Books you would like to see made into films

With all of the Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings talk going on, I found myself wondering: "What books would I like to see on the screen?" Someone mentioned 'Catcher in the Rye' in another thread. I agree that it would be a brilliant film. I recently read both of Wally Lamb's novels, "She's Come Undone" and "I Know This Much is True" and think that both are great books that could easily make the transition to great films.

Years ago, I read a delightful novel called "Fool on the Hill" by Matt Ruff. It features engaging characters and a sparkling plot that I have always longed to see enacted.

What are some of the books you would like to see brought to life in film?

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You get me slapped with a fine, you argue with the customers and I have to patch everything up, you get us thrown out of a funeral by violating the corpse, and then to top it off, you ruin my relationship. I mean, what's your encore? Do you, like, anally rape my mother while pouring sugar in my gas tank?

THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA.

bodhigrrrl: Not that it's a masterpiece, but i'd like to see Dean Koontz' "False Memory" made into a movie. Another one that comes to mind is "The Yellow Wallpaper", (Charlotte Perkins Gilman?) but it's possible it has already been done. Maybe Anne Heche could play the lead!

I had never heard of the Yellow Wallpaper, so I did a websearch. It sounds quite good, I will have to seek it out. Indeed, the premise would seem to make for a workable film.

R

Paul Auster's NEWYORK TRILOGY....

I've always loved the fantasy genre, so I'd really like to see Wizard's First Rule (by Terry Goodkind) be turned into a movie. Perhaps they could even include some of the rest of the Sword of Truth series -- not sure if you guys are familiar with such works, if not, I highly recommend you read them

Again, patti, you've made me go a-websearching. It turns out Auster wrote the short story that became one of my favorite films: "Smoke", directed by Wayne Wang and starring Harvey Keitel. Keep making suggestions, girl!

Jer, I loved reading fantasy when I was younger, but I can't seem to get into much of it on film. I was dissapointed, to say the least, in what TNT did with "Mists of Avalon."

R

p.s. Commish wasn't the Lion Witch and the Wardrobe made into a movie?

Burlgars Can't Be Choosers (more faithful to the book, at least. There was a Whoopi Goldberg version in the mid-80s, but it stunk).

Darn.Took mine.There's some already out,they're very poorly made...saw them when I was a wee gal.I want some new ones!

i think a good movie would be the Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy.

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I second that, mercurius, but can't help thinking it would dissapoint. To do its' true justice, the film would have to be enormous in length and budget.

Wasn't there a british tv series?

R

Yes, there was a BBC series, which I own (all the episodes on the tape are spliced into one 3-hour long "movie").

There was supposed to be a real movie in the works, but I'm guessing it's cancelled due to Douglas Adams' recent untimely demise.

oh my god! i read twtcommish post that, and i immediately thought of the ones you're talking about. i think. unless there are several versions made. the ones i saw were on pbs, when i was a little kid and i actually thought it was pretty good at the time. i wasn't too wise to real movie making, i just thought it was cool to see a movie version period. wait, no.... the entire chronicles of narnia i didn't see, it was just the lion, the witch and the wardrobe. oh, well.

ahem ahem... speaking of c.s. lewis, i would love to see a film version of the screwtape letters. except it would be set in modern times in the big city and the devils would be played by contemporary actors.... hm... someone cool and mature like kevin spacey or nicholson could be screwtape. yeah, that would work. and wormwood would be... i dunno... any suggestions? lol... ok that's a dumb idea for a movie, but i JUST KNOW SOMEONE'S GONNA READ THIS POST AND STEAL IT! any producers reading this right now?

see, bodhigrrrl just backed me up on the lion witch and the wardrobe thing. also, rainbow six would make a good movie, but hollywood won't be making any movies that involve terrorism for a good long while now, im sure..

(someone please comment on my screwtape letters idea above)

Your "Screwtape Letters" idea is wonderful. I have no idea what it is, but I'm sure it's wonderful (hey, you wanted someone to comment).

Yep, I saw the old Narnia movies...created by "Wonderworks." They were okay, but can you imagine how magnificent the "real" movies would be today? Imagine a CGI Aslan jumping and bounding around...not that stiff, stuffed Lion in the old British version. If I ever become rich and famous, or in any way powerful, I hope I can somehow get those movies made. I saw most of the old ones...Lion/Witch, Prince Caspian, Voyage of the Dawn Treader, The Silver Chair...I think those are the only ones they made. The other ones were kind of odd, and would have been, IMO, far too tough to make.

Brodie: I'm not sure...the basic idea seems good (I think I'd enjoy it), but I don't know how interesting it would be to most people. Would it just consist of narration, mostly? Seems to me they'd have to modernize it quite a bit, and show the devils (CGI-generated, of course) actually in-action trying to convert the souls of their "clients" while the voiceover of the letter acts as a narration of sorts.

HUH?!?! ew, ew!! *vomits* i didn't mean it like that! i meant a live-action version. with real actors doing real dialouge. there would be NO cgi, no special effects, no cartoony-whatever. like an actual grown-up movie that explored the concepts of good and evil, like the author originally intended. they wouldn't even be in devil suits, or have make up, they would just be devils that looked like regular people.... get it?

So how would it work? Cut to a shot of Screwtape writing a letter, with narration over it? Or would they sit there and have a conversation? Either way, the dialogue would have to be heavily revamped...

EDIT: BTW, I didn't mean that it would be cartoony or anything...I imagined it being mostly live action, using some CGI in scenes where the devils are sort of hanging around the humans...
[Edited by TWTCommish on 10-16-2001]

I don't know. Nothing beats a movie with a guy in a devil suit.

So how would it work? Cut to a shot of Screwtape writing a letter, with narration over it? Or would they sit there and have a conversation? Either way, the dialogue would have to be heavily revamped...