# What other movies are we overdue for? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 6, 2006, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-other-movies-are-we-overdue-for/351538 "2006-04-06T05:41:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Dr.Rieux](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@Dr.Rieux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Rieux)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2006, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-other-movies-are-we-overdue-for/351538/81 "2006-04-11T05:29:29Z")
There was a miniseries of \*Moby Dick \* several years ago, with Patrick Stewart as Ahab Henry Thomas as Ishmael and Ted Levine as Starbuck. Grefory Peck did a cameo as Father Mapple. I enjoyed it. I never liked Heinlein’s _Starship Troopers_–especially after reading Joe Haldeman’s _The Forever War_. Haldeman’s book is the one deserving of a good film. I’d also like to see Le Guin’s \*The Left Hand of Darkness \* and Jack Vance’s _The Dying Earth_. And how about Lewis’s _The Monk_? ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2006, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-other-movies-are-we-overdue-for/351538/82 "2006-04-11T05:31:23Z")
Any day now, Tim Burton is going to “re-imagine” [Rabbit Test](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078133/). Johnny Depp, in a career-ending move will play the lead, with [del]Mrs. Burton[/del] Helena Bonham-Carter, Crispin Glover, and the corpse of Deborah Lee Scott taking multiple roles to fill out the supporting cast. Mercifully, Tim Burton & Joan Rivers will both be killed and eaten by zombies on opening night, and all copies of both versions will be flung into space, where they will both start and end our first interstellar war without us ever having to even know it happened. Creatures all over the galaxy will fear the race who could create such an insidious and powerful weapon, and when we finally do meet the rest of civilization, we will be feted with honors, until they realize that it wasn’t we didn’t mean it as weapon, but as entertainment, whereupon our sun will be nova-ed. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![JoeSki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b487fb/32.png) [@JoeSki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoeSki)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2006, 6:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-other-movies-are-we-overdue-for/351538/83 "2006-04-11T06:29:15Z")
Also, I think it’s _high_ time we see a movie that does for vikings what Pirates of the Carribean did for pirates. I’d be willing to guess a movie studio could make a mint if they made a fun and provacative movie about the psychopath Viking/pirate princess runaway [Alwilda](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=308162&highlight=alwilda) ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2006, 6:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-other-movies-are-we-overdue-for/351538/84 "2006-04-11T06:35:37Z")
> [@Dr. Rieux](#): > > There was a miniseries of \*Moby Dick \* several years ago, with Patrick Stewart as Ahab Henry Thomas as Ishmael and \*Ted Levine as Starbuck. \* “It puts the harpoon in its skin or else the captain gets revenge…” ---
**Author:** ![koawala](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bb73d2/32.png) [@koawala](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/koawala)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2006, 10:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-other-movies-are-we-overdue-for/351538/85 "2006-04-11T10:27:37Z")
> [@Stranger On A Train](#): > > I think we’re overdue for a movie about a federal agent who is transporting a witness on a plane which is infested by snakes. Maybe they could call it _The Plane With A Lot Of Snakes On It_, or _Flying Snakes_, or maybe _Flight 121_. No Ben Afflack, and definitely not Colin Farrell; they’re way too overexposed. We should have a black man; they could get Wesley Snipes to star, but I think he already did an airplane movie or a few. Lawrence Fishburn is getting a little too old, and Chris Tucker is way too annoying to be constrained to an airplane. Maybe Samual L. Jackson is free? > > I still can’t figure out what to call it, though… > > Stranger Red Eye Serpent? ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2006, 11:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-other-movies-are-we-overdue-for/351538/86 "2006-04-11T11:46:56Z")
**The Discworld** of course. I’m not so sure _Dragonlance_ would work - it’s a D&D cliche with one half elf and one magic user and one knight and one dwarf and one kender etc, all on a quest to steal gold from dragons. How to transcend that successfully enough to be taken seriously… it’s a challenge which I think may be impossible. _Lord of the Rings_ is not a precedent, because D&D is a weak derivative of it by definition. ---
**Author:** ![grimpixie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ecb155/32.png) [@grimpixie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grimpixie)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2006, 11:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-other-movies-are-we-overdue-for/351538/87 "2006-04-11T11:52:07Z")
> [@chrisk](#): > > Well, I wouldn’t hold my breath, especially after trying to slog through the ‘Buttercup’s baby’ excerpt in the later editions of Princess Bride, the book. It’s always a little hard to tell what’s really going on through Billy’s layers of lies and deceptions when he starts talking about Morgenstern, but I get the impression that he really did sit down to write a full sequel, found it tough going, that his heart wasn’t in it and didn’t like what he’d been able to write. I don’t much like it either. > > _sighs_ Amen and amen ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2006, 11:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-other-movies-are-we-overdue-for/351538/88 "2006-04-11T11:57:30Z")
We need some more \*\*hockey \*\* movies. They are always entertaining. I would like to throw out a movie adaptation of **Lindsey Davis’** Falco series would be awesome. I have always pictured Russell Crowe as Falco ( though, he is too old now) and the french actor with the long suffering face that I cannot remember what he’s been in at the moment to be Petronas. I would also like to see a movie about \*\*Winston Churchill’s \*\* life. ---
**Author:** ![OtakuLoki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ac8455/32.png) [@OtakuLoki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OtakuLoki)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2006, 12:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-other-movies-are-we-overdue-for/351538/89 "2006-04-11T12:01:04Z")
**Shirley** , the only thing that would worry me about the idea of a Falco movie would be that I’d imagine there would be a strong temptation on the part of the filmmakers to combine Helena Justina and Sosia Camilla into on character - with disasterous results. ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2006, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-other-movies-are-we-overdue-for/351538/90 "2006-04-11T12:54:40Z")
> [@OtakuLoki](#): > > **Shirley** , the only thing that would worry me about the idea of a Falco movie would be that I’d imagine there would be a strong temptation on the part of the filmmakers to combine Helena Justina and Sosia Camilla into on character - with disasterous results. They would never be able to pull off the rich internal dialog of Falco at all and it would ruin the books. ---
**Author:** ![stegon66](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee59a6/32.png) [@stegon66](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stegon66)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2006, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-other-movies-are-we-overdue-for/351538/91 "2006-04-11T13:02:40Z")
> [@](#): > > Moving on from comics: what about the Artemis Fowl series? A movie WAS planned or in pre-production a while back. Haven’t heard anything of late though. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2006, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-other-movies-are-we-overdue-for/351538/92 "2006-04-12T14:07:38Z")
> [@Shirley Ujest](#): > > I would like to throw out a movie adaptation of **Lindsey Davis’** Falco series would be awesome. I have always pictured Russell Crowe as Falco ( though, he is too old now) and the french actor with the long suffering face that I cannot remember what he’s been in at the moment to be Petronas. I think an adaptation of John Maddox Roberts’ SPQR series would be even better. Because it’s set in the later Republic, before the Empire, and republican politics were more exciting. And the stories generally take place at a higher level of society, so there’s more chance to show lavish interior sets, and the dashing aristocrat Decius Caecilius Metellus is quite a character. ---
**Author:** ![Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e19adc/32.png) [@Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2006, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-other-movies-are-we-overdue-for/351538/93 "2006-04-12T19:00:07Z")
How about Harrison’s “The Lost Legion” series? Politics, huge battlegrounds, _and_ magic 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2006, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-other-movies-are-we-overdue-for/351538/94 "2006-04-12T19:36:06Z")
[_Hover Bovver_](http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=63838), apparently. I mean, _Tomb Raider_ and _Doom_ were bound to suck, because, let’s face it, the games aren’t very strong on plot. But a guy who has a manic episode in which he steals his neighbor’s Flymo, sets his dog on him, and mows all the lawns in the neighborhood? Hello, Oscar! ---
**Author:** ![dasgupta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e56c9b/32.png) [@dasgupta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dasgupta)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2006, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-other-movies-are-we-overdue-for/351538/95 "2006-04-12T19:49:14Z")
I’ll second _Ender’s Game_ and third Asimov’s _Foundation_ novels. On that note, _The Caves of Steel_, _The Naked Sun_ and _The Robots of Dawn_ would make a hot trilogy. It’s be tough to pick a good Elijah and R. Daneel. But I’d really love to see a movie version of _Porno_, the sequel to _Trainspotting_ - with the original cast. Hell, the book takes place ten years after the events in _Trainspotting_, so if they start now, they’ll only be a bit off. Off course, filming the epynomous scenes could prove a problem. We don’t want another _Caligula_ here. ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2006, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-other-movies-are-we-overdue-for/351538/96 "2006-04-12T20:01:05Z")
[QUOTE=GuanoLad] **The Discworld** of course. QUOTE] Well, one of the novels has been done. Kinda. [http://www.rzuser.uni-heidelberg.de/~jknoblo2/LnL/](http://www.rzuser.uni-heidelberg.de/~jknoblo2/LnL/) ---
**Author:** ![Gordon\_Urquhart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/db5fbb/32.png) [@Gordon\_Urquhart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gordon_Urquhart)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2006, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-other-movies-are-we-overdue-for/351538/97 "2006-04-12T20:04:03Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > \*\* > The Stars my Destination\*\* > > But only if they do them _right_, dammit! None of this I, Robot/Starship Troopers treatment! Cal (and others who have commented on _The Stars My Destination_): I haven’t read the book, but the mention of it sounded familiar. [The rights have been acquired](http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117940125?categoryid=1238&cs=1&query=%22stars+my+destination%22&display=stars+my+destination), which doesn’t necessarily mean that it will be made into a) a movie, and b) a \*good \* movie, but it’s a start. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2006, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-other-movies-are-we-overdue-for/351538/98 "2006-04-12T20:36:02Z")
> [@Gordon Urquhart](#): > > Cal (and others who have commented on _The Stars My Destination_): I haven’t read the book, but the mention of it sounded familiar. [The rights have been acquired](http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117940125?categoryid=1238&cs=1&query=%22stars+my+destination%22&display=stars+my+destination)… From the producer of _Doom_ and _Constantine_, eh? Erm. I’ll still hold out some hope, as long as this bit is just a transcription error or unforgivable sloppiness on Variety’s part, or something: > [@linked article](#): > > Protag is the sole survivor of a wrecked spaceship that drifts through deep space. Gully Foyle had damned well better be “Gully Foyle,” and no “Hiro Protagonist” funny-business. Thanks for the heads-up! ---
**Author:** ![Gordon\_Urquhart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/db5fbb/32.png) [@Gordon\_Urquhart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gordon_Urquhart)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2006, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-other-movies-are-we-overdue-for/351538/99 "2006-04-12T20:46:10Z")
> [@Larry Mudd](#): > > From the producer of _Doom_ and _Constantine_, eh? Erm. > > I’ll still hold out some hope, as long as this bit is just a transcription error or unforgivable sloppiness on Variety’s part, or something:Gully Foyle had damned well better be “Gully Foyle,” and no “Hiro Protagonist” funny-business. > > Thanks for the heads-up! Hi, **Larry** – The reference to “Protag” kind of confused me as well, until I remembered that Variety has a “[slanguage](http://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=slanguage)” all its own. My guess is that “Protag” refers generally to the protagonist rather than his actual name. I’m going to pick up _The Stars My Destination_ from the library – sounds like I’ve missed out on a good thing. ---
**Author:** ![rowe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e68b1a/32.png) [@rowe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowe)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2006, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-other-movies-are-we-overdue-for/351538/100 "2006-04-12T22:04:21Z")
I’d love to see a _Dragonlance_ trilogy as well. I think with excellent special effects and a convincing cast that they could be pretty impressive movies. I’m not sure where you’re getting the ‘quest to steal gold from dragons’ plot though. > [@GuanoLad](#): > > **The Discworld** of course. > > I’m not so sure _Dragonlance_ would work - it’s a D&D cliche with one half elf and one magic user and one knight and one dwarf and one kender etc, all on a quest to steal gold from dragons. How to transcend that successfully enough to be taken seriously… it’s a challenge which I think may be impossible. _Lord of the Rings_ is not a precedent, because D&D is a weak derivative of it by definition. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-other-movies-are-we-overdue-for/351538.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-other-movies-are-we-overdue-for/351538.md?page=6)