# 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:** 13\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Q](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/898d66/32.png) [@Johnny\_Q](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Q)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2010, 10:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-why-your-favorite-novel-would-make-a-great-or-terrible-or-mediocre-movie/542437/121 "2010-12-18T10:38:42Z")
I’d like to see _Cryptonomicon_ made into a movie, but there’s no way to do all the intertwining stories justice without making it massively long. ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2010, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-why-your-favorite-novel-would-make-a-great-or-terrible-or-mediocre-movie/542437/122 "2010-12-18T13:49:06Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > This is one reason I’d like to see this done (not just women, but everyone in low g). I can’t think of a single movie or TV show that depicts people moving around in low gravity when they’re in an enclosed, pressurized, non-spacesuit environment. not even **2001**. How about the opening of _Barbarella_? ---
**Author:** ![Capitaine\_Zombie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e95f7d/32.png) [@Capitaine\_Zombie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capitaine_Zombie)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2010, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-why-your-favorite-novel-would-make-a-great-or-terrible-or-mediocre-movie/542437/123 "2010-12-18T13:59:07Z")
Anything by Terry Pratchett. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2010, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-why-your-favorite-novel-would-make-a-great-or-terrible-or-mediocre-movie/542437/124 "2010-12-18T14:53:05Z")
Will someone please get the rights to Andrew Vachss’s Burke mysteries and sign up Bruce Willis? ---
**Author:** ![MLS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/919ad9/32.png) [@MLS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MLS)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2010, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-why-your-favorite-novel-would-make-a-great-or-terrible-or-mediocre-movie/542437/125 "2010-12-18T16:11:17Z")
> [@Sam\_A.Robrin](#): > > It seems I saw a movie of it about thirty years ago (possibly some sort of knock-off, as I can’t find it listed anywhere under that title). All I’m remembering is the protagonist going so insane that he places dozens of cardboard stand-ups of people in a yard, and gives a speech from a balcony as if he’s the President, until the power goes out on him. Later, the woman shows up, but isn’t, as was subtly alluded (it had to be in 1949), black, but an Irish redhead. All the rest is now a blank. > Anybody…? Nothing remotely like that happens in the novel. It has to have been something else. ---
**Author:** ![not\_what\_you\_d\_expect](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/not_what_you_d_expect/32/3246_2.png) [@not\_what\_you\_d\_expect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/not_what_you_d_expect)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2010, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-why-your-favorite-novel-would-make-a-great-or-terrible-or-mediocre-movie/542437/126 "2010-12-18T16:39:41Z")
Some of my favorite books have already been made into Horrible movies. Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean Auel…absolutely butchered movie with Darryl Hannah All of Robert Ludlums Bourne books were fun reads for me and the movies just did not deliver. They strayed too far from the story for my taste. ---
**Author:** ![Barking\_Dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Barking\_Dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barking_Dog)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2010, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-why-your-favorite-novel-would-make-a-great-or-terrible-or-mediocre-movie/542437/127 "2010-12-18T19:09:01Z")
> [@Mr.Excellent](#): > > I’d actually prefer _The Forever War_, which _Old Man’s War_ borrows from heavily. Both would be fun movies - but I think _The Forever War_ has a poignancy to it that makes for a richer story. I came in to say this. I think it would adapt very well to film. ---
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2010, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-why-your-favorite-novel-would-make-a-great-or-terrible-or-mediocre-movie/542437/128 "2010-12-18T19:21:54Z")
The Honor Harrington series, barring a major reworking of how much of the space travel and combat works in the setting, would have severe trouble in a visual setting, unless people wanted to watch a sci-fi film where all the combat happened off screen, or where they could never see two ships at once. That said, if they could make the Treecats look good, and the (only occasionally featured) Powered Armor look awesome, it could work otherwise. Well, depending on if you wanted to tackle the whole chessmaster plot from the later books. ---
**Author:** ![Barking\_Dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Barking\_Dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barking_Dog)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2010, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-why-your-favorite-novel-would-make-a-great-or-terrible-or-mediocre-movie/542437/129 "2010-12-18T19:34:11Z")
_Altered Carbon_, by Richard Morgan I think could work as a movie. Hardboiled detective story with a bunch of cool fight scenes, a little steamy sex, and a nice mystery thrown in. I’d buy a ticket. Simon Green’s _Nightside_ books, even if done well with a decent budget, would probably still end up looking like another bad Siffy movie. Or possibly a campy, so bad it’s good cult film, which in many ways is what the books are in any case. ---
**Author:** ![etv78](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d78d45/32.png) [@etv78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/etv78)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2010, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-why-your-favorite-novel-would-make-a-great-or-terrible-or-mediocre-movie/542437/130 "2010-12-18T21:08:11Z")
It’s already been done, and it’s Historical Fiction, but Johnny Tremain would be great IF filmed on location. ---
**Author:** ![ExTank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/35a633/32.png) [@ExTank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ExTank)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2010, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-why-your-favorite-novel-would-make-a-great-or-terrible-or-mediocre-movie/542437/131 "2010-12-18T21:23:06Z")
_The Black Company_, by Glen Cook. I think it would be a good movie to see done, but I’m not too sure how it would do with the larger viewing audience. There’s no real Good Guys, just morally ambiguous protagonists fighting for morally questionable employers, and an ambivalent, almost bittersweet conclusion. With no clear Good Guys/Heroes and no real “Death Star kablooey” victory/payoff for the protagonist, I think audiences won’t be able to really get behind it. Plus, for a fantasy series, the language and general “tone” is fairly “modern;” no attempts are made at semi-Shakespearean or even faux-medieval type speech patterns. This might pull people out of the story. But IMO it’s a grand, if somewhat cynical (via the telling by Croaker, the Company’s Physician as well as current Annalist/historian, and main protagonist) tale nonetheless, and worthy of a Peter Jackson treatment. ---
**Author:** ![Rucksinator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/898d66/32.png) [@Rucksinator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rucksinator)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2010, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-why-your-favorite-novel-would-make-a-great-or-terrible-or-mediocre-movie/542437/132 "2010-12-19T20:42:36Z")
One of my favorite Stephen King book is _ **The Long Walk** _, originally published under his pseudoname of Richard Bachman. It’s about a contest where 100 boys start out on a walk. If you drop under a certain speed (I think it was 4 mph, but after being on a treadmill set at 3, I think that is unreasonable) they get a warning. You can walk off warnings. The 3rd warning is a bullet. Last boy walking gets a prize. It’s one of the few books that I’ve read more than once. But I don’t think it would make a good movie, because it’s just boys walking, talking, and dying. ---
**Author:** ![vivalostwages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d07c76/32.png) [@vivalostwages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vivalostwages)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2010, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-why-your-favorite-novel-would-make-a-great-or-terrible-or-mediocre-movie/542437/133 "2010-12-19T23:36:57Z")
> [@vivalostwages](#): > > It would be difficult to adapt Michel Faber’s _Under The Skin_ for the screen. The aliens look more or less like centaurs, which could look really goofy if not done exactly right. It would be cheesy rather than unsettling. It’s a great story, but I just can’t see anybody getting it right for a film. Okay, I just found out that there may indeed be a film version of this book after all: [Scarlett Johansson to Play Alien Seductress in ‘Under the Skin’](http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/blogs/heat-vision/scarlett-johansson-play-alien-seductress-35110) [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=6)