How about “Passionate Kisses?”
Two biopics:
The Carter Family- with all of the drama and everything intact, it would make a great story.
Nikola Tesla - Someone Depp-ish as Tesla, rogue inventor nut, playing it to the hilt.
And the very last thing we want in our Arthurian legends is any sort of historical inaccuracy!
I’ve been anxiously awaiting History of the World, Part II.
When Best Buy or Circuit City advertisted the Mel Brooks collection last week they said one of the included movies was History of the World Part II.
I almost wept as I thought to myself… there’s no History of the World Part II and there never will be.
Hitler! On! Ice!
Fantastic Voyage with new special effects.
Indeed… which is why I’d really like to see Starship Troopers redone by someone who isn’t huffing paint and/or who can get over himself.
And while we’re at it, I think that an Illuminatus! movie would be pretty neat, if they did it right.
This isn’t 100% quite what the OP asked for, but it’s close. I’m really surprised that to date nobody seem to have tried to create the female equivalent of the Bond franchise. You could have all the same audience-pleasing elements: stunt-men-on-overtime action sequences, exotic backdrops, touches of no naughty bits sex, glamour, cackling baddies, fights, crazy gadgets… plus a Hot Stunna ™ lady in the lead role. I’m sure the Millions will correct my ignorance and come up with examples where studios have tried to spawn such a formula, but the fact remains that we still don’t have a female Bond equivalent, and I think it’s about time we did.
I’m still waiting for someone to make the rest of the Hitch-Hiker’s Guide To The Galaxy into a decent film… or even a TV mini series, like the one the BBC did back in the '80s, for that matter.
I second or third the calls for Titan, Dragonlance and Honor Harrington.
But want I really, really want to see is a film adaptation of Heinlein’s Friday. Ain’t ever going to happen though.
My wet-dream movie project would be to tell the story of Pearl Harbor from the view point of the crew of the USS Nevada (BB 36). If you’re not familiar with the story, the Nevada was the only ship in Battleship Row to get underway during the attack.
A little research makes the story even more compelling. First, let’s look at who’s in command: The CDO (Command Duty Officer) was a LCDR (who’s name escapes my Google-fu at the moment - he was nominated for a CMH IIRC, after the attack, but didn’t recieve it. Certainly he did exceptionally well when it hit the fan.) who was expected to be facing another lazy Sunday duty.
My two favorite persons from the story are two men from the ‘goat locker.’ One, is Chief Boatswain’s Mate Edwin Hill; and the other is Warrant Machinist Donald ‘Kirby’ Ross. When the attack started Warrant Ross went to the Port TG (or dynamo) room to make sure that the ship had electircal power. BMC Hill, oversaw getting the Nevada free of her mooring lines, then jumped from the pier and swam back to the Nevada where he took control of top side damage control efforts.
As the Nevada got underway she drew additional attention from the attacking Japanese. She took numerous bomb hits, and a torpedo hit, and started to lose weigh in the main channel out of the harbor. Now, a note about Pearl Harbor: It’s an excellent sheltered anchorage. One of the best natural harbors in the world. It also has exactly one narrow channel in or out of the harbor. As the Nevada started to settle and sink, in the channel, both the crew and the attacking Japanese realized that if she sank in the channel it would deny the US the use of the base at Pearl Harbor until she could be moved from the channel. The Japanese attacks again intensified.
It’s during this approximate time that BMC Hill was killed in a bomb explosion on the after deck.
Below decks there were numerous fires burning. Warrant Ross and his crew had to shut down the Port TG room, and those that could went to the Starboard TG room to keep the ship with the power it needed to keep up the fight. Eventually, the fires grew so bad that Warrant Ross had to order everyone else out of the Starboard TG room, where he worked in smoke and steam to shut it down on his own. He came out, once that was done, exhausted, and poisoned from smoke inhalation. He was blinded, too, from the same cause.
By this time the Nevada had been beached off of Hospital point, and settled into the mud. Her crew knew she was sunk, but with her weather decks still above water, and men still fighting her guns and the fires onboard, the Japanese continued to attack her until they finally completed their raid.
The aftermath gets a bit interesting, too. Warrant Ross had a girl in town. I’ve found records that he and his wife were married on the 10th of December. I’ve not been able to verify that this was something that came about as a response to the attack, and the realization that US was going to be going to war.
Both BMC Hill, and Warrant Ross were awarded the CMH, and Warrant Ross was also awarded a normal comission. He ended his service as a full Captain, and the USS Ross DDG 71 is named in his honor. The Nevada was the first of the battleships from Pearl to be restored to service, and fought in both the Atlantic and Pacific theatres. After the war she was used as the target ship for the Bikini Atoll tests. (There’s something amusing, to my mind, about having the ship painted International Orange - so the Air Corps crew dropping the bomb in her could have a good target - and they still missed by approximately 500 meters.) She survived the tests, and was deconned, to serve as a target hulk for another few years.
After his death in the 90’s Captain Ross’s ashes were dropped on the site of the wreck of the Nevada.
With all these facts, I can’t help but think there’s a great movie in there. Needing only a very little of the storyteller’s art to make it breathe and live again.
Another story I’d like to see would be the duel between the CSS Alabama and the USS Kearsarge. Especially focusing on the frustrations that both Semmes and the captain of the Kearsarge felt dealing with the French. IIRC there were picnicing French in launches, following the Alabama out of harbor to see the battle. Perfectly normal for the day, but surreal to think about for modern audiences.
Similarly, I’d think that the story of the last week, or so, of the Graf Spee would make a good movie.
Count me in too. That’s what I opened this thread for. I think it could be done really, really well if someone competent got their hands on it. The keys to this trilogy making money would be:
–Cutting the books down. This is the most delicate issue–even LotR got slammed for that one. What to leave out, what to keep in, what needs to be changed, etc. You’ll anger the fanbase if you screw up on this.
–Pacing. The books are extremely well-paced, but that doesn’t mean it’ll easily translate to film. The action sequences can’t be too long, but they also can’t be too short. “Just right” will make them stand out among just about every action movie made in the last 5-10 years.
–Casting. The boys will come for the dragons. Throw a few young heartthrobs in and you’ll have a lock on the teen girls. Tanis, Caramon, Raistlin–they all need to be HOTT. My husband and I have spent long hours talking about who we would cast in the Dragonlance movies, but it’s been a few years and I can’t remember much.
–Special FX. If the dragons are cool, people will see the movies. If the dragons are cheap, crappy CGI, the previews will turn people away.
I’ve put way too much thought into this, but Dragonlance is my pick for a fantasy series that would make awesome movies and work as well in film as in print.
I wouldn’t mind a Guns of the South movie from Turtledove. Although Confederates with AK-47s sounds silly, it’s an exceptionally well-researched Civil War book (buffs will recognize many of the quotes and asides). Played seriously, it could work as a movie.
The Hobbit. It would feature such audience favorites as Bilbo, Gandalf, dwarves, elves (with possible cameo by Legolas), Elrond, a dragon, Gollum, the ring, spiders, orcs, trolls, and cryptic references to “The Necromancer”.
As a result, this flick would probably gross close to $One Billion in the box office, make tons of money as a DVD and extended edition DVD, and the lawyers are keeping the rights to make and distribute it all tied up in a dispute!
Why not?
But there are so many convoluted subplots, to do it right they’d have to make either a movie trilogy or a TV miniseries.
Either way, I’m there with hard nipples!
They would also have to decide whether to keep everything in an early-'70s sociopolitical setting or update it. The latter might be impractical since the story depends largely on the Cold War, and Islamic radicals don’t figure into it. Also, there’s really no contemporary equivalent of the Morituri Underground, God’s Lightning, or Woodstock Europa.
I read somewhere Jackson was contractly commited to make King Kong first. But now that is done he is free to make The Hobbit.