Books to Movies --> what should be next?

[Whoknew5]

From the stuff I saw over the weekend about this miniseries, it looks like they've made some major changes that seem to work well. They've changed the Cylons and they've given us the reason why they are the only survivors from their world. The Cylons are their creations gone wrong. They evolved into human-like robots that are virtually indistinguishable from humans and they want to destroy their creators.

Well, that is partly right. SOME of the cylons have evolved into a human-like form (enter stage left #6) but the older models of Cylons still exist and present themselves (complete with their oscillating red light eye bar). There is a whole cylon evolution! I saw a clicp of the making of the cylons on the scifi website. I cannot wait to see the first half of the mini-series tonight!! ANd to see Gauis Baltar's reaction when he finds out that the woman he has been "seeing" is a robot!

 

[dwndrgn]

It's a shame they are starting it tonight as my football team (St. Louis Rams) will be on at the same time so I'm going to have to flip back and forth the whole time. But I wouldn't want to miss it.

 

[Whoknew5]

Battlestar v football

It's a shame they are starting it tonight as my football team (St. Louis Rams) will be on at the same time so I'm going to have to flip back and forth the whole time. But I wouldn't want to miss it.

Yeah, it is hard to compete with Monday night football, but you can always tape Battlestar, or TiVo, if you have it. There is so much significant dialogue that I do not want to miss out on...I mean to set the scene and the plot of the new show...what is Commander Adama's relationship with his son Apollo like now after the first war? Does Starbuck have a leadership role this time around, or is she a firecracker rookie? How does Baltar react to what #6 tells him?? And what is the fate of the Battlestar Galactica? Does it survive the new insurgence of Cylons?? I do not know how you can stay away...

 

[littlemissattitude]

Now that Tolkien has been succesfully filmed, how about other fantasy classics, maybe Moorcock's Elric books, the Thomas Covenenant books or, if that's a bit too heavy, some Eddings? I suspect most of the classic Eddings work would make for very entertaining cinema.

I guess there is no hope at all of anyone ever filming ER Eddisson's Ouroboros books, though.

I'd love to see the Thomas Covenant books done up really well like LOTR was. Oh, man, that would be something to see. Yeah, they are dark, but so is a lot of LOTR, really. The only time I've ever, and I mean ever, dreamed about books I've read was when I was reading the two trilogies and dreamed about The Land several times.

 

[Jayaprakash Satyamurthy]

Nice to see someone else who has read the Thomas Covenant books. They seem to be largely forgotten among many fantasy readers, and it's a pity. I have my reservations about Donaldson's skills as a writer - I feel his prose is just a tad pretentious, as shown by his extensive repitition of a 'Donaldson vocabulary' of portentuous words like 'anile', 'exigency', 'macerate' and so on, when simpler words would do as well, and he does in fact use simpler words for other concepts. But these two trilogies are among the few succesful fantasy works I've seen that consciously work against a few of the generic cliches, and it's amazing how Donaldson manages to convey a very vivid sense of The Land without indulging in the usual map-and-glossary routine.

I've also been wondering whether some of Cordwainer Smith's short stories could be turned into movies. A planet named Shayol would be my first candidate, followed by Mother Huttons Littul Kittuns or The Game of Cat and Dragon.

 

[dwndrgn]

I've read and enjoyed the Thomas Covenant books but it was so long ago I should probably do so again - I don't recall too much about them anymore. I'll have to see if my library has the first set (probably has just one, #2, that seems to be my luck these days!).

 

[littlemissattitude]

I read the Thomas Covenant books a long time ago, as well. It's been probably ten or twelve years, so it's about time to drag them out and read them again. I know what you mean, knivesout, about the 'Donaldson vocabulary', but I thought that it kind of added to the atmosphere of the narrative rather than detracting from it. Just a personal opinion. I think it is interesting that I did get that impression, as I ususally don't like it when writers do that.

I actually ended up going out and buying both trilogies simply because I couldn't find some of the volumes in the library, dwndrgn. So I understand your frustration. I'm glad I did buy them though; they were good enought that I would probably have gone out and bought them even if I hadn't needed to in order to finish the series.

 

[Crimson.King]

A song of ice and fire series should definately, no doubt, become a movie or a t.v. series. I would enjoy watching it,because of the battle seens. like the one at kings landing, or the battle for the wall when jon snow and the rest of the nights watch were saved by stannis baratheon at the last possible moment. I could go on and on about the series, because its that good. If u havnt read it i recommend u do. It sure would make as good a movie as the lord of the rings trilogy does. Not say that LoTR are bad movies, i am just saying that AsoIaF would make just a good of a movie if not better. Feel free to criticize me on my opinions, because i know all of u die-hard LoTR fans will.

 

[Jayaprakash Satyamurthy]

What about the Wheel of Time books? Personally I've gone off them, but they do seem to be one of the biggest-selling fantasy properties around. There's already been a computer game, a soundtrack and now a graphic novel. Perhaps a movie is out of question given the nature of the story but a mini-series is possible. But how do you think it would translate? Pacing is going to be a serious problem, they'll have to speed it up a LOT more than in the books especially the later ones to make any impact at all. The multiple settings will probably work better in a visual treatment, but will probably add a lot to production costs. And of course, there will have to be a cast of 1000s...

BTW, I'm probably a die-hard LoTR fan (although I've skipped the movies for some reason), but I don't think that's any reason to critique the idea of filiming any other fantasy series. I really have to read A Song of Fire and Ice soon, I seem to keep hearing such positive stuff about it.

On the SF front, I was just thinking that Ken MacLeod's books would make great movies, especially Cosmonaut Keep which has scenes that would be truly amazing on the wide-screen, including a spaceship landing sequence and a scene of alien greys in flying saucers herding dinosaurs off a cliff!

 

[BOHICA]

THere has been some talk about making The Wizard's First Rule into a film, whether or not it'll be more than one movie, I do not know. The book was great though, and a film would be oh so cool. Sometimes while reading it, I would think it was near x-rated though, because of the graphic nature of it all. The evil wizard does some pretty nasty things, and the killing is very graphic as well. I would love to see Salvatore's Dark Elf books brought to life too, I always loved those books. Salvatore's newest series is very good. The Hunter's Blade trilogy. Very good. THey would make good movies, with a little bit of history thrown in from his earlier books.

 

[LadyFel]

If they're going to do Salvatore, I'd actually prefer it to be the DemonWars saga, it has a bit more kick than Drizzt Do'Urden...although I enjoy reading him too...

As for Martin...Milamber mentioned 12 parts?? Maybe for the first three books...then they'd have to do as many more for the rest of the story...I keep getting these visions of a soap opera going for about 5 years by the time they get it all over...and I would LOVE to see that, there are actors out there that some of the roles must have been specially written for...Michael Wincott as Bronn, maybe...

Personally I'd like to see something of the Discworld on screen, I have part of the Soul Music cartoon but I didn't really enjoy it too much...One of the City Watch books, with Clint Eastwood in the role of Vimes and Arnie as Carrot...

 

[Aeolus14Umbra]

Hate to be the one to throw a spanner in the works, but I'm totally disillusioned with cinema today & believe the major studios just can't make a decent film any more!? LOTR is an exception, but I guess Peter Jackson was making films outside the Hollywood mould. (Anybody remember "Bad Taste"?).

I heard they're remaking "Logan's Run"...I'm cringing!!! ENUFF of the bloody remakes, sheesh...! "Lost in Space", "Planet of the Apes", "Godzilla"...sheer SACRILEGE!!!!!

I would like to see more underground/independent cinema. As for ideas for films adapted from novels, well there are too many to mention. Just PLEEEEASE, quit with the stupid CGI effects! (CGI=Crappy Graphics Insanity)

HP Lovecraft, now there's an interesting idea. There's an underground Aussie film called "Cthulhu"...but I haven't seen it. Lovecraft's short story "Call of Cthulhu" could make a rollicking supernatural adventure film!

Where's the Jim van Bebbers & the Roger Watkins hiding??

 

[dwndrgn]

Personally I'd like to see something of the Discworld on screen, I have part of the Soul Music cartoon but I didn't really enjoy it too much...One of the City Watch books, with Clint Eastwood in the role of Vimes and Arnie as Carrot...

I'd love to see Discworld on the screen but I'm afraid it wouldn't translate very well. As far as Squint as Vimes - I can see that one but Arnie as Carrot??? It would at least be amusing!

 

[Aeolus14Umbra]

I would love to see "Ringworld" put to screen! Once again tho', PLEASE don't make Nessus a stupid-looking CGI character!! ...(ie. Lucas/Spielberg - HANDS OFF!!)... Maybe Peter Jackson should have a crack at it after he does (ah-hem) "King Kong"??

 

[LadyFel]

I'd love to see Discworld on the screen but I'm afraid it wouldn't translate very well. As far as Squint as Vimes - I can see that one but Arnie as Carrot??? It would at least be amusing!

I don't know if you've had a chance to look through Paul Kidby's 'Pratchett Portfolio', he's the artist who's doing all the artwork for the books since Josh Kirby's sad death...

Anyway, he drew Carrot looking almost like an Arnie clone...

Mind you, whenever I think of people to play the roles in a movie I tend to see their ideal period as well...so let me rephrase that statement...Arnie 25 years ago in Conan...when he was still young and clean looking...

 

[Elohim is plural]

well pre-LOTR i never would have suggested attempting such large projects but...

kim stanley robinsons 'mars' trilogy
or even more ambitious
david windgrove's 'chung kuo'
EIP

 

[tonic]

Well I would love ot see George R R Martin's series made into a film but I don't think it should happen. Each book is so long and so complex that I think they would butcher it and ruin every aspect of his writing. They would have to cut down on a lot and change too much that I don't think that they could stay true to the plot even if they tried. Well, like I said it would be great but I don't think it will ever happen...Even on Martin's site he quotes

"...the sheer size and complexity of the books would make them very difficult to film. Peter Jackson is doing an astonishing job of bringing Tolkien's trilogy to the film, but he's needed three movies to do so. All three volumes of LORD OF THE RINGS put together are about as long as A STORM OF SWORDS. By that standard, it would require nine films just to cover the three books I've published so far, and probably nine more for the rest of the series. No studio is ever going to commit to eighteen films... "

I mean it is kind of crazy if you think about it.

 

[aftermath]

They should do either Wheel of Time or Song of Ice and Fire as anime, becasue that it the only way they're going to be able to get eveything in there. Or maybe Enders Game. I don't remember who wrote it, but it would be good. Also, have any of you heard about hte Hitchhikers Guide movie that is suposed to be in production now? I heard a rumour about it on Hypaspace (Space Channel )

 

[demigod.bran]

either discworld or thomas covenant. they would rock. discworld should be a series on sci-fi though. thomas covenant!! how many films would that make! oooh. many
many
now im excited.
cant wait till new series comes out this year. the end of the universe?? ooooh. sounds cwl. (sorry for the spoiler if u didnt know.)

 

[nemogbr]

The easier to make would be "Good Omens", definitely a better uptake on the whole Antichrist scenario.

They could also film the "Nomi Sunrider" of Jedi/Sith War fame.