# 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:** 5
**Author:** ![Sparrow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Sparrow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sparrow)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2010, 12:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-why-your-favorite-novel-would-make-a-great-or-terrible-or-mediocre-movie/542437/81 "2010-06-15T12:20:26Z")
Wasn’t there a plan to do a movie of Anne McCaffrey’s Dragonflight? Surely the CGI would be good enough by now. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2010, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-why-your-favorite-novel-would-make-a-great-or-terrible-or-mediocre-movie/542437/82 "2010-06-15T20:39:32Z")
> [@Valgard](#): > > 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. Oh, yeah! That’d be totally cool. I agree that _The Forever War_ (which Ridley Scott has optioned) would probably make a better movie than _Old Man’s War_, but it’s really apples and oranges - they’re very different books, despite surface similarities. Either of them, done right, could be an awesome movie, and I’d happily pay to see both. _Aztec_ by Gary Jennings, with a big budget and enough time to tell the story right, would be simply amazing. An HBO miniseries, maybe? War, sex, human sacrifice, political intrigue, more sex, art, bittersweet romance, revenge, the glories of a lost civilization, etc. _Starship Troopers_ by Robert Heinlein, truer to the original story and with real powered armor? Mmmm. I’d be all over that. Several of the tales from Tolkien’s _The Silmarillion_ would lend themselves well to Pixar-style animation, I think - Beren and Luthien’s love story, Ar-Pharazon’s fall from grace, Morgoth’s betrayal, Feanor’s oath, etc. George R.R. Martin’s _Fevre Dream_ would make a great atmospheric vampire flick (I hear people like those nowadays) set along the antebellum Mississippi, and his _Tuf Voyaging_ would make a very funny, anti-heroic environmental satire. I could easily see Philip Seymour Hoffman as Tuf; his next Oscar is in the bag. ---
**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 15, 2010, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-why-your-favorite-novel-would-make-a-great-or-terrible-or-mediocre-movie/542437/83 "2010-06-15T20:50:37Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > Several of the tales from Tolkien’s _The Silmarillion_ would lend themselves well to Pixar-style animation, I think - Beren and Luthien’s love story, Ar-Pharazon’s fall from grace, Morgoth’s betrayal, Feanor’s oath, etc. I wouldn’t want SILMARILLION done as a single movie, but I’d love to see THE CHILDREN OF HURIN and BEREN & LUTHIEN done. Hell, make it an epic trilogy, ending with _The Valar Get Off Their Asses and Do Something Useful For Once, On Account of Manwe Taking a Smoke Break During a Staff Meeting and Ulmo Taking the Gavel and Giving Non-Stupid Orders_. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2010, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-why-your-favorite-novel-would-make-a-great-or-terrible-or-mediocre-movie/542437/84 "2010-06-15T21:05:38Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > Does the bolded sentence mean “The poignancy of _The Forever War_ is dated, it is based on the similarity of the book’s storyline to the tragic events of the war in Vietnam” or “The idea that a story should be deeply emotionally affecting is passe?” The former, but, mainly, that since 9/11, Hollywood war movies perforce need to be less Vietnam-era-like in moral tone (which _TFW_ is) – less, “Damn the government!” “The Army is stupid!” “War is pointless!” “Soldiers are victims of history and politics!” – and more patriotic and triumphalist, like WWII movies. Mood of the times. There’s room for **individually** angst-ridden stuff like _The Hurt Locker,_ but questioning the legitimacy of the war or the state, not so much. ---
**Author:** ![Boulter\_s\_Canary](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e79b87/32.png) [@Boulter\_s\_Canary](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boulter_s_Canary)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-why-your-favorite-novel-would-make-a-great-or-terrible-or-mediocre-movie/542437/85 "2010-06-16T14:12:23Z")
Anything by China Mieville, but especially _The City and the City_. The idea of ‘unseeing’ might be difficult to convey on film, though. _Good Omens_ if they can get the right actors for Crowley and Aziraphale. ---
**Author:** ![Balance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Balance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balance)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-why-your-favorite-novel-would-make-a-great-or-terrible-or-mediocre-movie/542437/86 "2010-06-16T17:20:19Z")
I’d love to see a good cinematic treatment of P. C. Hodgell’s _Godstalk_, but I don’t know that it could be done. I mean, it’s got an exotic setting, an ass-kicking heroine with a mysterious past, wacky hijinks, and more intrigue than you can shake a stick at…but it’s also got millenia of history, a huge array of characters, hard-to-portray theological and soul-related stuff, and a rather ambiguous ending. There’s no way you could do it in one movie…and that’s only the first book. There are five now, and the series is still going. > [@Quartz](#): > > Simon Green’s _Blood and Honour_ would make an excellent film: a reluctant hero, a heroic sidekick, deliciously evil villains, high magic, sword fights, traitors, a whiff of romance, and a whodunnit at the bottom of it. I hadn’t thought about it–while I like it quite a bit, it’s far from my favorite novel–but you’re right. You could make a really fun movie out of it. ---
**Author:** ![Fair\_Rarity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fair_rarity/32/153_2.png) [@Fair\_Rarity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fair_Rarity)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2010, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-why-your-favorite-novel-would-make-a-great-or-terrible-or-mediocre-movie/542437/87 "2010-06-17T00:58:53Z")
_The Secret History_ by Donna Tartt is one of my favorite novels. It’s a first person narrative of a year at a small college in Vermont where one of the students is murdered. I go back and forth over if it would make a good movie. I think with the right script and director and actors, it could be awesome, but I think in actuality, it’d probably just be turned into some c-grade teenage love movie. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2010, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-why-your-favorite-novel-would-make-a-great-or-terrible-or-mediocre-movie/542437/88 "2010-06-17T01:21:25Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Of course, it’s because it’s expensive and a pain in the neck to shoot, and your audience won’t appreciate it. But if it’s part of the plot (and it is when the Earth Troops invade), then there’s an excuse. And you can convey low-g by a combination of acting, slowing the motion, and CGI assists, I’d think. Hell, I’d just do it _all_ CGI or cel animation. That’s the kind of situation they were practically _designed_ for. On the other hand, the only way you’d get an animated version into the theaters is if it’s CGI, or Japanese. If you tried to do it with traditional western animation, you’d either never get funding, get it chopped to hell by the studios, or watch it bomb because no one will go to watch a “kid’s cartoon,” or ONLY try to take kids to see it (even if it has a high rating, and the trailer focuses entirely on grotesque violence). ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Silophant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a698b9/32.png) [@Silophant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silophant)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2010, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-why-your-favorite-novel-would-make-a-great-or-terrible-or-mediocre-movie/542437/89 "2010-06-17T02:48:55Z")
Another vote for _Starship Troopers_ done right. Also, _Ender’s Game_. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Excellent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f19dbf/32.png) [@Mr.Excellent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Excellent)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2010, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-why-your-favorite-novel-would-make-a-great-or-terrible-or-mediocre-movie/542437/90 "2010-06-17T03:43:04Z")
> [@Silophant](#): > > Another vote for _Starship Troopers_ done right. > > Also, _Ender’s Game_. The problem with Ender’s Game is that you need a _lot_ of very good, very young actors. You really can’t fudge this more than a few years - the novel derives much of its emotional punch from the struggle and pain of young children. Casting teens - or twentysomethings playing teens - would take away a lot of that. ---
**Author:** ![Sigmagirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2010, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-why-your-favorite-novel-would-make-a-great-or-terrible-or-mediocre-movie/542437/91 "2010-06-17T12:53:12Z")
> [@Ruby Sees](#): > > _The Secret History_ by Donna Tartt is one of my favorite novels. It’s a first person narrative of a year at a small college in Vermont where one of the students is murdered. I go back and forth over if it would make a good movie. I think with the right script and director and actors, it could be awesome, but I think in actuality, it’d probably just be turned into some c-grade teenage love movie. There was a whole Live Journal community dedicated to casting this movie. I believe Gwyneth Paltrow acquired the rights and was going to star as Camilla, and her brother Jake was going to direct. But Gwyneth now is 37. ---
**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 17, 2010, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-why-your-favorite-novel-would-make-a-great-or-terrible-or-mediocre-movie/542437/92 "2010-06-17T14:21:40Z")
_Little, Big_ would be a terrible movie. Slow and way too multi-threaded to track in a 2-hour movie or even a miniseries; the allusions to Lewis Carroll would be either lost or forced; the whole Ariel Hawsquill subplot would be even more “where the hell did that come from?”; the extended discussion of memory palaces would turn into a deadly dull exposition dump; the fairies would not work. _Bridge of Birds_ could be quite good; probably better actually filmed in China with a Chinese cast. Miniseries might be the way to go since there are a fair number of internal plot pauses in the story. ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2010, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-why-your-favorite-novel-would-make-a-great-or-terrible-or-mediocre-movie/542437/93 "2010-06-17T14:25:29Z")
> [@Silophant](#): > > Also, _Ender’s Game_. > [@Mr.Excellent](#): > > The problem with Ender’s Game is that you need a _lot_ of very good, very young actors. You really can’t fudge this more than a few years - the novel derives much of its emotional punch from the struggle and pain of young children. Casting teens - or twentysomethings playing teens - would take away a lot of that. OSC is [working on it](http://www.taleswapper.net/movies/endersgame/endersgame_update.html) right now. ---
**Author:** ![Balance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Balance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balance)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2010, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-why-your-favorite-novel-would-make-a-great-or-terrible-or-mediocre-movie/542437/94 "2010-06-17T15:45:28Z")
> [@Tom\_Scud](#): > > _Bridge of Birds_ could be quite good; probably better actually filmed in China with a Chinese cast. Miniseries might be the way to go since there are a fair number of internal plot pauses in the story. I’m not sure how it would carry over. A lot of the humor is dependent on Ox’s narrative style and perspective. His description of Master Li’s withering torrent of invective at the lake, for example, is hysterical; I don’t see how actually listening to the sage yell obscenities could possibly be as entertaining. A voiceover might work in some instances, but not many, and voiceovers tend to be unpopular. ---
**Author:** ![lisiate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f05b48/32.png) [@lisiate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lisiate)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2010, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-why-your-favorite-novel-would-make-a-great-or-terrible-or-mediocre-movie/542437/95 "2010-06-17T23:05:05Z")
I think Neil Gaiman’s _American Gods_ could be made into a pretty good movie in the right hands. I was pretty happy with the movie versions of \*Stardust \* and _Coraline_ and think _American Gods_ has the right elements to make a great movie. ---
**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 18, 2010, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-why-your-favorite-novel-would-make-a-great-or-terrible-or-mediocre-movie/542437/96 "2010-06-18T00:07:08Z")
> [@Boulter\_s\_Canary](#): > > _Good Omens_ if they can get the right actors for Crowley and Aziraphale. As soon as I read this post, I had a flash of insight: Stephen Fry as Aziraphale and Hugh Laurie as Crowley, although, y’know, the other way might work just as well. It would be perfect. ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Knig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/cdc98d/32.png) [@Typo\_Knig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Knig)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2010, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-why-your-favorite-novel-would-make-a-great-or-terrible-or-mediocre-movie/542437/97 "2010-06-18T02:38:15Z")
I’d love to see Bridge of Birds on screen! Especially of Barry Hughart got paid this time. The Mote in God’s Eye would make a great miniseries - too much backstory and detail to cram into a single movie. Great space opera, great mystery story, and very alien non-humans. The Star Trek novel [The Final Reflection](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Final_Reflection) would make a good movie. It might be a bit “dated” in terms of current ST canon, but it could work. Gives the studio something ST-related to sell between franchise movies. “There is much to teach and little time. You cannot know victory until you can count your losses, and know that some of your enemies do not know how to count!” ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2010, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-why-your-favorite-novel-would-make-a-great-or-terrible-or-mediocre-movie/542437/98 "2010-06-18T02:45:01Z")
> [@lisiate](#): > > I think Neil Gaiman’s _American Gods_ could be made into a pretty good movie in the right hands. I was pretty happy with the movie versions of \*Stardust \* and _Coraline_ and think _American Gods_ has the right elements to make a great movie. Another vote for _American Gods!_ ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2010, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-why-your-favorite-novel-would-make-a-great-or-terrible-or-mediocre-movie/542437/99 "2010-06-18T03:03:50Z")
The Vorkosigan novels would make great movies except… Miles. What do you do about Miles? My all-time favorite book is probably _Gaudy Night_, by Dorothy Sayers. It’s been made into a film but it’s just not cinematic material. Way too fusty. My favorite book of 2009 was _The Little Stranger_, by Sarah Waters. I love reading a good ghost story, but I probably couldn’t watch a good film made from it. Eek. Some favorites I think could make great films: _Sabriel_, by Garth Nix; the Chronicles of Prydain (I don’t count The Black Cauldron); the Septimus Heap books. And if you could get the casting just right, _The Beekeeper’s Apprentice_ by Laurie King. ETA: Oh! The President’s Daughter series would be a great fit for film, and very timely. ---
**Author:** ![Fair\_Rarity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fair_rarity/32/153_2.png) [@Fair\_Rarity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fair_Rarity)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2010, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-why-your-favorite-novel-would-make-a-great-or-terrible-or-mediocre-movie/542437/100 "2010-06-18T03:52:22Z")
Someone upthread had mentioned The Talisman, which I would love, but I think what would be even better Stephen King movie would be an animated or stop-motion Eyes of the Dragon. Not make it into a small children’s movie, but I think a PG-13 film in the style of Coraline and The Nightmare before Christmas would be really awesome. I’m picturing the dollhouse or Flagg or the dragon in my head and it would be spooky and enthralling. Re: A Secret History: I love Gwyneth, but she’s 20 years (eep!) too old for Camilla! That’s exactly why I have reservations about it being a movie! [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=4) [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=6)