I've had some thoughts about this topic. It continues to niggle in my mind. I'm addressing my general thoughts to the membership, but if anyone can/wants to forward them to Mr. Weber for his consideration, feel free as far as I am concerned.
A) There seems to be some feeling that there is an issue with just doing the HH series in order. Not sure why, but I'll allow that Media reps might know more about this side of things than I do. I will say that I just re-red On Basilisk Station, and I find it to be an engaging and very intriguing story as is. As an author myself, being an active participant and contributor to production regional theater in my area, and having some experience with trying to excerpt parts of prior work to stand alone, I think I have a valid feel for the issues and situations which must be resolved to convert such work into either a stand-alone publication or a script.
B) Like it or not, the heart of the audience in Science Fiction is not adult geeks. It's kids. They are the ones whose minds become inflamed with concepts that are away and beyond the familiar world around them. They are the ones who, when the adults in their lives say "That's just not possible!" will fire back "Why not? I'll make it so!" And then they do. For examples from today's world, just take a look around you. Almost everything you see and use daily, including the food you eat and the clothes you wear, has been touched by the magic wand of SciFi. Television, holograms, atomic power, microwave ovens, laser devices of all kinds, solid state memory, computers, cell phones, anything at all being put in space, trips to another world - all of this was a pipe dream in some SciFi writer's head when I was borne. Sure kids like adventure and action, and the more the merrier. But they can sit still for the introspective parts too. It does not all have to be continual rah-rah and blitzkrieg-fast action.
C) On a purely monetary basis, everyone likes to make a profit. Of course. No one is going to produce a movie that will not make some return. But let me say something and then ask a question. In 2016, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them grossed $814 million worldwide, making it the eighth highest-grossing film of 2016. Mostly, the audience was children and the parents who accompanied them. Hmm. Seems like the groundwork has been laid for something.
D) What happens if a studio produces a film (just for a working title: Treecats), that tells the story of Stephanie Harrington? Start with a bit of background - IE: the founding of Manticore and from it Sphinx. Then tell her 'first' story, about discovering treecats. Add in the tale of helping find survivors after the Copperwall avalanche. It even could throw in a segment at the end about the first Winton-treecat adoption (Queen Adrienne). Whether to include Honor's adoption at the very end is up for discussion. That would introduce the population to a much wider exposure of the Honorverse, allowing people to discover Manticore (Manticore-A III), Sphinx (Manticore-A IV), and Gryphon (Manticore-B V), their inhabitants, and to become conversant and invested with the whole concept of the stories. Call it a prequel, if you like. It seems to me that this would be a natural way to hook in kids (and of course, their parents and grandparents). From there, the first Honor Harrington story would be quite a natural progression, pretty much as written.
E) If that movie is a financial success (and if the script, casting, directing, and SFX are reasonably good I can not see any reason why it should not be) that would be real incentive to the producers to do the next one, the first about Honor herself. Will it make more than $50 M? I don't know, but I bet a studio could produce a heck of a good movie for under $50 M. It takes money to make money. Convince the studio that it is in their interest to formally reserve the profits to plow back in as funding for the next.
Personally? $20 bucks I'd go to see that movie. I want to see a 'real' moving treecat. Eating stolen celery. And a hexapuma. Yup. What do you think?
Regards -
Respectfully submitted,
Sir John Fairbairn, KDE, GACM
CDR, RMN
XO, HMS Javelin (DD-264)
Director, TRMN Historical Society
In Honor of the Queen!