Morgan Freeman has been trying to get
Rendezvous with Rama made into a movie for years, and I agree that it would be impressive, especially with the FX available today, and would love to see it. If you do a search online, you will find that there have been "announcements" of it being in production for a long time, including a current entry in the
IMDB.
I had also thought about the
Dark Tower books, but I just don't see them being done correctly. Too much would probably be cut out, and the fact that the whole thing crosses so many genres along the way (Western, Horror, Sci-Fi, Fantasy... that's what I can think of at the moment). I don't think this would necessarily make it appeal to people who like each of those, as much as turn off a good number that like each of them primarily. If they were made right, I would be right at the front of the line, but I just don't see it being handled the right way, or enough people being interested, for it to happen.
On the subject of Stephen King, and the rise of alternate reality fantasy movies with kids in them, what about
The Talisman (which, in case you didn't know, also ties in to the
Dark Tower books)? It is being made as a TV mini series (
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0384580), but the track record of King books as mini series hasn't so good IMO. Being aired on network TV they have always been watered down, lower budget, and often with washed up actors.
There were a couple others mentioned in the thread a while back that would personally interest me, but I also feel would never make it to film either financially successfully (in order for the movie companies to consider making), or made well (for me to end up actually liking);
The
Foundation books by Asimov... Absolutely amazing books, but I can't imagine most people sitting through watching them. Most people would come out of seeing any one of them more confused than anything else.
Enders Game... I've heard there have been attempts at making this with the 2 other books in the initial trilogy (
Speaker for the Dead and
Xenocide). One of the biggest hang ups having been the reality of what the game is actually all about and the fact that it is kids playing the game (I don't want to go into it though, I don't want to give anything away if you haven't read the books). Yet again, there is an
IMDB entry for this, but there has been one off and on for a long time.
Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever series... I just can't imagine watching these. I loved the books, but also hated them, or more specifically, the character of Covenant himself. These were the only books that I've read that made me want to throw them across the room for really wanting to smack him around. Now, I'm all for anti-hero movies, but this guy... he's just an ass, plain and simple. I may be wrong on this one, for it being worth going to see, since the cinematography could be really amazing, but this is one of those series of books that I read, really liked, but also have no desire to go back and read again. I don't feel the need to go through Covenant being whiny for all those pages all over again.
OK... enough rambling by me...