Books you'd like to see as movies
 

It seems a lot of really good books are being turned into movies lately, with varying degrees of success. This thread is a sort of "wish list". Feel free to cast people into the movies you'd like to see. For example:

L. Ron Hubbard's Mission Earth series, starring
- Brad Pitt as Jettero Hellar
- Val Kilmer as Soltan Gris

Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series, starring
- Me as Rand
- Edward Norton as Mat
- ? as Perrin
- ? as Egwene
- Kirsten Dunst as Elayne
- ? as Nynaeve
- Sean Connery as Thom
- ? as Moraine
- The Rock as Lan

Can anyone help me fill in the blanks for the Wheel of Time chars?

"Outside, even through the shut window pane, the world looked cold. Down in the street little eddies of wind were whirling dust and torn paper into spirals, and though the sun was shining and the sky a harsh blue, there seemed to be no color in anything except the posters that were plastered everywhere."

I'd love to see a decent adaptation to 1984, the George Orwel masterpiece. With the populatiry of philosophical/political/religious/paranoia/futurism movies like The Matrix, it might be time for people to get something of real substance out of hollywood. It's a shame that Kubrick isn't around to give it life.

Before you go wishing for another L Ron Hubbard adaptation, just remember the travesty that was "Battlefield: Earth". They took the first half of the book (The only good segment, I barely made it through the last 500 pages) and played some kind of sick prank on sci fi fans everywhere.

As for me, I'd love to see another adaptation of The Grapes of Wrath. Sure, it wouldn't beat the 1940 version but can you picture a better Tom Joad than Jim Caviezal? Or a better Preacher than Harry Dean Stanton?

Something else for the wishlist is an adaptation of Peter F. Hamilton's 3500+ page Night's Dawn trilogy. With:

Joshua Calvert - Jason Carter (Babylon 5)
Ralph Hiltch - Kiefer Sutherland
Syrinx - Michelle Branch (Don't ask me why, just think she'd be perfect)
Alkad Mzu - CCH Pounder
Quinn Dexter - Gary Sinise

Not that that movie will ever happen, but a man can dream...

I'll be the wet blanket and say that I wish NO books to be made into movies. They're never as good as the original, and a good 80% of the time suck ass.

I agree that the majority of book adaptations are pretty awful, and there isn't one I've seen that's as good as the book. But I wouldn't want adaptations to be abolished completely simply because there are films that do justice to their source material and stand on their own merits as movie masterpieces. For example:

-The Godfather
-The Thin Red Line
-Solaris
-Lawrence of Arabia
-Don't Look Now

Remember; we wouldn't have these if people didn't adapt books into movies.

I would love to see the Wheel of Time series made into a movie or a mini-series at the very least, but since the books are so long and the scope so large, it would probably pale in comparison to the books themselves.

Even so, I would love to see a mini-series adaptation of them....maybe from the folks at the Sci-Fi channel.

I wouldn't want known actors to play the part as I would much prefer an unknown cast with maybe a 'star' or two thrown in for bit parts.

I would also like to see a couple of the "Incarnations of Immortality" books made into little mini-movies just to see what they would be like.

the black company as a mini serries or tv show on sci fi

a Game of thrones as an epic by peter jackson

Survivor by Chuck Palahniuk

I don't know who should play whom...but it would make an excellent movie..

any and all Palahniuk books.

Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire

Aliens vs. Predator: Prey

I know they are making a movie from the book "The DaVinci Code" but I also just finished the prequel to that book..."Angels and Demons". I thought it was a great story....so much going on, just short of 24 hours.

On second thought...it would be difficult tell that story in 2 hours or so......Let's make it a TV show or a mini-series.

isn't the Davinci Code being made into a movie? that's what i thought i heard

i would like to see 1984 made into a movie (as someone had said above), and also Jumper by Steven Gould. i must have read that book like 10 times a few years back

I *would* put a Clive Cussler book, but since that has finally become a reality....

I've always thought that The Catcher In The Rye would make a good movie, what with all the shenanigans that Holden gets into in the book. It would be hard to make it not depressing as hell though.

1984 was already made into a movie starring John Hurt as Winston, and it was actually not too bad.

I would love to see any of the series written by R.A. Salvatore involving Drizzt D'Urden tured into movies.

Piers Anthony's Incarnations of Immortality series
L.J. Smith's The Vampire Diaries & The Secret Circle series
Maggie Shayne's vampire books
The Forever King
Jostein Gaarder's "Maya," "The Solitaire Mystery," and "Sophie's World"

a tad off topic but id have to say the adaption of shawshank redemption was pretty damn close to being just as good as the short story of it

edit: and for a movie i think "The Stand" by stephen King would make an interesting movie(s) although i think it would be really really long

Two other people beat me to the Incarnations of Immortality series - that is great.

Arther C. Clarke - The Light of Other Days
Chuck Palaniuk - Choke

skinnymofo-Have you seen The Stand miniseries?

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OT:
I think American Gods has the possibility of a great movie in it, and I also think it would be butchered beyond watching if it was ever greenlit.

On another Gaiman note, Stardust would make an excellent animated movie.

A book called Chasm City by Alliester Reynolds would be an amazing movie. It's a sci-fi mystery, one of the finest ever written imo.

Odd Thomas and The Taking are two Koontz books I'd like to see on screen, but really, they're much too cliched.

All in all, though, most books I've enjoyed I'd prefer never to see as movies. Too hard to translate, and too much hollywood bullshit.

True, I suppose it'd technically be a remake, but I'd like to see something that isn't 50 years young. 1984, out in 1956, was a trmendous movie, and for it's time it was quite simply amazing. Now that the movie industry has taken over, it might be interesting to see it's reemergernce. A new 1984 might also help to open some very closed minds.

The Art of Kama Sutra. ;)

Although I've pretty much outgrown my StarWars fanboy phase, I would enjoy seeing a lot of the books turned into movies (done well, of course). The original cast could play their characters, since they did a pretty bang-up job of it.

Ender's Game Series by Orson Scott Card. But I am frightened by the thought that Orson Scott Card thought Jake Lloyd (Mannequin Skywalker) was a good actor.

How about the UK movie, "Nineteen Eighty-Four" (that's why it didn't show up on your IMDB search) that was released in 1984? It's actually a pretty good movie - I have the DVD.

Hmmm....how about Hemingway's (Ernest) "Old Man and the Sea"? It is relatively short and easier to adapt.

Maybe Edward James Olmos as the "old man"? I dunno...it's late.

Hey, wasn't there a whole bunch of Indiana Jones serials? That would be cool.

Or, does anyone remember the youth books "The Three Investigators" (I think it was a Hitchcock series or somethin'). It would make a cool TV series for "Nick" or something.

Ok, it's late....

Apparently not too late for me. Jupiter Jones and Bob...Crenshaw and...the other guy. That was a decent series for children.

Myself, I'd like to see The Elfstones of Shannara. I MIGHT be getting Confederacy of Dunces, but talk about that seems to have died again. :(

Man, I LOVED those books when I was around, I guess, 11 or 12. I'm waiting for my nephew to be old enough and I'll try to track down copies to give to him.

I'd like to see Pat Conroy's "Beach Music" made into a movie. I can't remember the book that well since it's been a while since I read it, but I really liked it (and the movie adaptations of his books "Prince of Tides," "Lords of Discipline," and "The Great Santini" were pretty decent).

Wow, I thought I was the only one who read those books (Three Investigators). SO, do you guys think it would make a good series (tv) for pre-teens and/or teens?

Jupiter Jones
Robert Crenshaw (records & research)
Pete?

[QUOTE=Slavakion]I'll be the wet blanket and say that I wish NO books to be made into movies. They're never as good as the original, and a good 80% of the time suck ass.[/QUOTE

I agree. It's rare to have an adaptation that is a work of art in its own right. I don't know why movie creators don't focus on creating new original works that use the strength of the medium rather than adapting things created for an entirely different medium. Books are written with text in mind - they rely on things like 3rd-person narration, metaphor, allusion, and all the other qualities of books to tell their story. Movies have different strengths, and new stories should be created that use those strengths, instead of just plundering the work of authors.

Bingle

As a long time Cussler fan, I was really excited when they decided to do Sahara, but geez the people they have picked for the cast UGH!!!

I would love to see Outlander by Diana Gabaldon as a movie or miniseries, done right I think it could be awesome.

/The Stand as a mini series was totally awesome.....one of the best I've seen

I've heard news of them making a movie for this, and Card actually wrote the screenplay. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0400403/ I hope they capture the true spirit of the novel, and don't just turn it into a Hollywood-ized action flick.

I would absolutely love to see Stephen King's Dark Tower series turned into a (hopefully high budgeted) series. I read rumors that the creator of Samurai Jack wants to make an animated movie based on the books, which would actually be pretty neat I think.

I got curious enough to Google it. I was wrong, it was Pete Crenshaw and Bob Andrews. I only read a handful of them, like Purple Pirate, Monster Mountain, Wandering Cave Man, but they were good stuff. I think it could make a good tv series, and there are over 50 (some apparently written in the late 80s and some German ones from the 90s).

Good luck on tracking down some early "The Three Investigators" books. I've priced some in the 3 figures area.

I agree that they would make a pretty good series.
Especially if they get their secret headquarters right.

I would hope if they did do a series, they would include their Alfred Hitchcock-like mentor.
Or was he supposed to actually be Hitchcock?

Wow you guys,

Kadath, Fremen: you are taking me down amnesia lane! I'm starting to recall the books and how I pictured the "secret headquarters" in my imagination.

The Hitchcock thing always confused me: In the later books, he actually helps them a little. SO, did Hitchcock sponsor the series? What was his involvement?

Man, they need to reprint! I got all mine from the library when I was a kid. 3 figures, so they were popular! Hmmmm....maybe we can start a revival.

So they were still being written in the late 80s and 90s. That means there are books I haven't read!

no i havent, i had heard they were making something for the book a few times but i never knew they actually did it, i always passed it off as here say

The Stand miniseries was made 11 years ago in 1994

regarding the thought that most books turned into movies aren't good, well, most movies in general aren't good.
also, every kubrik film was better than the book, 2001, the shining, a clockwork orange, etc.
i'd like to see someone tackle dellilo's white noise. that would be a laugh riot! or nabokov's pale fire.. that would destroy...! i can't think of a good kinbote, but if anyone can, i'm all ears.

I haven't read 2001, but The Shining is definitely a better book than a movie, by far. The movie doesn't even get the characters personalities right. As for A Clockwork Orange, the movie did bring the graphic violence and such to life but again the book was far more detailed and interesting.

So i just finished reading The DaVinci Code. I know they are already making this into a movie. It sure reads like one. I actually thought the writing wasn't that great. But the characters are made for a movie. Woulda liked to seen someone besides Hanks get the main role, someone a bit more aloof and sort of spacey as that is what the character is about, but we shall see.

Does anoyone else have thoughts about this?

I have just started the DaVinci Code.....now that I know Hanks is in it, I think Its gonna be real hard to read the book and "see" him....I hope it doesnt ruin it for me

Wow, dude. It would.

Maybe I just have the guy irrevocably connected to Palahniuk in my head, but I think Ed Norton would be a brilliant Tender Branson. You'd need somebody who could do fractured-but-smooth for Adam... Let's see... 15 years ago I'd have said Dennis Leary. Who's today's Dennis Leary?

Oh, wait... Tender and Adam are twins, aren't they? Okay, now we're in trouble. One actor who can do both roles... Geez. Hm. Val Kilmer's a little old for the part, but he could play it. Maybe Jude Law, with some really good dialect coaching.

I think most Palahniuk books would make good films, but you'd have to have a director/screenwriter who was willing to be as true to the essence of the thing as Fight Club was.

Diary would make a decent film. Choke would be okay, although it goes in a lot of different directions. Lullaby would be GREAT on film.

I would disagree strongly about The Shining. The two forms are both good, each has strong points, and I wouldn't say either is better. As for 2001, it was a movie before a book and Clarke helped write the screenplay before he wrote the book to flesh out some other things, so it doesn't apply to the "book turned into movie" category.

There were 2, one with Spencer Tracy that had little to do with the book if I recall, and one with Anthony Quinn that was pretty good.




I'd love to see anything by Neal Stephenson, but I don't think Hollywood would ever do any of his stuff justice. Maybe as Anime or cartoons.