It’s a young-adult title, and it has been rumored to be “in production” for quite some time, but I’d still like to see what can be done with Lois Lowry’s The Giver.
In the grown-up ranks, I’m eagerly anticipating Scorsese & Co.‘s take on Russell Banks’ phenomenal Cloudsplitter.
Norwegian Wood is already in pre-production. Ron. Kafka on the Shore was on the stage in Chicago recently. I think it’s over, though. After Dark would be a commercial failure but, done right, it could be a really beautiful movie.
Come to think of it, if Sophia Coppola and Spike Jonze are still friendly despite their divorce and they collaborated, and After Dark were shot in Japan, that would be my kind of film version of After Dark. That would be perfect.
I do agree with you Ron b, one of my favorites films are as well adaptations. Murakami (which I read in french) is obviously a cinematographic author, and WKW or Coppola may feet indeed. Though I don’t really believe in the cinematographic power of this author, I mean, the mood he conveys through his book is something already staged in cinema (by WKW precisely).
I am a more classic one, though I think it can make a beautiful movie, and opens wide range of cinematographic experimentations : I talk about the short stories of Tolstoi, and especially “Master and Servant”, where most of the action takes place in a snow tempest (!!). Read that, it’s beautiful, it talks about transcendance, friendship and fatherhood, in a simple and pure way.
I’ve never seen anything by Wong Kar-Wai. I’m really in the dark about most modern Asian cinema. Perhaps 2009 is the year to change this. My resolution list keeps getting longer and longer.
I’m looking forward to seeing The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. Miramax bought the rights and the film is currently in production and supposed to be out in 2010.
If someone could sucessfully pull off The Savage Detectives (too many narrators and characters), that would be amazing. Maybe a chance for Tarantino to get back on track or even better for Scorcese to do the first and last chapters of the book (Garcia Madero’s diary) and Tarantino to do the character narratives in the middle.
V.S. Naipaul’s a Bend in the River could be good for the screen. It would definitely show a face of Africa that is not normally portrayed by Hollywood or Europe: Africa as seen by the normal guys, the third generation Indian shop owner and the operator of a burger franchise in a fictional version of Mobutu’s Congo.
None! (In fact, I tend to avoid the screen treatment of books I love. I’ve never seen “Persuasion” or “The Age of Innocence,” for example.)
RE: My vote goes to the works of Haruki Murakami, a contemporary Japanese writer.
Probably my favourite writer! ‘After Dark’ is one of my favourite books too, I think that’d make a good film, but probably not as good as the book, and I’m having a hard time imagining Eri and her chapters in a film.
That’s where Spike Jonze comes in in my Sophia Coppola/Spike Jonze we’re-divorced-but-can-still-work-together collaboration on After Dark.
Wow, glad to see other Murakami fans out there!
Thanks for the heads up on the “Norwegian Wood” adaptation, Shotzi! I had no idea this was in production…2010 can’t come soon enough.
I’m glad I wasn’t the only one who liked “After Dark,” as most critics consider it a “throwaway” work of his (I thought it was brilliant). In the hands of someone who isn’t afraid to push boundaries and take risks, this could be an indie hit if ever made into a film.
When Tom mentioned “The Giver” it reminded me of my favorite childhood book, “Where the Red Fern Grows,” about a boy who has two dogs and raises them to hunt raccoons. I think this one was a movie a long time ago, but it’s the type of story that would be a GREAT coming-of-age movie.
I want to see Plato’s republic/1984/ matrix hybrid film made- I already started the screenplay
I’m not sure if anyone said this already, but I’d like to see Kerouac’s “On The Road” on screen. Coppola was supposed to produce it while Walter Salles was said to be director. . .Either Brad Pitt was to play Dean Moriarty (Neal Cassidy) , and Johnny Depp, or Clive Owen was to play Sal Paradise (Jack Kerouac). I’m not sure what’s up with the project now, I haven’t heard much about it since.
I’d also like to see another adaptation to Kerouac’s other novel “The Subterraneans” which was made back in the late 50’s during the bomb of the Beat Generation. But the film itself has been lost and has yet to be recovered. I heard this from the curator of The Beat Museum in San Francisco.
I’m very excited about Cuaron’s potential adaptation of ‘The History of Love.’ I laughed out loud when I read the book.
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
The Moviegoer by Walker Percy
I enjoyed Savage Detectives too, but wouldn’t the middle section (3/4 of the book) be almost like a documentary?
I really don’t want to see On the Road on the screen. Same with Catcher. They’ll both probably happen eventually, though.
A Boy’s Own Story
Infinite Jest
also- not really a book, but I want to see Love and Rockets (the comic) turned into a movie
@Shotzi – I’ve read that Walter Salles is working on On the Road right now. I don’t really know what to think about that. Part of me harkens back to the good ol’ days when I was 16 and thought it was the bestest book ever, but the rest of me sees that it really wasn’t that great.
The one that everyone would love to see, but will probably never happen as long as J.D. Salinger has anything to say or do legally but…. CATCHER IN THE RYE!
The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri
The Simarillion by Tolkien
Neuromancer by William Gibson
Midnight’s Children – Salman Rushdie
I would most want to see:
“Sputnik Sweetheart” by Murakami (directed by David Lynch, please)
“Prep” by Curtis Sittenfeld
“The Emperor’s Children” by Claire Messud
“Oscar Wao” by Junot Diaz
“Never Let Me Go” by Kazuo Ishiguro
“Let The Northern Lights Erase Your Name” by Vendela Vida
“Purple America” by Rick Moody
The Master and Margarida although it might have to be animated.
Paul Auster’s Moon Palace – The story is a very epic/American sort of identity-quest narrative; for different reasons I think Scorsese, Ang Lee or Jim Jarmusch could all do something interesting with it.
Don DeLillo’s Great Jones Street – Story of a rock star of great cultural and iconic significance, who – at the height of his fame – elects to abandon his career completely, obscure his identity, and resume a ‘normal’ life as an ordinary person, only to get sucked into various kinds of countercultural strangeness. I think Scorsese could get the grit of the character and story right, while David Lynch could have a field day with the deconstruction-of-identity aspects of the story.
Probably unfilmable, but Peter Matthiessen’s The Snow Leopard, which is non-fiction; detailing a trek through Nepal (Matthiessen and his best friend, a zoologist) to observe the snow leopard in its’ native habitat. This turns into a meditation of the ups and downs of his own life (Matthiessen’s), and an ever deepening reflection on an interest in Tibetan Buddhism (its’ practice and history). Against that backdrop, as there was 2 months of hard trekking involved, it’s also a travel adventure. I don’t know who could do the story justice – someone would need to get at the philosophical side of the story, be able to catch spectacular but demanding settings and scenery (John Ford goes to Nepal), explore history, myth and personal psychology, and incorporate adventure elements – Terry Gilliam perhaps?
Sukumar Ray: the dad of filmmaker Satyajit Ray; he wrote whimsical children’s stories and rhymes, and has always been popular in Bengal. His stuff is a bit similar to Edward Lear or Lewis Carroll, in Bengali settings. If Miyazaki were to ever become interested in non-Japanese source material, this would be perfect – it’s quirky, magical, playful stuff that would offer a good animator a lot to work with.
Monique Truong’s Book Of Salt – Set in Paris in the early 20th century, this is an autobiographical tale, with many slice-of-life asides, told from the POV of a gay Vietnamese cook employed by Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas; many historical figures (Paul Robeson and a very young Ho Chi Minh) pop up in the story at varied points. The protagonist is rather poetic, working-class but as cerebral as his employers, and something of a proto-beatnik in his adventures – done right it would make a dazzling period piece. Don’t know who could do this justice – Guy Madden is more of an experimantalist, but his visual sensibility, hitched to this fairly poetic narrative, could lead to something amazing.
Joan Didion’s Some Dreamers Of The Golden Dream – A meditative, non-fiction essay about a middle-class, devout Mormon couple who move to a well-kept neighborhood in San Bernardino, CA and slide into infidelities and a murder plot gone awry. Didion’s woozy description of suburban California and various American dream myths gone extremely wrong would make for a great (fictionalized) Sirk-meets-Chinatown melodrama. Gus Van Zant or Todd Haynes could have a field day with this one.
Ya know, I really like the Trevor Nunn version of Twelfth Night, but it could really use some updating. It’s just not a popular play, I guess, which is a shame since it’s really lovely and problematic and melancholy for a comedy, which is amaaaaaaazing.
Also very excited about The History of Love. It might be the best book by any living author I’ve read… maybe aside from Gabriel Garcia-Marquez. How about best book I’ve read written in the past 10 years?
There’s no big version of Jane Eyre, I think, though lots of made for TV miniseries kind of things.
Ishmael might not be doable, but is a lovely story. Sometimes the philosophy is a little stretched, but it’s an important message overall.
I think I’d love a film version of Céline’s Journey to the End of the Night. It could be awful, too, though.
Or Camus? The Plague could lend itself really well to filming. To my knowledge it hasn’t been done… anyone know any different?
Gravity’s Rainbow
Alejandro Jodorowsky version of the Illuminatus! Trilogy.
Billy Friedkin directed version of the story of Job.
I second Rodney Welch – NONE. Watching an adaptation is like being in a twilight zone. Of all my favorite books, I can’t think of a single one that I would enjoy a film version of. I can’t believe I actually watched “Atonement”. If it hadn’t been nominated for best picture I’d still be in the dark about that movie. I never want to see “The Sheltering Sky”, and I hope and pray that no one ever makes a film of “Middlesex”.
Catcher in the Rye
Gulliver’s Travels
and as for Kerouac, I liked Dharma Bums better than On the Road but I would like to see both.
I enjoyed reading Niccolo Machiavelli’s The Prince. I haven’t heard of a film that has adapted its lessons to celluloid. I think it would be quite interesting.
Ron B
I apologize in advance if there’s already a thread for this (I didn’t see one).
I’m all for original material, but some of my all-time favorite movies are adaptations from popular (and, in some cases, unpopular) literary works. So with this in mind, are there any books you would like to see adapted for the screen for the first time? Or are there any books that HAVE been adapted but deserve a “re-do?” Or are there any authors you are particularly fond of whose works you think would make for a great film or series?
My vote goes to the works of Haruki Murakami, a contemporary Japanese writer. If you are not familiar with his works, Murakami tends to write in an easily readable style but he tackles very abstract and obscure themes, and many of his works take place somewhere between reality and a dreamworld. His book “The WInd-Up Bird Chronicle” is featured in many “best books of the century” lists. I think any number of his works would make for great movies, especially “The Elephant Vanishes” (a collection of quirky short stories that just BEGS to be expanded) and “After Dark” (a novella about the adventures of a girl late-night in Japan as she meets an array of weird characters, including an ex-wrestling madam and a trombone player she semi-falls-in-love with). His style of writing actually would be easily adapted by someone like Wong Kar-Wai or Sophia Coppola.
So…any other ideas?