# Tell us why your favorite novel would make a great (or terrible or mediocre) movie. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 8, 2010, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-why-your-favorite-novel-would-make-a-great-or-terrible-or-mediocre-movie/542437 "2010-06-08T16:00:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![GrandWino](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grandwino/32/67_2.png) [@GrandWino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrandWino)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2010, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-why-your-favorite-novel-would-make-a-great-or-terrible-or-mediocre-movie/542437/21 "2010-06-08T19:40:18Z")
> [@torie](#): > > Ok, I get a lot of flack for this, but I LOVE **She’s Come Undone** by Wally Lamb. Yes, yes, it was an Oprah book, but I still love it. Delores is a fully fleshed out Everywoman, all at once loving, trusting, hostile, mean-spirited, sane and insane. I must have read this book 100 times. > > But whether or not it would make a good movie depends a lot on how one would film it. Filmed straight-forward, just acting out the story, it would start to resemble a “Lifetime Victimized Woman of The Week” story too much. But one of the things I love about the book is it’s believable story still has hints of surrealism. Delores’ time in the mental hospital, her encounter with the whale, swimming with her father in the pool as a child and then swimming with Dr Shaw, who switches between Delores’ dead mother and himself as he “reparents” her. Dr. Shaw himself is a half serious portrayal, half parody of 70’s New Ageism. I think in the right hands, with someone willing to fully explore all the hints of surrealism in the book, a movie version could take on a slightly otherworldly, “memory play” quality. > > And let the writer of the novel no-where near the movie. He’s said he wants Kate Winslet as Delores. No no no no no no no. All wrong. Funny, I came in here to mention Lamb’s “I Know This Much is True.” It could be a great movie if done correctly, but I don’t think they would try to fit in all of the grandfather’s autobiography which I think greatly enhances the story of the twin brothers. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2010, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-why-your-favorite-novel-would-make-a-great-or-terrible-or-mediocre-movie/542437/22 "2010-06-08T19:46:23Z")
**TMiaHM** needs to be a HBO big-budget mini-series. That way there is time to develop the story. The budget is needed for all the low-G work and space ships. The novel I’d love to see turned into a big-budget movie is Pratchett’s **Guards! Guards!**. You’d need good CGI for the dragons, but the story should be relatively straightforward. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2010, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-why-your-favorite-novel-would-make-a-great-or-terrible-or-mediocre-movie/542437/23 "2010-06-08T19:57:01Z")
It’s not exactly my favorite novel, but Sinclair Lewis’ _Kingsblood Royal_ (in which a 1940s low-level bank executive discovers he has Negro ancestry and hilarity ensues) would make a great period piece. I’m still working on casting, but there’d probably be roles for Leonardo DiCaprio and that guy in the Allstate auto insurance ads. Not sure who’d play the family’s black Labrador (named “Nigger” in the book). And it’s high time someone took a hint from _The Producers_ and made a musical out of Kafka’s _Metamorphosis_ (“Lordy Mama, I’ve Got Six Legs!”\*). \*Or “Legs” by ZZ Top. ---
**Author:** ![G0sp3l](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c68b51/32.png) [@G0sp3l](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/G0sp3l)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2010, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-why-your-favorite-novel-would-make-a-great-or-terrible-or-mediocre-movie/542437/24 "2010-06-08T20:52:00Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > That’s just one. No, No. Wyoh was just one. I recall Manny discussing several of the line wives as very attractive. ISTR him being proud of how long his line marriage went back. I can’t recall if Wyoh ever married. TANSTAAFL. (I’m such a nerd) ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2010, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-why-your-favorite-novel-would-make-a-great-or-terrible-or-mediocre-movie/542437/25 "2010-06-08T21:04:18Z")
> [@G0sp3l](#): > > No, No. Wyoh was just one. I recall Manny discussing several of the line wives as very attractive. ISTR him being proud of how long his line marriage went back. I can’t recall if Wyoh ever married. TANSTAAFL. (I’m such a nerd) Wyoh married into the Davis line. In fact, I think she did so before the trip to Earth. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2010, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-why-your-favorite-novel-would-make-a-great-or-terrible-or-mediocre-movie/542437/26 "2010-06-08T21:05:17Z")
Yes, to two Chinese brothers. It was after she had the damaged baby that she divorced them and started working for a Free Luna. eta: _Just_ before the trip. That way Manny could spend the night with her before he went off to imitate a load of grain. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2010, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-why-your-favorite-novel-would-make-a-great-or-terrible-or-mediocre-movie/542437/27 "2010-06-08T21:08:34Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > Yes, to two Chinese brothers. It was after she had the damaged baby that she divorced them and started working for a Free Luna. > > eta: _Just_ before the trip. That way Manny could spend the night with her before he went off to imitate a load of grain. Ah, yes, that’s right. But it wasn’t so much that she married him so that she could spend the night with him; rather, the senior husband (who was elderly anyway) gave up his right of priority so that Manny could spend the night with her. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2010, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-why-your-favorite-novel-would-make-a-great-or-terrible-or-mediocre-movie/542437/28 "2010-06-08T21:11:58Z")
With Mimi’s connivance. Without her being in on the plot, it never would have happened. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2010, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-why-your-favorite-novel-would-make-a-great-or-terrible-or-mediocre-movie/542437/29 "2010-06-08T21:14:39Z")
[Just because](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0423409/) ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2010, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-why-your-favorite-novel-would-make-a-great-or-terrible-or-mediocre-movie/542437/30 "2010-06-08T21:15:45Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > With Mimi’s connivance. Without her being in on the plot, it never would have happened. Yep. I don’t think it’s even appropriate to say it was _connivance_; the plan wassurely Mimi’s. But I’m glad you pointed that out, as otherwise the Davis clan sounds terribly male-dominated. How do you think people would react to the polygamny in the story? Would the studios reduce the marriage to a Manny-Wyoh love story? ---
**Author:** ![G0sp3l](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c68b51/32.png) [@G0sp3l](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/G0sp3l)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2010, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-why-your-favorite-novel-would-make-a-great-or-terrible-or-mediocre-movie/542437/31 "2010-06-08T21:38:01Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > Yep. I don’t think it’s even appropriate to say it was _connivance_; the plan wassurely Mimi’s. > > But I’m glad you pointed that out, as otherwise the Davis clan sounds terribly male-dominated. > > How do you think people would react to the polygamny in the story? Would the studios reduce the marriage to a Manny-Wyoh love story? I think the studios would try to avoid it, but it’s integral to the story, to the way thinks work and why. This is another story that would have to have narration to work. I don’t understand why audiences seem to hate voice-over/narration, I always appreciate more info. Polygamy is ‘controversial’ and studios always going lowest common would either erase it or hand-wave it. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2010, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-why-your-favorite-novel-would-make-a-great-or-terrible-or-mediocre-movie/542437/32 "2010-06-08T21:45:17Z")
> [@](#): > > Would the studios reduce the marriage to a Manny-Wyoh love story? In a movie, probably. But if it’s an HBO miniseries, they seem to be fond of everyone boinking everyone else, so they might just do it. Still, I don’t think that technology is yet to the point where doing the low-g right would be affordable. It certainly could be done, but to have it in each and every scene would probably kill the budget of anyone other than James Cameron. ---
**Author:** ![wunderkammer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ed8c4c/32.png) [@wunderkammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wunderkammer)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2010, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-why-your-favorite-novel-would-make-a-great-or-terrible-or-mediocre-movie/542437/33 "2010-06-08T21:49:48Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > [_Snow Crash,_](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snow_crash) by Neal Stephenson: Lots of fast-paced action, swordfights, gunfights, plenty of potential for stunning FX (the VR world, the Rat Things), **skateboarder heroes!** Plus plenty of highbrow interludes. > [@Ferret\_Herder](#): > > Beat me to it. I think that the director would need to very carefully handle the issue of YT’s chosen method of, er, “female protection,” lest most of the men in the audience spend a good chunk of the film cringing, after that particular scene plays out. Beaten to it twice. I want it directed by Quentin Tarantino and/or Stephen Chow. ---
**Author:** ![Valgard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/7feea3/32.png) [@Valgard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Valgard)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2010, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-why-your-favorite-novel-would-make-a-great-or-terrible-or-mediocre-movie/542437/34 "2010-06-08T21:57:42Z")
I’ve always thought that “Tales From The White Hart” and “Tales From Gavagan’s Bar” would make a great series, akin to “The Outer Limits” and “The Twilight Zone”. The stories are relatively short - I think each one would fit comfortably into a one hour episode, maybe even 30 minutes. They’re funny and each one is different. You’ve got a few regular characters and a common setting where everything kicks off. A really good “Conan” movie. CGI and special effects would make all the magic, exotic locations and strange beasts doable, along with some extraordinarily bloody combat. The character has good name recognition. The stories are never complicated - this would be your big-budget summer popcorn flick. The men are Real Manly Men, the women are Voluptuous and Dusky Haired and the villains are pure evil. I think it’d be far better to get back to the spirit of the original stories, in which Conan is quite intelligent (albeit not well-educated) and he’s fast & furious, not a bulked-up mass monster like Arnold was. A lot of Niven’s Known Space. There have been rumors of a “Ringworld” movie for quite some time; James Cameron’s name was floated about and given what he did with Avatar I think he could get the look right, but the story (and all the backstory that goes with it) would be mighty long - it’d either wind up a multipart saga like LOTR or it’d be a mess. Maybe both. World Of Ptavvs might be a better place to start. The “Gil Hamilton” stories (scifi detective stories, set in a relatively near future) could make a miniseries, as could the Man-Kzin Wars. ---
**Author:** ![Valgard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/7feea3/32.png) [@Valgard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Valgard)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2010, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-why-your-favorite-novel-would-make-a-great-or-terrible-or-mediocre-movie/542437/35 "2010-06-08T22:08:01Z")
Forgot to mention Alan Dean Foster’s “Icerigger”. Half medieval action movie, half pirate flick. With ice-skating felinoids. The heroes are an out of shape saleman, a nerdy professor, a woman who is more like Roseanne than Megan Fox and a weatherbeaten old giant who reads like a cross between Hulk Hogan and Rutger Hauer. And the love interest is the wrong species. ---
**Author:** ![Icerigger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icerigger/32/432_2.png) [@Icerigger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icerigger)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2010, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-why-your-favorite-novel-would-make-a-great-or-terrible-or-mediocre-movie/542437/36 "2010-06-08T22:16:59Z")
Now, you’re talking!🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Gangster\_Octopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a8b319/32.png) [@Gangster\_Octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gangster_Octopus)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2010, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-why-your-favorite-novel-would-make-a-great-or-terrible-or-mediocre-movie/542437/37 "2010-06-08T22:26:56Z")
Not sure about one of my favorites [Gojiro](http://www.amazon.com/Gojiro-Novel-Mark-Jacobson/dp/0802135390/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpi_1) by Mark Jacobson. Here is the description: > [@](#): > > This remarkable first novel combines the manic energy of monster movies and comic books with a serious and sad look at the post-nuclear world. At center stage are two friends. One is Gojiro, a 500-foot-tall lizard who has swollen to his extraordinary size–and acquired the shrewd brain of higher life forms–as a result of an atomic test. Then there’s his comrade Komodo, a human victim of Hiroshima. A mystical and telepathic bond unites them; they make a home for themselves and other radiation victims on a volcanic island in the middle of a “roiling petrochemical sea.” But Gojiro becomes a movie star, setting out with Komodo for Hollywood at the strange request of a film producer (whose father was involved with the Manhattan Project tests that produced Gojiro). They soon uncover a plot to test new atomic weapons that, in the best comic book tradition, threatens the world. The plot is fast-moving and fun, but the bulk of the book consists of long, philosophical dialogues between the austere youth and the wisecracking monster–whose hipster jargon is a perfect imitation of the late rock critic Lester Bangs. The novel’s beauty lies in the way these often hilarious conversations strike a poignant note while the “mutants” try to come to grips with the horrors of their lives. While a movie could be made I think it would cannibalize the best parts of the book. ---
**Author:** ![Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b38774/32.png) [@Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Attack_from_the_3rd_dimension)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2010, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-why-your-favorite-novel-would-make-a-great-or-terrible-or-mediocre-movie/542437/38 "2010-06-08T23:05:02Z")
Zelazny’s _Lord of Light_ would be dreadful as a movie, as well as offensive to Hindus, Buddhists, Christians and probably Muslims. Good fight scenes though. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Scud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f08c70/32.png) [@Tom\_Scud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Scud)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2010, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-why-your-favorite-novel-would-make-a-great-or-terrible-or-mediocre-movie/542437/39 "2010-06-08T23:06:41Z")
> [@Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](#): > > Zelazny’s _Lord of Light_ would be dreadful as a movie, as well as offensive to Hindus, Buddhists, Christians and probably Muslims. Good fight scenes though. It might work as a cartoon. In a live-action, how in the world do you deal with a movie where the main character goes through about four different bodies? ---
**Author:** ![Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b38774/32.png) [@Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Attack_from_the_3rd_dimension)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2010, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-why-your-favorite-novel-would-make-a-great-or-terrible-or-mediocre-movie/542437/40 "2010-06-08T23:08:39Z")
> [@G0sp3l](#): > > I think the studios would try to avoid it, but it’s integral to the story, to the way thinks work and why. This is another story that would have to have narration to work. I don’t understand why audiences seem to hate voice-over/narration, I always appreciate more info. > > Polygamy is ‘controversial’ and studios always going lowest common would either erase it or hand-wave it. The best solution might be to just suss it. There are these big warrens full of people, and it’s never clear who lives with whom, and exactly what the relationship is, it just seems like a very extended family. Kind of like when you first visit your girlfriends house at Thanksgiving, except the relationships aren’t explained. At least not enough that anybody can complain. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-why-your-favorite-novel-would-make-a-great-or-terrible-or-mediocre-movie/542437.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-why-your-favorite-novel-would-make-a-great-or-terrible-or-mediocre-movie/542437.md?page=3)