After a year like 2007, where books ranging from memoirs (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly) to journalistic nonfiction (Into the Wild) to Western contemporaries (No Country For Old Men) have been turned into award-magnet movies, it makes me very curious what books have not been produced (or are not yet in talks of option) that the lot of you believe would make decent-to-spectacular films. Theatrical plays and musicals can also count.

For me, one book that I want to see adapted to the silver screen is Vernon God Little. It is a dark comedy about the aftermath of a school shooting.

EDIT: I am told that it is in talks. However, the production has been stalled for years now, so I will keep this up.

I think The Abstinence Teacher, Tom Perrotta's newest novel, could be very relevant and entertaining. A tricky adaptation, but if the screenplay's in the right hands I think it could actually turn out to be something incredible.

I could imagine Toni Collette in the lead.

This will never happen but I would love to see Tina McElroy Ansa's Ugly Ways on the big screen.

Jennifer Lewis could play "Mudear"

Sanaa Lathan
Victoria Rowell
Kimberly Elise
could play the three sisters

This message has been edited. Last edited by: FishBiscuit,

Somebody needs to give "The Scarlet Letter" some justice after the Demi Moore mess.

I would love to see "No Promises In The Wind" be made into a movie! I remember reading that book a few years ago and loving it.

And also to add, how about "Night" from Elie Weisel. Is there a reason that this hasn't been made into a movie yet? Did Weisel not want it to be made into a movie?

Fortune's Rocks by Anita Shrieve. A bunch of her other books have been turned into movies or TV movies. I think this would be an awesome film.

Also, Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norell would make a great film.

FINN by Jon Clinch

the story of Huck Finn's Pap (and, call me crazy, but I could envision Tom Cruise [a la Magnolia] in the title role!)

quote:

Originally posted by bocaboy7:
I would love to see "No Promises In The Wind" be made into a movie! I remember reading that book a few years ago and loving it.

And also to add, how about "Night" from Elie Weisel. Is there a reason that this hasn't been made into a movie yet? Did Weisel not want it to be made into a movie?

I remember reading "No Promises" in 8th grade and it was my favorite book for a long time...yes, very cinematic.

I can't imagine Elie Weisel ever selling film rights to "Night"...he's acutely opposed to any dramatization of the Holocaust.

quote:

Originally posted by R2684:

quote:

Originally posted by bocaboy7:
I would love to see "No Promises In The Wind" be made into a movie! I remember reading that book a few years ago and loving it.

And also to add, how about "Night" from Elie Weisel. Is there a reason that this hasn't been made into a movie yet? Did Weisel not want it to be made into a movie?

I can't imagine Elie Weisel ever selling film rights to "Night"...he's acutely opposed to any dramatization of the Holocaust.

Ah, I see. I guess I kinda figured that. I would assume that the book does the justice for itself! It is such a powerful book, and there have been many movies about the holocaust, so... Elie Weisel is such a brave man!

quote:

Originally posted by Dr. McPhearson:
After a year like 2007, where books ranging from memoirs (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly) to journalistic nonfiction (Into the Wild) to Western contemporaries (No Country For Old Men) have been turned into award-magnet movies, it makes me very curious what books have not been produced (or are not yet in talks of option) that the lot of you believe would make decent-to-spectacular films. Theatrical plays and musicals can also count.

For me, one book that I want to see adapted to the silver screen is Vernon God Little. It is a dark comedy about the aftermath of a school shooting.

EDIT: I am told that it is in talks. However, the production has been stalled for years now, so I will keep this up.

VERNON GOD LITTLE is one of the best novels I've read in the past few years. It has already been adapted into a play that played in London last year. I hope a movie is also on the way but I am sure film producers pull their hair out over material having to do with school shootings and the fact that it is a satire as opposed to a drama may make it even more difficult.

I am awaiting the film of A HEARTBREAKING WORK OF STAGGERING GENIUS. probably my favorite book, which has been in development for a long time. While interning at Sony Pictures during grad school I got to read the screenplay, which has probably been re-written many more times since then, which I thought was excellent and it really captured the tone and style of the book (my biggest worry is they would keep the story in tact but chuck out the tone which is what made the book memorable and not just a sappy memoir). I believe it has deservedly made the list of best unproduced screenplays the last few years.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: pacinofan,

I think Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich would make a great movie, I believe Susan Sarandon was interested in doing it but couldn't get anyone to go along with it.

I always thought "The Partner" would have made a GREAT movie. I know Grisham's books are so mid-90s, but it was a great one, and it had a great role for a woman.

I just want Edward Norton to make his adaptation of "Motherless Brooklyn". This is taking too much time to be made.

I would love to see a movie adaptation of "On Chesil Beach" (Ian McEwan) and "La Sombra del Viento" (Carlos Ruiz Zafón).

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Kams,

It's not great literature but Dean Koontz has written many terrific horror novels and thrillers that could be adapted into films. I read him a lot less than when I was a teen, and many of his recent books have been filled with strange right wing rants, but amongst his recent work ODD THOMAS would make a possibly great genre film. It is a novel that is alternately hilarious, terrifying and deeply moving. One of the best genre pieces I've read in the last few years. Amongst his older works I am surprised LIGHTNING was never made into a film.

quote:

Originally posted by pacinofan:
It's not great literature but Dean Koontz has written many... strange right wing rants...

YUP, you got that part right! So, you approve of horror only when it's right-wing horror?!

Of course, many will argue that right-wing horror is a redundancy!

quote:

Originally posted by tomk:

quote:

Originally posted by pacinofan:
It's not great literature but Dean Koontz has written many... strange right wing rants...

YUP, you got that part right! So, you approve of horror only when it's right-wing horror?!

Of course, many will argue that right-wing horror is a redundancy!

I actually rarely read his books anymore due to those right wing rants... as much as I loved ODD THOMAS its two sequels were ruined by them. I stopped reading one of his fairly recent books THE TAKING because he took the end of the world/alien invasion tale as a strange excuse to rail against belief in global warming. Ummm, call me crazy but I believe in it. That all being said even if he has gotten all right wing nut-baggy I still liked a lot of his books when I was younger, he's a much better writer than the always clunky Stephen King, and think they have great plots for movies.

I don't see why horror must always be left wing. Right wingers love blood and guts. It's screwing that gets them all twitterpated.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: pacinofan,

I would love to see a more faithful adaptation of Flowers in the Attic and maybe have the first sequel and the prequel made as well but I doubt it would happen.

Maybe as an HBO miniseries.

I second The Abstinence Teacher. Neil Gaiman's Sandman comics would be hard to adapt for a 2 hour film, and probably would be more suited for an HBO/BBC miniseries to preserve the complexity of the original material.

quote:

Originally posted by pacinofan:
It's not great literature but Dean Koontz has written many terrific horror novels and thrillers that could be adapted into films. I read him a lot less than when I was a teen, and many of his recent books have been filled with strange right wing rants, but amongst his recent work ODD THOMAS would make a possibly great genre film. It is a novel that is alternately hilarious, terrifying and deeply moving. One of the best genre pieces I've read in the last few years. Amongst his older works I am surprised LIGHTNING was never made into a film.

I've actually started reading many of his newer novels, particularly what I call the unofficial Average Joe trilogy. In each book (Velocity, The Husband, and The Good Guy), a normal man is tossed into a race-against-time. True, very cliche, and the main character almost always happens to have a military background, but when you skip over the fluff and the right-wing rambling, the man certainly has a way with comedy in dark times.

From what I've heard, The Husband is in optioning limbo. It was supposed to be released this year, but still, no publicity has been released. The IMDB page won't even open up for anyone less than a Pro member. As for The Good Guy, there is a very static villain role a'la Anton Chigurh that I have pictured Hugh Jackman (an underused talent, in my opinion) filling since I finished the book.

Another one: "Hiroshima", by John Hershey