# Books You're Surprised There Aren't Movies Of **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 10, 2003, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-youre-surprised-there-arent-movies-of/147798 "2003-01-10T19:09:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2003, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-youre-surprised-there-arent-movies-of/147798/101 "2003-01-16T23:11:29Z")
Why no film version of _Isaac’s Storm_ (great book about the Galveston hurricane of 1900)? Would have been perfect for the millenium. ---
**Author:** ![Tygr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/df788c/32.png) [@Tygr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tygr)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2003, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-youre-surprised-there-arent-movies-of/147798/102 "2003-01-17T13:38:04Z")
I just finished Cherryh’s _Chanur_ saga a few months ago and all the while I was reading it I was envisioning how fantastic a movie it’d make. Picture a story of man’s first contact with aliens told from the aliens’ point of view. You got 5 or 6 different alien species working in a shaky trade alliance and this sentient, hairless pink creature just gets dropped right in the middle of it. Your protagonist species is feline, and nearly all its main characters are female. There’s plenty of action, but a lot of the fun of the story is in the political differences between species, and the wrangling that the human’s appearance creates. You’d have to toss out the detailed explanations of interstellar travel, and just explain that it makes you sick. Some of the details about communication speed within a star system would have to be glossed over. But I still think it’d be more engrossing than Babylon 5. And the methane-breathers would be fascinating to create. I’m interested in the film of _The Mist_ as it was one of the scarier long-short stories. What I’d really like to see is an Outer Limits/Twilight Zone episode of the King story “The Jaunt”. That one still creeps me out the most. ---
**Author:** ![norinew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/eb9ed0/32.png) [@norinew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/norinew)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2003, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-youre-surprised-there-arent-movies-of/147798/103 "2003-01-17T22:19:53Z")
> [@](#): > > _Originally posted by Tygr_ > What I’d really like to see is an Outer Limits/Twilight Zone episode of the King story “The Jaunt”. That one still creeps me out the most Oh, I’ll vote for that!! ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2003, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-youre-surprised-there-arent-movies-of/147798/104 "2003-01-18T01:09:23Z")
I would like to see a movie version of Stanislaw Lem’s “The Futurological Congress”, and one of Bugalicov’s “The Master and Margarita”. Both would I think be very difficult to film, though. ---
**Author:** ![Bindrah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@Bindrah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bindrah)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2003, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-youre-surprised-there-arent-movies-of/147798/105 "2003-01-18T04:02:18Z")
how about kerouac? dharma bums, satori in paris? hell, even on the road…how about some of henry rollins’s shit…insane… ---
**Author:** ![ITR\_champion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c67d28/32.png) [@ITR\_champion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ITR_champion)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2003, 9:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-youre-surprised-there-arent-movies-of/147798/106 "2003-01-18T09:28:33Z")
As regards _Neuromancer_, Gibson actually wrote a screeplay: [http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Rampart/2393/wgneuro.txt](http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Rampart/2393/wgneuro.txt) Someone else mentioned _A Fire Upon the Deep_. I would love to see it made into a big-budget movie. If done corretly, the destruction of Relay could be one of the greatest special-effects scenes of all times. And I’ll continue hoping for a movie version of James Stoddard’s _The High House_, even though if Hollywood did it, they’d probably rewrite it and insist on at least one big female role. ---
**Author:** ![cw](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/71c47a/32.png) [@cw](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cw)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2003, 10:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-youre-surprised-there-arent-movies-of/147798/107 "2003-01-18T10:29:38Z")
I know there is a new T.V. show based on it and a movie was made sometime during the 80’s, but I would like to see Stephen Kings “Dead Zone” made with today’s film capabilities. ---
**Author:** ![Virgowitch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/9fc348/32.png) [@Virgowitch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Virgowitch)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2003, 8:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-youre-surprised-there-arent-movies-of/147798/108 "2003-01-19T08:59:26Z")
Neuromancer and everything else by William Gibson ---
**Author:** ![Already\_in\_Use](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a9adbd/32.png) [@Already\_in\_Use](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Already_in_Use)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2003, 9:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-youre-surprised-there-arent-movies-of/147798/109 "2003-01-19T09:22:36Z")
Has Heinlein’s _Stranger in a Strange Land_ ever been done? Come to think of it, _The Door into Summer_ would be nice too. There’s something charming about that story. And this would be an ultra-ambitious undertaking (and would be difficult to update to modern times, but would also not really fit in the '70s, when most of its action takes place), but I would LOVE to see a well-made movie of it: Robert Anton Wilson’s and Robert Shea’s _Illuminatus!_ Trilogy. ---
**Author:** ![SPOOFE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@SPOOFE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SPOOFE)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2003, 11:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-youre-surprised-there-arent-movies-of/147798/110 "2003-01-19T11:21:41Z")
> [@](#): > > The Player of Games, Use of Weapons, and (I recently got done reading this one) Look to Windward come to mind. Excession would be a bit hard to pull off since it mostly takes place in the minds of the Minds… as it were. I agree, although I do believe that _Consider Phlebas_ would be quite easy to adapt to a movie. _The Player of Games_ has a lot of mental intrigue, and we’d wind up with a lot of scenes similar to the “pattern-searching” scenes from _A Beautiful Mind_. _Phlebas_, on the other hand, has a lot of good ol’ action, some VERY colorful characters, and doesn’t delve into the super-technology that a lot of the other Culture books do. Plus, the computer-generated Idirans would look REALLY awesome. Then again, I’m saying this as someone who has, admittedly, finished reading ONLY _Phlebas_, though I’m right in the middle of _Player_, and I have _Excession_ and _Look to Windward_ lined up… gotta get _Use of Weapons_. ---
**Author:** ![Canyon\_Surfer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Canyon\_Surfer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Canyon_Surfer)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2003, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-youre-surprised-there-arent-movies-of/147798/111 "2003-01-19T16:56:50Z")
For a moment there I thought that this thread was in fact [this thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=120436). I think it’s a subject that needs discussing on a regular basis because maybe someone out there in the movie business will see that there are many, many, many, many books that could be turned into films, instead of making crappy sequels that cash in on the success of the original (Die Hard ?), or re-makes of old films again because the original was good (Thomas Crown Affair?), Haven’t read all of the posts in this thread but I would add S M Stirlings novel(s) about Nantucket being transported back in time. ---
**Author:** ![raisinbread](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8491ac/32.png) [@raisinbread](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/raisinbread)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2003, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-youre-surprised-there-arent-movies-of/147798/112 "2003-01-21T22:30:07Z")
I would also like to vote for The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester. Gracious, this is a great book and when I read it I keep envisioning it on the big screen. ---
**Author:** ![DOOM](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a587f6/32.png) [@DOOM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DOOM)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2003, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-youre-surprised-there-arent-movies-of/147798/113 "2003-01-22T00:21:42Z")
> [@](#): > > The Player of Games has a lot of mental intrigue, and we’d wind up with a lot of scenes similar to the “pattern-searching” scenes from A Beautiful Mind. Yeah, good point. And the game of Azad itself would be pretty complicated to make, I suspect. But, yes, Consider Phlebas would totally rock as a movie. Effects heavy to be sure (Peter Jackson Peter Jackson!). In fact, I’m currently hunting a copy of that down as I only borrowed it when I read it the first time… I need to read that again. I haven’t read State of the Art yet, though, the only Culture novel I haven’t read. Glad I’m not the only fan here on these boards! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2003, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-youre-surprised-there-arent-movies-of/147798/114 "2003-01-22T03:38:04Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by DOOM \* > \*\*Yeah, good point. And the game of Azad itself would be pretty complicated to make, I suspect. > > But, yes, Consider Phlebas would totally rock as a movie. Effects heavy to be sure (Peter Jackson Peter Jackson!). > > In fact, I’m currently hunting a copy of that down as I only borrowed it when I read it the first time… I need to read that again. I haven’t read State of the Art yet, though, the only Culture novel I haven’t read. > > Glad I’m not the only fan here on these boards! 😃 \*\* If you want to film an Ian Banks story, why not film his first - “The Wasp Factory”? Brilliant and perverse. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![MMercurius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8baadc/32.png) [@MMercurius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MMercurius)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2003, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-youre-surprised-there-arent-movies-of/147798/115 "2003-01-22T03:55:36Z")
**Neverness** - David Zindell. Kinda odd movie subject but could make quite a serious, poetic sci-fi effort a’la 2001: A Space Odyssey. **Red Mars, Green Mars, Blue Mars** - Kim Stanley Robinson. Memorable characters, chance for good acting in a sci-fi movie. It’s even a goddamn trilogy so of course the studios should love it! **Only Forward** - Michael Marshall Smith - C’mon, just for the talking appliances! I know they were going to make one of Spares but it’s kinda dark and heavy - _Only Forward_ could be a bit of laugh. ---
**Author:** ![DOOM](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a587f6/32.png) [@DOOM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DOOM)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2003, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-youre-surprised-there-arent-movies-of/147798/116 "2003-01-22T04:06:39Z")
> [@](#): > > If you want to film an Ian Banks story, why not film his first - “The Wasp Factory”? Mmm, I don’t know. It might be good, but again, alot of internal stuff going on in that one. Be good for a shocker though. I’d prefer to see a Culture movie, because of the visuals for one thing. Plus, the Culture’s just so damn cool! The ship names alone would have people in stitches. ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_K](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a183cd/32.png) [@Mama\_K](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_K)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2003, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-youre-surprised-there-arent-movies-of/147798/117 "2003-01-22T04:19:10Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Fiat Lux \* > \*\*Unless Gaiman can get the rights back, you do NOT want to see a Sandman movie coming out. \*\* And when/ if he does, Johnny Depp would be excellent in the part of Morpheus. I would like to see Christopher Moore’s _Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal_ made into a movie, but it would offend a lot of people because it’s kinda like _Dogma_. Ex: Pharisee: “Why do you feel you are allowed to break the Sabbath?” Joshua:“Because I’m the Son of God, that’s why.” Biff:“Oh, fuck. Way to ease them into the idea, Josh.” ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_K](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a183cd/32.png) [@Mama\_K](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_K)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2003, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-youre-surprised-there-arent-movies-of/147798/118 "2003-01-22T04:27:01Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Virgowitch \* > \*\*Neuromancer and everything else by William Gibson \*\* Two words: Johnny Mnemonic. Another two words: HORIBBLE MOVIE! The people in charge of casting Keanu Reeves should be sacked because they chose him instead of Bono. (Read Bill Flannagan’s book _U2 At The End Of The World_ for this story) Keanu Reeves may be the personification of Lust, but he can’t act. (By now all of you should have noticed my undying devotion to the four Irishmen known as U2) ---
**Author:** ![Saltire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saltire/32/553_2.png) [@Saltire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saltire)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2003, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-youre-surprised-there-arent-movies-of/147798/119 "2003-01-22T06:02:27Z")
Several suggestions here I’d be glad to ‘me, too’ but I’ll only list new ones. _The Integral Trees_ by Larry Niven. This would be such a visual feast, and the story is full of cinematic action. _Midshipman’s Hope_ by David Feintuch. A great space adventure, with an intensly conflicted protagonist that you just have to identify with. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2003, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-youre-surprised-there-arent-movies-of/147798/120 "2003-01-22T15:42:32Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by DOOM \* > \*\*Mmm, I don’t know. It might be good, but again, alot of internal stuff going on in that one. Be good for a shocker though. > > I’d prefer to see a Culture movie, because of the visuals for one thing. Plus, the Culture’s just so damn cool! The ship names alone would have people in stitches. \*\* Being a science fiction fan myself, it may sound a bit odd - but I actually like some of Banks’ non-SF stuff more (not that his SF is not great!). Maybe it is because he is one of the few who can write equally well in both sf and non-sf genres. “Complicity” would make an absolutely kick-ass movie. Better even than “the Wasp Factory”. 🙂 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-youre-surprised-there-arent-movies-of/147798.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-youre-surprised-there-arent-movies-of/147798.md?page=7)