I entered the thread to say that.
The Iron Dream by Norman Spinrad. Okay, that’s not going to happen.
I’d love to see a proper film version of one of the really solid Doc Savage novels. Done right, that would kick all sorts of ass.
The Rolling Stones, by Robert Heinlein.
The War of the Worlds, but set in 1900, NOT the present day.
Steel Magic, by Andre Norton. Maybe The Crystal Gryphon.
A TV series based on Michael Moorcock’s “Elric” series. Twenty years ago, David Bowie would have been perfect for the role. Today, I don’t know.
Kevin Sorbo made a good Kull, he just needed a better writer and director.
I would love to see Donald Hamilton’s “Matt Helm” books turned into movies, but done seriously, not for comedy like the Dean Martin movies.
A Confederacy of Dunces
A great book, they’ve tried several times but the project seems cursed, I just want it done.
House of Leaves
Just for a challenge. (Though it would be one of those low-grossing “art films” not marketed as a blockbuster)
Joe Haldeman’s Camouflage!
Tim Powers’ **Last Call **could be a wonderful movie. I’m thinking Rounders, with the “magic” glimpsed only briefly and the Aurthurian symbolism done very, very subtley, just like in the book. All would be lost if they brow beat you with it…
Some of these would be better as a high-quality miniseries to give enough time to properly tell the story.
“Ringworld” by Larry Niven.
Many of the Man-Kzin Wars stories by Niven & Co.
“The Berkut” by Joseph Heywood.
“The Dirt” by Motley Crue. Stalled in production right now, I think.
I always thought Zalazny’s Lord of Light would be cool, but I’m probably the only one.
Under the Skin, by Michel Faber—if I could find a way to make a partly CGI alien creature that wouldn’t look completely goofy.
Geek Love by Katherine Dunn. There was talk a while back of Tim Burton adapting this, but I haven’t heard anything recently.
A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving. Simon Birch just barely scratched the surface of this great novel. It deserves a more faithful adaptation.
The Mummy by Anne Rice. Written before she became a complete nut. The end of the book implied a sequel, but Rice got bogged down in all the vampire novels (which were all crap after the first 3 or 4). The Mummy has adventure, romance, and horror to spare and would make a great movie. They could even use the subtitle Ramses the Damned to avoid confusion with the recent Mummy movies.
The Jack Reacher novels by Lee Child are a Bourne-like franchise just begging for the big screen treatment.
Stephen King and Peter Straub’s “The Talisman.”
My dream project would be to back the creation of a full 13 or 26 episode version of David Brin’s Startide Rising. In true Goldwyn tradition, it would start off with a bang - the crashing of a multi-million tonne battleship into a water world, where our heros - a mixed crew of humans and dolphins are trying to repair their ship before moving on to further their escape, and then the story would get exciting!
With CGI, I’ll admit that the hodgepodge of mixed alien races could probably be done live action. But I still would prefer to see it done animated. The logical reason is that with all the underwater scenes involved, it would probably be easier to animate it, for a convincing story. The emotional reason is that I first started thinking about this project about two years after Startide Rising came out, and the only way it could have been done was animation, or claymation.
Whatever else the suits decide has to go, I would insist on the scene towards the end, when the humans are running away from Kipru while being followed closely by ships from several different warring factions: they dump the water that they’d taken aboard the hull for the dolphins to move in, while the ship was in gravity - and the enemy vessels hit the cloud of water vapor at relativistic speeds!
Of course, if this was well-received, I’d then try to push for similar treatment for the rest of the so-called “first Uplift trilogy:” Sundiver, and The Uplift War.
If I had the money to back a film, I’d go for this one. It’s a great book, and I wish more people had read it.
Anything by Dan Brown!
[I’m quickly running away!]
I’d be interested in seeing what a good treatment of The Drawing of the Dark would turn out like.
It also might be interesting to see someone take a crack at Hammer’s Slammers.
ETA: Or The Face in the Abyss by A. Merritt.
Easily, The Long Ships, by Frans G Bengtsson. I want a proper handling of it, since the old movie-version is supposed to suck.
And the book is even perfectly written for movie adaption!
And it’s probably the best book in the world.
The Man Who Folded Himself by David Gerrold (and All Us Zombies or whatever)
Timefall by James Kahn
Anything by Michael Ende, William Sleator, Douglas Adams, Greg Egan
Summer of the Blue Coyote
The Hobbit (but that’s in the works already)
Anything Endless related
The Green Futures of Tycho
Run if you must lol. But actually the trailer for Angels & Demons looks decent, and the novel was better than the Da Vinci Code.
Oh, and the Dark Tower series. And Insomnia.
You can’t run away from yourself.
The Saga of Eric Brighteyes by H. Rider Haggard. Okay, the name may sound silly, but it’s a great story.
A good version of To Your Scattered Bodies Go (though for a movie you’d probably just call it Riverworld). There was a craptastic version on the Sci-Fi Channel; totally forgettable. But with enough money and modern effects, you could do it right. (Have to convince a lot of actors to be totally nekkid and totally shaven. Maybe tell them it’s a Peter Greenaway movie.)