# Books you'd like to turn into movies and actors you'd like to see play them **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 6, 2022, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-youd-like-to-turn-into-movies-and-actors-youd-like-to-see-play-them/962422 "2022-04-06T21:10:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Macfries](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/90ced4/32.png) [@Macfries](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Macfries)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2022, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-youd-like-to-turn-into-movies-and-actors-youd-like-to-see-play-them/962422/1 "2022-04-06T21:10:27Z")
Mine is killer from the heights by mike jahn. Like too see a 1970s version of Clint Eastwood play the main character. ---
**Author:** ![jaycat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jaycat/32/3015_2.png) [@jaycat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jaycat)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2022, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-youd-like-to-turn-into-movies-and-actors-youd-like-to-see-play-them/962422/2 "2022-04-06T21:45:06Z")
How about Don Knotts as Raskolnikov? ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2022, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-youd-like-to-turn-into-movies-and-actors-youd-like-to-see-play-them/962422/3 "2022-04-06T23:24:46Z")
One series of books that I think would make an excellent series of TV movies is the Bryant and May series by Christopher Fowler. It’s about two very old British detectives who head up the Peculiar Crimes Unit, and who deal with very odd crimes, often bordering on the supernatural. Arthur Bryant is the elder by a couple of years, very eccentric in his attire and his knowledge of odd things is very extensive. I’d love to see Ian McKellen in that role. And John May is a buttoned-down career crime expert who is also Bryant’s best friend. Patrick Stewart would be perfect for that role. Or maybe they could stretch themselves and switch roles. Of course if you could get that casting it wouldn’t be a made-for-TV movie. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2022, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-youd-like-to-turn-into-movies-and-actors-youd-like-to-see-play-them/962422/4 "2022-04-06T23:29:37Z")
> [@Roderick\_Femm](#): > > the Bryant and May series by Christopher Fowler Weird. In the real world _Bryant and May_ are a matchstick firm. I’d like someone to take on _The Ballad Of Halo Jones_, a property from the 2000AD comic book stable. It could easily be adapted into a TV series, and you could get someone like Kiernan Shipka to play her. I’d also like to see Daisy Ridley play _Modesty Blaise_. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2022, 7:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-youd-like-to-turn-into-movies-and-actors-youd-like-to-see-play-them/962422/5 "2022-04-07T07:15:24Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > I’d also like to see Daisy Ridley play _Modesty Blaise_ . I love Daisy Ridley, but she’d be all wrong for Modesty Blaise (too young, too English). Someone more like Sofia Boutella, I think, would work. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Q](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/898d66/32.png) [@Johnny\_Q](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Q)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2022, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-youd-like-to-turn-into-movies-and-actors-youd-like-to-see-play-them/962422/6 "2022-04-09T23:37:53Z")
_The Gun Seller_ by Hugh Laurie. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2022, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-youd-like-to-turn-into-movies-and-actors-youd-like-to-see-play-them/962422/7 "2022-04-10T15:41:22Z")
From the way the OP is phrased, I take it we can fantasize about using a time machine to get our favorite actors when they were the right age for the part? _The Maltese Falcon_ Michael Clark Duncan as Casper Gutman Gregory Hines as Joel Cairo Denzel Washington as the detective (probably have to change his surname) Robert Heinlein’s _The Rolling Stones_. Maggie Smith as Grandma Hazel. When I read _The Lord of the Rlings_, I often visualize Gregory Peck as Aragorn, and Peter Lorre as Gollum. David Bowie, early 1980s, would have been perfect to play Elric of Melnibone. Today, perhaps Benedict Cumberbatch. ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2022, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-youd-like-to-turn-into-movies-and-actors-youd-like-to-see-play-them/962422/8 "2022-04-11T00:11:41Z")
Kristen Schaal in **The Filme of Margery Kempe**.