And I don’t mean the wimpy four hour versions we see nowadays, like the horrible travesty that was Mists of Avalon on TNT. I mean the lush, far-reaching epics of yesteryear, when networks really cared how a book was treated on the small screen, like Shogun, The Thorn Birds, and even The Stand.
I have two. I want to see Colleen McCullough’s Masters of Rome series. They could do one a year, starting with The First Man of Rome and ending with The October Horse. Dealing with Sulla’s bisexuality would be tricky, but the battle against the Germans with Gauis Marius, or the final battle between Caesar and Pompey? Wonderful!
My second choice is Outlander by Diana Gabaldon. A romantic time-travel? But trust me, throw in a tall, red-headed Scottish warrior poet dressed in full kilt regalia and the women will melt. They could even do one a year of that series, only she’s not done writing it yet. I can see Alex Kingston as Claire, but I don’t know who can pull off Jamie. Frank/Jack would be easy, because they could be played by the same man. And I could see Alicia Keyes as Brianna.
I’d like to see a good mini-series of the Norwegian classic trilogy “Kristin Lavransdatter”. It’s set in the Middle Ages & is quite wonderful (be sure to get the translation by Tiina Nunnally) - lots of action, passion etc. Too much for film, I think, tho Liv Ulman tried.
ivylass, we must be reading off of the same sheet of music. As soon as I saw the title of the thread, I said Masters of Rome. Of course, it would have to be an entire series rather than a mini-series. There’s enough material in those books to keep it going for years.
I’ll second ‘Starship Troopers’. Seeing Heinlein’s original ideas as a miniseries would be unbelievably cool.
Jack Whyte’s Camulod series would have to be one hell of a long miniseries but I think it’d be a better translation to the screen than half of the crap that’s on these days.
I’ll also add in Neal Stephenson’s ‘Cryptonomicon’. If that could be turned into a miniseries that is able to carry the wit and intelligence of the book, I’d sit through every minute of it.
I agree that Neal Stephenson’s Cryptonomicon would make a damn fine miniseries.
My suggestions:
Hyperion and The Fall of Hyperion by Dan Simmons. Each book would have be done as a separate miniseries, multiple parts each.
The Silmarillion by Tolkien. It may be blasphemy to the ears of some, but I actually like this book more than The Lord of the Rings. It would have to be a LOOONG miniseries, though, but if Peter Jackson does it, I’ll watch every minute. Might work best as a limited run series, with 22 episodes or so for a few seasons.
The Neverending Story by Michael Ende. And get it right this time.
I’ve been waiting almost 20 years for a film adaptation of The Talisman by Stephen King & Peter Straub. At first, Steven Spielberg picked up the film rights, then he got bored with it, then got interested again, then bored again; then Mick Garris (director of The Stand and The Shining for TV) was slated to make it into yet another King-miniseries-of-the-week for ABC, but that project fell through too.
The latest news has music video director Vadim Perelman to develop the novel as a feature film – with any luck, it might actually make it to the screen at last. It will probably suck, but I don’t care – I just want to see the damn thing!!!
A Song of Ice and Fire, currently still being written by George R. R. Martin. When I’m a trillionaire, and after I’ve solved all of the world’s problems, I’m going to throw billions of dollars at this project and make it the best series ever.
Funny you should mention this – I got about halfway through and had to put it down. It was too much work (for me) to read, but I agree 100% – it would make an awesome movie – I’d love to see the movie and maybe then I could read the book, even though generally I like reading the book first.