I know the usual blah blah blah involves “someone already owns the rights and are sitting on them” crap but there have been several books I read (mostly sci-fi and fantasy) that are compelling stories both on a human level and the Ooo, I want to see that on a screen level. Now there have been a few on screen stinkers like Starship Troopers and several Dean Koontz and Stephen King books but still I’d love to see some great books turned to film.
My contenders are:
Ariel by Steven R Boyett- It has Post Apocalyptic landscapes, a unicorn with an utterly foul mouth and a peppermint candy fetish, a boyish hero who means well, Japanese swordsmanship, and some really kick ass villains. Plus magic.
The Belgariad by David Eddings- More swords and sorcery , interesting characters and probably better in a format like GoT, it would still make a great trilogy of big screen movies.
The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant by Stephen r Donaldson- Again, this would be better as an HBO series but I could see a few big screen movies being made of this.
Rite of Passage- Alexei Panshin A great coming of age novel that would slot in well with fans of Hunger Games and Divergent, etc.
Now that cgi is at the level that this movie could be done, it should be. Sure, there’s really no plot to speak of, but there wasn’t much of a pot to Titanic, and look how well that did. Visually, it could be a stunning movie. Just the shot of the arch going overhead would be worth the price of admission.
For other classic sci fi with the same issues, there could be movies of
Childhood’s End
Rendezvous with Rama
I’m not sure we need everything in Known Space. And reading about a two headed, three legged alien with a voice like Marilyn Monroe works OK, but I think the reality would come across as absurd if you actually make Puppeteers in live action.
You’re thinking of the anime that’s an amalgam of Paradise Lost, Purgatorio and Brothers Karamazov. “While its few fans applaud the innovative ‘furries on motorcycles chasing up the sides of the giant crystal Stonehenge’ scenes, none understand even one hour of the 40-hour epic”.
Back on subject, a number of moody thrillers: JK Rowling’s Cormoran Stryke trilogy, Lilian Jackson Braun’s Jim Qwilleran books, and Koontz’s Fear Nothing “trilogy”. And why not some old radio detective shows, like “Broadway Is My Beat”?
Childhood’s End was done as a miniseries by SyFy in 2015. I found it to be …acceptable. There were changes but there simply had to be for the story to work. The overall plot was kept.
Rama is in production. Last update on IMDB was October of 2016. There are quite a number of classic science fiction titles in one form of production or another. Foundation is supposedly in some sort of development at HBO. Would be surprised to see that happen.
Ringworld does keep popping up as in development. But it never makes it to screen, either tv or movie.
As a John Scalzi fan, he has three properties in development deals that keep not going anywhere. I would be that today’s new release will be optioned quickly too.
The problem is that all of these might make good products by the focus is on easily marketed properties with guaranteed profits. Reboots, sequels, and extensions of known franchises meet those criteria for studio execs even if there are the occasional duds.
It seems I missed the production of Childhood’s End, so that’s one for Hollywood follow through, but “in production” doesn’t necessarily mean anything. I have old issues of Starlog that talked about a ton of recognizable, popular sci-fi projects that were “in production”, (one of which was Childhood’s End, interestingly enough, but a different production) and over the last nearly 40 years almost none of them came out.
Surprisingly, one that never got a single mention as being “in production” was Zelazny’s Lord of Light. That one should have gotten noticed, because it was designed to get publicity, but I never even saw even a passing reference. Maybe Starlog was on to the game?
As I’ve argued before, Alfred Bester’s the Stars my Destination. I think it can be done, naysayers be damned, and far easier than many other suggestions in this thread.
I’ll add in for Rendezvous with Rama, which I think would be better than Chuldhood’s End was.
I’d like to see a decent movie made out of Mark Twain’s A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court. Every adaptation I’ve seen is either a vehicle for the Star At The Time (Will Rogers, Bing Crosby) or changes the novel so completely that you don’t recognize it (PBS, of all groups, various kid’s adaptations, lots of popular movies ostensibly based on it). Dammit, Twain’s highly comic and dramatic scenes – the Destruction of Merlin’s Tower, the Restoration of the Holy Fountain, the Charge of the Knights on Bicycles – deserve to be put on screen.
I’d like to see at least one Heinlein novel adapted with something approaching fidelity. There are plenty to choose from, CGI has advanced to the point where you can do it justice. All you need to do is not to be lily-livered about it (Puppet Masters) or to have your own philosophy get in the way (*Stormship Troopers[/I). For the record, I think that Stranger in a Strange Land wouldn’t be a good choice. Double Star might.
And I’ve long wanted to adapt Fredric Brown’s classic story Arena for the screen. It’s been done wrong often enough. And you can do it justice (without padding it out) as a movie.
