# Books you'd like to see as good movies **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 16, 2004, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-youd-like-to-see-as-good-movies/275010 "2004-11-16T04:53:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2004, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-youd-like-to-see-as-good-movies/275010/21 "2004-11-16T16:04:30Z")
War of the Worlds, in the original setting, Tripods and all. Furthermore, I propose that certain parties have restraining orders put againest them to prevent them from screwing with this _CoughSpielburgLucasCough_ ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2004, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-youd-like-to-see-as-good-movies/275010/22 "2004-11-16T16:09:13Z")
_Weapon_ by Robert Mason - a rather nice and thoughtful book about AI and what it means to be a good/bad guy. There is a sequel I haven’t read called _Solo_ and the two books have been made into a single movie (also calld _Solo_), which was totally dire and missed the entire point of the book(the first one anyway) I’d like to see a faithful movie version of _Weapon_. ---
**Author:** ![Caprese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a9a28c/32.png) [@Caprese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caprese)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2004, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-youd-like-to-see-as-good-movies/275010/23 "2004-11-16T16:38:07Z")
The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. I am really not sure if it could be done. The screenplay would be very difficult. But I see Clive Owen as Henry, and maybe Julianne Moore as Clare. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2004, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-youd-like-to-see-as-good-movies/275010/24 "2004-11-16T16:40:28Z")
_Why I Hate Saturn_, possibly starring Janeane Garofalo. It’s a comedy chick flick with bazookas! No, I mean _real_ bazookas. Perverts. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2004, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-youd-like-to-see-as-good-movies/275010/25 "2004-11-16T16:56:47Z")
Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett’s _Good Omens_. ---
**Author:** ![maniondl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/cdc98d/32.png) [@maniondl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/maniondl)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2004, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-youd-like-to-see-as-good-movies/275010/26 "2004-11-16T17:05:00Z")
Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman. I live in fear that they’d screw it up though. I figure Terrence Stamp or Ian McKellen for Aziraphale (the angel) Not sure about Crowley (the demon) though. Like a lot of other projects, this one is perpetually back burnered. ---
**Author:** ![Katisha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bcef8e/32.png) [@Katisha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Katisha)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2004, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-youd-like-to-see-as-good-movies/275010/27 "2004-11-16T17:06:12Z")
> [@N. Sane](#): > > Being the Chaucer geek that I am, I was just thinking this morning that I’d like to see _Troilus and Cressida_ made into a good movie. Yeah, but so much of the effect of _Troilus and Criseyde_ depends on the narration (the narrator almost becomes a character in his own right), which you couldn’t really get across on film. Maybe if you had a really imaginative writer and director… Although Shakespeare’s version would make a pretty cool movie (and very timely as well). Come to that, there are a bunch of Shakespeare plays that need to get filmed – for instance, some of the histories other than _Henry V_ and _Richard III._ Also, I’d love to see _Pericles_ directed by someone like Julie Taymor or Terry Gilliam… Oh, and there needs to be a film version of _The Once and Future King_ – I know there’s _Camelot,_ but that doesn’t really take that much from the novel. Of course, it’d probably have to be two parts to do the book justice… ---
**Author:** ![maniondl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/cdc98d/32.png) [@maniondl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/maniondl)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2004, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-youd-like-to-see-as-good-movies/275010/28 "2004-11-16T17:06:25Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett’s _Good Omens_. Damn my slow typing! ---
**Author:** ![fiddlesticks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiddlesticks/32/18129_2.png) [@fiddlesticks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fiddlesticks)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2004, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-youd-like-to-see-as-good-movies/275010/29 "2004-11-16T17:17:53Z")
I’d like to think that T.C. Boyle’s _Water Music_ would make a great movie someday. Apparently, the books been optioned for a movie for a long time, but no one’s brave enough to do it. Again, another good project for Terry Gilliam, I think. It’ll never happen, but it’d be fun to see Stephenson’s Baroque Cycle get a faithful Lord of the Rings-like treatment on film. Of course, it’d end up being about 18 movies, but it’d be fun. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Chao\_Goes\_Mu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_chao_goes_mu/32/3191_2.png) [@The\_Chao\_Goes\_Mu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Chao_Goes_Mu)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2004, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-youd-like-to-see-as-good-movies/275010/30 "2004-11-16T17:27:32Z")
I would love to see Kurt Vonnegut Jr’s “God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater” and “Cat’s Cradle” although the latter would be tough to translate to screen I think without bastardizing it. Kubrick could’ve pulled it off and I think Jonathon Demme would do it proud, IMO. ---
**Author:** ![Knowed\_Out](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/knowed_out/32/7380_2.png) [@Knowed\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knowed_Out)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2004, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-youd-like-to-see-as-good-movies/275010/31 "2004-11-16T17:49:18Z")
_Fires of Eden_ by Dan Simmons. It’s a horror story based in a Hawaiian resort that’s adjacent to a soon-to-be-active volcano. The three leads: 1. a spinster who travels the world. She’s a Plain Jane type who has itchy feet. Her great aunt and Mark Twain were travelling companions. Hollywood of course would never release a movie with a Plain Jane lead. She’d have to be a knockout who wears black horn rimmed glasses and keeps her hair in a bun, then gets naked and shows her repressed supermodel side. A Michelle Pfeiffer role. 2. an unscrupulous millionaire who’s trying to sell a resort in Hawaii to a Japanese consortium before it gets buried in lava. He’s an utter scumbag who bullies the governor, has several girlfriends, and attempts to hide the severed hand he discovered in one of the course holes as he’s golfing with his clients. Probably Tom Cruise. 3. a frumpy woman who’s the widow of a garbageman, and wins a Hawaiian vacation prize package. Despite all the weirdness going on around her and everybody running for their lives in terror, she still stays at the resort, and winds up being the action star so to speak. Maybe Kathy Bates. There’s one scene I really want to see. The millionaire winds up talking to a pig demon. The pig demon wants to make a deal. The millionaire asks “What, you want my soul?” The pig demon replies, “Fuck your soul. I want to partner with you.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-youd-like-to-see-as-good-movies/275010.md?page=1)