What book would make a great movie?

[Adora]

I mean they have already made a few but is there a book that hasn't yet been made into a movie but you think deserves to be and has the chance to be a great film?

 

[Progster]

Greg Bear's "Eon". It's a masterpiece

 

[IContainMultitudes]

This one if they do it right:

Channing Tatum to Star in Movie Adaptation of Joe Haldeman’s The Forever War | Tor.com

A good movie (an HBO or Netflix series might work better) based on Michael Moorcock's Elric series would be cool too, a few attempts at it have been made, but they've all fizzled so far.

 

[Cinnamon115]

Well, if they do it right, I'd love to see my favorite book, When Christ and His Saints Slept by Sharon Kay Penman turned into a movie. But since the book is so long, they would have to make it two or even three movies to do it properly.

 

[Omega]

I know this has been on TV, but I don't think its been made into film ( I'm not really that much of a movie person). It isn't even a book but a short story so I hope it fits this thread.

My choice would be Ray Bradbury's "Usher 2".

 

[umbrellabeach]

I feel this way about basically all my favorite books that don't have movies. To name three off the top of my head:
Mandy by Julie Andrews Edwards
Palace Beautiful by Sarah DeFord Williams
The Visconti House by Elsbeth Edgar

 

[BigTimber]

Anything by Christopher Moore. I'm shocked one hasn't been made already. I've heard the rights for several of his books have been bought years ago, but nothing has been made of them.

'American Shaolin' by Matthew Polly. It's about his time going to China in the early 90's to study kungfu.

 

[clg114]

Webster Dictionary-The Movie

 

[Ste11aeres]

Mr Petre by Hilaire Belloc. It's about a man who gets amnesia but feels embarrassed about it, for some reason, and therefore doesn't want anyone to discover that he has it. He lost his memory when disembarking upon a boat from the USA to the UK, and, not remembering where his possessions are, doesn't have any tangible proof of who he is. When someone assumes that he is the wealthy Mr Petre, he decides to pretend to be Mr Petre, hoping that maybe that is who he really is, and that if it isn't, hopefully no one will find out.

Such a scenario would have great potential for a movie, but it should be set in a past time period, when less sophisticated forms of documentation could make such a mix up more plausible.

 

[Datura]

I would love to see Salman Rushdie's "The Satanic Verse" turned into a movie. The book is filled with wild imagery and layered allegory. It deconstructs notions of Indian post-colonial identity as well as Islam.

Honestly, the whole book was rather over my head, especially given my unfamiliarity with Indian pop-culture and the Koran. Despite this, I still found it an enjoyable read.

However, such a film is unlikely ever to be made. First of all, it would be a very expensive film with very limited potential for a box office return. Secondly, the author still has a fatwa on his head calling for his death. The production of such a film would probably spur terrorist attacks and assassinations. In this age of incredible spacial effects "The Satanic Verse" is probably one of the only unfimable movies due to political pressures. This just makes me want to see it all the more.

 

[AGXStarseed]

A few choices;

1. The Hunting Game Trilogy: Seeing all three books - Z.rex, Z.raptor and Z.Apocalypse - made into a trilogy of films would be pretty awesome. The book series follows a 14 year old boy called Adam Adlar and his dad as they are drawn into a dangerous game as an organization called Geneflow is using cloned, genetically modified dinosaurs as part of a dark 'grand plan' to recreate the world.
Written for teenagers, the books have a lot of action and adventure, a lot of drama and suspense with some funny moments thrown in and a fair bit of quite graphically written gore. When you first read it, it may sound silly but quickly becomes something you want to read more and more into.
(I've heard a rumor somewhere that Z.Rex is a future film possibility for Dreamworks).


2. WWW Trilogy: Another trilogy I'd love to see, either as movies or even as a TV series.
The trilogy follows Caitlin Decter, a brilliant young blind teenager whose disability is more of a benefit when surfing the Internet. A Japanese researcher offers Caitlin the ability to gain her sight via a revolutionary new implant, an offer she eagerly accepts. However, she's surprised when rather than showing her the ordinary world, Caitlin is now able to see the Internet and all it has to offer her. She comes across Webmind, a self-aware consciousness that is growing and evolving through the Internet. The two become friends, but WATCH, a secret United States government agency, is all too aware of Webmind's existence and is concerned over its potential threat to national security. However, even as Webmind shows how it can benefit mankind, the government believes that it is an entity that should be destroyed at all costs.
It's interesting in that Webmind is not like the traditional 'alive machines are evil' stereotype and seeing the connection between it and Caitlin (who is said to possibly have Autism in the series, while her father is officially confirmed to be Autistic) is pretty impressive and even touching at times.


3. Animorphs: This popular book series did get a low budget TV series but has never been made into a movie or movies. I did enjoy watching the series and I would go and see a movie to at least give it a chance and savor some nostalgia.
In the video below, this young man states why he thinks that the world is finally ready for an Animorph's movie:

4. Witchblade: Okay, I'm breaking the rules by saying a comic book series (but hey, you've got to break some rules every now and then).
The series follows Sara Pezzini, a NYPD homicide detective who comes into possession of the Witchblade, a supernatural, sentient artifact in the form of a gauntlet which bonds with a female host and provides them with a variety of powers in order to fight supernatural evil.[citation needed] Sara struggles to hone the powers of the Witchblade and fend off those with a nefarious interest in it, such as entrepreneur Kenneth Irons and his bodyguard Ian Nottingham.
A movie was planned in 2009 but cancelled, while a TV series (starring Yancy Butler as Sara - see TV show opening here) and Anime series both got produced.
For me, I think a Witchblade movie could be a great hit. Heck, if the first film did okay, the sequel could include a crossover with the Darkness, since the comics have done that and a movie about the Darkness hasn't arisen yet.

 

[watersprite]

The Castle In The Attic

 

[GoldenRatio]

I think the Dark Tower Series by Stephen King. It would be such a hard task to undertake though without it seeming cheesy. There are is a lot of imagery in the series that works for reading, but would be hard to translate to big screen. That being said though, I wholeheartedly think Christopher Nolan could pull it off. It's sad because a lot of King's novels have been put on screen in a terrible way. When Stanley Kubrick directed The Shining he ended up changing a lot of stuff, to King's dismay, but the movie was great. At the opening of the Shining there is a scene with a flipped red VW bug on the road. Kubrick put that there because him and King would argue so much about changes and this was Kubrick's way of giving King the middle finger. If you are into this stuff, I would recommend watching the documentary Room 237 which goes in depth on the movie. It is pretty mind blowing and shows how much of a genius Kubrick was.

 

[AGXStarseed]

I think the Dark Tower Series by Stephen King. It would be such a hard task to undertake though without it seeming cheesy. There are is a lot of imagery in the series that works for reading, but would be hard to translate to big screen. That being said though, I wholeheartedly think Christopher Nolan could pull it off. It's sad because a lot of King's novels have been put on screen in a terrible way. When Stanley Kubrick directed The Shining he ended up changing a lot of stuff, to King's dismay, but the movie was great. At the opening of the Shining there is a scene with a flipped red VW bug on the road. Kubrick put that there because him and King would argue so much about changes and this was Kubrick's way of giving King the middle finger. If you are into this stuff, I would recommend watching the documentary Room 237 which goes in depth on the movie. It is pretty mind blowing and shows how much of a genius Kubrick was.

Agreed on the Dark Tower idea - although as you've pointed out, doing something of that scale would be massive to undertake, especially since the Dark Tower series is essentially the backbone while many of Stephen King's other books are just 'part of the ribcage' with each one contributing something to the series.
A possible way of doing it would be to do it Marvel Cinematic Universe style - having several Stephen King movies made that each tie in a bit and then part of the Dark Tower series.
The downside is do we really want to see several remakes all been piled up in cinemas just to add a piece of the chain? Heck, it's only been two years since the last remake of Carrie and sadly that didn't go down to well at the box office or with many of the fans.
Needless to say, if it was ever attempted and done well, it would be pretty awesome - maybe even enough to rival the possible amount of Marvel fans waiting eagerly for Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 and Part 2.