# What are some great novels that are unfilmable? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 9, 2005, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-great-novels-that-are-unfilmable/298592 "2005-04-09T21:34:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2005, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-great-novels-that-are-unfilmable/298592/21 "2005-04-10T03:21:23Z")
Every couple of years, someone threatens to adapt _Atlas Shrugged_, which I expect couldn’t result in anything other than a spectacular train-wreck. ---
**Author:** ![vivalostwages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d07c76/32.png) [@vivalostwages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vivalostwages)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2005, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-great-novels-that-are-unfilmable/298592/22 "2005-04-10T04:51:01Z")
> [@Larry Mudd](#): > > snip > > When Michael Ondaatje’s _The English Patient_ was adapted for film, I declared it an impossible feat, because everything that’s important in the book is subtextual and _textual_. Very little of what makes the book great is found in the dialogue and action. Anthony Minghella made an excellent film, and kept a lot of the subtext intact without resorting to narration, by transliterating it into visual metaphor. It was sheer genius. I was very pleased to be proven wrong, there. > > snip. I read the book after seeing the film and was amazed that Minghella had been able to pull it off so well. It doesn’t exactly follow the conventions of most novels, certainly. ---
**Author:** ![Muad\_Dib](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/35a633/32.png) [@Muad\_Dib](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muad_Dib)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2005, 6:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-great-novels-that-are-unfilmable/298592/23 "2005-04-10T06:05:52Z")
> [@Bryan Ekers](#): > > Every couple of years, someone threatens to adapt _Atlas Shrugged_, which I expect couldn’t result in anything other than a spectacular train-wreck. Amoung other reasons is that it is just too damne long. One of the projects that Ms. Rand was working on when she died was a television mini-series version of _Atlas Srugged_. That is the only way that you could even come close to getting it right. ---
**Author:** ![pepperlandgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f17d59/32.png) [@pepperlandgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pepperlandgirl)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2005, 7:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-great-novels-that-are-unfilmable/298592/24 "2005-04-10T07:04:32Z")
> [@ivylass](#): > > You forgot **Misery** and **Dolores Clairborne**. Those turned out halfway decent, as did **Shawshank Redemption**. > > I think when film makers concentrate on King’s psychological horrors, rather than the ones with the monsters, they do better. After all, the clown in _It_ was much much scarier in my head than how Tim Curry portrayed him. Also **Stand By Me**. I doubt **A Confederacy of Dunces** would make a good film. ---
**Author:** ![Lola](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ed655f/32.png) [@Lola](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lola)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2005, 7:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-great-novels-that-are-unfilmable/298592/25 "2005-04-10T07:18:11Z")
Anything By Flann O’Brien (aka “Ireland’s greatest writer”. James Joyce? Pshaw.) ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2005, 7:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-great-novels-that-are-unfilmable/298592/26 "2005-04-10T07:25:19Z")
> [@Larry Mudd](#): > > The last time I talked to Mr. Coupland, he said he was negotiating with some players about adapting _Microserfs_ for film. I think it could actually make a damned fine film. I know that the screen rights to _Generation X_ were purchased some while ago, but I think he got them back (it was a 7 year option or some such). He said he was just as glad. (Hijack: Coupland came out only a few months ago and has never written a gay main character and since then I’ve een him referred to twice as “gay author Douglas Coupland”.) David Sedaris sold his film rights to a couple of books and says that as much as he would love to have the money he will never sell them again. The producers made him a nervous wreck wanting to essentially gut and rebuild his work, then changing it from movie to sitcom to miniseries to animation and back again, and when the rights reverted to him (another limited time option) he said he will _never_ sell them again (though he said if his sister Amy ever has the clout to produce then she can have them). ---
**Author:** ![devilsknew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4da419/32.png) [@devilsknew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/devilsknew)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2005, 7:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-great-novels-that-are-unfilmable/298592/27 "2005-04-10T07:44:42Z")
Related conversely: I really believe that _The Time Travelers Wife_ by Audrey Niffenegger would make one of the greatest love stories ever told in cinematic history. The right studio, the right director, the right actors…definite Academy Award Winner-- Best Film. I’d like to see Charlie Kaufmann write the screenplay! ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2005, 7:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-great-novels-that-are-unfilmable/298592/28 "2005-04-10T07:58:24Z")
_Illuminatus!_ by Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea. Part of the reason, of course, is that the moment for such movies has passed, but mostly because it’s such a long and sprawling work that jumps around so much, swapping character’s view for character’s view, and loaded with internal dialogue, that I don’t think anyone would be able to pull it off and have it be watchable. (Yeah, I know they did a musical version of it on the stage, but it evidently pretty much sucked hard.) ---
**Author:** ![Tentacle\_Monster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ba9def/32.png) [@Tentacle\_Monster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tentacle_Monster)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2005, 8:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-great-novels-that-are-unfilmable/298592/29 "2005-04-10T08:06:37Z")
I would say Vonnegut’s _Galapagos_ would be unfilmable, but they did a pretty good job of _Slaughterhouse Five_. I’ve yet to see _Breakfast of Champions_, though. Anyway, the first novel to come to mind was _Portnoy’s Complaint_, but I just checked IMDB and damned if they [didn’t already do it.](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0069112/) Wonder if it’s seen DVD release yet? ---
**Author:** ![DWMarch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dwmarch/32/1010_2.png) [@DWMarch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DWMarch)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2005, 8:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-great-novels-that-are-unfilmable/298592/30 "2005-04-10T08:14:07Z")
I think there should be a law against Hollywood adapting the works of Tom Clancy or Anne Rice. TC’s books get _raped_ by Hollywood every time (yes, I’m even including _Hunt for Red October_ here) and Anne Rice’s are too intricate to translate to film. If The _Queen of the Damned_ had to be made into a movie, it should have been eight hours long, with the prequel (_The Vampire Lestat_) weighing in at a good six hours. Only one John Varley novel (_Millenium_) has ever been made into a movie and it sucked. May God have mercy on anyone who tries to tackle his Gaia trilogy or _Steel Beach_… I hold out hope that _Red Thunder_ or _The Golden Globe_ could be made into decent movies though. ---
**Author:** ![NAF1138](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naf1138/32/3245_2.png) [@NAF1138](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NAF1138)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2005, 8:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-great-novels-that-are-unfilmable/298592/31 "2005-04-10T08:18:20Z")
Any book that relies on first person narrative to present a psychological portrait of a character I think is impossible to translate to film. I always think of _Catcher in the Rye_ as the greatest novel that will never be able to translate to film. Everything interesting about that book takes place in Holden’s head as he narrates his story. The whole movie would have to be one long voice over sequence. ---
**Author:** ![Charlie\_Tan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/charlie_tan/32/12582_2.png) [@Charlie\_Tan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charlie_Tan)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2005, 8:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-great-novels-that-are-unfilmable/298592/32 "2005-04-10T08:26:56Z")
Speaking of **Stephen King** , I can’t see that Gerald’s Game could ever be made into a movie. ---
**Author:** ![Alias](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a88e4f/32.png) [@Alias](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alias)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2005, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-great-novels-that-are-unfilmable/298592/33 "2005-04-10T14:14:49Z")
> [@The Gaspode](#): > > Speaking of **Stephen King** , I can’t see that Gerald’s Game could ever be made into a movie. Maybe a horribly violent and gory porno movie. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2005, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-great-novels-that-are-unfilmable/298592/34 "2005-04-10T14:32:02Z")
> [@Hamish](#): > > …I have never ever seen a good adaptation of an H.P. Lovecraft story, though I’m convinced it’s possible, if the directors could leave off throwing in the big-breasted women, soft-core moments, and buckets of gore. Actually, there has been one really good H.P. Lovecraft story put on film. It’s just that the producers of **Alien** didn’t know it was a Lovecraft story. ---
**Author:** ![Agrippina](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8797f3/32.png) [@Agrippina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Agrippina)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2005, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-great-novels-that-are-unfilmable/298592/35 "2005-04-10T14:41:52Z")
**Geek Love**. I think David Lynch could pull it off. It deals with a family of circus freaks. The older brother, a boy with flippers for arms and legs, ends up developing his own cult and becomes a sort of dictator to his family. It’s very weird, but Lynch did a good job with The Elephant Man. ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2005, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-great-novels-that-are-unfilmable/298592/36 "2005-04-10T16:16:27Z")
> [@Carm6773](#): > > One tale (also written as Richard Bachman) I would LOVE to see translated into film is called _Rage_. It is permanently out of print and will probably never be filmed because the Columbine kids allegedly got some inspiration from it. If you find it somewhere, pick it up. It’s good. I’ve actually thought about trying to come up with a way to adapt this to a stage play (why not? I know someone who did _Reservoir Dogs_ as a play). ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2005, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-great-novels-that-are-unfilmable/298592/37 "2005-04-10T16:51:37Z")
**Dune** ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2005, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-great-novels-that-are-unfilmable/298592/38 "2005-04-10T17:15:51Z")
_The Lord of the Rings_ ---
**Author:** ![Rucksinator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/898d66/32.png) [@Rucksinator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rucksinator)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2005, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-great-novels-that-are-unfilmable/298592/39 "2005-04-10T18:07:10Z")
> [@ivylass](#): > > {snip} After all, the clown in _It_ was much much scarier in my head than how Tim Curry portrayed him. The problem with _It_ is that the final battle involves the hero locking minds with the creature and the battle (with their minds) to push the other off the edge of the universe (or something like that; it’s been a long time.) There’s no way that that can be described on film. So instead they had the kids push a giant spider on its side. Stupid. It made me want to dropkick the TV. I love _The Long Walk_, and I don’t know why. If I were to describe it to somebody who hadn’t read it, they’d probably say that it sounded boring. But I’ve read it 2 or 3 times. I think that it would be easy to make into a movie, but hard to do well. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2005, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-great-novels-that-are-unfilmable/298592/40 "2005-04-10T19:08:32Z")
> [@Agrippina](#): > > **Geek Love**. I think David Lynch could pull it off. It deals with a family of circus freaks. The older brother, a boy with flippers for arms and legs, ends up developing his own cult and becomes a sort of dictator to his family. It’s very weird, but Lynch did a good job with The Elephant Man. I agree it would be unfilmable (maybe as adult CGI), but I saw an excellent stage production of it [in Atlanta](http://atlanta.creativeloafing.com/2004-01-08/arts_theater.html) last year. It was mostly live action with some assistance from the Atlanta [Center for Puppetry Arts](http://www.puppet.org/). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-great-novels-that-are-unfilmable/298592.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-great-novels-that-are-unfilmable/298592.md?page=3)