Books to be Movies

[Sigma Castell]

Perdido Street Station would make a fantastic film, but it would most likely cost such a ridiculous amount of money that it could never be done. The sheer amount of SFX that would have to be used would probably melt the computers. However, it is one of my greatest wishes to see it on the big screen
Also, the Infernal Devices quadrilogy would be perfect for the cinema. Who doesn't love gigantic cities on catapillar tracks rolling around and eating everything? plus there's robot zombies as well.

 

[dmase]

A film is a mistake. There is just too much to cover. The seven books (I know there are Eight but while Wind through the Keyhole was good it's mostly unimportant) would need to be at least ten films.
A TV series would be more doable. You could probably manage that in six or seven series.

Series One
The Gunslinger (Feature length pilot)
The Drawing of The Three.
First half of Waste Lands (End of season as they reach Lud?)

Series Two
Second half of Waste Lands.
Three quarters of Wizard and Glass (End season just before it all gets serious)

Series Three
Last quarter of Wizard and Glass.
First half of Wolves of the Calla.

Series Four
Second half of Wolves of the Calla.

Series Five
Song of Susannah.

Series Six
First half of The Dark Tower.

Series Seven
Second half of The Dark Tower.

When the project was more realistic they where actually planning on doing a tv series with several movie tie-ins. Of course movie tie-ins are usually low-budget and suck, unless there of a cartoon/anime property. Of course I'm hesitant to believe anything is in the works anymore.

 

[iwinatlife]

There are Rumors that HBO is looking to maybe do Wheel of Time as a series which excites and terrifies me in almost equal measures

I also think that the Night angel Trilogy would make an excellent Anime or a good Tv Show and a decent series of Movies

 

[Albino Boo]

Any of the Stephen Donaldson series. I think the Thomas Covenant books would work best. 10 novels, each with overlaps but only a few characters going from book to book.

However, I'd like to see a proper epic style-y film about the Peninsular War, or perhaps just a part of it just for the battle scenes (a la Waterloo by deLaurentiis). That or a film charting the lead up to the battle of Trafalgar, that'd be awesome (that is, with 60 ships of the line involved and all that good stuff)...

Unfortunately I don't think that will ever happen because of the old no Americans involved problem. Trying to sell a 300 year old war, in which the US played a minor part and they got beaten in, to the average American is perhaps a step too far. After the success of Lincoln at the box office perhaps we might get a Grant biopic which could have a massed battle scenes. I think the US civil war is the closet that we are going to get to Napoleonic warfare.

 

[shatnuh]

Well, here's my arbitrary "long time lurker, first time poster" line.

Now, the answer here is clearly Hyperion by Dan Simmons. There's been some rumors that it may become a tv show akin to Game of Thrones, and that Bradley Cooper could be involved. The first two novels, or better known as the Hyperion Cantos (Hyperion, followed by the Fall of Hyperion) would probably have to be stretched out over three movies. If they made two, I imagine they could weave a lot of the Pilgrim's stories over the plot effects of The Fall of Hyperion, but you would lose some context. And if it was successful, they have a beautiful sequel/successor series that holds the potential to be one of the most visually inspiring works of film and media, ever, (Endymion, and subsequently, The Rise of Endymion).

I also wonder if anyone around here has read this series, or at least the first two. And if so, why have I not seen any posts about how Mass Effect 3's ending was a carbon copy ripoff of the The Fall of Hyperion? It's so obvious! In fact, the Reapers as a whole function almost exactly like the malicious sect of the TechnoCore. Blowing up all the Mass Relays is exactly what they did in Hyperion with the Farcasters. Mass Effect 3's ending was a lot of things, but one thing I haven't seen written is that it's a near direct ripoff of Hyperion, and that lack of originality is the most grievous offense of Mass Effect.

TL;DR

Hyperion series, bitches. And then Endymion.

 

[shatnuh]

Also, forgot to throw in Dune Messiah. Best book in the series, by far the easiest to condense into a movie.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Well I always wanted to see Catcher in the Rye turned into a movie but I think that would be hypocritical considering the book's stance towards film, Salinger's own spite for Hollywood and the fact that the movie wouldn't be that good to begin with. Also I'm sure you can't get two people to agree on the same actor for Holden.

Lately I've been reading a lot of Phil K Dick and consider each and every one of his books to be film-able. I hear Ubik and The Man in the High Castle are getting adaptations but who knows?

 

[kyuzo3567]

The Codex Alera.

Think Lord of the Rings with Pokemon. Then multiply the battle scale by at least 5. The last battle in the book consists of an army of millions assaulting a fortress while the main character and the big bad duke it out while standing on a giant the size of Mount Everest. Which is also trying to kill both of them. Tell me that's not awesome!

I would not describe that series as LOTR with Pokemon... I would say LOTR mixed kind of with Avatar: LA just cuz it's basically element bending they do most of the time...

Damn I don't know how to describe it properly now

 

[Shoggoth2588]

While I know there were some smaller film-adaptations and I think TV mini-series made from them, I would love to see a full on film adaptation of just about any of the Discworld books. I loved Hogfather but I really want to see a live-action film adaptation of Soul Music...also Reaper Man...also Mort. Really any of the books centered around Death of the Discworld...and Unseen University.

 

[Some_weirdGuy]

Mortal Engines series by Phillip Reeve.

It's about cities... that move... and eat each other.

It's actually a really cool series, and a rather neat setting/premise. (it's handled fairly seriously despite how i make it sound above XD. Traction cities capture and disassemble small cities, taking their resources and fueling their own continued movement, in efforts to avoid yet bigger cities who would hunt down them... it's called Municipal Darwinism )

 

[Yojoo]

Speaker for the Dead. They're already making one for Ender's Game, but if that does well, I'd love for Speaker to get the 3-hour long epic treatment.

As much as I love Speaker for the Dead and all of the sequel books, they're mostly philosophical discussions in the form of fiction, and lack the action that Ender's Game could bring to a movie. You and I might line up to see such a film, but I doubt it would get much attention.

I might be more interested in the Shadow series following Bean, which could be possible depending on how popular Bean's character is in the upcoming Ender's Game film. There's a lot more room for, well, "movie moments" in that series. Though it might be tricky to pull off since there's no way they'd film Ender's Shadow after Ender's Game since the two novels are simply the same story from different perspectives.

 

[SonOfVoorhees]

The Descent - Jeff Long (amazing book - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Descent_%28novel%29) well worth anyones time. Love that book.

Flood - Richard Doyle This is about a flood that hits London, and for anyone who lives and works in london, its a must read. So much research went into this its amazing. From the government, Flood barrier and everything in between. Such an epic scale. Lots imaginative visuals.

The Damnation Game - Clive Barker (Great story and characters)
Weaveworld - Clive Barker - (Very imaginative, amazing chracters)
The Great & Secret Show/Everville - Clive Barker (2 parts of a trilogy - amazing chracters and story)
Imajica - Clive Barker (Ok, more great chracters and story)

I admit those are my favorite books that ive always wanted to see a movie of, or better movies with regards to Flood (or a tv series would be awesome.). Very imaginative stories with twisting and turning plots. Some are long and complicated so i think would work better as a tv series. Especially Imajica, more originality than 80% of all books on the "fantasy" section of a bookshop.

I really wish i had Bill Gates billions of pounds of cash. I would totally invest in a tv series or movies of these books.

 

[RyQ_TMC]

*snip*

Mass Effect liberally borrowing from Hyperion used to be brought up constantly around the time when ME2 catapulted the series to hit status. I'm guessing people just tired of it.

OT: The Witcher books. Especially since they've never been brought to the big screen. Nor has a TV series ever graced our TVs. Oh, how sad is it to live in a world where The Witcher has never, under any circumstances been adapted to the screen...

*breaks down crying*

... anyway, now that I got that off my chest, I'd love to see a Discworld movie starring the UU Faculty. You'd need a bunch of comedians with really good chemistry to pull it off, though. And we'd have to hold a cage fight between Stephen Fry and Brian Blessed for the privilege of being Mustrum Ridcully.

 

[Longstreet]

Darren shan books.

When i heard there was a movie bout the first 3 or so books (yea 3 books in 1 movie...) i was happy

Then i saw the movie. The horror. THE HORROR!

 

[Yopaz]

Darren shan books.

When i heard there was a movie bout the first 3 or so books (yea 3 books in 1 movie...) i was happy

Then i saw the movie. The horror. THE HORROR!

There was never a Darren Shan movie. There was a movie that pretended to be one then ruined the entire series and actually ruined what was supposed to be a major plot twist in the late books.

OT: I would like to see a mini series made form The Wheel of Time books, I would love a movie, but I suspect there's just too much for even 14 movies.

 

[spartan231490]

Vlad Taltos series. i think its one of the few books i've read that would translate well into a movie

 

[TheRightToArmBears]

If they had a big budget, I'd love to see an Edge Chronicles film. There is so much wonder and fantaticness in the world and setting, it could make for an incredible visual experience

This is a fantastic idea. I read a few of them when I was younger and the setting is fantastic, and we've got the technology these days to really make it work. It would need a good director though, the only guy I can think of that I wouldn't mind doing it is Guillermo Del Toro.

 

[Auron225]

The Hunger Games - as soon as I finished the first book, I was seriously counting down the days to when the film came out!

I'd love to see the Dustlands trilogy in film but I doubt that will happen for a long time at least. The 3rd one hasn't even been written yet and so few people seem to know that it even exists but they're amazing! =) Blood Red Road is the first one, in-case anyone is curious.

 

[Dangit2019]

Speaker for the Dead. They're already making one for Ender's Game, but if that does well, I'd love for Speaker to get the 3-hour long epic treatment.

As much as I love Speaker for the Dead and all of the sequel books, they're mostly philosophical discussions in the form of fiction, and lack the action that Ender's Game could bring to a movie. You and I might line up to see such a film, but I doubt it would get much attention.

Yeah, but wasn't the same argument made against the LOTR movies? And they became smash hits? Yeah, they were one in a million, but if all we're talking about is hypotheticals, it wouldn't do bad if a more actiony movie like Ender's Game got good box office numbers.