It’s kind of freaky that you picked two series I was going to mention. I would have gone with either the *Star Kings *books or just Cugel’s Saga, but we are on the same page.
Flashman was my first thought, except that he is the only male having sex in the series. To work on HBO they would have to mix in some other sexy stuff.
Would love to see China Miéville’s Bas-Lag Series books as a miniseries - Perdido Street Station, The Scar, and Iron Council.
I would also piss myself if they managed to make a mini-series out of Kraken. There’s certainly enough material there.
John Varley’s Gaia trilogy. That would be insanely fun.
Zelazny’s Amber series (with or without the follow-up Chaos series). I think it may have been tried in animation (never saw it), but I’d prefer a live person version.
Feist’s first Magician set, though some of the world-hopping in Darkness at Sethanon might be mostly green-screened and/or CGI’d.
—G!
Milamber for President, 2016
Amber–that’d be fun.
Naomi Novik’s Temeraire series of novels, set in an alternate Napoleonic war with dragons, would be great fun (until it gets to the later books, the human protagonist makes some bone-headed decisions, and then goes all emo and mopey).
I’ve long wanted to see Frederick Forsyth’s novel The Devil’s Alternative adapted. To try and adapt his stuff into a movie seems to be increasingly difficult* – The Fourth Protocol was pretty annoying. You really need the time to do it well. The book is dated now, but it would work fine as a period piece. They could maybe do some other Forsyth books or stories as well. The made-for-TV adaptation of A Careful Man was wonderful.
How about Robert Heinlein’s Future History? It’s about time someone did Heinlein properly. Or asimov’s Foundation trilogy (to hell with his later additions, or those by other authors).
A&E had a decent shot at it, but they didn’t go far enough – we need the rest of The Horatio Hornblower Saga.
The real problem, of course, is cost. They dropped Rome and A$E dropped Hornblower and Nero Wolfe because they cost too much. Anbd they were the best damned series, too!
*Fred Zinneman’s Day of the Jackal was perfect. (The remake was absurd). I wish they’d taken more time for The ODESSA File, which seemed rushed. And I didn’t really care for The Dogs of War.
The Seafort Saga by David Feintuch. It’s been described as if Forrester and Heinlein had collaborated on the books, or as Horation Hornblower in space.
The first book is about a young midshipman on a spaceship (17 years old) who becomes Captain through a series of accidents. He is forced to command a crew of men older and more experienced, and ends up discovering and fighting humanity’s first hostile alien lifeform.
The book series tells the entire exciting career of this person constantly put into extremely difficult situations.
Something from Larry Niven’s Known Space series. Either Ringworld or the Kzinti wars.
My ongoing pipe dream is to see a television adaptation of the Miles Vorkosigan Saga, with Peter Dinklage in the title roll.
Oh, I’d be reasonable & let them cover a chapter per episode, but yeah, this.
Watership Down…with live action figures, not cartoons. And keep it as dark and scary and bloody and violent as the original book - don’t dumb it down and make it cute for kids.
And if you don’t like rabbits, go for moles in **Duncton Wood **series.
I think a good series could be based upon Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix and Jim Morrison - having them interact - and set the series over a very short time period, and move slowly (hey, they all died at age 27), so you are going to have to have each episode cover only a few days or a week in time, tops!. Show them in their prime, the drugs, the creativity, the travel and concerts, the recordings, the money and fame, the loves and losses (plenty of sex, drugs and rock and roll!!!)…could be an interesting look at their three different backgrounds, but very similar rise to the top.
I know that are are play adaptions of some of the books, but I wonder how people could adapt the books, as much of the humor comes from the descriptions and the third person narrator.
I’d love to see Harry Turtledove’s Souhern Victory series made into a tv series.
Roger Zelazny’s “Amber” series.
Michael Moorcock’s “Elric” series. If they get really ambitious, the whole “Eternal Champion” cycle.
Robert Heinlein’s “Future History”. Lots of people want The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, but I want to see Space Cadet and The Rolling Stones!
Fritz Leiber’s “Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser” series.
Edgar Rice Burroughs. Mars, Venus, and Pellucidar. Maybe even some Tarzan stories.
Donald Hamilton’s “Matt Helm” series. This time done straight, not comedy.
[quote=“mbh, post:54, topic:659050”]
Roger Zelazny’s “Amber” series.
Michael Moorcock’s “Elric” series. If they get really ambitious, the whole “Eternal Champion” cycle.
Robert Heinlein’s “Future History”. Lots of people want The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, but I want to see Space Cadet and The Rolling Stones!
QUOTE]
Already covered in #46 above.
Carter Beats the Devil - a great book about a real Victorian magician. At one time Tom Cruise held the rights, but I’ve never heard anything come of that. A really fascinating story, and would be a great movie/miniseries.
I can’t believe I didn’t think to post this before.
There should be a cable miniseries/limited series about the career of the Beatles!
It could start with their childhoods in Liverpool, focusing on each one in turn, go on to their days in Hamburg (although I’m not sure they could do as well as they did in the movie Backbeat), to their first meeting with Brian Epstein, to their fame, to their growth as musicians and away from each other, to the post-breakup years, to the death of John Lennon.
I’d like to see a Wild Cards series. Once the author’s done with Game of Thrones, that is.
I’d like to see The Dresden Files done right. The SciFi channel version was. . . disappointing to say the least.
You could stretch it out for years. Even better, given Turtledove’s penchant for making his characters sound alike, they could all be played by the same actor and actress. Instant Emmy! 
The other day, I told my wife that by 2025-2030, a TV/movie adaptation of Justin Cronin’s Passage trilogy of novels will be a big thing for a year or three. Convinced a friend to buy a copy of the first book Friday night, he almost skipped an event we had scheduled today because he wanted to keep reading it.