Name a Book or Book Series You'd Like to See Made Into a Movie

[OrwellwasRight]

I'll start: Ursula K. LeGuin's Earthsea series

[demmiblue]

1. Dragonriders of Pern series- Anne McCaffrey

[csziggy]

12. Should it start with Dragonflight or with the settlement of Pern?

It'd probably catch the audience faster with Dragonflight - then if the series was a success they could pull a Star Wars and do a prequel series with Dragondawn and the early settlement years!

Unfortunately, after Game of Thrones, McCaffrey's Pern series may not be bloody minded enough for today's audience.

I was thinking of her Dinosaur Planet and Dinosaur Planet Survivors, especially with the connected books by Jody Lynn Nye (The Death of Sleep) and Elizabeth Moon (Sassinak and Generation Warriors). Kind of a Jurassic World take off for the first one as a hook to get audiences in.

[OrwellwasRight]

15. I remember reading a bunch of those books in middle school.

They were all the rage -- and as I recall, pretty deservedly so.

[FSogol]

2. Roger Zelazny's Amber Series, Any book or story by Jack Vance. n/t

[OrwellwasRight]

16. I'm not familiar with those.

I see I'll have to expand my reading list as a result of this thread.

[sarge43]

3. The Stars, My Destination

Tom Hardy as Gully Foyle

[Dave Starsky]

9. Tom Hardy could pull it off.

A long time ago, I fantasized about this movie and imagined that Bruce Willis could play that role. You need someone who can portray a character who goes from irredeemable, brutal trash to the height of enlightened, heroic sophistication, while maintaining the audience's sympathies the whole time.

There is so much crazy stuff that happens in that book, I really doubt you could make it into a movie that anyone other than you or me would watch. But it is one of my all-time favorite books, and I hope that someone takes a chance on it some day.

[sarge43]

10. Eric Bana as second choice

The right director and writer could do it justice, especially now CGI has advanced enough to handle it. I think if Inception and Dr Strange can put butts in the seats, maybe it's the time of crazy stuff.

[GeorgeGist]

4. Matthew Corbett Series by Robert McCammon.

e.g.


http://www.audible.com/series/ref=a_pd_Fictio_c2__1_sa?asin=B0085NK3SS

[Dave Starsky]

5. Encyclopedia Brown by Donald Sobol.

Just have a bunch of crazy, mysterious stuff happening in this young kid's life until at the end, he explains everything with perfectly mundane reasons.

In the world we live in, we desperately need an Encyclopedia Brown movie.

[OrwellwasRight]

17. Would make a great kids' series of films.

[Dave Starsky]

23. I LOVED those books as a kid.

It was a great day when I could go to my school library and find a brand new one on the shelves.

[OrwellwasRight]

24. I also loved the Judy Blume books,

including Deenie and Starring Sally J. Friedman as Herself. Those could be made into good movies as well.

I also read as many Narnia, Oz, and Miss Pickerell books as I could get my hands on.

[FSogol]

29. There is a raunchy comedy spoof of Encyolpedia Brown, called Mystery Team.

Its about a group of kids that will solve any mystery for a dime, however they are now seniors in high school and drifting apart when a little girl gives them a dime to find out who killed her parents.

[NobodyHere]

6. The Silmarillion

[OrwellwasRight]

19. I could not even get through reading that...

Last edited Fri Dec 30, 2016, 02:38 PM - Edit history (1)

Granted I was in fifth grade and had read no other Tolkein at the time. As I recall, it was like reading a boring encyclopedia about a world I did not know. Perhaps if I tried again now . . .

[NewJeffCT]

35. I was finally able to read it last year

I read the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings first and made a few attempts to read The Silmarillion in my teens and 20s and failed. Just too boring and inaccessible to me.

Last year, at age 49, I finally summoned up the patience to plow through it. I would say that the first 3/4 or more of the book reads like a textbook titled Ancient History of Middle Earth. The last section was a pretty good story as it told about the making of the Rings and the big war to defeat Sauron. (summarized at the start of The Fellowship of the Ring movie.)

[OrwellwasRight]

37. Maybe I will try again after I have finished

catching up on the other books!

[NewJeffCT]

39. it's still a chore

most of the way

[malthaussen]

61. I'm one of the few people who prefer that to LOTR.

Not that the latter is bad, but I thought The Silmarillion was greater for exactly the reasons that most people hate it.

-- Mal

[NightWatcher]

7. Ed Abbey's Monkeywrench Gang

It's been proposed many times and someone still holds the rights I believe.

People rumored for cast positions have changed as they've aged over the years.

As an Abbey fan and film buff, I'd love to get ahold of the rights to make it. I toyed with spec-ing a screenplay for it years ago.

[jalan48]

36. Great choice, especially given today's political environment.

[aidbo]

8. The Baroque Cycle from Neal Stephenson for series. Or "Cryptonomicon" would make a good movie.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Baroque_Cycle

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptonomicon

[OrwellwasRight]

20. I just started Anathem

at the recommendation of a good friend. So intricate in the details but it is starting to move after the kind of slow architectural and mechanical set-up of the first 20 pages or so.... I think I may like it.

[aidbo]

27. Stephenson is prone to running off on tangents for sure.

he is nothing if not thorough in his examinations of some subjects.

I liked Anathem. I hope you enjoy it.

If you haven't read it yet, try Cryptonomicon.

[malthaussen]

59. Cryptonomicon is one of my favorite single books...

... the Baroque Cycle one of my favorite series, not least because I've studied so much history and philosophy I'm on a first-name basis with the characters. Of course, the two really go together.

The rest of Stephenson's stuff mostly underwhelms me. Anatham was okay, The Big U had some good moments, but neither Snow Crash nor The Diamond Age impressed me.

-- Mal

[aidbo]

71. I listened to SevenEves as an audiobook and loved it.

I have original hard copy versions of the baroque cycle. I wish they were in better condition, but I probably will never sell them.

[csziggy]

11. There was a television adaptation of Earthsea

But it deserves a better treatment - and a full movie for each book.

The U.S.-based Sci Fi Channel broadcast in December 2004 a three-hour loose adaptation for television of A Wizard of Earthsea and The Tombs of Atuan, entitled Legend of Earthsea (later, simply Earthsea). It was broadcast in two parts on Channel 4 in the UK at Easter 2005. Sci Fi Channel had angered Le Guin[19] and fans of the Earthsea novels with its announcement that Ged and the vast majority of the other characters would be played by Caucasians and with the dramatis personæ posted on an official website. The latter revealed several original characters – such as "The Archmagus" and "King Tygath", "Diana", "Penelope", and "Marion" – and it referred to "Kargide" characters rather than Kargad, Karg, or Kargish. The religious practices of Atuan were portrayed differently in the adaptation, and the celibacy of Earthsea wizards overlooked as Ged and Tenar become sexually involved.[citation needed]

One month before the U.S. broadcast, Le Guin posted on her website "A Reply to Some Statements Made by the Film-Makers" published in the December 2004 issue of Sci Fi Magazine. She opened with the observation, "I've tried very hard to keep from saying anything at all about this production, being well aware that movies must differ in many ways from the books they're based on, and feeling that I really had no business talking about it, since I was not included in planning it and was given no part in discussions or decisions." (Director Robert Lieberman, too, had stated that she was not involved.)[20]

"That makes it particularly galling of the director to put words in my mouth."[20] Le Guin disavowed some specific interpretations both by Lieberman and by executive director Robert Halmi Sr., and concluded (quoting Lieberman):

I wonder if the people who made the film of The Lord of the Rings had ended it with Frodo putting on the Ring and ruling happily ever after, and then claimed that that was what Tolkien "intended ..."[,] would people think they'd been "very, very honest to the books"?[20]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earthsea#Television

[OrwellwasRight]

13. Thanks for the info,

but that movie sounds pretty awful. Not true at all to the story. So maybe I'm better off not having seen it.

OK, I'll go with my favorite book of all time: Player Piano by Kurt Vonnegut. They'd have to update the technology, but that movie would really fit with today.

[csziggy]

18. I watched years after I had read the books and still didn't like it

In fact it left such a bad impression I haven't re-read the books since! I should get them out and read them again - it's got to be thirty or forty years since I read them originally.

[OrwellwasRight]

22. They hold up.

She is a great writer and Ged a great character. Flawed by ambition, but a staunch friend and someone who sets out to right the wrongs he caused. A true hero, not one of these action "heroes" who exist just to kill others.

[FSogol]

30. Galapagos or Dead Eye Dick are probably the most relatable-to-film of Vonnegut's works.

Breakfast of Champions (with Bruce Willis) and George Roy Hill's Slaughter House 5 fall short. (Albert Finney nailed it as Kilgore Trout, though)

PS. Bluebeard is in pre-production for a summer 2018 release.

[OrwellwasRight]

38. Wow!

Bluebeard is one of my favorites! That's great news! That seems pretty film-friendly, as God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater and Player Piano would be. If Hollywood could figure out how to faithfully and entertainingly translate Vonnegut's criticism of American culture to the screen.

I loved George Roy Hill (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid is one of my Top Ten all time favorites), but Slaughter House Five just isn't a film-friendly structure and the 70s weren't a successful era for that kind of film -- I don't like the 70s versions of Fahrenheit 451 or Brave New world either but I think both could be brilliant films. Something about 70s filmmaking didn't jibe with certain kinds of stories.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

32. Ghibli (Dir. by Goro Miyazaki, Hao's son) put out a "Tales From Earthsea" animated movie as well

I believe that it adapted some of the later Earthsea books as well (featuring an older Ged and Tenar, as well a young girl who is/becomes a Dragon), but it was not well-received either. I sort of enjoyed it but I have no firsthand knowledge of the book series, so I was rather lost.

[Generic Brad]

14. The Yellow Pages

Films have so much commercialism in them today - why not go all the way?

[OrwellwasRight]

21. Ha!

[Skittles]

25. Anne Perry's books with Monk and Hester

[OrwellwasRight]

26. She's prolific!

[Skittles]

28. love her

I started reading one of her books accidentally - after a couple of pages I was like, what YEAR is this? But I was already hooked on her writing style....I have read several now. I emailed her and received a lovely reply.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

31. Christopher Moore's "Bloodsucking Fiends" Trilogy

For those who've not read the series, it's basically the misadventures of a young guy from Indiana moving to San Francisco to become a writer and ends up falling in love with a woman named Jody who was just turned into a Vampire. He also works the graveyard shift in a local supermarket with a bunch of misfits. The second book adds this goofy Goth girl named "Abby Normal". I could see it translating well to movies. Jon Heder would probably be a great actor for one of the parts. Christopher Moore's "Practical Demonkeeping" book would make for a fun movie as well. Basically, that's about a guy who, when younger, summoned a man-eating Demon that he is now trying to get rid of and the misadventures that follow. Moore writes a lot of good quirky stories with great characters.

[Richard D]

33. A few, starting with some by KSR

Galileo's Dream
Shaman
Antarctica

Parable of the Sower - Octavia Butler

Kafka on the Shore - Murakami

Almost anything from Neil Gaiman

Fierce Invalids from Hot Climates - Tom Robbins

I could go on and on . . .

[OrwellwasRight]

40. I have not read any of those.

Seems like Hollywood needs to get started.

[MicaelS]

34. The Mote in God's Eye

By Niven and Pournelle. Given the level of CGI it could be made.

[hunter]

68. Quite a few of the Niven/Pournelle books would make good movies.

God was knocking, and he wanted in bad. --Footfall

That would have been preferable to the awful Independence Day sequel.

Pournelle and I had a few heated encounters years ago, me an idealistic young leftist and radical environmentalist, him a right wing online drunk, so you can imagine how those went...



He did not improve with sobriety, but I'd still watch those movies.

Unlike anything Orson Scott Card does these days. Card and I used to share a love for the Atari 800 when he wasn't yet the complete ass-hat he became.

I think we are seeing so many science fiction books posted here because computer generated imagery and green-screen work is nearing perfection.

I'd like to see more science and historical fiction that is character driven, doesn't twist the science or the history into pure fantasy, and not dependent on huge CGI things exploding.

[MicaelS]

69. Terrific post.

I agree that all of the N/P would make great movies, except Todos Santos because of the politics, as it would suck.

I still like Card's early stuff. Never finished reading the Alvin Maker series. Did you?

A Ringworld movie would be great, but they would probably have to combine a few of the books.

[hunter]

70. Nope. Card's brand of magic didn't interest me.

It's not that I don't enjoy magical fantasies. Heck, I've read all the Harry Potter books. And a few romances I won't confess.

[TeamPooka]

41. Dragon Precinct series by Keith DeCandido or The Lost Regiment series by William Forstchen

[LWolf]

42. It has been, and it was terrible.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comments/47rmwe/will_there_ever_be_a_good_earthsea_movie/

I have a personal bias against great books made into film. I admit that bias; I just like books better. To be honest, I'm always disgruntled when yet another favorite book becomes a movie. I'd rather people value reading than watching. One is passive; one is active.

That said, as a lover of stories and storytelling, I understand that film is just another vehicle for storytelling. I recognize my bias. But I'm not going to name a book or series here; I'll hoard my best stories and hope filmmakers don't find them, making people actually read if they want to enjoy them. Leaving something for readers.

[OrwellwasRight]

45. Have you ever seen a movie that was better than the book?

I remember it happening once. I sat in the theatre just awestruck. Of course it was 25 years ago and I could not even tell you which book it was now, but longshots do come in once in a while.

I hear you though. More reading would benefit us all. In many ways.

[LWolf]

55. Yes.

It's rare, but yes.

Two examples:

1. The Princess Bride What can I say? It's a cult classic for a reason. Of course, the author of the book also wrote the screen play, which might have something to do with the quality of the movie. The book is good, mind you, but the movie distills the "best parts" down into a cleaner version.

2. The Twilight series. Of course, this one doesn't have to do much to be better than those terribly written books, which, as a middle school teacher, I read to keep up with my students' reading passion. Both are bad; the movies, surprisingly, are simply not quite as bad as the books.

[OrwellwasRight]

46. And thanks for the link.

I think the people on that thread are thinking about the movie all wrong. Why try to make it Lord of the Rings. Lots of movies do just fine telling introspective stories. Imagine it more like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid or All the President's Men. I think Earthsea is more about the characters and the journey they take than big budget effects. Remember all the times Ged would avoid using magic because its use had a price? So different than in Harry Potter, say, where they used it all the time because they just felt too lazy to get up and do the dishes.

Although may they are right and it just can't be done well.

[LWolf]

56. You know,

that may be why it will never be a great movie, unless it's done as an independent film. Modern movies aren't really very introspective; they seem to be all about adrenaline, sex/romance, some laughs, and lots more adrenaline.

Of course, I could be stuck way out here in right field without a clue, since I don't actually see that many movies; I see the previews, and every once in awhile I'll see one that looks interesting and think, "I'll see it when I can get it on VOD." You know; at home in my comfy chair without a crowd, able to hit pause to go to the restroom, etc. Then I forget all about it and don't see it on VOD, either.

Still, taking the quiet, plain, path instead of the grand and flashy doesn't seem like a big screen money-maker. It seems like anything that is "fantasy" or sci fi is going to be all about action and drama. That's the way the screen writers, directors, and producers seem to want it, anyway.

[malthaussen]

60. One of my recurring nightmares...

... is that Hollywood will get the green light to do The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. Can you imagine what they'd make of it? **shudder**

-- Mal

[FrankfurtCat]

43. The remaining Earth's Children series by Jean Auel.

Clan of the Cave Bear was made into a movie in 1986, starring Daryl Hannah. Last year a TV movie was made.
Still waiting for The Valley of the Horses, The Mammoth Hunters, The Plains of Passage, The Shelter of Stone, and The Land of Painted Caves.

[Aristus]

44. The Elric Saga by Michael Moorcock.

The Lord Of the Rings and Harry Potter proved that people will eagerly watch long-form, multiple-part cinema based on fantasy fiction.

With that in mind, I would think every movie producer in the country would be scrambling to find material to base another billion-dollar franchise on.

How have they missed Elric?

There are few other fantasy sagas as ready-made for filming as the Elric novels. Each novel is relatively short, and could be made into a film with few, if any, changes for dramatic purposes. Although there are a lot of places where one can have good CGI done these days, practical effects would also serve each film well.

There are so many themes in the novels that would resonate well with perceptive audiences; sword-and-sorcery, the fall of empires, the old vs the new, family strife, doomed romance, action adventure, buddy films, etc.

Why isn't there anything in the works right now?

[gratuitous]

47. I think TNT could do a series of Dr. Fell mysteries

David Ogden Stiers would make a great Gideon Fell, methinks. The John Dickson Carr "locked room" mysteries would be eminently adaptable to a 60- or 90-minute format and wouldn't require a lot of high-tech gee-whizzery. Tailor-made for one-off appearances by good actors to be the murderer or one of the supporting characters. I can easily envision productions of The Problem of the Wire Cage, The Man Who Could Not Shudder, and The Problem of the Green Capsule being done and done well on even a TNT budget.

[OrwellwasRight]

48. Don't know those stories but

TNT puts out lots of high quality stuff.

[gratuitous]

49. Murder mysteries by John Dickson Carr

He specialized in the "locked room" murders, situations where someone couldn't possibly be killed, but it undeniably happened. For example, in "The Man Who Could Not Shudder," the victim is on holiday with his wife when one of the trophy guns mounted on the wall suddenly points at the victim and shoots him right in front of her.

Pretty good writing, really good characters, and a bunch of fiendish little puzzles. Joe Bob says, "Check it out."

[OrwellwasRight]

50. I will.

I have heard the name. My mom probably has some Carr books on her shelf I can borrow next time I go home. she recently gave me Skeleton Hill by peter Diamond, which I am reading right now.

I recommend back to you the Empress of Mars by Kage Baker, which I really liked. Apparently it is part of a larger series, but I read it as a stand alone and loved it.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6376222-the-empress-of-mars?ac=1&from_search=true

[malthaussen]

62. The Nine Wrong Answers...

... friggin' brilliant.

-- Mal

[applegrove]

51. God's Bits Of Wood by Ousmane Sembene.

From Wikipedia:

"God's Bits of Wood is a 1960 novel by the Senegalese author Ousmane Sembène that concerns a railroad strike in colonial Senegal of the 1940s. It was written in French under the title Les bouts de bois de Dieu. The book deals with several ways that the Senegalese and Malians responded to colonialism. There are elements that tend toward accommodation, collaboration, or even idealization of the French colonials. At the same time the story details the strikers who work against the mistreatment of the Senegalese people.[1] The novel was translated into English in 1962 and published by William Heinemann as God's Bits of Wood as part of their influential African Writers Series."

It is a very visual novel. It would make a great movie.

[cagefreesoylentgreen]

52. Ringworld by Larry Niven

[Tikki]

53. "The Butterfy Kid" from a Chester Anderson sci-fi book ...1967

Tikki

[edbermac]

54. Catcher In The Rye

But it will never happen.

[lunatica]

67. The problem with Catcher in the Rye is that it's all in the kid's head

We get to be that angry kid. I'm not sure how a movie could do it unless they used a voiceover telling the story.

[Brother Buzz]

57. Clarence E. Mulford's Hopalong Cassidy

Mulford's Hopalong Cassidy was a hard-drinking, rough-living badass that righted wrongs, and ain't nothing like the Hopalong portrayed by William Boyd

Badass:


Candyass:

[malthaussen]

58. Frankly, none.

I am almost always unhappy with adaptations of novels. Cinema and books are two different art forms, and I probably would be happier with "adaptations" if they just admitted they're making the whole thing up rather than linking it to a prose work. Of course there are good commercial reasons for doing so.

-- Mal

[smirkymonkey]

63. Republic of Dreams: Greenwich Village, The American Bohemia.

Filled with stories of fascinating real life individuals who shaped this country's liberal consciousness.

https://www.amazon.com/Republic-Dreams-Greenwich-American-1910-1960/dp/0684869969

I would love to see it come to life in film.

[Denis 11]

64. They are currently making "the Glass Castle", one of my favorite books.

[link:http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2378507/|
I had hoped it would be made into a film since I first read it.

[lastlib]

65. Arthur c. Clarke:

The City and the Stars--GREATEST Sci-Fi work of all time!!
The Sands of Mars
A Fall of Moondust

Childhood's End was recently done as a miniseries, but I'd like to see it re-done as a full-fledged movie (a little more faithfully to the book). It's one of the greatest Sci-Fi works ever as well.

Asimov's Foundation trilogy would be cool too, but probably not very exciting to many people.

[crazycatlady]

66. The Selection-- Kiera Cass

It might already be in the works, but light hearted YA series about a competition to marry a prince.

The cover artwork looks like Emma Watson was used as a model for the main character, but she's getting too old for the part (16).