What book that hasn't been adapted into a TV show or movie do you think deserves an adaptation?
What book that hasn't been adapted into a TV show or movie do you think deserves an adaptation?
What book that hasn't been adapted into a TV show or movie do you think deserves an adaptation?
Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy deserves a good adaptation, rather than that trash movie and that too short BBC series.
The BBC series was brilliant.
Agreed, just too short.
I would love that, I dont think the movie is terrible, its just that everything after Ford and Arthur get thrown out the airlock isnt as funny or absurd as the books. The main issue is the first 2ish books are unadaptable because there is no central conflict (or arleast the main cast dosent care or know there was supposed to be one).
Zaphod is the only person with motivation to do anything other than to continue existing, and he is unaware (or dosen't care) he is being hunted until they meet those suprisingly progessive law enforcment officers on Magrathea and when he visits the guides publishing offices.
Zaphod's 2 heads were the biggest let down of the movie.
And it should be of the first three books, not just the first book.
For being what I would consider one of the founding fathers of cyberpunk, I'm surprised there hasn't been a Neuromancer film yet. Especially when so many of the tropes we know from the cyberpunk genre originated from Neuromancer, to begin with.
The question is do they stick with the existing Johnny Mnemonic movie as the prequel story, recap it in an intro scene, or ignore it completely?
Neuromancer has been optioned before but no one did anything with it. I think it was in play again but recently but haven't heard much lately.
Hyperion Cantos would be great.
Gormanghast might also be cool.
The first book seems ideal for a mini series
Watch Inception and think of Neuromancer and you will find that its probably the best closest match for the way the story is told. So many things made me realize there are so many little "I loved that story but I cant make that movie so I will just give you clues". The throwing star is the top.
https://www.theverge.com/24086056/apple-tv-plus-neuromancer-streaming-series-william-gibson
Neuromancer Might be getting made.
I think neuromancer is being done? Maybe it's something else tho I forget
Always felt like that Eragon series could have been good. Too bad they never made a movie for it. Never once. I'm sure it would have been solid if they had. But they didn't.
I think they are making an Eragon adaptation (for the first time, of course). I think Disney+ is making a series, similar to them restarting Percy Jackson.
Oh boy. Disney adaptation track record is very hit or miss. I hope they don't mess this one up like the last adaptation.
I feel the same way about Avatar: The Last Airbender. It would have been such an amazing movie, or perhaps even a series. But alas, they've never attempted it once.
Ah, it appears you have forgotten or have simply Mandela'd in from a different timeline. Allow me to refresh your memory for you in the kindest way possible:
Eragon was a 2006 dance film featuring Jeremy Irons and Ed Speeler on a ship. Some fighting is involved. And I dunno, a dragon maybe.
Every single thing Brandon Sanderson ever wrote
The graphic audiobooks are pretty great already. Would love some visuals to go with it. Would need a big budget though..
Similarly, I'm reading through the Lightbringer series by Brent Weeks and I think it would be a great candidate for an adaptation. It's a really good story and the magic is all based on the colour of light which I think would make the special effects pretty easy to create and should also look nice.
The Iliad. Not a "take" or an "adaptation" or a "re-imagining". Just play it straight as it is, cut out some of the monologues and replace the "throwing spears at each other" parts with swordfights.
I want to see the gods descend from Olympus to fight on the battlefield.
Old Man's War by John Scalzi was made for this, I swear. His latest books also read a lot like movie scripts are contained therein.
Charles Stross' Laundry series has a ton of potential too, if less Chtullu is required, I wouldn't mind a Merchant Princes series either.
I heard rumours about Forever War being optioned at some point, but nothing came of it.
I vote for laundry series too
I had thought that some Hollywood people were talking to Scalzi about Old man’s war, but nothing ever came of it. Sad.
The Long Earth by Terry Pratchett and some guy who's name is harder to remember.
An inventor uploads a schematic to the Internet for a cheap, easy-to-assemble device that lets anyone (or almost anyone) "step" into parallel earths. A nearly infinite stretch of untamed wilderness sees people abandoning the polluted, crowded, government-run Old Earth in search of new opportunities. The catch: No iron or iron alloys can "step" across, sending these new earths back to the bronze age.
Also: Zeppelins that are also reincarnated Buddhists that are also the first true machine intelligence; robot cats; libertarian communes; sapient nonhuman primates; sapient nonhuman non-primates; radioactive ziggurats; space programs to parallel moons; and grumpy survival chicks.
Stephen Baxter
The premise was better than the execution, but I've definitely been curious if you could use the world stepping premise in an RPG in a compelling way.
Ringworld :)
Apparently in the woks by Amazon
Announced over 3 years ago (2021) in this article that mentions Amazon Prime optioned it in 2017: Tech Advisor article about “Ringworld” on Amazon Prime
So…
So, it's still not here :P
Dragonriders of Pern, by Anne McCaffrey. Currently doing my umpteenth read-through completely accidentally. I wanted to read one of the books then got sucked in. I'm nine books in and read several of them in one sitting, despite having read them all plenty of times.
And while I'm on the subject, I don't think I've ever seen anyone taking about Pern online but I see mentions of Isaac Asimov every few weeks. They're of a similar age and Pern is equally good as Isaac's work, if not better. Grumble grumble...
I'm a lifelong pern fan, but... the immense fear of thread won't come across well on the screen in my opinion. And thread fighting will be hard to make such that it has the same magnitude as it can in your imagination. All in all, thread is over played. It can't be such a harrowing fight in the skies, and still be so devastating if one got through unnoticed. Cause if the fight in the skies was so hard, more would get by, and some would get missed over the years. And that is played off as the end of the world. In your imagination, that can work, but on screen, not so much. That means they would need to make some fundamental change to film it.
You're probably right, but I was trying to say it deserves more recognition. I don't think it would be a good TV show either. And Eragon has put me off all dragon-related adaptations I think!
Yup. Or it would lend itself to a 3-4 season show. The CGI time would seem prohibitive thanks to the dragons, Thread, and sci-fi aspects of the story.
Sanderson's Mistborn series could make some good film or TV. Honestly they could probably even pull off a whole cosmere MC universesque type thing... Although I think deals keep falling through because the author wants full creative control.
Although I think deals keep falling through because the author wants full creative control.
I mean looking at the ruins of the Game of Thrones franchise that David Benioff and D. B. Weiss left behind, maybe that's not such a bad idea.
Stormlight has to be an anime. Especially for the "magical girl Kaladin" memes
Pretty sure that's a result of him seeing how Wheel of Time has been going.
Or any adaptation where they DON'T have creative control.
The original TSR Dragonlance D&D series from the '80s by Weis and Hickman.
At least we finally seem to be beyond people wondering why Drizzt isn't around.
This is what I was looking for. Sure, we have a crappy animated movie, but all I have ever wanted was to see the Heroes of the Lance in real life.
Hell yes!
I would have loved Name of the Wind, but that lazy fuck Rothfuss is going the way of George Reorge Reorge Martin: he's been promising book 3 for a decade and can't finish it.
He wrote himself into a corner. Somehow he needs to wrap up a spiralling plot in one book...
It's never gonna happen.
Any of the Discworld series by Terry Pratchett
There are a couple animated adaptations of some of the books, and the live-action adaptation of Hogfather is pretty good!
The Dark Tower.
Whatever that monstrosity they released a few years ago was doesn't count.
Just the first book
Make it like Blood Meridian level creepy and violent
I would love a true to the book series of World War Z. I’m not even sure anyone involved with that movie read the book. It should be a 3 season HBO series with an episode for each persons vignette. Intros and outros of each episode has the recurring reporter meeting the person and starting his recording as they launch into their narrative of what happened. If you need more episodes, just write additional vignettes. Season 1 is the events that lead up to the outbreak, season 2 is the war itself, season 3 is the aftermath. I’m pretty sure this is what Max Brooks was writing towards. It could be amazing.
I've been saying this for years. It's ideal for a series. Was terribly disappointed with that zombie movie that borrowed the name.
mass effect could be a huge tv and movie franchise but the designs of the aliens would make the effects budgets prohibitively expensive. damn would I love it though.
cries in Halo
Old Man's War
Tom Godwin's The Survivors, it's pretty short so they could do their thing where they always mess with the story and it wouldn't have much effect.
Asimov's Robots stories, particularly those with Powell and Donovan, US Robots, etc could be the basis for a cool series, ideally retro-futuristic...
Surely you've seen the 100% faithful adaption, "Will Smith Shoots Stuff"?
And apparently Amazon made an adaptation of Foundation, not that I've watched it yet. Not sure if I even want to, part of the charm is how long ago it was written and how crazy some parts of it are
I watched the first couple of episodes of Amazon's foundation... Then I abandoned it
A well-done Brothers Karamazov could put your Downton Abbeys and Bridgertons to shame.
Maybe call it "Three Brothers..."
You ask as if that was a good thing. Like an honor for a book. But I way too often find myself defending books with "It's nothing like the movie. Don't juge it by the awful movie."
Especially fantasy adaptions are regularly awful and damaging for the books.
Examples: The Dark Tower, Eragon, Percy Jackson, The Giver, Inkheart.
Netflix's Persuasion, The Beach to name a couple of non fantasy as well.
So I'd rather they leave the books alone and make original stories into movies.
After the Dark Tower movie came out, I heard a whole bunch of people on the internet saying that the movie was awful and the books are so much better. I didn’t see the movie, but if the books are so well-liked I thought I’d give them a try.
I tried my best, I really did. But I just couldn’t finish the first book. It was just way too surreal and abstract for me.
You are not alone in this. The first book is awful. It made me doubt my english reading comprehension. Everybody hates it.
It's unfortunate, that such a great series starts off with the worst book, not only of the series, but imo of all of Kings books.
Somehow the real story starts (for me) with the second book. The first is more of a world introduction, a world building tool. And otherwise quite irrelevant.
I urge you, to give the second book (The drawing of the three) a chance. You won't regret it, because if you disregard the first book, the series is fantastic.
Try reading it alongside the podcast the KingSlingers. The podcast is set up where they read a couple chapters at a time, then spend a 2 hours talking about those chapters. One person read the series multiple times and the other is just reading it for the first time. I'm halfway through the series, and now I want them to break down and discuss every book I read.
You said it better than i ever could. Starting at Jurassic Park, and going all the way to The Wheel of Time, just keep Hollywood away from my literature!
Infinite Jest. Just for the sheer impossibility of any attempt to do so :-)
Almost anything from Neal Stephenson.
Seveneves is coming as a series. Not sure if they could pull off Baroque, but I'm game. I'd love a Snow Crash film.
Typing that comment made me do my semi-annual check for adaptations, and I just saw that announcement came out a couple of weeks ago. Hope it comes along better than the movie that got stuck in development hell.
Oh shit. The Baroque Cycle getting the Game of Thrones treatment... minus the executive meddling.
You wouldn't even have to obsess over the history, alchemy, etc., just don't fuck it up. People get too wrapped around an axle thinking every single infodump has to be there. Stephenson's got issues (coughendingscough), but the stories are informed by the same research as the infodumps, and they'll hold up well.
Seconded.
Seveneves would be the bomb (eta : they could even do the last part as a separate animated short)
Yeah, it certainly doesn't hold up as well as the "origin" story, but silly though it was I liked the last part of Seveneves. It could definitely work as an animation.
FALL could as well, or at least kind of a Tron-like thing.
Seveneves is functionally two separate books jammed together. I hope they do the serious TV show on just the first book.
First part as a movie, second part as a tabletop roleplaying setting
Any Batman story that focuses more on how he's mainly a detective and only breaks out the concussion gloves if he's attacked or there's literally no other way to resolve the situation at hand?
Society thinks he's The Punisher in a funny hat because of those damned nolanverse films.
He was supposed to do some detective work in The Batman movie, right? It's been awhile since I've seen it, though, so I don't remember how much they fulfilled that promise.
They did, and though it was a short segment, it was good
I mean theoretically, but it was crap like everything else in that film. He figured nothing out on his own
The Red Rising series would be an awesome TV show. Each of the 6 (so far) books would be excellent as long seasons.
Yes and I want the people who did The Expanse to make it.
I kinda fell off after book 3.
Book 4 is a bit slow but it picks up a lot after that.
That said don't feel obligated to read something that Doesn't interest you of course
4 is the weakest of the series imo, it does pick back up
Who (actors) do you think would be Darrow or Goblin?
Benedict Cumberbatch and Judge Reinhold
Hyperion series. That thing's gonna be hard to adapt though.
It'd probably make a better TV series with a Star Trek The Next Generation feel to it
One of my favorite books is called Inherit the Stars.
Mankind is starting to reach out into the solar system, but finds a man on the moon entombed in a space suit, and he's been dead for 50,000 years.
It'd make a pretty good movie, 2 hours tops.
It does one of my favorite things, by strongly blending two genres: mystery, and sci-fi. A sci-fi show, movie, or book that's purely sci-fi is rarely good. Same goes for fantasy. Season 1 of Game of Thrones is good because it's primarily a mystery/drama story in a fantasy setting. A New Hope is great because it's a western, coming-of-age story in a sci-fi setting. Rebel Moon is garbage (for many reasons) because it's pure sci-fi schlock with no nuance.
Any Brandon Sanderson books of course.
Ayyyyyyyyyyyy my boy Brando Sando!
Time for !BooksCircleJerk
Blood Meridian (decades of false starts not withstanding).
One of my faves. I've never understood why people say it's impossible to adapt.
Because a huge chunk of the story is wandering the gorgeous, but empty desert with a bunch of psycho killers. Occasionally that group commits grisly large scale harvesting of passable scalps to sell off to bigger towns with a scalp trade. Sometimes one of them, usually the judge, will commit a little extra horrific crime against humanity as a treat for themselves. The "good guy" isn't exactly someone to root for either. It's a story with muddy, dark morals and an ending that'll bum out a lot of folks. No happy days here.
I loved the story and would watch a well done movie about it. I highly doubt that'll happen. To do it right is to include almost all of the horror of what these people are, which would be a lot of money on effects that will anger a ton of people due to what they portray. It's not that it's unadaptable. It's that it would be a slow burn movie with brief, hyper violent hollowing out of small villages including baby smashing. It's slow, mean, and ends in a way that'll have you stare off into space feeling a little bad about the nature of humanity. Not a very profitable idea for a movie.
What's your ideal cast lineup? I want this live action so bad but it would have to be a mini series to get all of it in, and then can never think of anyone who could bring the Judge to life.
They need to do a good Dark Tower series. Make it a mini-series or a series of films.
The question was what hasn't been made. Dark Tower was attempted.
House of leaves.
MZD wrote some spec screenplays for a television series and sells them for $11.
https://www.markzdanielewski.com/digital-downloads/p/markzdanielewskihouseofleavesscripts
Haven’t read them yet but intend to.
Any advice on how to actually get through this book? I love it but it's very challenging.
Take as long as you feel like, and try not to focus on "getting through" the book. On my first read, I was lucky enough to feel like I couldn't put it down. I tried a second time years later and didn't get very far, I think because I was focused on finishing it.
Hard to imagine it being done well, given not only the plot(s) but the...unique narrative structure.
Not a book, but a true story from WW2:
5 May 1945 Troops of the 23rd Tank Battalion of the 12th Armored Division of the US XXI Corps led by Lieut. John C. "Jack" Lee, Jr., a number of Wehrmacht soldiers led by Major Josef "Sepp" Gangl, SS-Hauptsturmführer Kurt-Siegfried Schrader, and recently freed French prisoners of war defended Castle Itter against an attacking force from the 17th SS Panzergrenadier Division until relief from the American 142nd Infantry Regiment of the 36th Division of XXI Corps arrived.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Castle_Itter?wprov=sfla1
dude i read this comment like three times and still don't know what the fuck is going on. can you do it with fewer meaningless names and numbers
The Lies of Locke Lamora is just begging for an Ocean's Eleven-type treatment.
Yeah that would be the perfect vibe for that.
I was about to post the same thing. That series is fucking awesome
Lot of good ones in here. Only idea I can think of is The Black Company. Not specifically to follow Croakers story either. Could be about battles and drama of the past from the annals.
Gets my vote.
Funny enough, came to say the Garrett P.I. series.
Keep meaning to get around to reading those.
Goblin and One-Eye would be fucking awesome as the main characters, or Raven. Hell even a story about how the Silver Spike came to be would be a good movie.
No fuck that Croaker is the bad ass mofo and his story should be the first movie. Make it an unknown actor who can be humble but also a bad mofo who everyone is like JFC dude!
If you did a TV series it could be like True Detective. Each season being a different timeframe. The Taken being the few reoccurring characters. But even then a character like Shifter could be portrayed by multiple actors.
Something from Iain M. Banks The Culture. The best books, like Excession would probably be hard to adapt due to the protagonists being mostly ships, but others like Consider Phlebas or The Player of Games could probably make great films or miniseries (and Use of Weapons would probably be great as the later).
Probably excessively expensive in the CGI department if done well, but one can dream.
First Law series by Joe Abercrombie
Hell. Yes.
I'm as hard as a certain wizard gets thinking about murdering people who oppose him
Dragonlance
Seconded, but I'm not sure I would go past the twins trilogy
Based on Honor Among Thieves there simply isn't enough of an audience. Dragonlance does a better job of hiding the dice but I don't think high fantasy can get away with not having boobs and murder everywhere.
The Rama Series by Arthur C Clarke
I think this is a good contender for the show being better than the book (which was incredibly dry Sci-Fi with almost no character content).
Little brother by cory Doctorow Best book ive read. Characters have real feelings and flaws. And the book got me deep into linux and foss
Would highly recommend
Doctorow releases his books under a CC license as well, so you can download a copy here.
I want to see Down and Out
A good version of “Riverworld” by Philip Jose Farmer would be awesome. “Borne” or “The Strange Bird” by Jeff Vandermeer. “Dance, Dance, Dance” by Murakmi. The Maddaddam Trilogy by Atwood.
As a deep cut, “The Woman in the Dunes” by Kobo Abe. Totally surreal.
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress is my favourite book and would be highly relevant today given its political themes about colonialism, and AI.
Assassin's trilogy by Robin Hobb.
Agreed, fantastic story but I'll be damned if I wasn't moved to tears.
Hey, Robin! I know you have to vent sometimes into your works, but give the poor guy a break, won't you?
Lord of Light, high sci Fi mashed with epic Indian mythology and eastern philosophy.
Snow Crash.
Call me crazy, but I want a 14 hour epic of The Silmarillion...one movie, not a trilogy plz.
14 hours is way way way too long of a movie. Multiple movies or a series makes much more sense.
But yeah, that would be really cool.
Oh absolutely, no one will sit through an actual movie that long. A series of some would be the way to go for sure.
silmarillion is tv series material. every episode a mythic story, with some two-parters.
As an aside I found it surprisingly readable and I'm not a huge LotR fan. Maybe I just like short story anthologies.
Would love to see (and probably be disappointed by) a Revelation Space adaptation.
I think diamond dogs would make a really interesting animation short or maybe full-length movie.
But any of the books from the main series would require the kind of love and effort that the Expanse got early on.
Although I love the books, I'd never want to see them as a film. I expect it would be so gory it would take away from the story. Kind of how Game of Thrones was just so focused on boobs that it was honestly embarrassing to watch sometimes.
Dresden files not popular among these parts or how come nobody's mentioned it yet?
It has technically already been adapted, but it was a stupid procedural cop show with a twist rather than what it should be. If you want a more formulaic thing, just copy Amazon's Reacher.
Plus, since it's an urban fantasy, it should be cheaper to make than most other fantasy/sci-fi shows, I think.
The blue(and green) beetle LIVES!
The Chronicles of Amber by Roger Zelazny
It needs to be a show, not movies. One book per season would allow enough detail to be included.
Yes! I came here to see if anyone had mentioned this. My favorite fantasy series when I was a teenager. I also wouldn't mind his Incarnations of Immortality series turned into a show either, but Amber would work better due to the humor and settings
These books changed how I read books and understood books. They were a gateway into other worlds I never knew could exist.
Neat trick, that.
I so want a Hercules/Xena type show except it's Conan. The world needs more Conan in all its glory steeped in fantasy and Lovecraftian lore.
Now I'm picturing Conan O'Brien portraying Conan The Barbarian, and I don't like it.....
Where's is waldo
Not a TV show, but this ongoing series of shorts as if a video game are fantastic.. here's the first, see the rest on their reels/shorts
Dan Simmons, Hyperion... Or Carrion Comfort.
I'd love to see some modern tries at Dashiel Hammet's work too.
The bone comic book series by Jeff Smith completely deserves a movie or show or something. The series is like Tolkien + Disney +metaphysics and is aimed at a younger audience but has enough deep ideas to keep adults actively interested. It has a rich history of the 90s-00s comic book era as well as some history in acholastic book fairs as well as some early internet meme culture contribution. It was solely owned by one dude who eventually got some help from someone who added color to the series that really made it a next level up. If anyone decides to read it from my comment here, check out the omnibus version and if you can find a 20th anniversary version, that has some nice history and behind the scenes type stuff included. There was a Netflix series that was in the works for like a year or so until Netflix decided to cancel it, so it already has some kind of an interest that I hope keeps building up and eventually makes someone do something about this forgotten gem. Here's a explainer video about bone Bone comic series explainer video
I thought the telltale video game adaptation was interesting!
But yeah, a full epic series would be something else
Yeah it's odd how all these companies are just letting it slip through the cracks like this
Peter Hamilton's nights dawn trilogy, and his commonwealth saga. Both really good space opera, with varied characters and plot lines.
Yes, absolutely agree. The Commonwealth Saga was what got me into space operas big time
After how the Withcher was butchered, I'd like to see less adaptations.
Yeah, I don't trust them not to ruin everything. Disney fucked up Star Wars for fucks sake. If there was ever a sure thing it was that and they somehow managed to make half their shows terrible.
Remove most of the muscle porn from it, which wouldn't be hard since the main characters are all essentially superheroes, and the entirety of The Deathworlders, the canon parts of Salvage, The Xiu Chang Saga, and Humans Dont Make Good Pets.
The Jenkinsverse has a ton of potential there.
ETA: also a documentary narrated by David Attenborough, based on Alice in Sunderland.
There is no Deathworlders after War On Two Worlds.
Outside that I agree.
Red Mars, Kim Stanley Robinson
This was my first thought, one of my favorite series.
Honestly, no one could do it justice. But I agree it would deserve a great adaptation
There's so much going on, a TV show would have to be 10 seasons. Love the combo of socio-political struggles and hard sci fi technology though.
I guess its kinda fringe but the Vorkosigan Saga by Lois McMaster Bujold. Either the parents or little admiral would be pretty good if she is involved in the writing. Or, one of her other books. Great writer.
Curse of Chalion is my favorite fantasy novel, I'd love to see any of her stuff adapted well. I've read everything she's ever published.
(Apparently Warrior's Apprentice was adapted into a French comic book)