Which novel would you LEAST like to see as a film, and why?

[Orcadian]

The group has previously discussed which books we would like to see filmed (thread 533033) - but not the opposite. I'm interested in what properties of the novel/series you think will cause script writers and directors to make a pig's ear of it.

Personally I'm terrified of them trying to film Cherryh's work. It is complex, subtle, mostly devoid of scenes requiring exciting special effects. There are myriads of shadowy players, it takes hundreds of pages - sometimes several books - for characters to come into focus and the political landscape to take shape. And often a big part of the 'action' is visceral, internal fear of diffuse things like powerful corporations, unseen alliances and sophisticated power struggles. How, on (or off) Earth, would you depict that? It would break my heart to see them make a hash of Cherryh's hard science fiction - and I fear that such a hash is inevitable.

 

[Draoighir]

Well, the novels that feature liches (the fantasy creature) shouldn't be filmed in today's technology, I think. The only exception is animations, which is OK.
I wouldn't want to see the adaptations of King of the Dead, Lord of the Necropolis & I, Strahd: The War Against Azalin on screen. Azalin Rex is a fantastic character and seeing it ruined would hurt.

 

[Le Panda du Mal]

I don't really think this way. If a bad movie is made of a book I like, it's like a bad illustration that someone has made- I can just ignore it. I don't think there is any truly unfilmable book as long as long as the right people are doing it.

 

[Astro Pen]

Any early Ballard. The Crystal World, The Drowned World etc' They are about inner space, man's relationship with with his environment and internal regression. Psycho-georaphy if you like.
Some of the older French avant-garde film making school or the Russian, Tarkovsky, might have achieved it but for gods sake keep Hollywood away from them!

 

[Orcadian]

Any early Ballard. The Crystal World, The Drowned World etc' They are about inner space, man's relationship with with his environment and internal regression. Psycho-georaphy if you like.
Some of the older French avant-garde film making school or the Russian, Tarkovsky, might have achieved it but for gods sake keep Hollywood away from them!

Yes, it might help to think of directors & screenplay writers we think could (possibly) be trusted with our cherished stuff! Sadly I think the days of complex films may be behind us.

 

[paranoid marvin]

This is an interesting subject. There are some stories that I think couldn't possibly be made into a film. 'Oh Whistle' is one, where I couldn't see how television could capture the nuances of the character of Professor Parker and the sheer terror that he bears witness to. Then I saw Timewatch and Michael Hordern take the story in a different way, and do it quite brilliantly. However there was a more modernised version, and that didn't do too well at all.

I think that the best movie/tv shows are those that don't necessarily stay entirely true to the book that they are based on. After all books and tv/film are entirely different forms of media. The best adaptations are those that use the strengths of their format and try not to copy the parts of the book that would make them weaker. The tv, radio and book versions of Hitch Hikers Guide are all quite different in their own way, but all stay true to the vision of Douglas Adams. The film version is also different, but didn't capture that same magic.

So would 'never say never' about a filmed version of a book (although tv series do tend to do much better than movies). And if a tv series or movie encourages viewers to seek the book to read afterwards, then that is never a bad thing.

 

[J-Sun]

It's not a novel and it's apparently actually being filmed, but I would never watch a rendition of most anything of Asimov's, especially The Foundation Trilogy. More than any difficulty of transferring the page to the screen in the abstract, it's just a personal thing for me - I have it in my head and don't want what this reader and that author have created together to be interfered with by somebody else's images and actors. "That's not Hari Seldon! That's not Bel Riose! You left this out! Where'd that come from?" I wish I could give things like this a try and ignore them if I don't like them, like Panda du Mal, but it's taken me eons to get most of Nightfall out of my head and I just don't want to have to do that again. (Besides, it never all goes away.)

BTW, really good points about Cherryh and I agree with you, Orcadian, but I could see that being done right - especially The Faded Sun - and I could maybe bring myself to risk it if it looked good. Some of her closet dramas like Rimrunners could also be done pretty well. And Downbelow Station might be a truly epic masterpiece. Or, yeah, a truly epic mess.

 

[Guttersnipe]

I know it's been done before, but I'd be upset if someone remade Fahrenheit 451. Completely missing the point.

 

[Orcadian]

...
I think that the best movie/tv shows are those that don't necessarily stay entirely true to the book that they are based on. After all books and tv/film are entirely different forms of media. The best adaptations are those that use the strengths of their format and try not to copy the parts of the book that would make them weaker.
...

Perhaps this is necessary because (like a work of art) every person reads a book differently, visualises the characters differently and finds different aspects of the book unique, indispensible, unforgettable etc. So all a scriptwriter or director can do is attempt to 'distill out' the essence of the book (which will of course mean passage through his/her own reading of it). But I think they must resist the impulse to 'Hollywoodise' it, i.e. morph it into a special-effects fest and remove all subtlety so that the characters become one-dimensional and the plot becomes mindless.

 

[BAYLOR]

The House on the Borderland by William Hope Hodgson

 

[Orcadian]

It's not a novel and it's apparently actually being filmed, but I would never watch a rendition of most anything of Asimov's, especially The Foundation Trilogy. More than any difficulty of transferring the page to the screen in the abstract, it's just a personal thing for me - I have it in my head and don't want what this reader and that author have created together to be interfered with by somebody else's images and actors.

Agree with you here, particularly about the writer and reader creating a unique version together. I'm as worried about Foundation Trilogy as I am about most of Cherryh's novels/series. (Shall certainly wait to see what other fans of FT make of the film, assuming it is eventually released!)

I could see that being done right - especially The Faded Sun - and I could maybe bring myself to risk it if it looked good. Some of her closet dramas like Rimrunners could also be done pretty well. And Downbelow Station might be a truly epic masterpiece. Or, yeah, a truly epic mess.

Interesting thought, about The Faded Sun. Great landscapes, strong alien characters, interesting cultural practices, fabulous weapons handling. I wonder... Could they manage it with credibility?

Though short, Rimrunners is one of my favourites. As I once told CJ when I met her briefly (years ago), you can smell the sweat.

 

[J-Sun]

Perhaps this is necessary because (like a work of art) every person reads a book differently, visualises the characters differently and finds different aspects of the book unique, indispensible, unforgettable etc. So all a scriptwriter or director can do is attempt to 'distill out' the essence of the book (which will of course mean passage through his/her own reading of it). But I think they must resist the impulse to 'Hollywoodise' it, i.e. morph it into a special-effects fest and remove all subtlety so that the characters become one-dimensional and the plot becomes mindless.

I don't know if it's available online somewhere but I think you'd really like something I almost always go to in "Books into Movies" discussions and that's a Norman Spinrad article by that name on why the 80s Dune was a too-faithful disaster and Blade Runner was a successful, if loose adaptation. Basically, it did involve the idea that books and film are two different media and that the key was to preserve the essence of the book in cinematic terms. Androids and Blade Runner are extremely different in detail, but both are about empathy, compassion, love. That's the key. And it'd be easy to make a great movie about a messiah-like figure but if you get bogged down in Baron Harkonnen's warts or whatever, you lose that. This is true to a point but, taken too far (as Hollywood usually takes it), you get something that's basically unfaithful in every way. So the key for the filmmaker is to accurately grasp the essence of the story and make a good film-as-film of it and, for the reader, to be willing to sacrifice those details for the cinematic experience of the essence.

 

[J-Sun]

Agree with you here, particularly about the writer and reader creating a unique version together. I'm as worried about Foundation Trilogy as I am about most of Cherryh's novels/series. (Shall certainly wait to see what other fans of FT make of the film, assuming it is eventually released!)


Interesting thought, about The Faded Sun. Great landscapes, strong alien characters, interesting cultural practices, fabulous weapons handling. I wonder... Could they manage it with credibility?

Though short, Rimrunners is one of my favourites. As I once told CJ when I met her briefly (years ago), you can smell the sweat.

Sorry - I missed this while I was searching for the Spinrad article online (couldn't find it). Regarding The Faded Sun, I think the odds are probably against it but higher than with many and it's certainly possible. That I would like to see, for some reason. As far as smelling the sweat in Rimrunners, have you read her Heavy Time/Hellburner duo? Those are also extremely viscerally real. Great stuff.

 

[Orcadian]

As far as smelling the sweat in Rimrunners, have you read her Heavy Time/Hellburner duo? Those are also extremely viscerally real. Great stuff.

I think I read one of them in the 1990s. Can't recall which one but I confess that I found it rather ... un-Cherryh-like. As I recall, it all takes place in the asteroid belt and is about murder and industrial espionage. I don't recall finding any of the characters engaging. But perhaps it's time to try the other one.

 

[J-Sun]

Yeah, that would be Heavy Time. Hellburner is about trying to get out of the system. They're sort of leading into the formation of the Union/Alliance universe as we generally know it and lack Cherryh's aliens and usual large scale but seem Cherryh-like to me in terms of gritty detail. But it does seem like I'm in the minority in liking them so much.

Anyway - that's not on-topic, so on with the show.

 

[paranoid marvin]

I know it's been done before, but I'd be upset if someone remade Fahrenheit 451. Completely missing the point.

Ironically, but probably the least appropriate format for Fahrenheit 451 is on paper. I suppose the most appropriate is an audiobook.

 

[Mon0Zer0]

I don't think Lovecraft's own work translates to the screen too well, especially when it comes to C'thulhu himself. It's hard to make cosmic terror look anything other than histrionic and C'thulu works better when he's not just a squid faced monster with bat wings - they should exist only in the imagination, imho.

 

[Swank]

Use of Weapons, or any other story that revolves around the mistaken identity of the protagonist.

 

[Rodders]

I'd hate to see Iain M. Banks's The Player of Games on the screen, although, IF done right, it could be phenomenal. I have very specific imagery in my head on how things and people look. If they made it, i'd watch it and i suspect i'd enjoy it, but i know it'd ruin the book for me. So, no.

I would oh so love to see stories set within "The Culture", though. Surface Detail would translate to the screen well as i think it's a very visual book.

 

[CupofJoe]

Legend by David Gemmell
Pretty much as @Rodders has said about the choice. I have such a strong mental image of how Druss, Rek, The Thirty and Dros Delnoch should look and sound that I would be disappointed.