Another vote for The Door into Summer. This could be a wonderful SF film, and wouldn’t require a huge budget. Gotta have just the right cat, though.
I’ll second this one.
I dunno. The subplot about the hero making plans to marry a prepubescent girl when she grows up would be hard to do, nowadays.
The Jack Vance *Araminta Station * trilogy would be great on film.
Joan Vinge’s Snow Queen.
It’s been done (at least on TV). 
David Gerrold says he wrote a letter of apology to Heinlein after the similarity was pointed out to him. Heinlein was characteristically gracious.
That was only the “Flat Cats” though. What about the Emperor of the Universe and all the other hijinx.
With the number of times we’ve already seen the giant-spaceships-floating-overhead scene (I’m thinking of V, Alien Nation, and Independence Day), I’d be loathe to see them try it for Childhood’s End. I can hear the claims of “rip off” already.
I think ** Childhood’s End** would make for a pretty dull flick, myself. Grand themes and some impressive visuals (which have been pretty much ripped off by now, as noted), but i think the rest would bore people.
There are plenty of short stories by Clarke that would make pretty decent flicks. The short novel Earthlight might be good material, too. I like the idea of a Rendezvous with Rama movie, but there’s a huge potential for them to Screw It Up.
I’d like to say Poul Anderson’s great Brainwave, but I don’t really know how you’d communicate the story on the screen. An audacious idea, though.
I dunno. All those penises stampeding would be kinda weird.
I’ve mentioned this on the Dope before, but I figure it bears repeating:
For years, now, I’ve wanted to see David Brin’s Startide Rising made into a visual story. However, the way I envision it, it wouldn’t be a movie - making this novel into even a three hour movie would still chop some of my favorite parts. What I envision would be a full 13 episode ‘season.’ And while CG has improved to the point that the various aliens might be able to be done in a live action version, I still think that this calls for being animated.
While it’s being marketed, now, as book two of the first Uplift trilogy, I happen to know that the book worked quite well on it’s own - I read it without any conscious memory of Sundiver.
Seriously, a storyline where dolphins are about half the major characters - including at least one who’s gone insane. The idea of trying to escape in a trojan ‘horse’ made from the hulk of a larger enemy ship that crashed. The fascinating look at all the alien societies, and why they’re trying to catch Streaker. Just beginning with the Thennannin Battleship crashing into the ocean of Kipru would be stunning… And from there the story starts getting exciting.
But, however it were done… I want most to see the scene where the humans
use dumping the water from their dolphin crewed ship, while being chased at relatvistic speeds, as a weapon against their pursuers! Go Wolflings!
I can’t believe no-one has mentioned Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card. There’s enough drama and action in it to make it filmable and the whole part with the computer game would be interesting to show. Who wouldn’t want to see the bugger’s planet being hit by the Dr Device? It’d be cool!
The Honor Harrington books are made for the movies (the cover artist seems to draw Angelina Jolie as Honor anyways).
SM Stirlings Dies the Fire series could be fun, in a Jericho kind of way.
I posted way too late without reading the thread. We apparently share similar libraries…
Sure it’s SF, pure SF, even if the cause of the Change is handwaved and blackboxed. However. I’m a hardcore Stirling fan, but I think the way he positively exults in descriptions of violence and cruelty (and sometimes even sexual sadism) would make him a hard sell in Hollywood.
Or is that like trying to scare ants away from a picnic by pouring sugar on the ground?
I LIKE dark movies like that. Fuck Hollywood. 
(btw, thanks for the linkage there…Scourge of God should be out in September? Excellent!)
I noticed that to. I hope they do an Honor Harrington movie or series of movies some day. I would love to see one of those epic space battles she always gets herself into. The one in the last book actually had me teary eyed when I was thinking about the scale of the carnage…and about all those beloved characters who were dieing in such a desperate struggle. But then several of the books have done that to me when she takes her crew or her fleet into the very jaws of death…
-XT
I really do think that it’s more like the sugar you mentioned than a hard sell. It might have to be toned down - but consider what Hollywood did with the violence, cruelty and sexual sadism in Brin’s The Postman.
I noticed mention of some of Larry Niven’s Known Space stories, but I think that the Mote in God’s Eye could make an interesting movie too. Though perhaps the denouement would need some punching up to make it more exciting for the audience (no great climactic battle at the end, only people in a conference room deciding that these aliens are not to be trusted.)
I like C. J. Cherryh’s science fiction novels and wouldn’t mind seeing a film version of Downbelow Station or maybe Cyteen (which I prefer as a novel, but seems to have less of the Sci-Fi elements that would appeal to a traditional audience: most of the action happens on one planet and it’s all about politics.)
To make it these days as a Sci Fi movie, it’s gotta have lottsa violence, light on the plot, heavy on the CGI effects.
For that, I nominate Harry Harrison’s Deathworld. What could Hollywood like better than battle after battle with all those killer alien animals?