For Heinlein, I would go with The Rolling Stones. I think you could do that on a relatively modest budget.
Zelazny’s Lord of Light.
Moorcock’s “eternal champion”. I would like to see Elric on the big screen, but some of the other incarnations would be cool also.
Poul Anderson’s Fire Time.
How about some “hollow earth” stories? Burrough’s Pellucidar, or Grell’s Warlord.
I would like to see some of the old matinee serials re-made as big-budget HBO series. Buck Rogers, Flash Gordon,* Undersea Kingdom*, The Phantom Empire.
We are long overdue for re-makes of Beau Geste, The Prisoner of Zenda, and Arsenic and Old Lace.
I want to see a movie in which Fu Manchu is a humble Ch’ing Dynasty civil servant, saving the world from the diabolical mad scientists, Nayland Smith and Dr. Petrie.
I know The Fountainhead has already been made into a movie (in 1949), but IMO it sucked. I think it’s a great story, and would love it if a competent & talented filmmaker would remake it.
I’ll put in another vote for Starship Troopers. Yes, I acknowledge the existence of the Verhooeven flick, but that’s irrelevant, since it was not in any sense whatsoever “the book made into a movie”. I mean, we’re talking about a director who’s actually proud that he never read the book, because he wanted to avoid all influence from it.
yes ! could see those being acceptable tv series …
Mine is : metrophage … I had this thought out as a cgi/anime type of series … hell I even had brando playing/voicing conover
And the alienist… I know they were going to do it at one time because I seen the coming soon preview …but never heard about it again
What I wondered about was how they were going to handle the squicky underage male prostitution angle …
I think Marty Feldman hammered a stake through the heart of the first one (or at least I hope so). *Zenda *would probably end up as one of those horrible all-action, no-plot eye-candy films (see: every version of “Man in the Iron Mask” ever) with the princess transformed into an emancipated sword-fighting daredevil. And while I wouldn’t mind an AaOL revival I’m not convinced that farce is commercial enough for cinema these days - odds are you’d just end up with another Oscar. Plus, who gets Taft jokes anymore?
I occasionally wonder if Brian Daley’s **Fitzhugh and Floyt**books would work for television - they’re too light for full-scale film but as a semi-whimsical series there’s something there, and the characters are certainly engaging.
There are a lot of votes for Lovecraft. There have been a lot of abysmal Lovecraft adaptations over the years, but recently there have been some very good ones – The Call of Cthulhu, The Whisperer in Darkness, The Colour out of Space.
I know they’ve been done, but I’ve been very disappointed in the adaptations I’ve seen of The Case of Charles Dexter Ward and The Shadow Over Innsmouth, and think you could really do a great job with either of those. And I’m certain that, between better writing and the use of CGI, you could do an infinitely better job of The Dunwich Horror than either of the versions that had Dean Stockwell in them.
But I don’t think At the Mountains of Madness would make a great flick, for various reasons. One would be that people would think you were ripping off The Thing, when, ironically, it’s probably the other way around.
I ordered AoS as soon as it came out and only just found out there’s a sequel to Ariel and two other books Boyett has written (They should be in my hot little hands next week! ). I never really considered it as movie worthy but with what was before Avatar, sentient raccoons would be a relative cakewalk.
Arsenic and Old Lace ( I loved the black and white version) I could see being rewritten as a more modern take; the Same with Confederacy of Dunces. I only read it last year and I’m thinking Josh McDermitt would have the chops to pull of the lead.
Some fantastic selections thus far and a few I never would have thought of, Paradise Lost comes to mind. Keep them coming and maybe someone forward this list to Scott, Spielberg or Howard for future consideration? Ooh, and Lovecraft! And maybe Lord Dunsany for good measure!
The Face and The Taking both by Dean Koontz could make excellent movies. The Face is suspenseful, and The Taking is a very weird horror novel.
The Mediator series by Meg Cabot could be an awesome TV show. It’s about a girl who escorts ghosts to the afterlife…and kicks their butts if they refuse to go peacefully. Then she falls for one of the ghosts…
I’ve also thought that the Hollows/Rachel Morgan series by Kim Harrison would make a good series too, and I honestly think that if Being Human hadn’t existed, it already would be. Stop me if you’ve heard this one, but after a tomato-borne illness causes a lot of human deaths a witch, a living vampire, a huge pixie family, and a teenage gargoyle move into a haunted church…and have run-ins with demons, witches-gone-bad and (very much endangered) elves.
And then, in the vein of The Dresden Files, there’s the **October Daye **series by Seanan McGuire. Very fun dark urban fantasy that begins with the main character recovering from having been transformed into a koi for 14 years.
Ooh, and Lovecraft! And maybe Lord Dunsany for good measure!