I actually enjoyed Michael Crichton’s The Andromeda Strain<\/em>, both as the\u00a0book<\/a> and the 1971 Robert Wise (very faithful)\u00a0movie<\/a> adaptation (which I actually saw in the theater). Though more than a bit cerebral and talky, it’s also tense in stripped-down man-vs-man Fail-Safe <\/em>sort of way.<\/p>\n When we went to Iron Man<\/em>, we saw a trailer for the A&E 2-night mini-series<\/a>, coming up Memorial Day weekend. And my reaction to Margie was, “Hey, it’s like The Andromeda Strain<\/em>, only with car crashes.” And it seems that was pretty close to the mark<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u00a0Andre Braugher, who plays the nefarious Gen. George Mancheck in A&E’s upcoming SF miniseries The Andromeda Strain<\/i>, told SCI FI Wire that the show goes well beyond the original Michael Crichton book and 1971 movie version.”It’s very anticlimactic, the book and the film,” Braugher (Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer<\/i>) said in an interview at the miniseries’ Hollywood premiere on May 7. He added: “You’ve got the Andromeda; it’s suddenly somehow benign, but then you’ve got a reactor thing, you know? … But that movie wouldn’t have held up today, you know what I mean? So it had to be re-imagined.”<\/p>\n The premise remains the same: A satellite falls from the sky, and most of the townspeople of a small Utah hamlet die suddenly. A group of top scientists, led by Dr. Jeremy Stone (Benjamin Bratt), race time in the top-secret underground lab called Wildfire to uncover the mystery of the deaths before the cause–a contagious agent called Andromeda–can spread.<\/p>\n Writer Robert Shenkkan has updated and expanded the story well beyond the parameters of the original 1969 book and Robert Wise’s movie, taking a lot of the story outside Wildfire and boosting the action elements. “I think our screenwriter and [director] Mikael [Salomon] together have done a really wonderful job bringing that together,” Braugher said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Because, of course, the idea of a mysterious space contagion that might wipe out humanity if not identified and contained is simply too … pass\u00e9 for modern audiences, too\u00a0conventional. We have to do something to “boost the action elements.” Like car crashes. And we definitely need a “nefarious general,” and all those other “environmental, political and military storylines.”<\/p>\n See, that’s what was missing from Lord of the Rings <\/em>— a cabal of Elven, Dwarvish, and Human military juntists that were out to take over the One Ring to further their own purposes. Similarly, a remake of Casablanca <\/em>wouldn’t be complete without an examination of the European-Islamic relationships in Morocco and the imposition of French hegemony over North Africa. And let’s not forget the animal abuse subtext that was woefully under-represented in Gone with the Wind<\/em>, but will clearly need to be added into the next version filmed. And don’t get me started on Bambi <\/em>and the need to “punch up” the impact of strip-mining upon the denizens of the forest …<\/p>\n *sigh* I’ll still record it, though …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I actually enjoyed Michael Crichton’s The Andromeda Strain, both as the book and the 1971 Robert Wise (very faithful) movie adaptation (which I actually saw in the theater). Though more than a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[36,382,41,40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-media-books","category-lord-of-the-rings","category-media-movies","category-media-tv"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":12262,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/06\/12\/tv_review_the_andromeda_s.html","url_meta":{"origin":12407,"position":0},"title":"TV Review: The Andromeda Strain","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 12-Jun-08 12:13pm","format":false,"excerpt":"If you're looking for a taut, tense story about the outbreak of an alien plague and the desperate efforts of a band of scientists to isolate and defeat it ......","rel":"","context":"In "TV"","block_context":{"text":"TV","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/media-tv"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/images\/andromeda-strain.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":13174,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/07\/04\/bachelor_movie_reviews.html","url_meta":{"origin":12407,"position":1},"title":"Bachelor Movie Reviews","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 4-Jul-08 2:08pm","format":false,"excerpt":"So what does a guy watch when his wife and kid are out of town? Hmmmm ... well, if it's me ...\u00a0 Battle of the Bulge (1965) : A film...","rel":"","context":"In "DC Media (DCEU, DCU)"","block_context":{"text":"DC Media (DCEU, DCU)","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/franchises\/dc-cinematic-univese"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/images\/stars4.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":52006,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/07\/31\/vintage-computer-cheesecake.html","url_meta":{"origin":12407,"position":2},"title":"Vintage computer cheesecake","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 31-Jul-15 1:26pm","format":false,"excerpt":"What initially struck me about so many of these pictures is how modern they looked to my eye -- at which point I realized how my image of what computers \"look like\" came from Hollywood during the 60s and 70s -- the 2001 and Andromeda Strain and UFO era --\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":27929,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/05\/18\/andromeda.html","url_meta":{"origin":12407,"position":3},"title":"Andromeda","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 18-May-12 4:50pm","format":false,"excerpt":"It can be a lovely universe, sometimes.Reshared post from +Philip PlaitAndromeda!http:\/\/blogs.discovermagazine.com\/badastronomy\/2012\/05\/18\/andromedas-majestic-spray-of-billions-of-hot-stars\/This picture of the Andromeda Galaxy is a composite of 11 separate observations by NASA's GALEX observatory, and the full-sized image will blow the top of your head off. It's amazing. Google+: View post on Google+","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11279,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2007\/10\/04\/there_is_hope_for_america.html","url_meta":{"origin":12407,"position":4},"title":"There is hope for America …","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 4-Oct-07 9:04pm","format":false,"excerpt":"... because the Wal-Mart juggernaut seems to be stalling.\u00a0 Despite this Andromeda Strain-like expansion, the chain may be at a high water mark. Using a combination of low prices and...","rel":"","context":"In "Big Business"","block_context":{"text":"Big Business","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/big-business"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9143,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/02\/10\/join_the_crew.html","url_meta":{"origin":12407,"position":5},"title":"Join the crew","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 10-Feb-06 10:06am","format":false,"excerpt":"You scored as Serenity (Firefly). You like to live your own way and don't enjoy when anyone but a friend tries to tell you should do different. 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