# Why haven't these books been made into movies? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** books-writing-myths\ **Created:** [July 22, 2020, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-havent-these-books-been-made-into-movies/916036 "2020-07-22T17:23:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 10
**Author:** ![mtnmatt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a3d4f5/32.png) [@mtnmatt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mtnmatt)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2020, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-havent-these-books-been-made-into-movies/916036/182 "2020-10-15T20:56:11Z")
He’s explained that he does not feel that the comedy of his fiction would translate easily to the screen, but any of Carl Hiaasen’s Florida-based books would seem like really good source material for a movie, and have recurring characters that could result in a franchise. ---
**Author:** ![Paintcharge](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/paintcharge/32/7946_2.png) [@Paintcharge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paintcharge)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2020, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-havent-these-books-been-made-into-movies/916036/183 "2020-10-15T21:52:37Z")
^ Yes. In the style of “Get Shorty” or “Big Trouble.” ---
**Author:** ![Tripler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripler/32/21807_2.png) [@Tripler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tripler)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2020, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-havent-these-books-been-made-into-movies/916036/184 "2020-10-15T22:03:28Z")
That’s [what I said!](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movie-would-you-like-to-see-remade-but-better/915072/63) I need to re-read it though. It’s been something like 25 years since I last did. Been going with the F. Murray Abraham version of a book on tape since. Tripler . . . just gotta add that to the list of books I want to read. ---
**Author:** ![bengangmo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@bengangmo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bengangmo)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2020, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-havent-these-books-been-made-into-movies/916036/185 "2020-10-15T23:17:33Z")
Stephen King is pretty hard to put into movies - although there have been some great adaptations - didn’t like the Shining - Christine did well - Firestarter and Carrie were both good Almost anything from Wilbur Smith would be great to see - the Courtneys and Ballantynes would translate well I think Some of the stuff around the development of Apartheid could play really well Maybe James Clavell - King Rat, but more particularly Noble House? ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2020, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-havent-these-books-been-made-into-movies/916036/186 "2020-10-16T01:56:17Z")
> [@bengangmo](#): > > Stephen King is pretty hard to put into movies - although there have been some great adaptations > > - didn’t like the Shining > - Christine did well > - Firestarter and Carrie were both good Don’t forget the two prison stories. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2020, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-havent-these-books-been-made-into-movies/916036/187 "2020-10-16T02:16:39Z")
> [@bengangmo](#): > > Maybe James Clavell - King Rat, but more particularly Noble House? Noble House was made into a [miniseries](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noble_House_(miniseries)). And King Rat was adapted for a [film](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Rat_(film)). ---
**Author:** ![bengangmo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@bengangmo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bengangmo)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2020, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-havent-these-books-been-made-into-movies/916036/188 "2020-10-16T02:27:51Z")
Shawshank Redemption was good (haven’t red the book) Green Mile - read the book but not seen the movie The Birds - thought the movie was a failure Dreamcatcher was a great read - can’t imagine it would translate well to a movie though, or The Dark Half ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2020, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-havent-these-books-been-made-into-movies/916036/189 "2020-10-16T02:32:26Z")
> [@bengangmo](#): > > Green Mile - read the book but not seen the movie I’ve done both; they did a very admirable job condensing all those words into a 3¼ hour movie. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2020, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-havent-these-books-been-made-into-movies/916036/190 "2020-10-16T12:56:10Z")
They did make Dreamcatcher into a movie, I liked much of it, hated other parts. The Dead Zone made a great film, I thought. They also did a good job with Cujo. Stand by Me (based on King’s The Body) was excellent. I’d say that overall, movies based on King books are pretty decent ones. But there are so many of them, you could make an entire Wikipedia site out of it. Oh, wait… they did > **[List of adaptations of works by Stephen King](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_adaptations_of_works_by_Stephen_King)** > > Pages for logged out editors learn more > > > > This is a list of media based on works by American author Stephen King (including the Richard Bachman titles). Note that aside from Creepshow 2, It Chapter Two, and Doctor Sleep, the sequels are only tangentially related to King's work. King's bibliography also includes works that he has written directly for other formats such as screenplays, teleplays, comics, and audiobooks. > There have also been dramatizations of many of King's short stories,... ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2020, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-havent-these-books-been-made-into-movies/916036/191 "2020-10-16T13:06:08Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > The Dead Zone made a great film, I thought. Decent television series too. ---
**Author:** ![Novelty\_Bobble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2020, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-havent-these-books-been-made-into-movies/916036/192 "2020-10-16T16:05:38Z")
I’d say “Misery” was the high water mark for a King adaptation. In my opinion it reached “The silence of the lambs” levels of great book/great film parity. To the point where it didn’t matter if you read the book or watched the film first, you could enjoy them both equally. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2020, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-havent-these-books-been-made-into-movies/916036/193 "2020-10-16T17:29:17Z")
Green Mile the film is excellent. ---
**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2020, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-havent-these-books-been-made-into-movies/916036/194 "2020-10-29T01:49:45Z")
> [@bengangmo](#): > > Almost anything from Wilbur Smith would be great to see - the Courtneys and Ballantynes would translate well I think I’ll second that. I’ve read _Eye of the Tiger_, and seen both _Dark of the Sun_ and _Shout at the Devil_. ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2020, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-havent-these-books-been-made-into-movies/916036/195 "2020-11-15T16:41:55Z")
> I would like to see Roger Zelazny’s Lord of Light as a film. I would too, but for anyone who doesn’t know it, that was [the script the CIA used as the basis of the Tehran rescue.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argo_(2012_film)) A movie could still happen, on cable or a streaming service. But the script needed to be sitting in that slush pile at that time, so it could serve a higher purpose than being a movie. (I wonder if Zelazny ever knew that? He died in 1995, so it’s a cinch he didn’t see **Argo**. And at the time. what the CIA was doing was nothing like “optioning”, so he probably wouldn’t have been asked to sign off on it, if he even owned the script itself. Still, whether he knew or not, it’s another reason he rocks/ed!) ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2020, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-havent-these-books-been-made-into-movies/916036/196 "2020-11-15T21:25:12Z")
> [@Rilchiam](#): > > I would too, but for anyone who doesn’t know it, that was [the script the CIA used as the basis of the Tehran rescue.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argo_(2012_film)) A movie could still happen, on cable or a streaming service. But the script needed to be sitting in that slush pile at that time, so it could serve a higher purpose than being a movie. It wasn’t so much the script as the conceptual drawings that convinced the CIA to use that as the movie for their cover. The conceptual drawings were done by legendary comic artist Jack Kirby. Someone who’s supposed to be Kirby actually appears in the film **Argo** , but you wouldn’t know it unless you read the credits at the end (I always do; obsessive-compulsive, I am), because they don’t say his name in the film. Kirby had drawn the setting for the film (and the amusement park they were going to build based on it – they had ambitious plans) as a middle-eastern-looking city, with oriental domes and the like. I’m sure that the CIA took one look at those and figured they could use these conceptual sketches to convince the local authorities why the film had to be made in a middle-eastern country, abounding in such architecture. Here’s the end of the cast list given on the Wikipedia page: > [@](#): > > - [Keith Szarabajka](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keith_Szarabajka) as Adam Engell > - [Michael Parks](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Parks) as [Jack Kirby](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Kirby) > - [Taylor Schilling](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taylor_Schilling) as Christine Mendez > **[Argo (2012 film)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argo_(2012_film))** > > Argo is a 2012 American historical drama thriller film directed, produced by, and starring Ben Affleck. The screenplay, written by Chris Terrio, was adapted from the 1999 memoir The Master of Disguise by U.S. C.I.A. operative Tony Mendez and the 2007 Wired article "The Great Escape: How the CIA Used a Fake Sci-Fi Flick to Rescue Americans from Tehran" written by Joshuah Bearman and edited by Nicholas Thompson. The film deals with the "Canadian Caper", in which Mendez led the rescue of six U.S. ---
**Author:** ![xtenkfarpl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/c2a13f/32.png) [@xtenkfarpl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xtenkfarpl)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2020, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-havent-these-books-been-made-into-movies/916036/197 "2020-11-21T18:32:14Z")
A man talking to a computer in his head? Where did you get that from? Mike in the book is a physical computer who communicates with people by phone and video. ---
**Author:** ![Sepp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@Sepp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sepp)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2020, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-havent-these-books-been-made-into-movies/916036/198 "2020-11-23T01:16:09Z")
Life of Henry Ford (based on whatever biography that takes your fancy.) Now, I know Ford was anti-Jew but that was basically all, since he freely associated with them and had many friends. He hated a lot of people for sure. At least Ford didn’t do a wholesale firing of Jews like he did his accountants at one time. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2020, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-havent-these-books-been-made-into-movies/916036/199 "2020-11-23T13:25:03Z")
But he _did_ publish _The Protocols of the Elders of Zion_ in his _Dearborn Independent._ That’s not merely passive hating, but active propaganda. > **[Henry Ford and Anti-Semitism: A Complex Story](https://www.thehenryford.org/collections-and-research/digital-resources/popular-topics/henry-ford-and-anti-semitism-a-complex-story)** > > Henry Ford’s unfortunate descent into anti-Semitism can be better understood by looking at several of his influences. I agree that telling his story would be interesting, warts and all. ---
**Author:** ![Sepp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@Sepp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sepp)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2020, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-havent-these-books-been-made-into-movies/916036/200 "2020-11-24T23:35:02Z")
Yes, but the writer seems to be painting Ford as little more than a man of his time. Men like that are harmless --except when they have a lot of money or power. ---
**Author:** ![Jumpbass](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jumpbass/32/147_2.png) [@Jumpbass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jumpbass)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2020, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-havent-these-books-been-made-into-movies/916036/201 "2020-11-25T21:38:46Z")
My first thought upon seeing this thread was Ringworld, but I think I can do better than that. How about an extended series of all of the Known Space stories? Go in chronological order starting with the development of transfer booths and the social implications, the settling of the solar system, contact with aliens, Ringworld, etc. Each story could be done in isolation, with maybe some characters appearing in other stories, like Lucas Garner does. Just a bit of overlap to provide continuity. Heck, I’d love to see a Beowulf Schaeffer series. (I always pictured Rip Torn as Elephant) Or Gil The Arm. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-havent-these-books-been-made-into-movies/916036.md?page=9) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-havent-these-books-been-made-into-movies/916036.md?page=11)