What books would you like to see (re-)adapted into movies?

Subject: What books would you like to see (re-)adapted into movies?
Author: Tomash
Posted on: 2013-07-20 02:29:00 UTC

(or a TV (mini-)series, if that would work better.)

I'm pretty sure that all of us have a book (or a series) that we'd like to see as a movie, even if that probably wouldn't happen, or a book with a movie adaptation that needs to be redone right. I was wondering what the rest of the Board thought those books were.

I personally would like to see C.J. Cherryh's The Pride of Chanur, or any other part of that series, as a movie, though that probably won't happen because

1. There's a grand total of one human character with lines
2. who is not the protagonist or viewpoint character.

Those two things would probably kill any potential movie flat, so I don't have my hopes up.

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What books would you like to see (re-)adapted into movies? by Tomash on 2013-07-20 02:29:00 UTC

Some of Garth Nix's work by Voyd on 2013-07-25 01:28:00 UTC Reply

I'd like to see (good) film adaptations of Abhorsen and Keys to the Kingdom. Maybe Shade's Children.
Wheel of Time by the Irish Samurai on 2013-07-21 12:52:00 UTC Reply

But only if it was done well.

And I dread to think how many films it would end up being - I can't see a one-book-per-film series actually being made, I expect it'd be considered too long, and I can't see how you could do multiple books per film without cutting out a lot of stuff...

Still, I'd really like to watch it, preferably one book per film.

As a fan of the series... by Phobos on 2013-07-21 18:42:00 UTC Reply

I don't think movies would work. However, a Game of Thrones style series...that could be done.

Also, honestly, there are a lot of things that I could stand to see cut.

-Phobos

Good point. by the Irish Samurai on 2013-07-21 21:42:00 UTC Reply

I'd forgotten how well Game of Thrones worked as a TV series. Yeah, I think that'd work much better than trying to do it as a film series.

There's probably an awful lot that could be cut and still give a good adaptation, the trick would be striking the right balance between what gets kept and what gets cut (or changed). Y'know, if it ever actually happens.

Pretty much anything by Tamora Pierce. by VixenMage on 2013-07-20 15:57:00 UTC Reply

The Immortals quartet will probably never happen, given the complicated nature of filming it, but Lioness or Protector of the Small -
or The Circle of Magic - would be pretty awesome.

Oh - that, or Guy Gavriel Kay's stuff. by VixenMage on 2013-07-21 15:59:00 UTC Reply

What I wouldn't give to see a mini-series depicting The Last Light of the Sun, or Lions of Al-Rassan, or a pair of movies on The Sarantine Mosaic. They're not even effects-heavy, so it would be doable, and his characters can be so lifelike...
Oh goodness yes. by AelinTheAmazing on 2013-07-20 22:52:00 UTC Reply

Protector of the Small would be particularly cool, given the mechanical creatures involved - I'd love to see those animated. I'm wondering how they'd manage to animate the magic in Circle of Magic properly, though. How do you show the scenes of the connection between Briar and the shakkan, for example?

In the end, I think that's why Tamora Pierce's books wouldn't work too well as movies. There's just too many details that can't really be expressed well through visuals.

It would definitely be difficult. by IntelligentAirhead on 2013-07-21 11:27:00 UTC Reply

THe way each scene is staged in Tamora Pierce's work means that the movie would have to work hard to express how each setting and set of characters had different codes regarding combat, interaction, and appropriate response.

Her books are great at showing how scenarios are appropriate in some situations but not others, and express why pretty well. In a movie, there isn't that stream of detail and consciousness, so it might be a bit jarring, especially when the decisions the characters make can't be fully expressed through dialogue.

The Immortals quartet would be way cool. (nm) by Tomash on 2013-07-20 16:36:00 UTC Reply
For some reason, by Ailavyn Siniyash on 2013-07-20 16:14:00 UTC Reply

I feel like it would be really easy -and really, really likely- for a Circle of Magic movie(s) to turn out terribly. But if it were done well...

-Aila

Something written by David Eddings. by Cassie on 2013-07-20 10:22:00 UTC Reply

The Belgariad/Malloreon or Elenium/Tamuli.

As long as thye were done properly, no rearranging things or cutting out "extraneous" characters. And done in more than one movie, too. If someone made a full series of films out of them, I would pay quite a bit to see them. :D

I'd definitely prefer a TV series, I think. by Huinesoron on 2013-07-20 14:03:00 UTC Reply

Consider how massive, and massively episodic, the Belgariad is... I'm not sure you could actually fit it into five films and do it justice, and when was the last time anyone reached five in a series of films? The new Narnia adaptation appears to have stalled out at three.

But a TV series... yes, please. I think (if I were making it) I'd probably start with the scene where Garion runs away from everyone in Arendia - it's a nice active start, pretty close to the beginning, without too many characters already introduced, and it lets the audience share his 'who are these scary people' experience, rather than going 'Garion, what are you on?'.

Then I'd probably split the stuff before that up into a few chunks and give it as flashbacks, dream sequences and conversations where it seemed to fit. It would help fill out the impression that Garion's trying to figure out what he's gotten himself into...

Of course, if I were the obscenely rich person I'd have to be to make it, I'd make sure before we started that we could pull off three things:

-The corrupt decadence of Tolnedra
-The sheer mind-numbing terror of Maragor (and specifically the capital)
-The holiness of Ulgo

There's other things that I'd look into (the Stronghold, for instance), but if we can't do those three, we wouldn't have a hope of doing the whole story.

hS

(All names from memory, sincere apologies if I got them mixed up)

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Eee! :D by Cassie on 2013-07-20 19:01:00 UTC Reply

I wasn't sure whether or not to suggest TV series. That'd definitely work.

If I can say, though, I'd choose to have the Sparhawk books realised on screen. Don't get me wrong, I love the Garion books, but for some reason these days the Sparhawk ones appeal to me more. Maybe because it's slightly grittier and full of more cynical people while still delivering the timeless giggles that Eddings does so well. :P But I agree with Antigone as regards Aphrael - it would be kinda tricky with a six-year old, as the Child-Goddess usually appears. Unless they shot all of her scenes together and everyone else's around that.

I'd take either. ;) by Huinesoron on 2013-07-20 22:18:00 UTC Reply

My main problem with Sparhawk is that I read Tamuli first - so I have some difficulty remembering what happens in Elenium. The series feels less episodic to me, so they might work as films - if, as you both say, they could solve the problem of Aphrael. Maybe wait a decade and use perfectly-realistic CG?

hS

Awesome! by Cassie on 2013-07-20 22:33:00 UTC Reply

The Sparhawk books would probably work better split up in the style of the LOTR trilogies - er, splitting-up-wise, not changing-lots-of-stuff-wise. The other main issue with Aphrael is the point in the Tamuli where she's both Danae and Flute in the same room, although I'm fairly sure there are ways around that already. Twins maybe? That'd help with the issue of how much filming has to be done to get all the scenes, too, if each one can shoulder half the load.

Can you tell this is something I really long to see? :P

Elenium would be great ... by Antigone68104 on 2013-07-20 13:09:00 UTC Reply

... IF they can find a child actress capable of playing Flute/Aphrael. That would probably be the hardest part, because she's clearly described as a child, not a teenager. Knowing Hollywood, they'd probably cast some 30-year old as the Child-Goddess.

(I was thinking after last Costume Con that if I could scrounge up four males to wear them for the Fantasy/SF Masquerade, there's enough description in the Elenium to re-create the formal armor of the Church Knights. Then I started looking at prices for Wondra and Wonderflex. Ouch!)

I suspect it wouldn't be all that hard to do a movie/TV version of any of the Elemental Masters novels. They're all set in the Victorian/Edwardian/very early WWI period, so the costumes are already sitting in theatrical warehouses. Current CGI is definitely up for creating the elemental creatures and any visual effects of spellcasting.

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The Edge Chronicles. by SeaTurtle on 2013-07-20 05:45:00 UTC Reply

It's got (sky) pirates, bloodthirsty monsters, flesh-eating trees, engaging characters and/or monsters, and a city built on a flying rock. Personally, I'd like to see Midnight over Sanctaphrax be made into a movie; we get to see the Edge from the Stone Gardens to Riverrise over the course of the novel. It would be a perfect framing device for newcomers to the series.

Oh, I almost forgot the flying ships. They're not quite as zippy as the one-man skycraft, but still very impressive.

Seconding that. by the Irish Samurai on 2013-07-21 12:48:00 UTC Reply

And thirding, and fourth...ed...ing - or whatever.

And, having just finished re-reading Midnight, I agree with you that it'd probably be the best one to start with. Although it would be nice if they expanded on the section where they're travelling through the Deepwoods by including some of the stuff from Beyond the Deepwoods - they kind of gloss over the danger and sheer variety of fantastic creatures in Midnight.
Something you might enjoyÂ… by hermione of vulcan on 2013-07-20 21:37:00 UTC Reply

…is Disney's Treasure Planet. It has the space pirates, the flying ships, and engaging characters you said that this has. It's also animated, and all the steampunk/cyberpunk glory that is this movie is visually spectacular.

It also really needs more love, because as Disney animated movies go everyone forgets about it.

Ooh, I saw that one! by SeaTurtle on 2013-07-21 08:13:00 UTC Reply

I remember it now-- the sci-fi version of Robert Louis Stevenson's story with the fancy spaceships, the solar hoverboards, the cyborgs, and... and... that scene with the black hole. It was way awesome, but my inner physicist was ripping his hair off. Still good fun, though!

Sorry, the nostalgia made me drool for a moment there. Yes, I can see some parallels with the Edge in those aspects.

Percy Jackson. by hermione of vulcan on 2013-07-20 05:17:00 UTC Reply

I could go off on a rant about everything that was wrong with that movie. And they're making a sequel. I can't even...

Well, I won't rant. I'll just say they could have made it close to the book and been a huge cash cow franchise like Harry Potter, and then we would have had Kane Chronicles movies, and Heroes of Olympus movies...I'd love to see those. But they didn't. FAIL.

I'd also like it if they made the rest of the Narnia series, particularly The Magician's Nephew, which is my personal favorite.

In a similar vein, if they made the rest of the His Dark Materials series that would be cool.

Also, Good Omens. That is all.

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I would keep talking about PJO. by AelinTheAmazing on 2013-07-20 23:05:00 UTC Reply

But if I did, I'd end up writing a five-page rant about everything that's wrong with the movie, which would probably end up going into the mythological errors in the books, which would trail off from there... so I won't.

The Sea of Monsters looks slightly better. At least this time they got Annabeth's hair color right. Somewhat of an achievement. Kane Chronicles movies would be awesome, too. Those remain my favorite Rick Riordan books, although that's possibly just because of my fascination with Egyptian mythology.

I'd like to see the rest of the Narnia series, but I really, really disliked the first HDM movie, and I think I'd be ambivalent about another one.

A Good Omens movie would be amazing, but the film would have to be done really, really well for it to come anywhere close to the book.

Oh, and a Discworld TV show about the Ankh-Morpork City Watch is in the works. Has anyone else heard about that?

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An Ankh-Morpork Watch television show? by Outhra on 2013-07-21 22:01:00 UTC Reply

There are not enough excited fist pumps and joyous jumping arounds available to me right now to properly express my excitement, so I'll go with a simplified text form: OH, YES!
I wonder what they'd do to make Constable Dorfl happen. They'll probably just make a CGI golem, but CGI in television is either boring or really bad, and besides, speculation is fun.

I wonder what the explanation in-story will be for how Annabeth's hair color changes in the Sea of Monsters movie. Though, they'll probably go New Dumbledore and act as though it was like that the whole time, creating yet another continuity error.

Ugh, the Lightning Thief movie. I was unfortunate enough to have watched it in theaters, and the amount of What Is This that was generated by five random security guards merging into a fire-breathing Lernean Hydra could have fed a small village. I'm not sure what sort of villagers would eat that, though, but the point remains.
Also, that's the only scene I actually remember clearly, so it had the disadvantage of being forgettable as well. I think there was one part with Liam Neeson as Zeus, but that could have been the Clash of the Titans remake.
Though, for the Clash of the Titans remake, they strayed so far away from the original story and any mythological basis that any connection to previous works could just be abandoned, which I think actually worked out better for it, since it dropped any illusions I had that it was going to relate in any way to anything else, which is why I only blinked in confusion at the inexplicable inclusion of Arabic mythological elements into a Greek mythological story instead of fuming. It's quite unlike the Percy Jackson movie, which kept throwing in lines to the shore of the established canon even when it had gone completely off the rails, and caused no end of exasperated sighs from me.

This is very far from the original topic now, so I'll stop before I diverge further.

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Sea Of Monsters by Storme Hawk on 2013-07-20 12:14:00 UTC Reply

From the looks of the trailers I think Sea of Monsters is going to be closer to the book than Lightning Thief was. Well apart from Grover, but not everything's perfect.

Yes, butÂ… by hermione of vulcan on 2013-07-20 16:48:00 UTC Reply

It's still building off the first movie (Grover, the actors being too old, etc.). And I seem to recall a canon breach from the trailer to the effect of "The Golden Fleece will stop Kronos". I am not hopeful.

I suppose I'll still see it, though.

Point by Storme Hawk on 2013-07-20 19:28:00 UTC Reply

Re-watching the trailers I see what you mean, and am hastened to agree with you.

So many possibilities! by Lenore Snow on 2013-07-20 03:46:00 UTC Reply

My vote would have to go towards Shannon Hale's 'Books of Bayern' series. The special effects would be a feat to behold. As for a remake, hands-down Percy Jackson.
Series -> Movie by Storme Hawk on 2013-07-20 03:06:00 UTC Reply

The Dresden Files and CHERUB would make quite interesting movies/TV series' as well I think, and with the level of technology it's not like either of them would be too hard to produce.

Also a proper Warhammer 40k movie would be nice.