Arthur C. Clarke and Childhood's End: 'the devil is in the details'

When we last spoke with “Stop-Loss” director Kimberly Peirce, we said of her next film, “Childhood's End,” a classic work of science fiction from the recently passed Arthur C. Clarke, that “the devil is in the details” (SPOILER WARNING) because mankind's salvation ultimately comes on the wings of its worst fears – winged, red aliens that look exactly like Satan.

“It has this notion that there was some creature here before and it was intelligent,” Peirce said of the book's first act revelation when we caught up with her again this week. “It imprinted itself in our mind and if we look into the future we find out that, in fact, it [gave birth to our notion of] Satan.”

Of course, like Clarke's other masterpiece, “2001,” the book is about so much more than appearances – it's about life, and death, and rebirth on a grand, cosmic scale. But given the potential for religious fallout (and, make no mistake, Clarke is essentially saying that all religion is false) how do you portray the image for a mass audience without softening the message?

~ read on... ~