What are Your Favorite Books? Which One Would you like to see on Film

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First day here, folks. It seems a very kewl place.

I'm curious about what people read? If it has anything to do with what kind of movies they like.

I like the Tom Clancy books--only the Jack Ryan/Clark series, LOTR, Umberto Eco-- the Name of the Rose (both the book and its film version with Sean Connery), Stephen King's horror, The Sparrow--Jesuits try to colonize a planet, Shakespeare--I like a lot of the Shakespeare films especially Mel Gibson's Hamlet, Branagh's Henry V (and Hamlet), Kurosawa's Throne of Blood (Macbeth) and RAN (King Lear), Lovecraft--I don't remember a lot of films based on his work--Somebody remind me if there is! And I read a lot of history. So I tend to go to films based on historical figures and events. Rob Roy. Sorry I didn't like Schindler's List. Elizabeth. Yeah Spartacus & Gladiator. (I don't insist on accuracy; I just like to be entertained! All I can think of for now. Hope I don't overstay my welcome!
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In Soviet America, you sue MPAA!
I like thrillers and suspensful books. Like Michael Crichton. I've read all of his books, and theres not one I haven't liked.

I wanted War of the Rats to be made into a movie, and it has. And it comes out next week!!!
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Wart. Is that from King Arthur?

I worship Lovecraft. And I think his stories are quite cinematic. Has THE DUNWICH HORROR been filmed? I have been told it has, but I've never seen it.

I would also like TOWING JEHOVAH (by James Morrow) to be made into a movie. The Archangel Raphael charges Captain Van Horne, captain of the supertanker Carpco Valpraiso, with the formidable task of towing the two-mile long divine Corpse of God toward the Arctic in order to preserve Him from unholy decomposition. It's a very funny book and everyone has his own agenda -- the Vatican is worried what the loss of God would mean to their constituents; a bunch of atheists (who are shocked to discover that they were wrong all along) want to bomb the Body to smithereens ; the crew mutinies when they realize that since there is no God, there is essentially no sin either. I do wonder which daring director could pull this movie off however -- maybe Terry Gilliam?

I also like the Umberto Eco type novels: dense intellectual thrillers rather than the Clancy type stuff. One of my favorite books of all time has actually been filmed unsuccessfully: THE CLUB DUMAS by Perez-Reverte became THE NINTH GATE starring Johnny Depp. Ugggh! It is all atmos and no payoff. Perhaps someone will film Perez-Reverte's earlier effort, THE FLANDERS PANEL, which is about a 15th century Flemish painting of a chess match with the intriguing inscription, "Quis necavit equitem?" (Who killed the Knight?)

SPARTACUS yeaah! And I CLAUDIUS and LION IN WINTER and ROB ROY (Way better than BRAVEHEART!) And tell me, Wart, what did you think of THE BOUNTY? (Hopkins version) SCHINDLER'S LIST was good until the incredibly sappy conclusion.

Schindler to his Jews: "Can I have a group hug everyone?"
Yeccck !!!
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That's right. Wart from TH White's Once & Future King. I like Arthurian films. The best one maybe was Excalibur (with HElen Mirren as Margan le Fay) but I also like the TV movie; Merlin with Sam Neill.

I'm gonna check on THAT TOWING JEHOVAH. What a very interesting premise. It could be made maybe by the same guys who did TIME BANDITS and BARON MUNCHAUSEN. Is Perez-Reverte a writer of magic realism like MARQUEZ? I didn't know the NINTH GATE was based on a book. It was bad but the trailers were so good and I like Johnny Depp's pictures.

The Bounty: Chock a block full of good actors. Mel Gibson, Sir Hopkins, Daniel Day Lewis! Best movie about Bligh. I thought the director (David Lean?) did a lot of reasearch and went through a lot of trouble to be straight-on. It was totally believable. I though the Charles Laughton? (the one with Clark Gable?) version was more concerned with giving the actors--meat to sink their acting teeth into. Gable's character was a "good man." Yup. He's a mutineer, for Gawd's sake! Even if Laughton's Bligh was practically a sadist.

OG---Who wrote War of the Rats? Is that the name of the book and the upcoming film? I always like to read the books--movies are based on. Sometimes I learn about new writers this way.



Female assassin extraordinaire.
Hmm, if anything I prefer to see extremely dark, psychological stuff made into moves (Hannibal Lecter series) but it really has to be made well.

I'm also really into period pieces in general, so anything Jane Austen (Sense & Sensibility), Charlotte/Emily Bronte (Jane Eyre), stuff like that. But not just them, anything historical from Asia, Europe (To Live, Raise the Red Lantern, Orlando, Remains of the Day, etc).

I also like remakes of historical events so I enjoyed Gladiator and Henry V was the like the first period piece I ever saw and I watched that movie to pieces at like age 12. But I had a crush on Kenneth Branagh back then. A British king in green tights is hard to fight. I also love Emma Thompson (whom he did not deserve) and try to watch whatever she's in, which is often a period piece.

I'm also really into fantasy fiction (or I used to be) and I really love decadence mixed with an acceptance (rather than a fear) of horror. Anne Rice and Clive Barker are the two whose every book I am always going to have on my bookcase. Anne Rice is known for her Vampire series but what I REALLY want to see are films made from her more historical novels also set in New Orleans and her Witch Chronicles which I find more interesting than the antiquated lives of the Vampires. As for Barker, oh man, I read Imajica and nearly died, it was so good and I was so happy but I doubt anyone could capture that properly and not disappoint. But he directed Hellraiser and that was his own hand dealing with his own work which made it really good; other adaptations of his work (Lord of Illusions, etc) really suck.

I'm really looking forward to seeing LOTR and the rest of the trilogy; i'm just hoping it all pulls of and doesn't become the Phantom Menace (ick).

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teehee. i'm right behind you. with an axe.



Registered User
I forgot about Hannibal! How could I, THMillin? I've read everything he's written--not that he has many books.. I think they've even made BLACK SUNDAY into a film.

Period pieces are kewl. I've seen EMMA and a lot of Jane Austen pics (usually on video because art house pics almost never reach Hawaii--(if they ever do--I have to order them from video stores). But I think no one does the works of Austen, Bronte and other "English lit" & classics writers (except mebbe Merchant Ivory) better than BBC television. Pride & Prejudice and the Poldark Series and Upstairs, Downstairs. And I must have seen all 8 versions of Wuthering Heights. Some were incredibly bad. Others were super.

Clive Barker is a special writer. Also all his books I have. My favorite is WEAVEWORLD and Imajica. (I notices there is IMAJICA 1 and IMAJICA 2) But I don't know if these are sequels to the original IMAJICA or the publishers just split that huge book in 2. I think it will almost be next to impossible to make his books into film. Maybe they could expand one of his BOOKS of BLOOD short stories into a full-length feature.

RAISE THE RED LANTERN is another fave. I make special trips to the mainland to get videos. Foreign films are so hard to get.



Registered User
Lord of the Rings - and I can't wait!

Actually, a lot of my favourite books have been made into films (such as Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment) but I've never bothered to watch them - perhaps I fear that they'd ruin the books.

There's a great book which you won't have heard of by an author called Geoff Thompson, who worked on the doors of nightclubs in Coventry (a rough city in the West Midlands of Britain) - Watch My Back - which is basically a collection of funny / sad / brutal stories over his 10 years on the door. That would be a great film, and I've heard a rumour that they'll be making it into one .



For some reason, I have never been able to get into the LORD OF THE RINGS. I tried when I was much younger but I kept nodding off. The Narnia series was much more interesting to me.

HA, someone actually remembers POLDARK! I am surprised. Demelza was so cute that I even remember her name: Angharad Rees. Wonder what happened to her? I agree, Wart, there are some mortifyingly bad versions of classic novels. Have you ever seen George C. Scott as Rochester in JANE EYRE? He was terrible. Plus the cinematography was all muddy & yellow and everyone looked like they had hepatitis. Sadly, Merchant & Ivory haven't done anything decent lately. Their last true success was REMAINS OF THE DAY -- if Ismail Merchant had not alienated Hopkins (salary disagreement), perhaps Hopkins would still be making movies for them.

I dislike Branagh intensely. I am not sorry his last few Shakespeare films have been duds. Fellow thinks he is better than Olivier, the gall !!!!

Speaking of Olivier, he was in THE BOUNTY too, in a small part during Bligh's court martial. So if you look at the star power in that movie, you actually get Olivier, Tony Hopkins, Mel Gibson, Daniel Day Lewis, and Liam Neeson! Roger Donaldson, btw, was the director, although it was David Lean's baby. Interestingly enough, Lean wanted to make the BOUNTY story in 2 parts: the tale of the mutiny itself & Fletcher Christian's life on Pitcairn Island, but the studios just wouldn't go for it because of the expense.



Female assassin extraordinaire.
I really like the Mercant Ivory films - you ought to check out "Stiff Upper Lips" - it's hilarious.

Yeah, I've seen a bunch of Wuthering Heights versions too,

Chris, The Chronicles of Narnia - totally! I forgot about them. I had a hard time with letting go of them once - I sold them to a bookstore and it was a tearful goodbye. Truth be told I've never read LOTR but I've got the gist and anything like that I like to see made into a good movie.

As for Branagh - man I had such a crush and then I found out about how he dissed Emma for Helena Bonham-Carter and then decided he was an absolute cad. He has talent, it's true, but yes, a bit of his cockiness is slipping through. He's like in every film he directs. Come on now, overkill. You are not the next Olivier, like you said, Pigsnie.

As for Imajica - when it first came out it came in a shiny white book with a yin/yang type pic of a pink and a purple torso in a little square on the front in the middle. Which I still have. Then I went to buy it for a friend and kept finding just the 1st or 2nd half, but never the big one, which actually cost the same price as one of the installments now. So if you buy both, you pay $16 w/ tax and my copy was like, $6.99.

But, you can order it online at half.com - there are book stores who actually have surpluses of the original edition and will sell it to you for liuke, $2, brand new. heheh.

They did this type of thing with Tad Williams, I can't recall the name but he wrote a couple of epic length type books too and the first one was incredible and it killed me. That would be great as a movie too. Anyway, then I went looking for it casually one day and found they'd also split it into two.

I actually read this first of all of Barkers books and then read Weaveworld and was really unmoved. I've been smitten, however, by Galilee.
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what? you don't love me? how rude!



Registered User
Oh you guys like good stuff! For flicks try these"
Smoke Signals, Island of Lost Children (french subtitles), "Taxing Woman" (japanese ditto), two Aussie oldies: "Picture Show Man," "Strictly Ballroom" Don't forget Fellini's "Roma," all are faves.

But books are just as yummie as flicks; My faves: Henry James' The Ambassadors & The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius; but right now I'm reading "The Death of Artemio Cruz" and it is SO DEPRESSING that I may kill myself before I finish it. But I love many more, much more: Jane Austin, and Trollope (I think that's who wrote the Poldark novels, by the way,) but I love trash, also -- Edgar Rice Burroughs, and Tom Swift, and stuff like that -- and also Kipling's Kim. Do you guys know about Freelookbookstore.com? lots of cheap cheap books.

Lately I saw O Brother Where Art Thou and loved it. head is swimming,

Love to all,

Jozie



We've gone on holiday by mistake
Four Words:

[red]THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA![/red]
Be careful what you wish for.
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