Books to movies

[Fearless Freep]

I was thinking that any of Donaldson's series would be good.  Either the Covenent books, the Mirror books, or the Gap series would be really cool

[trekgeezer]

I'm a broken record but here goes. Harry Harrison's The Stainless Steel Rat, which would have to star Bruce Campbell before he gets too geriatric to play the part.



Post Edited (07-06-05 11:04)

[LH-C]

The last time they remade The Hardy Boys it was for a short-lived 1995 syndicated series. (There was a Nancy Drew one as well.) Both were fair time-passers (but still a lot of fun), although I prefered HB because Colin Gray (now a documentary filmmaker) and Paul Popowich were very well cast as Frank and Joe. In this version Joe is in college, Frank is either a PI or a newspaper reporter (I can't remember which - it has been 10 years since I've seen the show), and their dad is now with either the CIA or INTERPOL or something (he's in at least 2 eps).
http://epguides.com/HardyBoys/

[Master Blaster]

I just needed an excuse to complain about "I Robot" again. :  )

[AndyC]

trek_geezer wrote:
> I'm a broken record but here goes. Harry Harrison's The
> Stainless Steel Rat, which would have to star Bruce Campbell
> before he gets too geriatric to play the part.

Oh yeah, I remember you've suggested that before. I love those books, and Bruce would be the man to play Slippery Jim.

[Jim H]

Ender's Game has sort of been in the works for a while.  It's listed on the IMDB as being directed by Wolfgang Peterson.

Myself, I'd love to see a film of the Bazil Broketail series.  Even in the current atmosphere though, I doubt it would get made.  Not popular enough, and it would damage the storyline if it was cut down to a PG-13.  Lots of extreme violence in the books, as they take place in a period of war (imagine if the LOTR books actually were 1/3 fighting, like the movies) - not to mention sex elements.  I love the characters and such though.  

Too bad the last book of the seven is such a disappointment.

[Mr_Vindictive]

Jim H,

I'm with you about Ender's Game.  That is still to this day, from my childhood, one of my favorite books of all time.  I read it atleast twice a year and it absolutely never gets old.

[Jim H]

"I'm with you about Ender's Game. That is still to this day, from my childhood, one of my favorite books of all time. I read it atleast twice a year and it absolutely never gets old."

Yep.  One of my favorites as well...  I have no idea if a movie will work.  It will be very hard to make it marketable, since the storyline is mature but the characters are not (I still don't understand why Ender's Game is listed at book stores as "youth" book).  Casting will also be hard.

I do have to say I found all the other books in the Ender's Game universe a disappointment, ranging for big disappointment (Speaker for the Dead), to gigantic disappointment (Children of the Mind).  Ah well.

[Mr_Vindictive]

Jim,

I've heard in the past that the other books aren't that good, so I've stayed away from them.  It's probably just that Card wanted to cash in on Ender's Game and wrote a whole bunch of novels following it.

If I'm not mistaken, there's even one that follows Bean.  I have a feeling that wouldn't be too good of a book.  lol

[AndyC]

I liked Speaker for the Dead, although it is a different kind of book from Ender's Game. Found the toughest part was pronouncing all the Portuguese names. Haven't read the rest of the series yet.

[Jim H]

"I've heard in the past that the other books aren't that good, so I've stayed away from them. It's probably just that Card wanted to cash in on Ender's Game and wrote a whole bunch of novels following it.

If I'm not mistaken, there's even one that follows Bean. I have a feeling that wouldn't be too good of a book. lol"

Speaker for the Dead is actually a good book.  My expectations were just very high, and it doesn't stand up to Ender's Game.  Xenocide is still readable, though far too long, and Children of the Mind enters "bad" territory.  I also found the behavior of the colonists ludicrous and unbelievable in their treatment of the piggies in Xenocide (people who've read it will know what I mean).

I own both Ender's Shadow, and Shadow Puppets (but not the third book, Shadow of the Hegemon).  I haven't read Shadow Puppets, but Ender's Shadow was decent.  Just, again, not even close to Ender's Game.  Probably the best part of the book is Bean's character development, which is done quite well.  About half the book is completely seperate from Ender, so there isn't as much retreading as you might think.

[AndyC]

I think two things really made Speaker for the Dead work for me. There is the basic idea of a futuristic travelling "preacher" of sorts, who takes decades to arrive and then conducts a lot of detective work to piece together the truth about someone. Even the idea of the speaking as a celebration of somebody's life, warts and all, is a cool idea.

The other thing that made it work is that Card had Ender travel enough to get really far into the future, so that we can fully see how history has judged him. I loved the way he had become both the greatest man in history and the most despised man in history to the same people, who had never even considered that they might be the same guy (or still alive). And he had to listen to comparisons of the two from people who had no idea who they were talking to. That was brilliant, and it just got better as characters started to piece together clues to the real identity of Andrew Wiggin.

We're really getting off topic here.

[Yaddo 42]

Ridley Scott was attached to the first version of "Dune" at one time, but went on to make "Blade Runner". This was after the notorious failed Alejandro Jodorowsky version fell through. You can Google around and find a couple of sites with info on all the early attempts to make "Dune". It's a shame all the Chris Foss designs for the Jodorowsky version nenver made it to the screen. But the planned film had little to do with the book.

I'd also love to see film version of Elric, but it would probably have to be anime to include the scale of things, the look of the people, the sense of doom, and the sheer violence of it all.

Cambell's an interesting choice of Slippery Jim, I usually suggest George Clooney, but that's just because he can play charming, cocky, criminal roles in his sleep. Harry Harrison said in a Starlog interview years ago, that his first choice for the role was Steve McQueen. So that should give you an idea how long the book has been getting optioned and film versions have been falling through.

I would love a TV miniseries version of Kim Newman's "Anno Dracula" books, or just the first one. The mix of real historical figures and major and minor characters from all kinds of pop culture, some quite obscure, would make for great cameos. All thrown into a story about what if Dracula had won in Stoker's novel, and Newman's ideas about what Drac was really up to coming to England.

On a more literary front, I wish someone would make a film of Cormac McCarthy's "Blodd Meridian". A brutal, dark, nightmarish take on westerns and white/Indian/Latino relations at the time. Ever since I saw "Reign of Fire" I decided that Matthew McConaughey would be perfect for the role of the Preacher when he gets older and if he lets himself go a bit for the role.

[Master Blaster]

http://www.duneinfo.com/unseen/

The most informative link I've found so far on the subject. HR Geiger was attatched to the project as well. All the design work looks amazing. I think the Mobius designs for the characters were dead on even though the plan was'nt to follow the novel.

[Yaddo 42]

I think that's the site I found before. The mind reels at the thought of all the people who were going to be involved with that film. Jodorowsky, Geiger, Chris Foss, Mobius, Salvador Dali, Pink Floyd, David Carradine, etc. Probably would have been a huge self-indugent train wreck. But what a beautiful train wreck it could have been. Ah well, just a cult movie pipe dream in the end.