What great book has STILL not been made into a movie?

[begin_within]

Or short story. I read from time to time that someone owns the movie rights to Kerouac's "On The Road," but I'm glad it still hasn't been made because I don't see how they could capture the style of the writing in that book on film.

[Aristus]

1. Harlan Ellison's short story "Along The Scenic Route" would make

a terrific episode for a half-hour anthology show like 'The Twilight Zone'.

Read it. It's a stunningly good story about road rage taken to the nth degree.

[smokey nj]

2. My Pet Goat. n/t

[tinfoilinfor2005]

4. Now that's a perfect answer.

:rofl:

[Dem_4_Life]

99. That is hilarious!!!

[wildhorses]

3. testimony of 2 men~Taylor Caldwell

and there is a whole series of books that could be a series of films but, I want a piece of that pie so...do not want to divulge here...

know any good screenwriters...

[Arkham House]

5. Wasn't there a TV version of this...?

With David Birney? Seem to recall it...

[wildhorses]

6. dunno...could very well have been

was it any good?

[Arkham House]

13. It wasn't bad...

...kinda kitschy, but so is the novel...lots of women in 1900 clothes looking elegant...a made-for-TV film...don't remember all that much about it, to be honest...

[barb162]

16. I thought there was too and I recalled it being good at the time

[CBHagman]

72. Arkham House is right.

I never read the novel but do recall the mini-series from the 1970s, with all the usual suspects: David Birney, William Shatner (Yes, really), Linda Purl et al.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075594/fullcredits

[mitchum]

34. Didja know that Caldwell was one of the original wingnuts?

I remember reading one of her screeds published in the late sixties and she was still refering to WWII as "Mr Roosevelt's war"
What a crumpet sucking loon.

[yellowdogintexas]

70. read several of her novels. One recurring theme in all of her

books is the "group of old, rich white haired men" who are actually running things.

Many of her characters are fighting for change.

I have no idea which way she leand politically but she wrote a good tale. And the old rich guys were always scary and on the far right wing side, and always the bad guys.

[mitchum]

81. She leaned to the faaaaaaaaaaaaar right...

for quite awhile she was affiliated with the antisemitic Liberty Lobby.
Apparently, she was alarmed by the founders of neoconservativism in the 60s. She said that her distaste arose from the fact that they were former communists, but I suspect her disgust had far more to do with the fact that they were...uh...y'know...Jewish. Just a hunch...

To her credit, she was a far better potboiler writer than Alice Rosenbaum AKA Ayn Rand. Now, I know that's damning with faint praise, but it's still praise...sorta

[mitchum]

82. Why in the hell would anyone want a great book made into a movie?

The literariness that makes a book a great book is by necessity stripped away when adapted for a film. They are two distinctly different art forms.

[stlsaxman]

7. Enders Game by Orson Scott Card.

n/t

[arwalden]

8. Coming Soon In 2008

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0400403/

[stlsaxman]

15. thanks very much!

now i only hope it's as good as the book...:popcorn:

[BlueIris]

54. Oh, please God, no.

EGH. I hate that story.

[Benfea]

61. Suit yourself. I love it and look forward to watching the movie. -NT

[NewJeffCT]

55. Isn't he a big time RWer?

Or, am I mixing him up with somebody else?

[stlsaxman]

57. He's Mormon, don't know of his personal politics- but it's a

heart wrenching story, regardless.

[Vidar]

64. Unfortunately yes, though still my favorite living scifi author.

Even softened temporarily towards Mormon, until the fourth time I had to throw the same pair off my porch.

[CBGLuthier]

91. major league RW homophobe

Card despises Clinton and worships Bush and I myself will never see or read anything of his again so long as there is a chance he could make one penny off of it.

And Ender's Gamethe short story was quite good but he turned it into a boring-ass industry with the novel and all the needless sequels that sucked the life out of any meaning the original had.

[Arkham House]

9. Gravity's Rainbow...

Though God knows how they'd do it...but if "Tristram Shandy" can be done, Pynchon can be...Asimov's Foundation Trilogy would also be almost impossible, but it'd be fun to see someone try...it'd make a good TV series...I'd like seeing a good movie version of the classic Ellery Queen smalltown mystery, "Calamity Town", too...

[bridgit]

38. yup...

[sarge43]

10. Don't know if it qualifies as a great book, but

it is a good one - Clarke's The City and the Stars

[jobycom]

11. Foucault's Pendulum, by Umberto Eco

It could be a timely movie, too. All about conspiracy theories, and some of the same ground The Da Vinci Code covered, only better written and with a more complex story. (Not bashing Da Vinci Code, just saying Eco's book was better).

[Ivan Sputnik]

40. A better book

but it may be way too complex and full of arcane details for Hollywood to make a popcorn thriller out of.

[jobycom]

47. Eh, they did it to Name of the Rose, and that was much deeper

into medieval theology, imagery and philosophy. Hollywood just ignored most of it.

[Orrex]

104. I've been calling for that for years!

Instead, we get Dan Brown's insipid book.

Well, that's just super.

[Spider Jerusalem]

12. 'Invisible Man', by Ralph Ellison

[slide to the left]

94. Thats a good one

However, I think some of the ideas would be lost in the movie version. I can just picture this as I leave the theatre, "What was that guy's name?" "I don't remember."

[mourningdove92]

14. This Perfect Day

by Ira Levin

[barb162]

17. Any of the Saul Bellow books

[wickerwoman]

25. That's a good one...

I'd pay to see "Henderson the Rain King".

[NNadir]

18. Eliel/Willen/Mander's Stereochemistry of Organic Compounds.

I would like to suggest that Lindsay Lohan play a steroid.

[begin_within]

23. I was just bawling. Especially when para-amino separated from benzoic acid

[begin_within]

24. .

.

[NNadir]

60. I am still most moved by the steroids.

I feel that only Lindsay Lohan has the depth of acting experience, the profundity, and the geometry to fully portray a diasterotopic pair of hydrogens jutting out above the plane of the paper.

Here she is portraying the cis configuration, showing the kinds of skills she could bring to a portrayal of almost any cis steroid:



Note the moving portrayal of two above the plane carbon side chains. Clearly the woman is a genius of some kind.

[begin_within]

100. I finally understand the concept "gas expands to fill the space available"

[HughBeaumont]

19. House of Leaves.

Never will be, either, according to the author.

[khashka]

20. Lost Souls by Poppy Z. Brite

Christian's nobility....
Nobody's quest to mean Something... even if it means fucking his father and killing his best friend....
Or when Steve kisses Ghost....

I don't think this could be made into a movie.........

Khash.

[spacelady]

21. "Gone South" by Robert R. McCammon n/t

[XemaSab]

27. Boy's Life

[jobycom]

30. Wow, really?

I didn't realize that book was famous. I read it years ago, and thought it was just a weak pulp fiction book by some serial fiction writer. I ran across it on my shelf the other day and joked about how bad I thought it was. Not really bad, just lightweight and inconsequential. The whole thing, from the plot to the characters to the ending just seemed dumb.

I must have been in a bad mood when I read it, I guess. It's always epitomized bad writing to me. I had no idea it had fans.

[jmowreader]

22. One of the four Bachman Books by Stephen King

The four Bachman Books were:

Rage
Roadwork
The Long Walk
The Running Man

Stephen King adopted the Bachman pseudonym and wrote those four books under it to see whether it was Stephen King's writing or Stephen King's name that sold books. The Bachman books sold well.

The Running Man is finished. It's a good gratuitous violence flick.

Rage couldn't be done as a movie--too many people have taken hostages then claimed reading Rage made them do it.

The Long Walk is just weird, man, walk 99 other teen boys into the ground and receive anything you want.

That brings us to Roadwork. This is a movie that needs to be made: a man battling eminent domain confiscation of his home plus the laundry plant he works in, and going insane while he does it. Contains Mafia figures, uncaring bureaucrats, terrorist acts...the only real problem with this book is that the ending would have to be rewritten. In all the Bachman books, the hero comes to a bad end: you assume the last man standing in The Long Walk gets shot, the kidnapper in Rage winds up in a Hospital for the Criminally Insane, the guy in Roadwork blows up his house while he's in it, and Richards flies an airplane into the Games Building in The Running Man.

[BlueIris]

52. What they need to do is make "The Breathing Method" into a film.

It would need to be done very carefully, of course, but I think it could be the second-best film adaptation of the four novellas from Different Seasons if a) they don't let King write the screen play or have any creative control over the story structure, and b) make the focus historical, not supernatural. I think it could be a great period piece.

[wickerwoman]

26. Iain Banks "The Wasp Factory"

I can't imagine why :shrug:

I'd also love to see Octavia Butler getting the attention she deserves. The Xenomorph novels just scream out for a film adaptation.

[XemaSab]

28. They are only now making a film of "How to Eat Fried Worms"

[intheflow]

32. You're right, this IS an over-looked classic.

BTW, did you know that the guy who wrote that book, Thomas Rockwell, is Norman Rockwell's son?

[XemaSab]

35. No shit

Both classic examples of undiluted Americana

[fishwax]

41. my mom once got in trouble for recommending that book to a library patron

she's an elementary school teacher but works part-time in the children's department, and she recommended that book to a patron. The mom got pissed off because the book had the word "bastard" in it. :eyes:

But it's one of her favorite children's books, and one of mine as well. I just saw the poster for the movie yesterday, and am looking forward to when it comes out :)

[BlueIris]

53. Dude, that is going to be brilliant.

[deucemagnet]

29. There was a science fiction story I read about 15 years ago...

...when I was still in the Air Force with the unlikely title, "Peaches for Mad Molly". It was, and still is, the tightest, most well-crafted and exciting short sf story I've ever read. I would have loved to have seen it made into a movie years ago, considering that short sf stories translate well into 2-hr movies, but the special effects technology required to do it justice never really existed until recently.

It was written by Stephen Gould, and no short synopsis can really describe the wierd, fascinating and funny dystopia created by the author. The best I could find on the web is the following:

Peaches For Mad Molly by Steven Gould
* Nebula Novelette Nominee, Hugo Novelette Nominee
The story of a man who makes his living as a courier, rappelling his way up and down the outside of an arcology, and his hunt for the perfect birthday present.

http://www.geocities.com/brianmdavies/sf/dozois.htm

[intheflow]

31. Lamb: the Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal

Lamb: the Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore.

[Dem_4_Life]

95. My mom just read this and said it was one of the best ever!!!

I need to check that out and read it.

[ScreamingMeemie]

33. Flat Stanley...really...that would make for a cute children's film.

:hi:

[hyphenate]

36. Silverlock

by John Myers Myers

[mark414]

37. look homeward angel by thomas wolfe

and yer right about on the road...any movie made on that would suck

[AlienGirl]

39. Brightness Falls from the Air by James Tiptree, Jr.

It has a great plot, interesting characters, and plenty of scenes that would make for incredible special effects (think residue of a nova passing through a planet's magnetic field, time eddies, gorgeous pornstars, an imposing reptilian noble, and a species of endangered winged semi-humanoid insect-beings with psychotropic excretions). It has an ending that can't be described as happy, but certainly reaches a point of fulfillment.

It would, I tell you, make a spectacularly good movie in the right hands.

Tucker

[fishwax]

42. Catcher in the Rye

[Redstone]

43. Okla Hannali. By R.A. Lafferty. Best book ever written about Indians, and

it was written by a white guy. Shows how good of a writer he was.

And he was a damn fine human being as well.

Redstone

[electricmonk]

44. Generation X

As far as I know it's not a movie. Not a great book but still real entertaining. And of course I feel like I know all the chacters in it since I'm the same age as the main ones. When I first read it I was like Oh I know that person and that one too and that one is pretty much me.

[msanthrope]

45. Confederacy of Dunces. n/t

[KamaAina]

109. I had heard that Johnny Carson once owned the rights to it.

No idea what would have become of them with Carson's passing.

My friend and neighbor (from 15 years ago) wanted to cast me as Ignatius...

edit: 'me' not 'mew'. She did have two cats, but neither one would have made a good Ignatius. :P

[StellaBlue]

46. Revelation

nt

[Jamastiene]

48. The Talisman, by Stephen King

That was my favorite book and I would love to see it made into a movie, but so far, no dice.

Also, I can't remember who wrote it, but there is a book called Alas, Babylon that would really fit the current idiot regime in charge. It would fit their mentality completely, as a matter of fact.

[CBGLuthier]

92. Pat Frank wrote Alas Babylon

Surprised myself that I actually remembered that but I looked it up and was right. :-)

It was OK although an entirely too pleasant depiction of post nuclear war life.

But it has been 30 years since I read it so my memory may be wrong.

[bmbmd]

107. One of my favorite books-I read it once a year

to remind myself of the horrors of growing up in the nuclear age. Would have been good in black and white.

[Broken_Hero]

49. Memnoch The Devil, n/t

[sakabatou]

50. Akira and Trigun: Maximum.

[Benfea]

62. Uhm...

Akira has already been made into a movie.

Trigun has already been made into a TV show.

[sakabatou]

67. Let me rephrase then:

It would be cool to possibly see this as live-action. I know that Eva is in the works for this.

[Bear down under]

51. All of Willa Cather's

She was so disgusted by the movie/theatre adaption of one of her stories that she put it in her will that no work of hers was *ever* to be made into a play or movie. Which is a pity -- her first novel, 'O Pioneers!' is cinematic in scope.

[CBHagman]

71. Several have been adapted for TV.

O Pioneers! (This version with Jessica Lange and David Strathairn)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0105038/

And one with Mary McDonnell:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0195105/

My Antonia:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113892/

The Song of the Lark:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0232676/

Memo to self: Spend more time reading and less time watching TV! :-)

[NewJeffCT]

56. George R.R. Martin's latest series

Though, it has not finished yet.

[flyingflyn]

58. "Glamorama", by Bret Easton Ellis

It's sad that after 9/11 no studio will touch it, not even with a ten foot pole.

[baldguy]

59. Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land

Falling Free by Lois McMaster Bujold

[intheflow]

65. I almost posted Stranger in a Strange Land.

Absolutely a formative book in the evolution of my spirituality! But then, perhaps that's what has made it so threatening to make into a movie. It challenges a lot of the status quo--as do most of Heinlein's books. (If only we could get beyond his blantant sexism... but then, he was a man of his times.)

[Benfea]

63. Kim Stanley Robinson's "Mars" trilogy (Red Mars, Blue Mars, Green Mars)

The trilogy would never fit into a movie, but they would make for a great limited run TV series.

[AngryAmish]

66. Gone With the Wind

[Dem_4_Life]

97. This was made into a move in the 60's

[leeroysphitz]

68. Niven and Pournelle's "The Mote In God's Eye"

Come to think of it I can't recall a single one of Niven's masterpieces made into a movie...

[pokerfan]

88. Ringworld

I've read every novel Niven's published and I can only assume that Niven has turned down Hollywood's advances.

[bmbmd]

108. Can't believe that it was never a movie.

The characters are rich, the plot is hysterical-it would be incredibly expensive to make.

[yellowdogintexas]

69. "The Joyous Season" by Patrick Dennis..of Auntie Mame

fame.

This is one of the funniest books I have ever read. It would make a wonderful film.

I have casted it mentally more times than I care to admit.


Another good one:

A Short History of a Small Place....I could see the Coen Brothers having a field day with this one.

[deadparrot]

73. The Poisonwood Bible. nt

[wickerwoman]

86. That's another great one...

although they might have trouble finding a child actress who could play the disabled daughter. Maybe Dakota Fanning?

[slide to the left]

96. That is what I was gonna say!

I love that book. If they can carry over the themes to the screen it would be amazing. I think they could pull a H. Mills and have Dakota Fanning play both of the twins. She has enought depth for a Child actor to play Adah.

[TheFriendlyAnarchist]

74. Atlas Shrugged

*Dons flamesuit*

I still liked the book no matter what all of you commie pink dirtbags think :P

:hide:












:evilgrin:

[Richard Steele]

76. Y'know LionsGate Films announced in April that it's back in production...

Shooting for a 2008 release.

Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt as Taggert and Galt;
I think I'll wait until it hits Basic Cable in early 2009.

[mitchum]

83. Should make a great movie going by the formula...

a great movie can be made from pulp trash
while
a real work of literary genius can't be adapted for film

"If I had known so many people were gonna read it, I would have tried to write it better" Mario Puzo on his book "The Godfather"

[Robb]

75. I can't believe no one's said "Good Omens." nt

[MorningGlow]

103. I would have!

If I had caught up with this thread earlier! I hear it's been in the works for years. Terry Gilliam wants a piece of it. I hope he succeeds--his type of vision would work perfectly. There aren't many books I laugh out loud at when I'm reading them, but Good Omens on that short list--every time I read it, which has been three or four times by now!

[SacredCow]

77. 2 submittals:

Classic- The Catcher in the Rye (which has been mentioned)

Contemporary- Carl Hiassen's Lucky You (which I think if done properly, would be a fantastic movie!!!)

[smitty]

78. "The Man in the High Castle" by Philip Dick

[Taverner]

113. I second that one

I envision an indie pic with a cast of unknowns, and an excellent product

[Lautremont]

79. V. by Thomas Pynchon

Oh, wait - maybe that was made into a mini-series in the 80s. Yes, it's coming back to me: Marc Singer was in it, and there were these UFOs and lizard aliens and a bunch of other stuff I didn't remember from the book.

I would also submit Beautiful Losers by Leonard Cohen. Someone owns the rights and has for years, but they can't or won't put it on the screen.

[pscot]

80. ULYSSES

or anything else by Joyce except John Huston's THE DEAD

[wickerwoman]

87. There's a movie version of Ulysses

but it's pretty messed up. It was made back in the 60s I think and should definitely not be attempted sober.

[pscot]

114. Great find.

I googled it. At least one reviewer really liked it, though he called it an uneven response to a difficult challenge. There was apparently another attempt in 2004, called simply "Bloom".

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

84. "Lord of Light" by Roger Zelazny.

I've dreamed most of my life, about a movie from this book.

[CBGLuthier]

93. You and me both

Lord of Light would make a magnificent movie if adapted properly. but I fear the religous aspects and greater depths of the story would get discarded by Hollywood.

And Amber would make a series that would blow those sissy hobbits out of the water. :-)

[Ediacara]

85. Stranger in a Strange Land

AFAIK, the only Heinlein story that was made into a movie has been Straship Troopers, which was highly altered from the original text.

[Democrats_win]

89. The Front Runner by Patricia Warren

[RedStateShame]

90. "Choke" by Chuck Palahniuk

A movie of this would be interesting, and it would further prove that "Fight Club" is Palahniuk's lightest work to date.



I am Jack's typing error.

[slide to the left]

98. Pope Joan

If you think the DaVinci code caused an uproar...

[WoodyTobiasJr]

101. The Belgariad Series by David Eddings

They could condense the five books into three and make a trilogy out of it.

[wildhorses]

102. 'A Confederacy of Dunces' by John Kennedy O'Toole.

did I hear that Drew Barrymore's company bought the rights to this book?

[Spaceman Spiff]

105. "Battlefield: Earth" by L. Ron Hubbard

Yeah, yeah I know they made it into a movie with John Travolta but that thing was a load of shit. The book is over 1000 pages and to do it right you'd have to give it to Peter Jackson and let him give it the LotR treatment.

And NO, the book doesn't push Hubbard's weird religeon in any way. It's pure science fiction.

[bmbmd]

106. Memories of Running...

but I hear it's in the developmental stage.

[SteppingRazor]

110. William Gibson's Neuromancer trilogy

Neuromancer, Count Zero and Mona Lisa OVerdrive should be made into a trilogy tout suite

[Runcible Spoon]

112. I muthafukkin' SECOND that!

you read my mind

[Lydia Leftcoast]

111. An Instance of the Fingerpost by Iain Pears

although I can understand why.

Giving all those multiple viewpoints without giving away any of the secrets revealed by each narrative and still leaving the basic questions open (as the book does) would be a major, perhaps insurmountable, challenges for a film maker.