Books to movies

[ErikJ]

I know something similar to this has been done but let's see if I can throw a little twist to it. The Lord of the Rigs have been done and now we wait for the Chronicals of Narnia to begin this December (why start with book 2 doesn't make sense)
But my question is what series of books would you love to see made into movies.

I myself would like to see the Dragonlance books in film. And I'm refering to the core series by Weise and Hickman. My fears with that would the budget and then way too much CGI.

What about the rest of you?

[Master Blaster]

Another stab at Dune could work. Maybe with Ridley Scott or David Fincher this time. With the Sci Fi channel version it might be overkill though.

How about the Hardy Boys?

[Zapranoth]

The previews of the Chronicles of Narnia, that I have seen, have given me the willies so far.  Am I unusual in that reaction?

I see the troops on the battlefield, and it makes me think that the fields of Pelennor have been brought to Narnia.  (I know it's the same crew as from LoTR.)  It feels weird and wrong to have Lewis' work being about a huge war -- which was part of it, but not nearly the emphasis of it.  But maybe the spin of the preview is just that, spin.  Shall see... but I'm worried that the adaptation will be ghastly.

[AndyC]

If Dune got the same treatment as LOTR, that would be amazing.

Of course, Erik's typo has me thinking of an even better movie. Lord of the Rigs! Basically, Lord of the Rings as a trucker movie. Wow!

Seriously though, there are loads of SF&F stories I'd love to see in movie form. Arthur C. Clarke's Rama series is one of those epic stories offering human drama, breathtaking visuals and lots of cool critters. Of course, only the last three books function as a single story. The first, which sets it all up, was written years earlier, is set decades earlier, and is really a different story. Kind of similar to the relationship between LOTR and The Hobbit. Mind you, the Rama series wouldn't work nearly as well without the first book.

Also wouldn't mind seeing movies of Ender's Game (although Hollywood could seriously mess that up), or Man Plus, or the Foundation series. Oooo, that would be a good one.



Post Edited (07-05-05 16:15)

[Three Oranges]

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is the first Chronicles of Narnia book.  There was a book written that set before the events in that book, but it was written long after the The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

One publisher or other foolishly ordered the books into order of events rather than order of writing, and some folks have been confused by it.

[Mr_Vindictive]

Not exactly a group of books that follow with the same characters, but I would love to see the various short books by Richard Bachman (Stephen King) see the light of day on film.

It might work better as a TV show with a different book taken on each week, but it would make an interesting anthology film as well.  Consider the work that the guy did in his early years:

Rage
Long Walk
Running Man
Roadwork

Rage is one that I would ESPECIALLY like to see made into a film.  My wife got me to read it shortly after we got married, and I absolutely loved it.  I do think that it would have some trouble during production due to the fact that it's about a school shooting...well a school hostage situation at least.

Running Man and Roadwork would both be at the top of my list as well.  Sure the Arnie Running Man was decent, but I'd love to see one that followed the book more closely.  And Roadwork.....wow.....I can only imagine what a skilled actor would be able to do with this screenplay.  The plot goes as follows - Guy gets told that his house is being demolished in order to make an overpass (Douglas Adams anyone?).  He then goes to a gun shop, spends all of his money on weapons and fights with everything he has until his death.  Fantastic, nihilistic work.

[Master Blaster]

Foundation would be a tough one to make into a movie. Still I'd go see it. After what they did to "I Robot" however I'd be very weary.

[The Burgomaster]

Doc Savage.  They tried it once with Ron Ely, but the movie was pretty silly.  I have almost all of the Doc Savage books (there are well over 100 of them, reprinted from Doc Savage Magazine, which was published in the 1930s and 40s).  This is far-fetched pulp fiction at its best.  The correct writer and director team could make a nice series out of some of the books.

[ulthar]

One thing I've learned from this board recently is that short stories adapt better to movies than novels (sorry, but I forget who said it).  The Thing is a notable example.

We (the viewers/readers) are almost always disappointed in movie adaptations of novels.  But, I have come to believe that short stories can be done much more faithfully to the original work.

With that out there, I'd like to see more FAITHFUL adaptations of solid short stories.  The Hotter/Hottest Blood anthologies are collections of sexual horror (there's also The Shudder collections I Sudder at Your Touch and Shudder Again); some of these stories would make wicked movies.

Take, for example, Llama by Bentley Little.  This is one c-r-a-z-y story. Basically, the 'narrator' sees numerical patterns and meaning in everything around him.  Here's an excerpt from the opening section:

Measuring:
The leg of the Llama was three feet two inches long.
And everything fell into place.
Three feet two inches was the precise length of space between the sole of my lynched father's right foot and the ground.
By the time my wife's contractions were three minutes and two seconds apart, she had only dilated 3.2 centimeters and the decision was made to perform a Caesarean.
My wife was declared dead at three-twenty.
The date was March 20.

Imagine that as the set-up for a whole movie taking place in a cop interview room (a la Usual Suspects type scenes?).  Or perhaps in the disjointed clues left by a Serial Killer per Seven?

Another I remember is from a LONG time ago in a collection of short stories called The Beserkers.  The name of the story was Draumaturge (sp?) I THINK.  Anyway, the story was that this couple wanted to have a baby but could not.  Through a friend, they met this guy who could make it happen, but his fee was their first born.  Halfway into the pregnancy, they decide they don't want to give up the baby, so they plan to 'disappear.'  The rising action follows their desparation to find a place that this dude cannot catch up with them, real psychological thriller stuff.  The climax is the very last sentence, in an Emily Dickinson-esque sort of way.  Great story that I have read once and not forgotten for twenty-five or so years.

There is a LOT of potential material in short stories, with fewer characters and single directed plot (no subplots) driving the action to a clear pinacle.  Again, I cite The Thing for just how well this can work.

[dean]

I agree with Ulthar, short stories are a very good resource for movies, especially when new novels have a hardcore fan base.

I don't know how many people may know him, but I am a big fan of Matthew Reilly's work.  He's an Australian author and his novels are full of action aplenty.  It reads much like an action film script and they are very entertaining.  They'd translate really well onto the big screen and have enough plot twists and action scenes to make it different to usual action flicks.  

His second novel, 'Ice Station' is a particular favourite of mine.  Its about a group of marines sent to a station in the antarctic to protect a discovery made by scientists there: they have discovered a spaceship in the ice.  If you are a fan of action in general, I'd say that these books would satisfy anyone's action needs.

But that being said, I'd personally prefer that Hollywood comes up with more original stuff instead of the endless adaptations and sequals.

[Fearless Freep]

How about Larry Niven's "Ringworld" or "Integral Trees"?

Maybe some of Elric from Micheal Moorcock?

[AndyC]

Well, my suggestions are really based on the books getting into the hands of somebody with some respect for them.

[AndyC]

Ringworld would be sweet. Loved the first book. Found that the later ones blurred the line between science fiction and fantasy a bit more than I like, but that could be good too. It certainly is a vast world offering lots of different adventures.

The Mote in God's Eye would be great too, but it would be really tough to adapt.

Lucifer's Hammer, although the idea has been used plenty, would be great if it were adapted faithfully. Might work better as a TV miniseries though.

Getting out of Larry Niven and into alternate history, I would love to see a series of movies based on Harry Turtledove's Worldwar trilogy. Overconfident aliens who haven't seen Earth since the middle ages land their invasion force in the middle of WWII. That would rock on the big screen.

[odinn7]

They Thirst
It's a vampire novel and has the distinction of being the only book I've ever read twice. If that could be made true to the book, the movie would be awesome. It's probably best that it doesn't get touched.

[onionhead]

Ur-viles, waynhim, Drool Rockworm, the Staff of Law--Hellfire!  What about the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever?  Probably a lot of CGI would be involved, but the seige of Revelstone would be kick-ass.  The Ravers gave me nightmares when I was younger.  The books were well recieved critically and popularly, so I think it's high time for some big screen treatment of these neoclassics.