For the big summer movie: The Monkey Wrench Gang
For the Oscar picture: Fool’s Progress. Both by Edward Abbey
Also, Neverwhere
My first suggestion will be something I’ve talked about for a while, on the Dope: Taking David Brin’s Startide Rising and turning it into a full season animated TV show. While I think that CG animation is getting to the point where it’s possible that it could be done live action, I still think that the freedom for going with the aliens in so many formats would be worth it for the animation. And since so much of the action takes place underwater or in space - animation is more forgiving when trying to present such scenes for a human viewer.
Then, consider the book itself: It would start with some great action, and what seems to be a straight forward coming of age story for Toshiro. Then the political and social aspects of the plot start coming in, and growing larger than the story seemed in the beginning.
With the initial action being the crew of Seeker trying to survive after the Thennannin battleship crashes into Kipru, it fulfills the old Goldwynism: “Start with a bang and build the action from there!”
And I’d want Samuel L. Jackson (or maybe James Earl Jones) to voice K’tha Jon. 
Annie-Xmas, I’d really be interested to know if your casting the “By Jeeves” movie musical suggestion upthread would be against type (Stephen Fry, Hugh Grant) or otherwise.
Thank you for these two additions to the thread; one of them actually can be considered a contribution.
I would poke my eyes out and cut my hands and feet off before casting Hugh Grant as either one of them.
I was thinking Stephen Fry as Jeeves and Hugh LAURIE as Wooster, but now that you’ve suggested it, it could be either/or
Darn, I see at least two people have already mentioned the Baroque Cycle. Cryptonomicon wouldn’t necessarily require a BBC/HBO miniseries treatment but I wouldn’t mind if they went that route with that book as well. It would also perhaps be a bit easier “sell” to the powers that be, given its modern and WWII era settings. Or since we’re talking perfect world, combine the four books into one giant year long miniseries! With hookers! In fact, forget the movie…
I see that The Diamond Age is getting a 6 hour treatment on the SciFi channel. Hopefully it is a decent enough production that it doesn’t poison the well for other Stephenson projects down the line.
Eco’s Foucault’s Pendulum would make an interesting movie, but unfortunately most people would probably see it as a “Da Vinci Code” ripoff. :grumbles:
Wiki says a film was being developed with Robin Williams as Aziraphael and Johnny Depp as Crowley. I like your casting better, and with the Pratchett script that was originally planned, this would play well among his many fans (here anyway). On second thought, Williams might get inspired and Depp would certainly work. Wiki also says the Pratchett is still hopeful the film will happen.
Go for it, including the vending machines provisions! Who would you cast? Remember, this is your fantasy, you can leave Hollywood completely out of it – including the perversions, unless they’re necessitated because they interfere with clarity in a visual medium.
Annie-X, sorry about the mix-up; hard to believe I almost cost Hugh Grant’s death. Hugh Laurie as Jeeves – inspired!
Who would you casting choices be for:
Oedipa Maas, the protagonist; Pierce Inverarity, her ex-boyfriend; Wendell “Mucho” Maas, her husband; Metzger, the lawyer; and the band, Paranoid?
Since you know a lot about music, if you could have a real band to play
Miles, Dean, Serge and Leonard?
The Taking is being turned into a miniseries by Sam Raimi. I haevn’t read The Taking, but it’ll have to be damn good to live up to the Intensity miniseries (which is criminally not on DVD).
The two books I really want to see made into movies Heart Shaped Box by Joe Hill and World War Z by Max Brooks are already in pre-production. I just hope they’re good.
But speaking of Koontz, a miniseries of Fear Nothing (and it’s sequel Seize the Night) could be fantastic. But really, what I want is for Dean to get cracking on the final book in the trilogy. It’s been 10 years!
And if we’re really looking at long shots, how about Dies the Fire by S.M. Stirling and Old Man’s War by John Scalzi.
I think Ronia The Robber’s Daughter by Astrid Lindgren would make an awesome movie, to continue the current kids’ fantasy trend. The book is great (I read the British version, I see from this wikipedia page there’s a different translation for the American market) and apparently there was a Swedish film made in the 80s. I’m thinking a big budget FX-aganza, with the rumphobs and harpies… oh, the spooky Scandinavian forests! Matt’s Fort, with the crack down the centre! The robber den, with jolly robbers singing and dancing!
There’s a lurker around here somewhere called Ronia Borkasson, which would be Ronia’s name if (if!) she and Birk ever get married. Awesome name! And hi! Don’t you agree?
Although I’m a huge advocate of animated features that are both sophisticated but childlike, I definitely see this a live action production. It is a great story though, with it’s themes about nobility/ignobility within the human race, and the beauty of preparation and (multi-faceted) education as we undertake our life’s travels* and, yes, it would work well for both kids and adults.
- from Wiki.
I haven’t read that one yet. Does it have any crossover appearances from Baroque or Snowcrash? (I read somewhere that Snowcrash was once in talks but Stephenson balked because they wanted somebody like Jude Law [not him necessarily, but someone of that stature and white] to play Hiro.)
I would love to see SANDMAN, but I can’t think of how it would be done, especially since it’s not an action comic. I think Johnny Depp would be perfect for Morpheus and Helena Bonham Carter wouldn’t be a bad Delirium, but I’d hate the thoughts of Tim Burton getting his hands on it.
The closest I could think of would be a screenplay settling on Hob Gadling, the man that Dream and his sister Death (Angelina Jolie or Halle Berry) give immortality to and meet once a century and who’s tormented today by his life as a slaver centuries ago (especially since he’s in love with a black woman).
While we’re at it, how about Cryptonomicon? On preview, I just noticed it was mentioned already by fiddlesticks.
My vote, though, would be for Panzer Commander: The Memoirs of Colonel Hans Von Luck. Again, it would have to be a miniseries or something. He took part in the lead-up to and pretty much all the famous battles of WWII. The book is fascinating. It’s too bad he’s dead now, because it would make a movie adaptation easier if he were around to consult.
Who would you cast as Alice and Kermit (younger and older), and the rest of the siblings.
She had quite an interesting life, starting with her first days on earth and ending with her death at 96. Along the way, she turned her back on christianity, was quite the rebel and self-professed hedonist,* and outlived her daughter and raised her grand-daughter.
- She said she considered becoming an honorary homosexual in the sixties and boasted on Sixty Minutes about her hedonism. I guess money gives you a lot of room to be an eccentric. I think she really was one.
Your short description above is quite a full story. How would you shape that and what would be the best venue for presenting it, either in a single feature or multi-episodic series?
“Sci-Fi Original” pretty much guarantees suckage.
I always thought The Monkey Wrench Gang by Edward Abbey would make a great film.
You are my hero. At least, as long as you do it right. The viewpoint, and particularly the action scenes, need to be shown from the rabbits’ perspective, i.e. confusing, startling, frightening, et cetera, and in an animation motif that is kind of a cross between rotoscoping and oversaturation. The only problem is that Orson Welles is dead and thus can’t provide the voice for General Woundwort.
Despite being based on tales invented for his daughters, Watership Down is definitely no Disney-esque tale. I think it still makes for good reading for children, but there are a lot of mature and very dark themes in it. It’s one of those books that evolves as you age, when experience suddenly unfolds a whole new layer of understanding.
Since Watership Down has already been called, and Highsmith’s The Cry of the Owl is in development (albeit with some questionable casting) I’m going to go with Philip K. Dick’s Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said or The Man In The High Castle. And although it is non-fiction, I think you could make a narrative treatment The Voyage of the Beagle (along with some bookending) that would play well.
Stranger
In another thread something like this, another Doper put forth the idea of filming Max Brooks’s World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War as a miniseries, in a Ken Burns style. I am unable to find that thread, but I want to give proper credit, so whoever suggested it, I’ll put up the money and you get co-producing credit.
I hadn’t read the book when the topic first came up, but now that I have I think this is a brilliant, brilliant idea. While reading it I kept trying to imagine various celebrity voices reading the different parts (you know Morgan Freeman has to be in there somewhere). I would be completely stoked if this ever got made.
Why? Do you have any images in your related to the OP, e.g., preferred venue for presentation, format, casting, why it inspired you?
Historical romance, okay. Time travel, okay. Genealogy, okay. Oh, you mean, all togther? Sounds very interesting. Gimme more details, re well’s question.
The first series that springs to mind is The Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan. While easily half the material from the 11 books could be cut out, the idea and story has a staggering scope with some very well written material and scenes. It would probably have to be at least 3 movies to be able to cover the changes that the years of the story makes in the characters.
Another good book/series would be the 1632 series by Eric Flint/David Weber. Not only the advantage of a good story, but also taught me a lot about the history of that time period.
I’ve always wanted to see David Drake’s Hammer’s Slammers on the big screen. CGI nowadays could really pull it off, too. Not sure which of the short stories I’d pick, though.