Why no film version of Isaac’s Storm (great book about the Galveston hurricane of 1900)? Would have been perfect for the millenium.
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.
Oh, I’ll vote for that!!
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.
how about kerouac? dharma bums, satori in paris? hell, even on the road…how about some of henry rollins’s shit…insane…
As regards Neuromancer, Gibson actually wrote a screeplay:
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.
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.
Neuromancer and everything else by William Gibson
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.
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.
For a moment there I thought that this thread was in fact this thread. 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.
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.
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. 
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.
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.
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.”
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)
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.
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”. 