# Made into a movie?! Impossible! **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 16, 2014, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/made-into-a-movie-impossible/678961 "2014-01-16T13:43:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Reno\_Nevada](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Reno\_Nevada](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reno_Nevada)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2014, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/made-into-a-movie-impossible/678961/21 "2014-01-17T01:10:55Z")
_The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman_ is a remarkable book for many reasons, one of which is that it is a Post-Modern novel that long predates any Modern novels. It is widely regarded as unfilmable. There is a film called _Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story_, which is more or less a film about the making of a film version of the novel. I found it to be a pretty good movie. ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2014, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/made-into-a-movie-impossible/678961/22 "2014-01-17T01:31:59Z")
> [@Cuckoorex](#): > > House of Leaves. I just can’t imagine how it could possibly be made into a movie that does justice to the book. This. The story is about a layered interaction of different storylines, playing with text and layout, using real and fake references to make you question the reality of the book and your own experiences, hiding information, unreliable and/or insane narrators, multiple narrators, and so on. The only way I can see it being possible is to strip it down to the ‘Holloway and co. vs the House’ story, and really… you miss so much interesting stuff that way. ---
**Author:** ![Bellhorn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/898d66/32.png) [@Bellhorn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bellhorn)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2014, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/made-into-a-movie-impossible/678961/23 "2014-01-17T01:46:33Z")
**Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas** , Hunter S. Thompson, defied being made for cinema. How does one even know what was real or imagined? And the movie was poorly accepted, but I really admired the attempt. Johnny Depp and Benico del Torres should have gotten honorary Oscars for trying to figure it out. ---
**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:** [January 17, 2014, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/made-into-a-movie-impossible/678961/24 "2014-01-17T03:54:13Z")
A book I think was reasonably popular and yet contains stuff that nobody is going to film is _Perdido Street Station_ by China Miéville. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2014, 6:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/made-into-a-movie-impossible/678961/25 "2014-01-17T06:40:18Z")
**Infinite Jest** would be pretty damn difficult to put on film, and would require miniseries length to even begin to do it justice. It did give us one fucking awesome [music video](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJpfK7l404I) though. ---
**Author:** ![Donegal\_Dragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e47774/32.png) [@Donegal\_Dragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Donegal_Dragon)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2014, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/made-into-a-movie-impossible/678961/26 "2014-01-18T05:14:22Z")
Anything by Mieville would be very exciting to see on film. but my favorite would be **The City And The City** ---
**Author:** ![outlierrn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/outlierrn/32/3005_2.png) [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2014, 6:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/made-into-a-movie-impossible/678961/27 "2014-01-18T06:24:41Z")
> [@Fiveyearlurker](#): > > World War Z is unfilmable despite the fact that it was filmed. The movie bore no resemblance to the book, and one wonders if the only reason they licensed the book was for name recognition. They certainly butchered the movie, but I don’t think it’s unfilmable, they would just have to weave the story of a new character through the arc of the book. Imagine if Pitt’s character had been an agent for the CDC, or the WHO and happened to be in Afghanistan when the Canadian special forces soldier is being debriefed. Then we see him in So. Africa after the ghetto outbreak. He’s talking with Warbrunn and Knight in these scenes, and mentions he’s giving up the globe-trotting to settle into NY now that his kid’s being born. Then we have him bugging his family out ahead of the battle of Yonkers, a couple of vignettes fleeing to the western safe zone where they force him to ship out to the Radio Free Earth vessel. Some more vignettes, maybe a parallel story arc of his wife in Hawaii with the crisis government, and it ends wtih him writing the book. Maybe I’m wrong, but I think it could work. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim_r.mortiss/32/142_2.png) [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_R.Mortiss)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2014, 6:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/made-into-a-movie-impossible/678961/28 "2014-01-18T06:34:23Z")
_Atlas Shrugged_. The two installments that actually were filmed pretty much demonstrate the futility of this endeavor. They didn’t totally suck, but still failed to get the point across. And I can’t imagine anything by Kurt Vonnegut being properly captured on film either. ---
**Author:** ![dasmoocher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/dbc845/32.png) [@dasmoocher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dasmoocher)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2014, 7:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/made-into-a-movie-impossible/678961/29 "2014-01-18T07:30:17Z")
I’d like to see Gaiman’s _Sandman_, but think it could end up like _Dune_. According to [Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sandman_%28Vertigo%29#Film): > [@](#): > > In 2013, DC Chief Diane Nelson says that a Sandman film will be as rich as the Harry Potter universe.[39] It has been announced that David S. Goyer will be producing an adaptation of the graphic novel, alongside Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Neil Gaiman. An additional writer will be hired to write the script.[40] [41] ---
**Author:** ![ataraxy22](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ataraxy22/32/307_2.png) [@ataraxy22](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ataraxy22)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2014, 7:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/made-into-a-movie-impossible/678961/30 "2014-01-18T07:42:42Z")
I’ve heard that _Hogg_ is widely considered to be unfilmable. ---
**Author:** ![Accidental\_Martyr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ce7236/32.png) [@Accidental\_Martyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Accidental_Martyr)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2014, 8:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/made-into-a-movie-impossible/678961/31 "2014-01-18T08:09:46Z")
> [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](#): > > And I can’t imagine anything by Kurt Vonnegut being properly captured on film either. I thought _Slaughterhouse-Five_ was pretty good. > **[Slaughterhouse-Five (film)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slaughterhouse-Five_%28film%29)** > > Slaughterhouse-Five is a 1972 American comedy-drama military science fiction film directed by George Roy Hill and produced by Paul Monash, from a screenplay by Stephen Geller, based on the 1969 novel of the same name by Kurt Vonnegut. The film stars Michael Sacks as Billy Pilgrim, who is "unstuck in time" and has no control over where he is going next. It also stars Ron Leibman as Paul Lazzaro and Valerie Perrine as Montana Wildhack. > Slaughterhouse-Five premiered at the 25th Cannes Film Festiv... ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2014, 8:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/made-into-a-movie-impossible/678961/32 "2014-01-18T08:57:04Z")
A Fan’s Notes would be pretty hard to film. Maybe the people behind Leaving Las Vegas could do it, but probably not. ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2014, 9:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/made-into-a-movie-impossible/678961/33 "2014-01-18T09:05:03Z")
[QUOTE=Tim R. Mortiss] And I can’t imagine anything by Kurt Vonnegut being properly captured on film either. [/QUOTE] > [@Accidental\_Martyr](#): > > I thought _Slaughterhouse-Five_ was pretty good. > [Slaughterhouse-Five (film) - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slaughterhouse-Five_%28film%29) So far, that’s been the exception to the rule. Vonnegut’s novels generally don’t fit the standard Hollywood film narrative. Someone like Guillermo Del Toro, Terry Gilliam, or Spike Jonze might make it work but certain elements in the books (along with the mostly dismal track record of Vonnegut film adaptations) have dissuaded the suits from greenlighting these projects. ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2014, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/made-into-a-movie-impossible/678961/34 "2014-01-18T12:58:24Z")
So it goes. ---
**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:** [January 18, 2014, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/made-into-a-movie-impossible/678961/35 "2014-01-18T13:00:55Z")
> [@NDP](#): > > So far, that’s been the exception to the rule. Vonnegut’s novels generally don’t fit the standard Hollywood film narrative. Someone like Guillermo Del Toro, Terry Gilliam, or Spike Jonze might make it work but certain elements in the books (along with the mostly dismal track record of Vonnegut film adaptations) have dissuaded the suits from greenlighting these projects. He endorsed “Mother Night” enough to appear in it. Anyway, MN’s story format lent itself quite well to being filmed. To anyone who actually read Burroughs’ Naked Lunch, did the Cronenberg movie at least give you a feel of the book? As a non-Objectivist fan of Atlas Shrugged the novel, I’m taking the movies the same way I took the Bakshi LOTR & the Rankin-Bass ROTK. They’ll do until someone with major talent & major bucks gets their hands on it. ---
**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:** [January 18, 2014, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/made-into-a-movie-impossible/678961/36 "2014-01-18T13:21:13Z")
I think the Vonnegut adaptations I’ve seen haven’t been too bad - _Slaughterhouse-Five_, the “Who Am I This Time?” episode of _American Playhouse_, _Mother Night_, and maybe _Happy Birthday, Wanda June_. ---
**Author:** ![Meurglys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/258eb7/32.png) [@Meurglys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meurglys)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2014, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/made-into-a-movie-impossible/678961/37 "2014-01-18T14:42:17Z")
> [@detop](#): > > _Illuminatus !_ is one of those unfilmable movie. Not a movie version, but it was a [stage play](http://www.liverpoolconfidential.co.uk/Culture/Ken-Campbell-Illuminatus-and-other-Liverpool-romps) years ago! The descriptions of it, and the other plays they staged make them sound great! (possibly NSW if you scroll down the page a bit) **Gene Wolfe** ’s _Book of the New Sun_ could be filmed, I guess, but a lot of the subtlety would be excised… The same with _Little, Big_ by **John Crowley**. ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2014, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/made-into-a-movie-impossible/678961/38 "2014-01-18T23:36:36Z")
[S](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S._%28Dorst_novel%29) by JJ Abrams and Doug Dorst would be completely unfilmable. Even the audiobook completely misses the entire point of the book. ---
**Author:** ![Enola\_Straight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dec6dc/32.png) [@Enola\_Straight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enola_Straight)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2014, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/made-into-a-movie-impossible/678961/39 "2014-01-20T22:44:02Z")
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is attempting to make a movie based on an upload from Deviantart. > **[Dwayne Johnson is producing a movie based on this DeviantArt Illustration](https://gizmodo.com/dwayne-johnson-is-producing-a-movie-based-on-this-devia-5978430)** > > DeviantArt is home to thousands of online illustrations, designs and doodles, but now it's inspired a movie! Alex Panagopoulos' fantastic depiction of what happens to our Teddy Bears once we've gone to sleep has inspired actor Dwayne Johnson produce... ---
**Author:** ![the\_diego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7bcc69/32.png) [@the\_diego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_diego)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2014, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/made-into-a-movie-impossible/678961/40 "2014-01-21T02:02:01Z")
“The Ninja” by van Lustbader. I was thinking of the sex scenes that are part of the story." [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/made-into-a-movie-impossible/678961.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/made-into-a-movie-impossible/678961.md?page=3)