# I wish they would make a movie of... **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 13, 2009, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-wish-they-would-make-a-movie-of/506345 "2009-08-13T22:04:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2009, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-wish-they-would-make-a-movie-of/506345/101 "2009-08-17T04:59:35Z")
> [@Tangent](#): > > **Geek Love** - there was talk years ago of Tim Burton being interested, but I haven’t heard any more about that. I’d like to see Guillermo del Toro take it on, but he’s booked up for the next few years. I could sort of see Peter Jackson doing it. Not so much based on all this Lord of the Rings stuff but because of Heavenly Creatures. Anyone who could make something like that could definitely handle Geek Love, IMO. Too bad we couldn’t use real geeks today. ETA: Well, real freaks. I suppose we could still have real chicken head biters. ---
**Author:** ![Stephe96](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Stephe96](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stephe96)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2009, 6:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-wish-they-would-make-a-movie-of/506345/102 "2009-08-17T06:24:00Z")
> [@interface2x](#): > > My only problem with this is that the story is so huge it would be hard to make the book into a movie as it stands - there are two separate and complete plots going on that a movie would almost necessarily have to focus on the H.H. Holmes plot. Yeah, I think the race to complete the World’s Fair on time was just as riveting, if not more so, than the serial killer plot. But if, as you say, Fincher might direct the thing…well, knowing his obsessive attention to detail (_ **Zodiac** _), I think he might very well choose to focus quite a bit on the actual construction of the Fair. I hadn’t heard his name in connection with the movie, but if anyone could do the book justice, it would be him. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2009, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-wish-they-would-make-a-movie-of/506345/103 "2009-08-17T14:48:33Z")
> [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](#): > > _A Confederacy Of Dunces_ would make a great movie. Too bad John Candy is dead; he would have been a perfect Ignatius. And the chick who played George’s mom on “Seinfeld” would be perfect as the mother. See the section “Film adaptations” at the bottom of the Wiki article for some discussion of the ill-fated attempts to make a movie of it: [A Confederacy of Dunces - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confederacy_of_dunces) ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2009, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-wish-they-would-make-a-movie-of/506345/104 "2009-08-17T16:31:37Z")
> [@chowder](#): > > But if not done properly we’d end up with something like _Logans Run_ Where do you think a Leonardo DiCaprio-produced, Ridley Scott-directed BNW might fall? I just found out that it’s quite possible by next year. Btw, there have been two attempts, both by NBC, to film BNW. The most recent (1998) was a near-future “inspired by” version while the 1980 version was faithful to the book but was marred by “Gil Gerard’s Buck Rogers”-level production values and a VERY EDITED showing in the US. It wasn’t till this year I saw the whole 3+ hrs on Google Video and later on an unofficial DVD. I was blown away. It’s not a great version, but it was a good version. In fact, the 1998 version wasn’t bad. It just wasn’t Huxley’s BNW. At least the 1980 one was. ---
**Author:** ![Sassy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e47c2d/32.png) [@Sassy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sassy)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2009, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-wish-they-would-make-a-movie-of/506345/105 "2009-08-18T20:23:51Z")
> [@ianzin](#): > > I’d like someone to do a series of TV films based on the locked room/impossible crime novels and stories of John Dickson Carr. I think that they could be a very successful new franchise if someone undertook them in the right spirit. I agree with this entirely - I’ve even tried to write screenplays 🙂 Another I’d like to see: Elric ---
**Author:** ![Crowbar\_of\_Irony\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f08c70/32.png) [@Crowbar\_of\_Irony\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crowbar_of_Irony_3)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2009, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-wish-they-would-make-a-movie-of/506345/106 "2009-08-19T13:03:17Z")
This may sounds shallow, but any giant-mecha anime done the in the CG style of Transformers. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2009, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-wish-they-would-make-a-movie-of/506345/107 "2009-08-19T14:15:37Z")
> [@FriarTed](#): > > Btw, there have been two attempts, both by NBC, to film BNW. NBC also did a surprisingly dead-on faithful radio adaptation in the early 1950s, with intact sexual themes and everything. ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2009, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-wish-they-would-make-a-movie-of/506345/108 "2009-08-19T14:51:36Z")
> [@Larry\_Mudd](#): > > NBC also did a surprisingly dead-on faithful radio adaptation in the early 1950s, with intact sexual themes and everything. I heard it years ago on the SciFi Channel website back when it had old SciFi radio shows. Huxley himself did the intro & maybe the narration, and I think wrote the script. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2009, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-wish-they-would-make-a-movie-of/506345/109 "2009-08-19T22:39:37Z")
Many others have already said that a movie based on (not just named after) _Starship Troopers_ would be great. As for faithful adaptations of Heinlein, it’s already been done with _Destination Moon_, but it wasn’t very good. Also as mentioned by others, _Ringworld_. This isn’t something I’ll say often, but it would make for an absolutely amazing movie, provided that they just completely ignored the plot. As I was watching a production of _The Tempest_ recently, I was thinking that it could be a great movie, but it looks like there’s one set to release later this year. They made Prospero a woman, though, which I’m not sure if it would really work. Finally, for a true story: How about the tale of a man who single-handedly holds off the most powerful military in the world for years? That’s got box-office gold all over it, right? The man I’m referring to is Archimedes. Cast a hot guy as the lead, and you could even fit in a non-gratuitous nude scene. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2009, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-wish-they-would-make-a-movie-of/506345/110 "2009-08-20T02:13:48Z")
> [@](#): > > Many others have already said that a movie based on (not just named after) Starship Troopers would be great. As for faithful adaptations of Heinlein, it’s already been done with Destination Moon, but it wasn’t very good **Destination Moon** isn’t a good Heinlein adaptation – it just proves that Heinlein can’t even adapt Heinlein well. But i maintain that it CAN be done. \ ***Operation Moonbase** proves this, too. Although it had its moments. \*\* Another author who shouldn’t be trusted adapting his own work is Stephen King, as **Maximum Overdrive** proved. ---
**Author:** ![Lightray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lightray/32/391_2.png) [@Lightray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightray)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2009, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-wish-they-would-make-a-movie-of/506345/111 "2009-08-20T02:31:14Z")
> [@congodwarf](#): > > The Exploits of Ebenezum. I’m beginning to wonder if I’m the only person in the world who has read the Ebenezum books in the last 20 years. But, they’re wonderful. I’ve read them so many times and I still laugh every time. They would make excellent movies. Nah, you’re not the only one. I’m not convinced they’d make a good movie… but I’d be interested in watching it if they made one. Crud, now I gotta suggest one, don’t I? If not _Ringworld_, I think others of Niven’s space books could be well-adapted to the screen. But Ringworld would be nice because most of the Ringworld hominids could be done as humans-with-prosthetics, keeping the CGI limited to kzin and puppeteers (who often aren’t the focus of the action, anyway). I’ve always thought that John Varley’s _Titan_ trilogy would be perfect for film. Particularly the last book, which itself has much delicious meta-mockery of the film industry, anyway. ---
**Author:** ![caligulathegod](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/caligulathegod/32/9685_2.png) [@caligulathegod](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/caligulathegod)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2009, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-wish-they-would-make-a-movie-of/506345/112 "2009-08-20T05:52:51Z")
I would love to see William Burroughs’ Naked Lunch done right, instead of whatever it was Cronenberg tried to do. If you’ve ever read Junky and Queer, those are the blueprint to follow. Several of the “routines” that are so surreal in Naked Lunch are repeated in Junky and Queer and they are lucid. I would tell the story as primarily an adaptation of Junky and Queer with its story of a junkie and his experiences in his world of addiction with surrealistic interludes into the imagery of Naked Lunch. Obviously, this wouldn’t be a mainstream film, but a curiosity showing up on IFC or something. The other film I would like to see is an adaptation of John Waters’ early career as depicted in Shock Value and his other books. There is a great movie in there somewhere of a bunch of drugged out anti-hippies filming “cinematic crimes” such as Mondo Trasho, Multiple Maniacs, and Pink Flamingos through Female Trouble, and ending on a high note of their eventual “redemption” in Hairspray with Divine dying after reading his good reviews. Waters has drawn a contrast between he and his group and the Manson family, where they did their “crimes” on film as entertainment instead of on real people and how it saved him and his friends. He even taught this in prisons. Years ago, I would have cast Steve Buscemi, but he’s too old now. ---
**Author:** ![DWMarch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dwmarch/32/1010_2.png) [@DWMarch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DWMarch)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2009, 9:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-wish-they-would-make-a-movie-of/506345/113 "2009-08-20T09:33:08Z")
Pavlov’s house. Or actually I should say [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pavlov%27s\_house](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pavlov%27s_house). You want a WWII action movie that doesn’t quit? This was a two month long battle centered around a single Russian apartment block that appeared on German maps as a fortress. A movie of this could be so so so deeply badass if done right. ---
**Author:** ![tumbleddown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e9bcb4/32.png) [@tumbleddown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tumbleddown)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2009, 10:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-wish-they-would-make-a-movie-of/506345/114 "2009-08-20T10:43:15Z")
Two things – first, a biopic of Steve McQueen, staring Daniel Craig. The man was born for the role. Second, not a movie but an HBO series, I think, of Sue Grafton’s Kinsey Milhone books. Not all of them are worth adapting, but the ones that aren’t could become background to the ones that are. I could see Jorja Fox in this role, easily. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2009, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-wish-they-would-make-a-movie-of/506345/115 "2009-08-20T12:40:42Z")
the Belisarius series would make a great series also. Drake and Flint did one hell of an alternate earth series. ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2009, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-wish-they-would-make-a-movie-of/506345/116 "2009-08-20T12:49:41Z")
I once read an interview with Sue Grafton where she said she would NEVER allow her Kinsey Milhone books to be filmed. She had been a scriptwriter or screenwriter in Hollywood and the whole experience left a bad taste in her mouth. And that’s a shame, because since KM is 'stuck in the ‘80s’, I think some nice ‘period’ pieces could be filmed the next time '80’s nostalgia rolls around. Oh, I have one! Robert Crais’ Elvis Cole/Joe Pike L.A. detective series! Or has the L.A. detective thing been done to death? ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2009, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-wish-they-would-make-a-movie-of/506345/117 "2009-08-20T14:59:11Z")
Shortly after Ed Wood came out, I heard John Waters speak. In the question period afterwards, I asked him, “Since there has been an Ed Wood film, I guess we can expect an John Waters film eventually. Who do you want to play you?”. He said, “Oh, Steve Buscemi, of course. Actually, we both want to play the lead in _The Don Knotts Story_.” ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2009, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-wish-they-would-make-a-movie-of/506345/118 "2009-08-20T17:09:34Z")
> [@](#): > > Destination Moon isn’t a good Heinlein adaptation – it just proves that Heinlein can’t even adapt Heinlein well. But i maintain that it CAN be done. I didn’t say it was a good adaptation; I said it was a faithful one. I do agree that many Heinlein works could have adaptations made which are both good and faithful, but _Destination Moon_ wasn’t it. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2009, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-wish-they-would-make-a-movie-of/506345/119 "2009-08-20T20:29:13Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > **Destination Moon** isn’t a good Heinlein adaptation – it just proves that Heinlein can’t even adapt Heinlein well. But i maintain that it CAN be done. I think we’d need to dig up Howard Hawks. And he’s likely to be a bit taciturn these days (not to mention skimpy on the gratuitous sex scenes 😉 ). ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2009, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-wish-they-would-make-a-movie-of/506345/120 "2009-08-20T21:48:47Z")
I’m reading the chilling book _House of Leaves_ which is really a written observation of an imaginary ‘Blair Witch Project’ style documentary on a haunted house called ‘The Navidson Report’. I really hope they make it someday. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-wish-they-would-make-a-movie-of/506345.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-wish-they-would-make-a-movie-of/506345.md?page=7)