1. Only original ideas
2. N/A
^ agreed
Far too many adaptations and it’s not very good for cinema’s health. An adaptation should be the rarity, not the norm.
But to contribute to topic and not just be deconstructive, I will say
1. Chung Kuo – (as a miniseries or tv series
2, Palahniuk’s Survivor (or Rant just to curiously see how it would be attempted i.e. impossible )
3. Curious incident of the dog in the Night-time
previous two posts = bullshit
^i concur
Philip K. Dick’s VALIS
Rudy Wurlitzer’s Nog
Joyce Carol Oates’ them and You Must Remember This
almost anything by Italo Calvino
TC Boyle’s Frank Lloyd Wright novel
James Dickey’s To the White Sea
Jan Potocki’s Manuscript Found in Saragossa
Charles W. Chesnutt’s The Marrow of Tradition
JM Coetzee’s The Master of Petersburg
Jonathan Letham’s Motherless Brooklyn and Fortress of Solitude
Henry James’ The Ambassadors
Steve Erickson’s Zeroville
Miguel Angel Asturias’ Men of Maize and The President
James Ellroy’s White Jazz
Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man
1. Murakami’s “Wind Up Bird Chronicles” – I think I’ve already submitted this idea on an earlier thread
2. Natsuo Kirino’s “Out”
3. Richard Matheson “I Am Legend” Done properly for the love of God
4. Camus “The Fall”
5. Preacher (graphic novel)
6. Shirley Jackson “We Have Always Lived in the Castle”
7. Richard Wright “The Outsider”
8. Sartre “Dirty Hands” (actually a play…)
9. Vonnegut “Cat’s Cradle”
10. Ana Castillo “Peel My Love like an Onion”
11. The Times of Botchan (graphic novel)
12. Richard Yates “Cold Spring Harbor”
13. Natsuo Kirino “Grotesque”
14. Natsuo Kirino “Real World”
15. Stephen King “Duma Key”
16. James Baldwin “Another Country”
That’s all I got…
Now, these would have to be done properly:
The Master and Margarita, Mikhail Bulgakov
Queer, William S. Burroughs
Tender Is The Night, F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Sun Also Rises, Ernest Hemingway
The Metamorphosis, Franz Kafka
And The Hippos Were Boiled In Their Tanks, William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac
The Dharma Bums, Jack Kerouac
Paradise Lost, John Milton
The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath
Portnoy’s Complaint, Philip Roth
Nine Stories, JD Salinger
One Day In The Life Of Ivan Denisovich, Alexander Solzhenitsyn
The Magnificent Ambersons, Booth Tarkington
Now, I understand a few of these works have screen adaptations; however, I wrote they should have a proper adaptation. Either that, or nothing at all.
Shusaku Endo’s Silence. (Get on it, Marty!)
Jeffery Eugenedies’ Middlesex (Though I don’t know that this would ever make a good movie)
Annie Dillard’s An American Childhood
Michael Chabon’s The Yiddish Policeman’s Union (Though I don’t see any studio wanting to do this)
Edward Lewis Wallant’s The Children at the Gate
That’s all I got.
And yeah, posts #2 and #3 are no good.
I can’t really think of 20.
But I’d love to see a movie for the novel A Wrinkle in Time. But not just by anyone. It must be a Terry Gilliam film or else nevermind. When I read that book, Gilliam immediately popped into my head. It seemed to me like they were made for eachother. Anyone else concur? Just some thoughts…
And I also really wish Orson Welle’s idea of making a Heart of Darkness adaptation shot all in first person would have happened.
But I’d love to see a movie for the novel A Wrinkle in Time.
YES. Sans Jesus references!
“The Master and Margarita, Mikhail Bulgakov”
We already have a great adaptation by Petrovic, it’s not THE perfect one of all times but an adaptation of a masterful book doesn’t have to be perfect, it will only put off people to read the novel / poem / treatise.
@ Dimitris:
The Master and Margarita -Petrovic: Is it decent? I haven’t watched too much of it because I wasn’t sure/convinced it would be worthwhile. If it is decent, I’ll give it a complete viewing.
I’d love to see any of Paul Auster’s novels made into films especially Mr vertigo & The New York Trilogy.
Please keep away from that infandous idea of adapting Bulgakov, for goodness’ sake.
@James Montenegro: And there is also a Russian adaptation you can find on Youtube.
Philip K. Dick’s “Ubik”
Franz Kafka’s “The Metamorphosis” and “The Castle”
J. G. Ballard’s “Concrete Island”
This topic comes up from time to time…so as of now…I’ll say
A Confederacy of Dunces (JK Toole)
The Alienist (C. Carr)
The Joke (Kudera)
World’s Fair (Doctorow)
The Painted Bird (Kosinski)
The Twits (Dahl)
False Entry (Calisher)
Miss Twiggley’s Tree (Warren)
12 more for 20:
The Loved One (Waugh) *I love the T. Richardson version, but a newer even better film of this can be made!
Still Life with Woodpecker (Robbins)
Trailerpark (R. Banks)
Pizza Face (Siman)
Bluebeard (Vonnegut)
The Boy Who Invented the Bubble Gun (Gallico)
Sula (Morrison)
The Celestial Railroad (Hawthorne)
Benito Cereno (Melville)
The Brothers Bulger (H. Carr)
Selling Hitler (R. Harris)
An American Tragedy (unexpergated…I’m thinking 5+ hours with an intermission)
I would very much like to see Herzog directing Hemingway “The Snows of Kilimanjaro”.
Michel Gondry is attached to direct Phiilp K DIck’s Ubik
I cant really come up with 20 book titles but I would like to see
Y The last man byBrain K Vaughn and Pia Guerra
Black Hole by Charles Burns
The House of Leaves by Mark Z Danielwski
Snuff by Chuck Palahniuk
Fables by Bill Willingham
Out by Natsuo Kirno
Gerald’s Game by Stephen King
The God of Small Things by ARUNDHATI ROY. The stream-of-consciousness narrative would be difficult to translate onto film. Maybe a director like ALEJANDRO GONZALEZ INARRITU who is able to mess around with chronology as shown in 21 Grams and BABEL.
A Wild Ride through the Night by WALTER MOERS. A book featuring the illustrations of GUSTAVE DORE, I think TERRY GILLIAM is the most appropriate choice to direct this, being able to combine the humor and adventure into a wonderful children film, like his other film THE TIME BANDITS.
The Supernaturalist by EOIN COLFER. Maybe JIM SHERIDAN might be able to direct this, if GET RICH OR DIE TRYIN’ has taught me anything, it’s that JIM is willing to take a chance on directing in a genre he hasn’t tried before.
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by JUNOT DIAZ. This being the sad story of a Dominican boy, I believe that TODD SOLONDZ would be perfect to direct this, however, it might be difficult for him since TODD’s film are mostly about middle, high-class white Americans
Nation by TERRY PRATCHETT. SPIKE JONZE has the capability to direct a coming-of-age film, for example; WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE, that is needed to tell the story of MAU and DAPHNE. And wouldn’t anyone be dying to see the outcome of a JONZE and PRATCHETT collaboration?
agree – The Metamorphosis
also the catcher in the rye
Yeah, Lynch needs to dust off that ‘Metamorphosis set in the fifties’ script before it’s too late. And he should do it on film.
I’d like to see a real version of William March’s The Bad Seed. Naomi Watts or Elizabeth Banks as the mother. Take your pick for the daughter. Elle Fanning? Anyway, this book really hasn’t gotten the adaptation it deserves. The Warner Bros film was horrendously sanitized — given a morally correct ending. The play wasn’t too exciting, to my recollection. But the novel is a pretty seedy, surprisingly somber, intelligent, quiet book.
Altworld pick: Don Delillo’s Players directed by Antonioni. He would not have had to change much to make it his own.
As for the earlier mention of Richard Matheson, I’d love to see his first book Someone Is Bleeding made. Or rather, I would love to make it. Anyway, there are also a number of Matheson’s shorts that I’ve cinematically conceptualized/dreamt about for years. ‘Legion of Plotters’, ‘Dance of the Dead’, ‘The Distributor’. Above all ‘The Likeness of Julie’. I think I settled upon Amy Adams to play the titular role in that, but this was back when she would have been young enough to play the part. Anyone read any of these? Or any of his others?
@
Thevern
Who would be your dream choice to make Y:The Last Man? I think for me the most desirable plausible choice would be Joss Whedon, and depending on how Avengers goes this may have a chance. But if I could pick anybody, I am not sure if I would go with him.
Dada Weatherman:
You’re right about Antonioni’s Players; he would have nailed the all-consuming ennui, the casual drift into terrorism. I also think Antonioni would have been perfect to direct DeLillo’s first novel, Americana. It would have been the film Zabriskie Point wanted to be.
Admittedly, I haven’t read too many novels, so the actual books are few, but I’ll use a few “graphic novels” to try and give a larger list
Good Omens – Neil Gaiman and Terry Prachett (why haven’t you made this yet Terry Gilliam)
White Noise – Don DeDillo
Blood Meridian – Cormac McCarthy (i know it’s in development right now, and i hope it gets a good director attached)
The Yiddish Policeman’s Union – Micheal Chabon (the Coens are supposedly adapting this)
Snow Crash – Neal Stephenson
The Time Machine Did It – John Swartzwelder
any Pynchon book would be interesting to see made into a film. dunno which directors would be brave enough to try that.
House of Leaves (i don’t really care for the book that much anymore, but it would be quite a feat for someone to film this)
Ex Machina – Brian K. Vaughn
Y: The Last Man – Brian K. Vaughn (in development)
Transmetropolitan – Warren Ellis
Joe The Barbarian – Grant Morrison (preferably animated)
Animal Man (Morrison’s run)
Luthor – Brian Azzarello
Kingdom Come – Mark Waid (animated)
Black Hole – Charles Burns
The Dark Knight Returns – Frank Miller (not by Zach Snyder hopefully)
I could probably just fill up this list with all the comics and graphic novels I’d be interested in seeing adapted.
Sorry to say some of my favourite books have been poorly served on screen; Wind in the Willows, Tom Jones, House of the Spirits, Pillow Book, and i suspect Love in the Time of Cholera (not seen it). Cutting it Short (Hrabal) has been filmed in Cezch Republic, but i expect it’s not quite up to the book even tho by a decent director. There has been a recent little known film of the Opal Whiteley based on her Nature Diary; not seen it. The Wind Up Bird Chronicle would be tough. More tales by Miyazawa Kenji may be worth doing as animations- Miyazaki would be up to it. Jacques le Fataliste has been used in part by Rivette and might be worth a try. But in general maybe such literary treasures are best left alone by all but the very greatest fim-makers and anyway they can usually make something of pulp or a whole new script.
kenji – hrabal! ♥♥♥ one of my favourite czech writers, when i forget about kafka…and not done too badly by menzel…
but my favourite novel has been so horrendously misserved by cinema that the resulting grotesque deformity is almost (almost) a form of abject aesthetic pleasure….i.e it’s so bad it makes my eyes pop and want to take a mallet to it merely to improve the screen…..i get angry and happily indignant….
Of Human Bondage by Somerset Maugham deserves a decent adaptation. The one with Kim Novak is pretty terrible.
Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. and Superfudge by Judy Blume
Z. Bart
On this brisk winter night, I’m scanning my bookshelves looking for something to read, realizing that many of my favorite novels would make magnificent films. Here are my top 20: (1) Wallace, “Infinite Jest,” (2) McGrath, “Port Mungo,” (3) Gates, “Jernigan,” (4) Erickson, “Amnesiascope,” (5) Egolf, “Lord of the Barnyard,” (6) Spackman, “An Armful of Warm Girl,” (7) Lewis, “The King Is Dead,” (8) Barth, “The Tidewater Tales,” (9) Dostoyevsky, “Demons,” (10) Bolano, “2666,” (11) Ames, “Wake Up, Sir!”, (12) Williams, “The Man Who Cried I Am,” (13) Ford, “The Sportswriter,” (15) Shrake, “Peter Arbiter,” (16) Exley, “A Fan’s Notes,” (17) Bingham, “Lightning on the Sun,” (18) McGuane, “Panama,” (19) DeLillo, “The Names,” and (20) Everett, “Erasure.”