I was just at upcomingmovies.com. So many of those movies have numbers after them it’s easy to believe that creativity is being stifled in Hollywood. Just how many people are looking forward to Anaconda 3 for instance? I come across websites quite often that seem to be put together by enthusiastic weirdos with creativity to spare. Films like What Lies Beneath and Face Off (in my opinion) could sure use their help.
Have you got any ideas for good movies? These are mine:
A life story of guru Krishnamurti. He had a mixed-up private life.
A film adaptation of Look Homeward Angel. Tom Cruise could be in it. (Why are American classics ignored?)
An adaptation of one of Oscar Wilde’s plays which is set in the present day (in the same way the last remake of Romeo and Juliet was set in Venice Beach, California)
Adaptations of The Monk (the book by Matthew Lewis) and After Many a Summer by Aldous Huxley.
Something on pagan religions - in a Wuthering Heights setting, maybe.
I’d like to see a film adaptation of ‘Battlefield Earth’.
Oh wait. Nevermind.
Hmm, I always thought ‘The Legacy of Heorot’ would make a good movie. I used to think a film should be made of ‘Ringworld’, but I reread it recently and I’m not so sure now.
A movie about Metallica’s early years would be pretty interesting - squabbles with Dave Mustaine, the death of Cliff…and of course it would have an excellent soundtrack.
Ooh! ‘A Confederacy of Dunces’. I have no idea who you could cast as Ignatius Reilley (sp?) but that could be a spectactular movie, especially since so much of the character of the book is in the dialogue.
Remember that thing they used to say about Led Zeppelin? About how 25 per cent of the population of California is descended from them? They spent six months of just about every year in the 1970s working in the United States. If all four of them slept with at least one groupie a night… etc etc. A lot of rock groups could have a lot of descendants, Metallica being no exception. What about a film in which a group’s offspring descended on them all at once? It would be a “which one of you bastards is my father?” sort of thing.
My #1 wish is coming true. I’ve flooded my apartment twice drooling over the up coming Lord of the Rings movies. Just 8 more months.
But for movies that have not been made … I think that the Glen Cook books about Garrett would be a blast in a theatre. Harrison Ford could play him. I mean who wouldn’t want to see a detective who’s favorite food is beer, favortie sport is women and lives in a world of ogres, dark elves and other wacked out stuff. I’d die to see it given a first class job.
I’m still waiting for the Oscar award winning porno. I may die first though.
I also want to make a documentary as my cousin and I spend 6 months driving across the USA. Just doing interesting stuff in interesting places with interesting people.
How about a Babylon 5 full length feature film. There used to be some rumors that one was in the works, but it never happened. With so much material to go on, it would be rather easy to come up with a movie. Perhaps one about the first Shadow war, or possibly one involving Sheridan’s son.
I want to see a good science fiction flick. Darn it! There are now wonderful computer fx available and the price is still coming down. This should be opening the doors for filming stories that had previously been unfilmable. And what are they doing? remaking “Planet of the Apes”! Here’s what I’d like to see:
Fredric Brown’s Arena, done right for once
I, Robot. Harlan Ellison wrote a wonderful screenplay for Isaac Asimov’s book.
** The Stars my Destination** It has the most gripping opening of any sf novel I’ve read. It would translate wonderfully into cinema.
The Demolished Man In the right hands, the telepathic conversation scene could be a classic.
Do anything by Robert Heinlein, as long as they do it straight, for once. I’m tired of making excuses for “Starship Troopers” and “The Puppet Masters”, not to mention “Destination Moon” and “Operation Moonbase”. Take one of his “Future History” short stories or one of the juveniles and just film it. Do ** Double Star** without changing it to make it relevant – concentrate on the dialog and the characters, damnit!
Redo This Island Earth the way Raymond F. Jones *wrote * it, without the silly stuff they threw in for the movie (lobster-clawed bare-brained “mutants”, paranoid aliens, Metalune “turning into a sun”).
“Lewis Padgett’s” stories, like The Proud Robot, with minor changes.
Besides SF, there are mysteries I’d love to see. There was a rumor long ago that Paul Verhoeven was going to do one of Robert H. Van Gulik’s “Judge Dee” mysteries as a movie. I’d love to have seen that. Nicholas Meyer did “The Haunted Monastery” as a TV movie circa 1970, and I understand there was a British TV series based on the books, but I’d love to see what could be done with a good budget. I’d also like to see some of Lindsay Davis’ Ancient Rome mysteries, or maybe Steven Saylor’s.
I realize this(among many other things) may make me look bad, but I want to see film versions of Law and Order and The Simpsons. The Simpson’s would be an animated feature, of course.
I’m pretty sure the Simpson’s movie is being made. I remember reading a couple months ago that they had written the screenplay for it, but there was some controversy about it because (supposedly) Bart has sex in it.
I’m with CalMeacham whose SF tastes, as usual, are excellent.
I might add that a lot of fun could be had with the Stainless Steel Rat series.
And Sturgeon for heaven’s sake. “Slow Sculpture” would be absolutely dynamite.
H. Beam Piper’s “Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen”
Randall Garrett’s “Lord D’Arcy” series.
And where oh where is someone willing to give Travis Magee from the incredible John D. MacDonald series" the movie franchise he deserves?
Yes I know that “Darker than Amber” was a 1970 movie with Rod Taylor as Magee and Theodore Bikel as Meyer. I have not been able to bring myself to watch it. And there was a TV movie of “The Empty Copper Sea” with Sam Elliot that might be worth hunting up, but I want someone to do a serious quality production along the lines of Cape Fear (which is his novel “The Executioners”.) Sigh.
I always wanted to make a martial-arts movie spoof where the good guys were dubbed and the bad guys spoke in subtitles. One of the good guys would be name “Myfriend”, and when the bad dubbing takes place he can get confused, thinking people are talking to him. The bad guy leader would be named sub-zero. (sub as in subtitled, sub-zero making fun of mortal kombat, and you could even add in Ahnold’s joke from the running man for the ultimate in bad movie humor)
I’d name it Sub vs. Dub.
You think Jackie Chan, Jet Li and Michelle Yeoh would be interested?
Check out the IMDB or go back far enough in deja.com (now google or something) and see what JMS said about this. He is delaying the Babylon 5 movie until after the Star Wars stuff comes out becaue he just doesn’t want to compete.
On the other hand, visit the SciFi.com site. More Babylon 5 movies coming, and maybe a series! All is not lost.
For my movies: The Prisoner. I want it. I want it. I want it. Now!
Modesty Blaise. The abortion they made with the Italian chick really sucks.
Stranger in a Strange Land. Talk about an SF novel just dying to be made.
Sandman. I want to see Gaiman on the screen in the worst way; the closest we have come is the Day of the Dead episode of Babylon 5 (and that was pretty damn good, I must admit).
All four of these are on Coming Attractions; all are in Development Hell. But hope springs eternal…
With a name like slortar, I’d thought for sure you’d beat me to the punch recommending Michael Moorcock’s Elric Saga to be made into a movie. Unless of course I am misinterpreting the origin of your handle.
The scene at the end where chaos overtakes the planet and consumes everything and everyone in its path could just be amazingly done with todays computer graphics capabilities. Also amazing would be the black aura surrounding Stormbringer and Mournblade, as well as the eerie crooning and singing each sword does while hacking apart armies.
I’d also like to see R.A. Salvatore’s Dark Elf and Icewind Dale Trilogies made into a movie or movies. Just thinking about the battle scenes makes me want to run out and buy the movie.
I’d like to correct a mistake I made in my last post. I said that 25 per cent of the population of California could be descendants of Led Zeppelin. Well, not yet, of course. But in a hundred years or so…maybe.
I’d like to see a film which commented on the realities of modern life. One which was sharp and insightful. It could possibly focus on the life of a guy who had gone to a cool media school and could get a tech job if only he could afford the new versions of Dreamweaver and 3D Animator so he could practise at home. He becomes a waiter for a catering firm specialising in conferences attended by the digirati. They discuss their secrets unaware that modern waiters can understand… Stuff like that only worse.
I sometimes wish for a movie based on the Liaden Universe novels, until I come to my senses and realize they’d do soemthing stupid like cast Tom Cruise as Val Con and Julia Roberts as Miri and I’d have to severely hurt everyone connected to the movie and would end up in prison for years…and so it goes away.
Either that or Pamela Dean’s “Tam Lin,” about the old Scots legend taking place at a 1970’s era liberal arts college in Minnesota (based loosely on Carleton). Great fun. I still have a list somewhere of books I need to read that are mentioned in the novel (though I did finally get around to reading “The Lady’s Not For Burning”).
Yes! A Confederacy of Dunces starring Jack Black (High Fidelity, Jesus’ Son) ! I can do it for under $30 million, promise. In the sci-fi genre, a short-film trilogy: Lewis Padgett’s Mimsy Were The Borogoves starring Albert Brooks and Holly Hunter, E.M. Forster’s The Machine Stops starring Ethan Hawke, and Damon Knight’s The Handler starring Arnold Schwartzenegger and Wallace Shawn.