What books would you like to see made into movies?

[mercutio_stencil]

When hollywood completely ruined the Golden Compass I think a good bit of my inner child turned cynical. I would not want them to make the other two books into movies, even if they fixed the Golden Compass.

I'm still amazed at how bad that movie was, even with great source material and great actors (or maybe well chosen actors is a better way to put it).

[bigglesworth]

It also had really good visuals.

It really was let down by an utterly atrocious script... any maybe the directing.

[freakish777]

The good Battletech books. So long as Michael Bay isn't directing.

[Jesse]

I haven't read everything, so this may have already been proposed, but I'd like to see the Robin Hobb books as a movie or tv show. Mainly I like the idea of watching a telepathic wolf! Although, then again I'm usually disappointed with adaptions (*i.e. 'Legend of the Seeker').

Noooooo thankyou. I love Hobb's books, and I highly doubt a movie would have the length, nor a tv show the budget to do them any sort of justice.

[dhokarena56]

Finnegans Wake, perhaps?

[maydayp]

Malazan Book of the Fallen series,
I've only read the first three books, I find them very hard to read (very different writing style), but I think they'd make awesome movies, if the cgi (special effects) were done well, and roles cast right.
Patrick Rothfuss' king killer trilogy (when it's finished).
same as above, except I can read it and it's awesome. really really really awesome.

the twelve houses series by Sharon Shinn would make an excellent production, though I think a mini series or actual series would suit it better then a movie (or how about the second to last book as a movie, and the rest as a series... they do that all the time, or they used to, with other shows)

[maydayp]

I don't see the value in having a beloved book made into a movie. A book with good descriptive prose comes alive to me in my mind, and the silver screen never quite matches my expectations.

What specifically would one expect to get from a film of Neuromancer that one couldn't get from the books? Is it even possible for a movie to maintain the complexity of a major work like the Hyperion cycle?

for me, the books I recommend have a lot of fighting, war scenes, in them. or they move around a lot. And I read too fast, and only have a limited knowledge about a lot of descriptive thing. So I DON'T get a good picture in my head. heck I can't even remember the character descriptions for most characters. they get forgotten as unimportant to the story.
So having them turn into movies would be good because It's no longer reduced to inaccurate voices. And the ability to show and talk makes it even more interesting.

Of course you also don't want to watch movies based on books with me, not if I've read the books. I remember too much of the facts, and get upset when they change them (the books I recommended are probably the exception, they are either basically ready for the big screen or wouldn't need to change much). that is unless they change Cammon like they did Harry Potter and friends for the movie (no messy hair and ugly glasses, to start with) .
I cannot watch the harry potter movies without getting pissed off about all the pointless changes that make it even harder to stay true to the plot. two of them that piss me off the most. ron kissing violet in stead of harry and ginny. and most of the second part of the 7th book's movies.

[cjmcjmcjmcjm]

The Big Book of Jerkcity

[Woopate]

"Why Johnny can't speed" was only a short story, but it would be an awesome action flick.

Premise: the police stop policing highways once cheap intercity trains are developed and popularised. People who take to the highway do so at their own peril, In heavily armed cars. Johnny's father retraces the route of his dead son seeking revenge.....

"want the armor piercing or incendiary rounds today?"

"alternate them."

I'm only half joking. Cars (without hokey scifi armor) with guns, and no apologies.

[lanicita]

There's a young adult novel called Flight 116 is Down! by Caroline Cooney, which was always one of my favorites. It's a character-driven story about a plane crash that occurs in the woods behind a teen girl's rural home, and the tiny town's efforts to save the survivors. I think it would make a fantastic teen-aimed movie.

[GangsterFiction]

I would have to jump on the 'Wheel of Time' bandwagon, having sat here for several minutes considering (and dismissing) a whole host of other possibilities. Then again, Robin Hobb's 'Liveship Traders' could be kinda cool, or maybe . . . Okay, I'm undecided.

[poleapple]

The Kingkiller Chronicles! A lot of scenes with Kvothe being witty and badass would be awesome to see in theatres.

[mercutio_stencil]

I just finished American Gods, and almost immediately thought it would make an awful movie. Then I learned that Neil Gaiman is writing for an HBO miniseries, Game of Thrones style. Now, against all odds, I'm pretty excited.

[PatrickRsGhost]

There's a young adult novel called Flight 116 is Down! by Caroline Cooney, which was always one of my favorites. It's a character-driven story about a plane crash that occurs in the woods behind a teen girl's rural home, and the tiny town's efforts to save the survivors. I think it would make a fantastic teen-aimed movie.

Sounds like it'd be one of those Made-For-TV ABC Family or Hallmark "Feel-Good" movies, the kind that are so sappy and heart-warming and teach valuable lessons that it'd make you puke or your head explode. Or both.

[raudorn]

My friend recently said he thought it would be awesome if Iain Banks' Player of Games, and Use of Weapons were made into movies. I agreed with him.

isn't the plot of UOW kind of important that you not recognise one of the characters? so i don't think it would translate well to screen to be honest. haven't read player of games though.

I'm necro'ing here, please forgive this humble necromancer.

True, but most of the flashback scenes are with the young version of those two very peculiar "brothers". Seeing one them in his late life might not necessarily spoil just who exactly we're seeing on screen. Hm good reason to read that book again. Then again, it's not as if that book needs any particular reason to be read time and times again.

Let's see about the other Culture books:

• Consider Phlebas would be trivial to make as a movie. That book is basically a script for a textbook space opera.
• Player of Games is hard though. Lots and lots of intraspection and I doubt anyone can make a good display of Azad. That game is supposed to be incomprehensible for outsiders. But I'd love see an live-action apex. Just for, uh, research.
• Matter would be best done by the crew behind Avatar. Rendering a whole bloody sphere world would be epic though. The plot itself also allows for moderate pacing. It jumps around a bit, but that can be rearranged.
• Excession. Hahahahahahahaha, no. It's a book about the Minds. The human romantic subplot adds to the atmosphere, but is ultimately unimportant.
• Look to Windward. Well nothing happening much (as in gun-blazing action), but with good dialog work and scenery porn this might be possible.
• Surface Detail. Yeah right, as if any producer would actually show the endless hell&torture scenes or the tidbits of virtual warfare. What's left might be a good movie on its own though.
• Inversions. While it's just barely a Culture novel, it's interesting alright. Comparably with historical novels. Anyone who can turn that into a good movie. would fare well with this book.
• The State of the Art. Do we list that? We list that. Well, make it a 70s documentary with fictional protagonists and we're good to go. Would be banned because of cannibalism though.

[freezeblade]

I really want to see the Niel Gaiman/Terry Prattchet book "Good Omens" be turned into a movie. I know that one was in the works with Terry Gilliam as the director, but the Gilliam curse has appeared to have affected this project.

Some of the scenes, if pulled off correctly, would be bloody fantastic. Like when War (one of the four horsemen, except they ride motorcycles) is camly drinking in some war-torn, contested territory's pub. Everywhere around him is this chaotic scene of people running around with flags, planting them in the ground proclaiming territory, only to be shot down or otherwise slaughtered by another rival faction.

I think Gilliam is just about the only person who would be able to pull this off, but alas, that damn Gilliam curse.

[ConMan]

I really want to see the Niel Gaiman/Terry Prattchet book "Good Omens" be turned into a movie. I know that one was in the works with Terry Gilliam as the director, but the Gilliam curse has appeared to have affected this project.

Some of the scenes, if pulled off correctly, would be bloody fantastic. Like when War (one of the four horsemen, except they ride motorcycles) is camly drinking in some war-torn, contested territory's pub. Everywhere around him is this chaotic scene of people running around with flags, planting them in the ground proclaiming territory, only to be shot down or otherwise slaughtered by another rival faction.

I think Gilliam is just about the only person who would be able to pull this off, but alas, that damn Gilliam curse.

Then there's some (almost) good news for you - Terry and his daughter Rhianna have started their own production company, and after they get involved in the TV series based on the Discworld's Night Watch books, they say they're tackling Good Omens.

[WarDaft]

I'd say the Void Trilogy by Peter F Hamilton, but it would take so many movies to do it properly that no one with a budget to do it would agree to do it.

[thalia]

I think Excession would make a great movie, actually, if done correctly!

[tms]

The Space Merchants

Childhood's End

Both were already considered, but no show yet.

[Izawwlgood]

Childhood's End

Guhwhoa, this would be amazing if done well.

Neuromancer. Evidently it's in the works right now, with Mila Jojojojojovitch as Molly.

[AvatarIII]

I'd say the Void Trilogy by Peter F Hamilton, but it would take so many movies to do it properly that no one with a budget to do it would agree to do it.

what if they just took the general concept, ripped out a lot of the guts, strip out Al Capone and Valisk and other sub plot stuff heavily cut back on some of the minor, and major characters such as Ione, and just made it into 3 movies centring around the Joshua Calvert Vs Quinn Dexter dynamic.

[bigglesworth]

The Space Merchants

This would be amazing. Imagine it done with the cast of Mad Men (not that they would, it's just a nice thing to imagine).

[Metaphysician]

I think I would like to see Snow Crash made into a movie... I don't know, it's always hard for me to visualize what a book would look like as a movie... the mediums are so different.

[rmsgrey]

I'd like to see Wheel of Time: The TV series as the next Game of Thrones, but that's optimism talking - generally, I consider adaptations to be worse than the original in most cases - which is not surprising when you consider that most adaptations are of works considered to be among the best of their kind...

I think the best bet for an adaptation would be to find a badly-written book with hidden promise and take it as inspiration rather than as gospel. That way, you've got a good chance of the new version being better than the original, and relatively few people picking up on every single detail you changed...

[ahammel]

I think the best bet for an adaptation would be to find a badly-written book with hidden promise and take it as inspiration rather than as gospel. That way, you've got a good chance of the new version being better than the original, and relatively few people picking up on every single detail you changed...

That's a pretty common tactic already.

[cjmcjmcjmcjm]

I'd like to see Wheel of Time: The TV series as the next Game of Thrones, but that's optimism talking - generally, I consider adaptations to be worse than the original in most cases - which is not surprising when you consider that most adaptations are of works considered to be among the best of their kind...

Actually, The Silmarillion would be an interesting TV series. Akallabêth would be a cool movie, though, maybe a TV-movie finale

[freakish777]

Neuromancer. Evidently it's in the works right now, with Mila Jojojojojovitch as Molly.

Huh, not at all what I would have pictured Molly/Sally, but hair dye, make-up, costumes, etc I suppose would fix all that.

Personally, I'm hoping this doesn't get green lit for say, 10 more years, I don't think audiences are ready for it yet, and I also think that would give it more time to work out any other issues (aside from it doing well at the box office) it may have.

All I know is, William Gibson better have absolutely no say in anything on this movie (like he did for Johnny Mnemonic).


EDIT:

Of all the Gibson books that could be made into movies, I think I'd rather see Pattern Recognition happen first. Directed by David Fincher.

[ahammel]

Of all the Gibson books that could be made into movies, I think I'd rather see Pattern Recognition happen first. Directed by David Fincher.

What would you do about the footage? It's a large part of the plot that the footage would be almost impossible to produce.

You'd have to either not show the footage, show—on screen—something which is supposed to be impossible to show on screen, or think up a new plot.

EDIT:

A Difference Engine movie could be rather awesome.

[freakish777]

What would you do about the footage? It's a large part of the plot that the footage would be almost impossible to produce.

You'd have to either not show the footage, show—on screen—something which is supposed to be impossible to show on screen, or think up a new plot.

What exactly is impossible to show? I mean, it's talked about in the book as being incredibly enthralling to viewers, without actually describing in any sort of detail what is happening on screen. I think you could get away with showing people's reactions to watching it, and even little snippets of the clips.

Think about how most computer activities are presented in film. They often times show the back of the monitor (so as what's on the screen isn't seen) and the person's face (or the contents of the screen out of focus and the person's face in focus). Occasionally you'll see what they're looking at, but not for long, or even only part of what they're looking at. The same as when you see a person in film opening a letter. You rarely see the words on the page. What you do see if the person opening the letter and then crying (old romance movies, or war movies where the mom is finding out her child is KIA), or excited (teen comedy, high school kid gets accepted to college), or getting angry (old romance movies, "Dear John"), etc.

Think the scene in Fincher's version of Girl With the Dragon Tattoo where she's writing SQL, to query the police database looking for information.

You can briefly make out that she's forming a SQL query, but unless you studied the frames as stills you wouldn't be able know what's going on with it. Likewise little tiny clips (or even partial clips) could be displayed, cutting back to Cayce/the viewer's emotional reactions/intent gaze.

I mean, it seems like a fairly common literary/film device, that when the plot involves some "super awesome" piece of art (or book), to avoid actually describing/showing it.

[ahammel]

What exactly is impossible to show? I mean, it's talked about in the book as being incredibly enthralling to viewers, without actually describing in any sort of detail what is happening on screen. I think you could get away with showing people's reactions to watching it, and even little snippets of the clips.

I thought there were meant to be technical aspects of the footage that made it nearly impossible to produce, which is why Bigend was interested.

It would have to be handled delicately, is all I'm saying.

[cjmcjmcjmcjm]

Quantum Mechanics by Griffiths

[Djehutynakht]

I often fantacize about many books being made into movies... my huge stipulation though is that in my mind each of these movies are actually cinematic masterpieces staying true to the story... obviously having these dreams translated to reality would be difficult.


As of lately, I'd want to see some cinematic geniuses get together and make a complete and ultimate masterpiece movie version of the timeless and great One Hundred Years of Solitude.

Part of me feels that you'd need to film it in Spanish... just because it simply calls for it, even if later translated into English.

The other thing is that it would be somewhat difficult to cut scenes out... so we're talking either a really, really long movie or maybe a two-part thing?

[SecondTalon]

I really want to see the Niel Gaiman/Terry Prattchet book "Good Omens" be turned into a movie. I know that one was in the works with Terry Gilliam as the director, but the Gilliam curse has appeared to have affected this project.

Some of the scenes, if pulled off correctly, would be bloody fantastic. Like when War (one of the four horsemen, except they ride motorcycles) is camly drinking in some war-torn, contested territory's pub. Everywhere around him is this chaotic scene of people running around with flags, planting them in the ground proclaiming territory, only to be shot down or otherwise slaughtered by another rival faction.

I think Gilliam is just about the only person who would be able to pull this off, but alas, that damn Gilliam curse.

Several months later, but...

Him? Did we read the same book?

[freezeblade]

I really want to see the Niel Gaiman/Terry Prattchet book "Good Omens" be turned into a movie. I know that one was in the works with Terry Gilliam as the director, but the Gilliam curse has appeared to have affected this project.

Some of the scenes, if pulled off correctly, would be bloody fantastic. Like when War (one of the four horsemen, except they ride motorcycles) is camly drinking in some war-torn, contested territory's pub. Everywhere around him is this chaotic scene of people running around with flags, planting them in the ground proclaiming territory, only to be shot down or otherwise slaughtered by another rival faction.

I think Gilliam is just about the only person who would be able to pull this off, but alas, that damn Gilliam curse.

Several months later, but...

Him? Did we read the same book?

It's been ages since I read it, so I may have been remembering it wrong, but that's how my brain remembers it.

[SecondTalon]

I just find that weird as I recall the book going on for longer than necessary about how War was a 25 year old incredibly beautiful (but terrifyingly so) woman.

[Zarq]

I read it a couple of months ago. War was definitely a woman.

[kazman_buttersnaps]

Any Kurt Vonnegut book. Just imagine that disaster.

[nemui10pm]

A Series of Unfortunate Events and A Separate Peace have both been adapted into films, but I don't think either achieved the full potential. I'd love to see a more faithful adaptation - but experience has taught me that this is very unlikely.

[MrHackman]

Thursday Next
Most Cory Doctorow books, but especially Makers, Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, and Little Brother
Homestuck
Rainbows End

This is cheeky, and I apologise in advance.

Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality.

Oh christ yes...