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?
Any day now, Tim Burton is going to “re-imagine” Rabbit Test. 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.
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
“It puts the harpoon in its skin or else the captain gets revenge…”
Red Eye Serpent?
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.
Amen and amen 
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.
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.
A movie WAS planned or in pre-production a while back. Haven’t heard anything of late though.
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.
How about Harrison’s “The Lost Legion” series? Politics, huge battlegrounds, and magic 
Hover Bovver, 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!
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.
[QUOTE=GuanoLad]
The Discworld of course.
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Well, one of the novels has been done. Kinda.
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, which doesn’t necessarily mean that it will be made into a) a movie, and b) a *good * movie, but it’s a start.
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” 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.
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.