Anyway, I found an old Analog Scifi short story collection in my bookcase (which I probably bought years ago from a charity shop and never got around to reading) and read Monument by Lloyd Biggle Jr.
As I was reading it I could vividly see all of the action, and thought it would make a great movie…sort of like Avatar but with politics and passive resistance instead of battle scenes.
Obviously someone else thought so too, but it never happened.
Anyone else have stories they think would make great movies?
Gordon Dahlquist’s Glass Books of the Dream Eaters – partially because of the great steampunk milieu, but also because Dahlquist wasn’t entirely successful in making his characters distinctive, so at a certain point I started getting confused as to who was who. I remember thinking “If this were a movie, I’d be following this better because they’d look different.”
Until Gwen, a short story by Dennis Lehane. About a con-man father and his somewhat-protege son. It’s already been adapted to the stage, but it would make a killer movie.
Warren Fahy’s Fragment, about a reality-TV science show that finds an island which has been isolated for eons- so long that it has developed a completely unique and utterly invasive ecology.
World War Z. Yeah a movie is planned, but it looks like it’s stuck in development hell. Personelly I think it’d work better as a miniseries (on HBO or Showtime) than a theatrical movie.
Also I’ve long thought that S.M. Stirling’s Nantucket Trilogy (Island in the Sea of Time, Against the Tide of Years, and On the Oceans of Eternity) would make a great epic miniseries (or rather a trio of miniseries, each airing a year or two apart).
I’ve been waiting for Bag of Bones by Stephen King and The Taking by Dean Koontz to be made into movies, got excited when I heard that the movie rights to each have been sold, and have languished as no movies appeared. sigh.
And on a slightly different note, if they make Alyson Noel’s **The Immortals **series into a movie, they have to get Ben Barnes to play Damen. The author even agrees
I am compelled, in my OCD way, whenever I see the name Mary Doria Russell, to pitifully bleat, “they should make a movie version of “The Sparrow” and it was on at one time with Brad Pitt involved, and then it wasn’t”. It will never happen, but - they could put in on HBO.
“The Last Unicorn” by Peter S. Beagle. There is NO reason whatsoever they can’t make a live action version of this, with Jonathan Rhys Myers as Schmendrick. Again, it was on at one time with Mia Farrow as Molly, and I think Christopher Lee, and then - nothing.
All the time-my wife and I like to sit around fantasy-casting them. In addition to some already named, I’ll add The Lies of Locke Lamora, a fantasy-Venice long con gone horribly wrong.
Be My Enemy, by Christopher Brookmyre. It blends mystery, horror, humour and politics, and has enough setpieces to be condensed into a film plot.
I was quite disappointed when I saw Severance, as it was similar enough to mean that any attempt at filming Be My Enemy would probably be compared to it.
Stephen King’s Different Seasons consisted of four short stories corresponding to the seasons of the year. Three of the four have been made into movies (The Shawshank Redemption is the best known and Apt Pupil the least), but none had been made at the time I read the book.
The story that resonated the most for me was the “Summer Story,” The Body. I vividly visualized every scene and imagined what a great movie it could be. It eventually became Stand By Me, and was the closest thing to being exactly as I’d imagined it as any film adaptation has ever been.
