I really want to see Serge A Storms come to life in a series. I love Tim Dorsey’s books and there is plenty of material for screenwriters to work with.
I just talked about this today with my cousin: I don’t think any post-Episode 6 Star Wars storylines (from the EU novels or otherwise) should be made into a movie. What I’d much rather see is series that follows the lives of a couple of people at different levels of society on different sides of the collapse of the empire–the down-trodden oppressed who isn’t sure if the new boss is the same as the old boss, the mercenary ne’er-do-well who’s looking to find new business ventures, the ideologue of the New Republic about to get their first taste of realpolitik, the old guard who is trying to hold to their diminishing power, etc. etc. etc. Maybe have a small core cast supplemented by a constantly rotating ensemble whose stories happen in short mini-arcs, held together by some greater meta-arc.
…but, alas, we’re probably just headed for some big stupid blockbuster action movie. At least the explosions will be cool.
Judge Dee – There was a six-episode BBC series back in the 60s, and Nicholas Meyer made an excellent TV movie that was supposed to “sell” the series for American TV. The execs balked, maybe because of the cost, maybe because they didn’t think Americans would watch a show with an all- asian-ancestry cast. They turned it into a modern-day TV show with the same lead (Chang!) – who, ironically, didn’t have an Asian bone in his body.
I heard rumors that Veerhoeven was going to make a dee movie, but he never did. There was a recent Chinese movie about Dee, but it wasn’t van Gulik’s Dee, which is what we want to see. It’d be a great series. You could make each of his books last several episodes. Even a season if you do it right.
I’ve always wanted to see someone do A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court absolutely straight, as Twain wrote it. Not one adaptation I’ve seen – out of several movies and TV adaptations, even on PBS, has had the guts to make anything but either a star vehicle (Bing Crosby and Will Rogers) or a broad piece of slapstick that throws everything away. I want to see the squalor of Arthur’s court as Hank Morgan sees it, the drama of the execution interrupted byu the eclipse, the spectavles of The Destruction of Merlin’s Tower and The Holy Fountain, the humor of Hank Morgan on his quest (with Sandy), the awfulness of Morgan le Fay, and the Pathos of the Smallpox Hut. And, above all, I want to see Twain’s humor, sarcasm, and dark wit. There’s slapstick in there, of course – what else can you say about armored knights riding on bicycles? – but there’s the humorous verbal interplay between Morgan and Merlin, and Morgan le Fay “photographing” the captives with an axe.
Nebraska Public Television did a great job with five of Twain’s books back in the late seventies/early eighties. It’s about time we had more good Twain.
I’d like to see Anne Rice’s Mayfair Witches end up on HBO.