# Movies that need to be made. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 23, 2002, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-need-to-be-made/133581 "2002-10-23T21:06:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Binarydrone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3da27b/32.png) [@Binarydrone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Binarydrone)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2002, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-need-to-be-made/133581/1 "2002-10-23T21:06:09Z")
Inspired by the [Movies and TV shows that need Remakes](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=140689) thread, I am wondering what movies have not been made that people think should be. For Example: [ul] [li]The Talisman.[/li][li]John Varley’s Titan/Wizard/Demon trilogy.[/li][/ul] Both of these I would love to see made as high budget adult animated films (R rated, none of that cute Disney stuff). Anyone else have any thoughts? ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2002, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-need-to-be-made/133581/2 "2002-10-23T21:24:48Z")
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. Actually, most of the novels from Heinlein’s future history could be made into movies fairly eastily. Telempath, by Spider Robinson. More of the Travis McGee novels. The Deed of Paksennarion, by Elizabeth Moon. The Watchmen, by Frank Miller (limited-edition graphic novel). ---
**Author:** ![Saltire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saltire/32/553_2.png) [@Saltire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saltire)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2002, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-need-to-be-made/133581/3 "2002-10-23T21:52:26Z")
I, Robot by Isaac Asimov. Apparently, the studio that has the rights to this book had Harlan Ellison write a screenplay back in the eighties. Asimov liked what Ellison wrote. But the studio never made the movie. Footfall or Lucifer’s Hammer, both by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. The first is one of the best alien invasion books out there, and the other would be so much better than crap like Armaggedon or even Deep Impact. The Integral Trees and The Smoke Ring by Larry Niven. I just love the idea of an atmosphere without a planet, with people living in almost constant freefall, excepting only tidal effects. It would make for some awesome visuals. ---
**Author:** ![Wearia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/13edae/32.png) [@Wearia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wearia)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2002, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-need-to-be-made/133581/4 "2002-10-23T22:49:45Z")
Fallout 1 and 2- I would loves to see it. As long as they don’t go crazy and mess up the plot. The plot should be exactly as it is in the game. Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy- This would be great as long as they don’t screw with the plot and they need good actors. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2002, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-need-to-be-made/133581/5 "2002-10-23T23:35:32Z")
Watchmen is Alan Moore! Jeez. I’d go with Earth, by David Brin. Or, if I had to choose a short story I’d go with Inconstant Moon by Larry Niven. ---
**Author:** ![CyberPundit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/76d3ee/32.png) [@CyberPundit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CyberPundit)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2002, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-need-to-be-made/133581/6 "2002-10-23T23:39:11Z")
The robot detective novels by Asimov (I forget their titles). Is I Robot one of them? BTW Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy has already been done thought it may have been a TV mini-series rather than a proper film. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2002, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-need-to-be-made/133581/7 "2002-10-23T23:50:38Z")
The robot detective novels you’re thinking of are almost certainly the _Caves of Steel_ series. _I, Robot_ wasn’t a novel at all, simply a collection of robot-themed short stories with a few recurring characters. ---
**Author:** ![CyberPundit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/76d3ee/32.png) [@CyberPundit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CyberPundit)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2002, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-need-to-be-made/133581/8 "2002-10-23T23:59:00Z")
Yes Caves of Steel sound right. Actually, now that you describe it, I have read the I Robot book as well, though a long time ago. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2002, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-need-to-be-made/133581/9 "2002-10-24T00:16:00Z")
The man who never missed by Steve Perry ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2002, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-need-to-be-made/133581/10 "2002-10-24T00:21:00Z")
Ringworld The Mote In God’s Eye with current CGI, these could be live action both are good enough stories to survive radical editing (for time’s sake) to keep the movies at normal feature film length ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2002, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-need-to-be-made/133581/11 "2002-10-24T00:24:02Z")
Timeline by Michael Chricton his stuff is almost as tho created for movie adaptation ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2002, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-need-to-be-made/133581/12 "2002-10-24T01:11:41Z")
Actually, it _is_ **I, Robot**. I’ve got a couple of issues of _Isaac Asmiov’s Science Fiction Magazine_ lying around here somewhere that reprints the screenplay. I think that the screenplay has been published in book form in the years since (Ah, [yes](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0446670626/qid=1035421092/sr=1-4/ref=sr_1_4/103-7683229-0073448?v=glance) it was). It’s a great work and would make an excellent film (think of it as _Citizen Kane_ meets _Bladerunner_. Incidentally, the film the studio chose to make instead of **I, Robot** is: [Damnation Alley](http://us.imdb.com/Title?0075909) :eek: Those of you who may remember the Saturday morning TV show _Noah’s Ark_ will instantly recognize the vehicle and the plot line. I’d like to see a film version of **The Ivanhoe Gambit** by Simon Hawke. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Scrivener](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@The\_Scrivener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Scrivener)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2002, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-need-to-be-made/133581/13 "2002-10-24T04:09:38Z")
**Confessions of a Confirmed Nut: The Story of Paul Krassner**. Based on his entertaining and provocative autobiography, and not to be confused with the doubtlessly amusing **Confessions of a Dangerous Mind** , which is based on “The Gong Show” host Chuck Barris’ autobiography, stars George Clooney and will be released shortly. Krassner was the long-time editor and publisher of his own countercultural 'zine _The Realist_, and at some point or another met, got into a shouting match with, or sued or was sued by, just about every interesting public figure from the '60’s to the Reagan years. Should be a corker, if a writer can figure out how to squeeze his life, iconoclastic political passion, and, ahem, oversized personality into two hours. I’d also like to see someone take a stab at [no pun intended] an obscure sci-fi short story, “The Screwfly Solution”. An expansionist race of extraterrestrials plan to colonize the earth, but only after depopulating it of its resident _Homo Sapiens_. The aliens, unseen in the story until the very end, engineer a sophisticated application of biochemical warfare, exploiting a (fictive) weakness in our species – where neurochemistry, hormones, the sexual drive, and mass psychology merge – to induce the world’s men to impulsively murder (mainly by stabbing, in a gruesome imitation of copulation) all the women on the planet, while a few individualized scientists, etc., race the clock to figure out what’s going on and resist it the best they can. The title refers to a parallel genocide using the same methods and successfully perpetrated, at the beginning of the tale, by the story’s scientist protagonists on the troublesome screwfly species, an agricultural pest. The fate of the screwfly sadly foreshadows the fate of humanity… It’s an exciting premise, but it has a few problems. The short story is seriously flawed both in its science (IRL, no such neurological trigger really exists linking sexual lust in men to blind murder, except in a few psycho- and sociopaths) and in its sexual politics (we now know that male hormones play a key role in the sexuality of women; besides, the core premise has some notable plot holes in the way a global femicide would actually play out, such as the possibly civilization-saving role of gay men). Probably most damning, Hollywood usually opts for cheap uplift at the end, and eschews such downer stories altogether. But, given current anxieties about anthrax, smallpox, global warming, genetic engineering, and perennial concerns about male violence against women, domestic violence, and how men in religious fundamentalist societies oppress women, I should think the plot would hit a nerve or two. And who says sci-fi flicks have to be realistic or accurate, anyway? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![The\_Scrivener](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@The\_Scrivener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Scrivener)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2002, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-need-to-be-made/133581/14 "2002-10-24T04:34:54Z")
One more. There was a story on ABC’s “World News Tonight” last week about **female sumo wrestlers in Japan**. That could be written up “Full Monty”-style, introducing a number of women who, for a variety of reasons, feel they have nothing to lose and/or decide to strike out in a _very_ new direction. A dramatic comedy of feminist triumphalism against all the odds punctuated by physical gags and even gross-out humor… As the women bulk up (ecstasies of binging on formerly forsworn foods) and devote themselves to serious study of the sport (against the resistance of the sumo establishment and perhaps other institutions, and to the disbelief and dismay of everyone they know), they lose or shed jobs, lovers, friends, even families… only to form new relationships, earn some money in a new and very hot sport, discover a singular sisterhood in a [still] paternalistic society, and learn to (literally and figuratively) throw their weight around. “A League of Their Own” crossed with, well, sumo wrestling. ---
**Author:** ![Wearia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/13edae/32.png) [@Wearia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wearia)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2002, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-need-to-be-made/133581/15 "2002-10-24T04:36:39Z")
QUOTE]\*Originally posted by CyberPundit \* \*\* BTW Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy has already been done thought it may have been a TV mini-series rather than a proper film. \*\* [/QUOTE] Yup a BBC mini series. Thats how I first found out about HHGTTG. The tape was buried among others for some reason in my collection. However it wasn’t as good as it could have been. A Big screen movie would be better IMO. It would be great if they had a high budget and good actors, as long as they stay true to the books. [QUOTE] _Originally Posted by NoClueBoy_ \*\* Timeline by Michael Chricton his stuff is almost as tho created for movie adaptation\*\* [QUOTE] There is a Timeline movie being made. I don’t know much about it all I know is that the blond guy from Fast and the Furious has been cast as someone. I’m guessing Chris but I can’t be sure. ---
**Author:** ![Wearia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/13edae/32.png) [@Wearia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wearia)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2002, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-need-to-be-made/133581/16 "2002-10-24T04:40:20Z")
Damn, it looked alright on preview… ---
**Author:** ![John\_Harrison](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b5ac83/32.png) [@John\_Harrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Harrison)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2002, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-need-to-be-made/133581/17 "2002-10-24T05:19:22Z")
I saw [Timeline](http://www.corona.bc.ca/films/details/timeline.html) mentioned. Coming to you in 2003! maybe [Ringworld](http://www.corona.bc.ca/films/details/ringworld.html) would be bitchin if it ever gets going. Same with [Rendezvous with Rama](http://www.corona.bc.ca/films/details/rama.html). My vote goes for the following: [Mindbridge](http://www.corona.bc.ca/films/details/mindbridge.html) by Joe Haldeman. SciFi channel is supposed to be doing a mini-series on the Forever War by the same author. Hope is doesn’t suck. With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa by Eugene Sledge - WWII so it would be better to wait after the recent movies on this subject, although there hasn’t been much on the Pacific theater. Point of Impact by Stephen Hunter - Tommy Lee Jones was connected with a possible movie on this, but I haven’t heard anything lately. Ugh. [The Descent](http://www.corona.bc.ca/films/details/thedescent.html) by Jeff Long - Super creepy. The Superconducting Supercollider of Sparkle Creek, Wisconsin It’s the story of a town sheriff, the physicist who loves him, and the secret supercollider she and her team have built underneath their town. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![sleestak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/919ad9/32.png) [@sleestak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sleestak)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2002, 5:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-need-to-be-made/133581/18 "2002-10-24T05:59:01Z")
The Talisman is a great book but making a movie out of it would be really hard. It is a long story and it would have to be a really long movie. Making a mini-series from the book may work. I’d love the short story “Breeds there a Man” by Asimov made into a movie. It’s a great story and could really freak people out. Slee ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2002, 10:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-need-to-be-made/133581/19 "2002-10-24T10:13:34Z")
**Ethilrist** , I _loved_ your suggestions! ---
**Author:** ![singular1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ba9def/32.png) [@singular1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/singular1)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2002, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-need-to-be-made/133581/20 "2002-10-24T12:35:01Z")
Yay-I get to say it first! **Confederacy of Dunces** has been toyed with for years, but no one has brought it to the screen yet. Any of Christopher Moore’s books - **Practical Demonkeeper, Island of the Sequined Love Nun, Coyote Blue** would be fun. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-need-to-be-made/133581.md?page=2)