I’d like to see Ellison’s original draft of City on the Edge of Forever filmed. I think these days we can handle the idea that someone in the Federation might run drugs.
An interesting (if slightly hijacked) note for you Stephen King fans out there: I understand that Stephen King’s (rather long) short story The Mist is going to be a movie. It’s not in production yet, but Frank Darabont (who brought us The Green Mile and The Shawshank Redemption) has bought the rights. I’m excited. 
There’s a thread around here with links to a site discussing this. Apparently, it’s in the talking stages to be done. However, I don’t hold much hope for it as the actor they’re looking to sign to play John Carter is (brace yourself) Tom Cruise! :eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek:
The deal with two of these:
There was one attempt at a ‘Good Omens’ film once, but Pratchett and Gaiman and the film producers (forget who) all sort of mutually fell out over how they wanted it to be, and it was eventually given up. Rumour has it that Terry Gilliam is making a try at it now, but then there are always rumours like that.
There is a script written for a Sandman movie Neil Gaiman talks about some times, and it’s apparantly horrible. They’ve changed it so it’s basically an action movie about a battle between Morpheus and ‘his archenemy, the Corinthian’. Unless Gaiman can get the rights back, you do NOT want to see a Sandman movie coming out.
Every time I read one of Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum novels I think “And why aren’t these made into movies?” It seems so natural–the books are driven by physical gags and hilarious dialog, much of which would translate straight to screen without a hitch.
Ironically, the exact same thing can be said about the Fletch books, and while hte first Fletch movie was mildly enjoyable ,they still didn’t capture any of the beautiul thing that is I.M Fletcher.
“Rainbow Six” by Tom Clancy. “Ender’s Game” dittoed.
The Preacher graphic novel series.
Kim Newman’s ANNO DRACULA
an animated version of Ayn Rand’s ANTHEM
animated or stop-motion or CGI presetation- as written- not a dramatized interpretation but a graphic literal portrayal of
THE REVELATION OF ST. JOHN THE DIVINE
Actually, there is a movie version of Watership Down. I haven’t seen it, though, so I couldn’t tell you if it’s good or not…
Any bets on whether there will be a rap video with Will Smith surrounded by legions of CGI androids doing Janet Jackson-style synchronized dancing?
-Ben
“We finished the rap video already. It’s called ‘Slug Slam.’”
I always had a real problem with this. I saw the Outer Limits episode in question (demon with a glass hand, or some such) and as best I can tell, the only similarity is that a) it has a time-travelling cyborg, and b) the fate of humanity hangs in the balance.
The Terminator was a pastiche of a huge number of science fiction works. James Cameron stole his ideas from all over the place. He used ideas from two different Outer Limits episodes that Ellison wrote and one that Ellison didn’t write (and, more importantly, he mentioned in interviews that he got ideas from them, which made Ellison’s case for a lawsuit pretty ironclad). He got ideas from Philip K. Dick’s short stories. He copied plots from everything ever written on the idea of time-travel paradoxes. None of this detracts from The Terminator being a great film, but the plot was firmly in the line of the science fiction tradition.
It’s not The Demon With a Glass Hand that Harlan claimed Terminator borrowed from. TDWAGH starred Robert Culp as a man with a computer hand with glass fingers. He spends the episode trying to find the fingers of the hand as he has amnesia and the fingers are data banks and he learns about who he is and what’s going on in the world with each finger he finds and replaces in his hand. At the end of the episode, he finds out that he’s a robot, with humanity stored inside him.
The episode that Harlan used in his suit is called soldier, IIRC, it involves two soldiers who get caught in an eletrical storm and get sent back in time to modern America. One of the soldiers is a genetically engineered killing machine (I’m going from memory here, so I might not be exactly correct on all the details), while the other is normal. The genetically engineered killing machine is barely articulate, while the normal soldier tries to convince everyone that he’s the good guy and they should let him kill the other soldier.
There are a number similarities between the episode and The Terminator and I remember watching the episode and thinking, “That’s where they got the idea for The Terminator from.” Supposedly, what really shot Cameron’s defense was that on the set of The Terminator, he said, “I’m ripping off a few old Outer Limits.”
Not surprising, since his The Abyss was essentially an underwater version of 2001.
I’ve seen both eps of Outer Limits and I’ve seen Terminator and I’m really surprised anyone could consider Terminator a ripoff of either one. He may have used either or both as starting points, but Terminator was definitely something of his own.
Re: Gor
Yes, there were movies based on the Gor novels, but about the only thing they kept was the title and the names of some of the characters. I mean, in the Outlaw of Gor movie, Tarl Cabot swears his eternal opposition to slavery. Snerk!
IMHO there has never been an adaptation of the Gor novels AS WRITTEN. I think they would make a great basis for some Japanese hentai, which have a tradition of including both sex and storylines, which was what made the Gor novels exceptional.
I think the real question should be:
With all the really GOOD books out there, why are their corresponding movies so overpoweringly awful?
For instance: Dune, The Mists of Avalon, all those goddamned Jane Austen/Shakespeare take offs…
If any one EVER attempts to make a movie out of Ender’s Game, I will personally hunt them down and torture them to death very…very…very slowly…since that’s what they’d do to that book. o:)
A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth
Even more than A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth’s An Equal Music, (which belongs in the “Which books made you cry” thread, as well, come to think of it.) Poets make the best novelists.
icescorpion, what makes Dune so hurtful is what it started out as.
Alejandro Jodorosky to direct. Salvadore Dali to do artwork and star. H.R. Giger to provide House Harkonen’s design. Moebius to design House Atreides. Douglas Trumbbull (2001) to do the special visual effects. A Pink Floyd soundtrack instead of that awful Toto thing, even.
When the project went spectacularly over-budget, largely due to the improbable number of uber-ego’s involved, David Lynch was approached to start over from scratch. He didn’t want to make it-- he only agreed to it because the studio agreed to get behind Blue Velvet as part of the deal.
The first I thought of here were the Fafhrd/Gray Mouser books by Fritz Leiber, who allegedy coined the term ‘sword and sorcery’. The stories have both S&S, along with humour and a little sex. Anybody have suggestions for casting?
Another that should be made is the Dancers at the End of Time trilogy by Michael Moorcock.
A couple of duds that should be remade (that’s “remade properly, so they bear some resemblance to the original”) are Johnny Mnemonic and Poul Anderson’s The High Crusade.
There was a brief animated vrsion of John Carter made in the 1930s or 1940s. In color, no less. It may have been only a very brief trial clip. It certainly wasn’t a whole story. But it looked great. Too bd they didn’t go through with it. The animation style was a lot like the Fleischer Studio’s Superman cartoons, although I’m pretty sure it wasn’t Fleischer doing JC.
Well, the other problem was that Jodorosky couldn’t get his project approved by Herbert.
I think one of the big points of contention is that Alia was going to be the product of an incestious relation between Paul and Jessica. Makes you wonder why herbert was upset.
I’m rather conflicted as to which one I like better. The movie captures the style, but the miniseries actually had the better plot.
Now, if there were only some way to combine them keeping the best of both.