Name a Great Novel that should Never Ever be made into a Major Motion Picture

[Mike 03]

Any more novels by Cormac McCarthy. Ridley Scott, Please stay the hell away from BLOOD MERIDIAN.

On Edit: I seriously doubt that Pynchon's GRAVITY'S RAINBOW should ever be or could ever be turned into a major motion picture.

[jmm]

1. Catcher in the Rye

Now that Salinger has passed away it's only a matter or time before some director spits on his corpse.

[RandomThoughts]

17. I got to run to the nearest book store, be right back....

errr... ummm...

:crazy:


(Comedy) :D

[bif]

31. Absolutely!

I refused to see "Remains of the Day" because it's such a beautiful book. I heard the movie was decent. But why? So people who can't read can experience it?

[hippywife]

2. None of them.

I love really great books and have yet to see a movie that did one any justice. :hi:

[Shell Beau]

3. Pretty much any Dan Brown book.

Just WAY TOOOOOOO farfetched.

[baldguy]

8. Mike asked for *great* novels.

Dan Brown doesn't qualify.

[Shell Beau]

26. True.

But some people seem to think he writes good books. Ick.

[Brother Buzz]

4. Trout Fishing in America

Same goes for Jim Dodge's Fup.

Novella shmovella, they are both epic novels in my pea brain.

[Mike 03]

5. Kick, in appreciation for these responses, NT

[Old Troop]

6. Just about any one

[fishwax]

7. I can't think of a single one that I'd say should never be made into a major motion picture

There are some that would be supremely difficult, but that doesn't mean I think nobody should ever try.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

9. Ulysses.

[wickerwoman]

15. Too late.

Although "major" is a bit of a stretch.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062414/

It's not as godawful as you would imagine it to be and it's not a coincidence it was done in 1967. :smoke:

[Dr Morbius]

25. Oh Brother, Where Art Thou? (nt)

[fishwax]

32. that was The Odyssey

:)

[Dr Morbius]

45. Doh!

My mistake. The character name, you know. I actually would prefer they make a movie of Ulysses; I can't get through it. I liked some other Joyce works, but I simply can't stay into that book.

[mix]

10. .

[MorningGlow]

11. Don't worry about it

Apparently Hollywood is currently only interested in making superhero movies...oh, and continually remaking Robin Hood.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0955308/

[TK421]

69. Isn't this the sixth Robin Hood remake they're coming out with now?

WTF? There was one with Kevin Costner back in the 90's

[Bucky]

12. John Milton's "Paradise LOST"

Thump. Bad Robot!

 

[WinkyDink]

68. Epic poem, not novel. :-)

[unpossibles]

13. eh, it doesn't bother me even when I love the book

it's a different medium, and I enjoy seeing how other people interpret a book, honestly.

I've been on a huge David Mitchell kick lately and just heard Cloud Atlas is due to be made by the Warcho...Wajo... the guys who did the Matrix. Honestly, I'm a bit afraid because I love the book and thought the Matrix sucked eggs, but I'll still give it a go.

[tishaLA]

14. Anything by James

every film they've made of his novels (Wings of the Dove, Golden Bowl, Portrait of a Lady)--and even his worst novels are very very good--is mediocre at best. As Slavoj Zizek says of James, his novels are about lives won and lost by missed glances at a dinner table. They are also much more internal than almost any other novelist--and the kind of depth James gives to his characters, at the psychological and figurative levels, cannot be rendered cinematically.

[cemaphonic]

38. I thought "The Innocents" was pretty good

Maybe not quite as layered as the story, but they did a great job preserving the ambiguity central to the story instead of just turning it into a ghost story.

[Enrique]

53. 'The Heiress' is a GREAT movie

a truly great movie, based on Washington Square. The more recent version with Jennifer Jason Leigh wasn't so good.

[tishaLA]

57. I've never seen "The Heiress". Good to know. Washington Square

is probably one of James' most filmable novels. The Bostonians wasn't TERRIBLE, either, so maybe his early novels can be filmed.

[wickerwoman]

16. The Wasp Factory

[deutsey]

18. I thought of Gravity's Rainbow immediately

Didn't someone ask Pynchon if they could adapt GR as a stage musical? He apparently agreed but had one condition: she could only use a banjo to perform it.

[Orrex]

19. Blood Meridian could be a great film, but not if Ridley Scott directs it

[HughBeaumont]

20. House of Leaves.

I'd like to keep that one the way it is. And apparently, so does the author.

[Deep13]

21. A Harlot High and Low-- Honoré de Balzac

Bo-o-o-o-oring!!

[raccoon]

22. ALAS, BABYLON. nt

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

46. They made a TV movie of this back in the early '60s.

It scared the bejeebers out of me.

[NewJeffCT]

23. I think some novels that would suck as movies

might be better as a miniseries - that way, a lot of stuff that gets cut for a 2 hour movie won't be cut for a 4-6-8 hour miniseries.

Need to think of some examples beyond Lord of the Rings.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

24. The Fan Man

who could they get to play Horse Badorties?

[velvet]

49. imagine the audition for that role

"Just stand there and say "dorkey" two thousand times please."

[SteppingRazor]

27. 100 Years of Solitude.

Generations of a family, all with extremely similar names, would make for a very confusing movie.

[BethCA66]

28. The Sound and the Fury (any Faulkner FTM) and Infinite Jest n/t

[fishwax]

35. The Sound and the Fury has been made -- with Yul Brynner and Joanne Woodward -- but

I assume it doesn't follow the same structure of the novel. It would certainly be hard to capture the feel of the first section. I haven't seen it, so I don't know if they even tried :)

As for other Faulkner novels, Sanctuary has also been made into a movie a couple of times, including The Story of Temple Drake, which was made in the early 30s, before the Production Code, and was considered a very good movie.

The only movie based on a Faulkner novel that I've seen, though, was The Reivers, which wasn't particularly good ...

[BethCA66]

39. Interesting. I might check out Sanctuary but mos def not Yul in TS&TF

That sounds soooo wrong.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

29. Confederacy of Dunces.

[myrna minx]

41. I agree. n/t

[begin_within]

30. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

And no, I don't count the cartoonish bastardization of it released in 1975 as a major motion picture.

[Shell Beau]

33. I never read the book, but I loved the movie.

[MiddleFingerMom]

54. I loved the book...

.
...and know that Ken Kesey walked out of his job as "consultant" in disgust
about what they were doing to it... but I loved the movie, too.
.
For those who haven't read the book, I highly recommend it. It's all told
from the perspective of the huge Chief Bromden --and you're never quite sure
if what he's narrating is reality or part of his hallucinations.
.

[begin_within]

73. Well, his progression from paranoid schizophenia at the beginning to sane and free individual

at the end is a major theme of the book, and is completely absent from the cartoon (among other themes and aspects).

[mdmc]

34. Post Office

Chininski!

[RadiationTherapy]

36. The illuminatus trilogy - robert anton wilson.

Even a rendition of the movie of Atlantis that he depicts within the text would shine as bright as 10,000 suns compared to the non-thinking dreck we see these days.

Lilith Velkor, Gruad Greyface, the Pyramid of the Eye, LEVIATHAN!

[BlueIris]

37. "Gun, With Occasional Music."

It. Just. Wouldn't. Work.

[Fire Walk With Me]

40. Gravity's Rainbow was my first choice...

:hi:

[kimmerspixelated]

42. Well Poisonwood Bible is an excellent novel.

Actually, I would love to see them turn it into a movie. But because they probably could never do it justice, I imagine that would be reason enuf NOT to do it.

[XemaSab]

58. Poisonwood Bible

would make a good HBO miniseries. In, say, 10 parts.

I think it could totally work.

[kimmerspixelated]

64. Hmm? HBO series..

Hadn't thought of that...might work. DOn't you see Meryl Streep as the long suffering preacher's wife?

[XemaSab]

71. Even though I'm not a Gwyneth Paltrow fan

she might also be good for the role.

[kimmerspixelated]

77. Maybe a little too young for it??

The daughters, as different as they are.. would be interesting to cast. The moment when the young one gets fatally bit by a snake! OMG!... that would be powerful if done right!

[kimmerspixelated]

43. Oh,Oh, Another one- Life of PI !!!!!

They couldn't possibly do it justice. But what a wild ride that one would be!

[cemaphonic]

44. It's been in development hell for quite awhile

Jeunet was working on it at one time, but I think he dropped it. That could have been good.

[kimmerspixelated]

63. It would have!

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

47. A Canticle for Leibowitz.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

60. It was made into a radio play in the 1980s

but yes, I can't imagine it as a movie.

[Dr Morbius]

48. Isaac Asimov's Foundation.

[Orrex]

50. Story of the Eye

[cemaphonic]

51. Lolita

Even Kubrick couldn't really make it work, and he's the king of movies that eclipse their source novels (and had Nabokov helping with the screenplay).

It's not even just the subject matter that makes it difficult - a lot of what makes the book great is the prose style, wordplay, and deft characterization, all of which would be pretty hard to convey in film. (Same goes for Blood Meridian really - the grotesque violence isn't the only obstacle to making a film that would come close to the greatness of the novel.

[victoryparty]

52. Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut

[Orsino]

55. Tim Powers' On Stranger Tides...

...because Hollywood would just turn it into something like this.

Seriously. One of the best fantasy-adventure novels ever, being absorbed by the Pirates franchise? :scared:

[kimmerspixelated]

65. I knew they were making another one. But I had no idea

they were using a plot from a known book. Wow! I can't believe they didn't use something original. I've seen all 3 and I just assumed they would use, oh, let's say a drama of adventure(certainly) that might have had Elizabeth Swann and Jack almost getting together again, while WIll Turner waited out the ten year thing....I'm already disappointed. What ARE they thinking!

[Orsino]

66. I would opine that Powers' novel is more original than the first three Pirates movies.

I honestly don't know whether to be offended or enthused.

[kimmerspixelated]

76. Oh, I must have expressed myself badly.

I meant to say that they may not be going on with their same story line which I thought was just originally created from a theme park ride( I know , odd!) Oh, surely, I'm with you!... the novel you mention, has got to be much better than anything they could come up with, it's just different like deciding to go NYC on a whim when the road trip was supposed to be about seeing the west to begin with...

[Orsino]

78. Sorry--didn't mean offended by you.

It's this oddball choice of Tim Powers by a well-worn franchise.

It's thrilling in a way, that Hollywood finally takes notice of a great author--but for this? Sheesh. It's a great book, and it could be made into a great mess.

Do I dare hope for a movie even half as good as the book? That would still be a good movie.

[AngryAmish]

56. TekWar

[XemaSab]

59. Pale Fire

What do I win? :D

[cemaphonic]

61. I considered adding that to my post on Lolita

Hard to see how that could possibly work as a movie.

[XemaSab]

72. You could make a movie of Lolita

It may suck, but it could be done.

Pale Fire, on the other hand? Impossible. Literally impossible.

[Blue_Tires]

62. Beowulf

FFS what in the name of hell was that CGI shit which had next to nothing to do with the original work?

[joeybee12]

67. I can't imagine a bigger clusterphuck than if Hollywood tried to make Bonfire of the Vanities...

...into a movie...oh, wait.

Never mind.

[TK421]

70. Clive Barker's Weaveworld n/t

[begin_within]

74. Finnegan's Wake

because Hollywood, in their ineptitude, would accidentally turn it into something that makes sense.

[martymar64]

75. On the Road or Dharma Bums

They would be too wordy. However you could have some great panoramas of the American countryside.

I just think those books made as movies would be incomprehensible to the squares.

[msanthrope]

79. Confederacy of Dunces.....no one will ever get Ignatius right. n/t

[leeroysphitz]

80. The Lord of The Rings. n/t