Short student film to be based on Ursula K. Le Guin’s 1973 story “The Field of Vision”

This is Local London reports that two film students at the National Film and Television School in Beaconsfield, England, have received permission from science fiction author and SFWA Grand Master Ursula K. Le Guin for the rights to make a film based on one of her short stories, “The Field of Vision” (1973). The 20-minute film, also entitled The Field of Vision, has a budget of about £12,000 and will premiere in February 2011. The film’s plot revolves around “a group of astronauts embarking on a mission to Mars, which then goes wrong and some are left psychologically affected.”

According to another source, Le Guin’s story, which was originally published in the October 1973 issue of Galaxy Science Fiction magazine, has a slightly different plot: “After a visit in the mysterious 600 million year old City on Mars, the astronauts experience some strange effects. One of them sees things, and another hears things. After a long struggle, they learn to interpret -- to make sense -- of their sounds and visions. They see the world as it really is, and see God in everything.”