of those two.

  • Re:It's perfect! (Score:4)

    by hegemon ( 95821 ) on Friday January 14, 2000 @11:20AM (#1373114)
    Usually I just ignore people with bad attitudes. Really, I don't feel it's my place to butt into other peoples' lives to tell them that their behavior is inappropriate. Sometimes, however, it is necessary.

    Your comments about Katz are completely out of line. He has done more to help geeks and the "geek cause" than anyone I've ever heard of. Read his latest book when it comes out (_Geeks_). Even if you disagree with his view of tech culture, you should at least be able to admit that he deserves more respect than you've shown him in these posts.

    In addition, CmdrTaco and Hemos also deserve more respect. Your 70+ karma is nothing compared to what they've done. They help run /., and if that isn't enough for you, they are also better geeks who truly contribute to the community. I should also point out that a high karma achieved by the high volume, low quality posting you do is not
    much to be proud of. I've even looked at your high moderation posts and found that they are almost uniformly examples of the problems with the moderation system.

    I don't know CmdrTaco and Hemos, but I have a passing acquaintance with Katz, and I do not find him to be a pseudo- anything. He is an intelligent author and a worthwhile conversationalist. If you don't see that from his
    posts, you should at least let what respect you have for the /. bunch guide you with regard to your evaluation of his character and intelligence, since they know him much better than you do. Ah, I forgot, you don't seem to have much respect for those who run /.

    Now I've had another glimpse into the dark side of the geek. All I see is a bunch of angry adolescents who improperly focus their pain on aggression against those who are slightly different then they are. It is sickening and
    fascinating that the same childish impulse to hurt and exclude others that in the vast majority of cases forced geeks to become geeks shows up again in the geek community it created.

    I think you'll find killing Piggy doesn't make people love you. Of course this time Piggy has the high ground. It speaks well for him that he doesn't choose to take advantage of it.

  • Re:Short List (Score:5)

    by HP LoveJet ( 8592 ) on Friday January 14, 2000 @08:29AM (#1373115)
    What if the entire movie was based, not just on Katz's book, but on the Slashdot community's reaction to it?

    The opening titles would begin with a bunch of really lame dorks who appear on screen for no reason and shout "FIRST CAMEO DUDE!!!"

    The film would be periodically interrupted with hysterically funny haiku, apropos of what was happening in the plot at that moment.

    Of course, there would have to be a retelling of the legend of Pygmalion, starring MEEPT as Pygmalion and Natalie Portman as Galatea.

    The closing credits could have somebody reading the Slashdot Address, the M&M-breeding article, or a Generic Flame--or perhaps all three at once, since no one will actually be paying attention.

    Maybe the dialogue in the film itself could be moderated to different volume levels.

  • RE: Samuel L. Jackson as a geek. (Score:5)

    by Lord Kano ( 13027 ) on Friday January 14, 2000 @07:20AM (#1373116) Homepage Journal
    How's this.

    "Reach in that bag and give back that Palm Pilot."

    "The one that says 'Bad Motherfucker' on the case."

    Ving Rhames as a geek

    "We're going to get a couple of Jolt fiending programmers and get object oriented on his ass."

    Tarantino...

    "Where do you see 'dead vaio storage' ?"

    I gotta get back to work, I can keep this up all day...

    LK

  • Keep your pants on, this doesn't mean we'll see it (Score:5)

    by barzok ( 26681 ) on Friday January 14, 2000 @07:08AM (#1373117)
    New Line has optioned the book. That basically means they called "we got dibs" on the rights to make a movie out of the book for the next X years (for a price, of course). It doesn't mean they will make a movie, it doesn't even mean they've given thought thought about script/director/whatever. It just means they think the book has enough value that they don't want to risk losing the chance to make the movie to another studio - or, more importantly, risk another studio making the movie and thus making money they may have had a chance at.

    Remember DOOM was optioned for a movie at least 3, 4 years ago. the options have been bought and sold around Hollywood, and we're still not even close to seeing a feature film.

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