Well, I didn’t say to film it word for word. Every other dramatization of the book has been an adaptation. I think there’d be plenty of opportunity to realistically and dramatically extrapolate new characters and settings and so forth, without trashing the novel. Do you think the Thunder Child or the escape of the train through the crowded railway station were the only action-filled scenes going on in England?
Just by adding a couple of new characters, or fleshing out the few in the book, you have a few hours right there. There’s the whole aspect of the narrarator’s wife’s escape that was largely untold in the novel. Hell, if they could make money by stretching 24 into 22 agonizing episodes, they could do this.
Oh, hey yeah, what about John Christopher’s Tripod Trilogy? We avoid the Tom Cruise War of the Worlds silliness and jump into a world where the bad guys have already won, and two teenage boys set off to the White Mountains, where they’ve heard the last free men still survive. It starts off as a good adventure story, and eventually turns into a real human drama. Could be a good miniseries, or even a full-length series.
An even better choice for adaptation would be John Christopher’s other, lesser-known (but still popular, I think) Sword of the Spirits trilogy, set in a dystopian, future feudal England. It’s a lot darker than the Tripod Trilogy, but that’s part of its strength - science fiction storytelling at a high level. That’s the kind of stuff I’d like to see on TV. Less whiz-bang, more story-telling.
I also have a soft spot for the whiz-bang, techy stuff, though. I think a lot of Heinlein’s stories combined these elements pretty effectively. A miniseries adaptation of some of his stories, or even a series adaptation of some of his settings - Future History, or the Solar Patrol of Dahlquist (from Space Cadet, a juvie that I am very fond of, and at least one other short story), some of the settings from his short stories, with crazy songwriting blind rocketmen - would really be just the ticket. Hard SF with a heart. That I could stand to see.
I loved that as a kid. It’s the only thing from Boy’s Life that really stuck with me. I have the trilogy on my shelf; I just re-read the first two books a couple of months ago. I really need to start on Pool of Fire soon…
Another book I think that would adapt well to a TV mini-series or series is Niven & Pournelle’s Mote in God’s Eye. Lots of stuff happens, with lots of side stories, and a huge clash of cultures to explore.
I’d give my eyeteeth for a TV series based on Lois McMaster Bujold’s Miles Vorkosigan. Peter Dinklage would be perfect for the role. The marketing campaign practically writes itself.
Or how about fantasy? Lord of the Rings showed that it’s bankable, when are we going to start seeing LotR inspired television programming? I’d love to see Tad Williams Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn turned into a TV series. I think they could get three good years out of the trilogy. Give it some serious production values, not this Sci-Fi Channel crap, and it could be pretty cool.
Something based on Niven’s Known Space universe would be even better! No general story arc, just things happening at various times and places along the lines of cultural contact – just like IRL.
