At present there is a writers strike on in Hollywood – this is the perfect opportunity for a budding screenwriter to make a blockbuster film and sell it to the big Hollywood producers. Below I have selected (with a little help from JT) 10 stories that would make truly amazing films. Be sure to tell us your own preferences in the comments – maybe we can inspire a great new film to be made.
10. Sharks in Venice
The advent of Snakes on a Plane has opened up the flood gates for all kinds of likeminded cheesy horror films to dominate our screens with their absurd titles and ‘why didn’t I think of that’ premises. The most promising of this new batch of horror films is Sharks in Venice (‘They’re SHARKS….in VENICE!’) It’s a film that, as long as it delivers what its title promises, simply can not fail. A gondolier paddles desperately away from the Great White it has just poked in the eye; Hammerheads dive out of the water and begin gobbling up idle children playing on the canal front; and whale sharks shimmy through the narrow waterways, tearing away at Venice’s fragile canals, sinking the city further into its watery oblivion. Cue Samuel L. Jackson (or in this case Stephen Baldwin…), shark in one hand, telephone in the other: ‘I have had it with these motherfuckin’ SHARKS in these motherfuckin’ VENETIAN CANALS!’
9. Atlas Shrugged Ayn Rand
If nothing else, this film could act as a balance to the ultra-left films of the likes of Michael Moore. This is probably the greatest novel by Ayn Rand and it tells the story of a future in which the producers are being robbed by the looters who feel that they deserve the fruits of the producers because they (the looters) have a moral right to it. This is a very Robin Hood type tale but one in which we see Robin Hood as the villain. The film is supposedly set to be produced but there has been no action on the part of the producers for some time. Angelina Jolie is set to play the part of the main women (Dagny).
8. The life of Antonio Ghislieri
Antonio Ghislieri (Pope Saint Pius V) lead one of the most fascinating lives of the 16th century. He reformed monasteries (to eradicate immorality), he reformed many facets of the politics of the Roman Catholic Church (and consequently Europe), he provided funding against invading Muslim attacks on Europe, he excommunicated Queen Elizabeth I and declared that the English were not subject to “the false queen”, and he financially supported the successful Battle of Lepanto. His body is incorrupt and can be seen in the Sistine Chapel (image above). Regardless of your political or religious views, Antonio Ghislieri is one of the most important figures of medieval Europe.
7. By the Rivers of Babylon Nelson DeMille
By the Rivers of Babylon is a fantastic book about a flight from Israel that becomes stranded in the desert near Babylon (modern day Iraq). When a group of Arabs come to attack the plane, the Jews onboard decide that they are going to fight back. This would make a fantastic action movie and the presence of Muslims and Jews make it very suitable for the current political climate in the world.
6. Brave New World Aldous Huxley
Brave New World is probably the greatest novel by Aldous Huxley. It is set in the far future where people are born through cloning. The government feeds its people with a drug called Soma to make them “happy”. Set in London in 2540 AD, the majority of mankind is united in a one world state. People typically die at age 61, having maintained good health and apparent youth up to that point. Their bodies go to crematoria, where vital elements such as phosphorus are extracted from the exhaust of the furnaces. People are raised without parents. This novel is chock full of amazing and novel ideas that it would be an incredibly unique movie.
5. The Pillars of the Earth Ken Follett
This incredible novel tells the tale of the building of a Cathedral in 12th century England. It goes in to great detail about the lives of the masons at the time and has intrigue and historic realism packed in. This could be another Name of the Rose, or Braveheart. This is a masterpiece film waiting to be realized.
4. Lunar Park Brett Easton Ellis
This is the most recent book by Brett Easton Ellis (of American Psycho fame). It is a “true” story of his marriage to a famous actress and his decline in to apparent insanity – helped along with extremely large doses of Ketel One and prescription medication. The best thing about this story is that it involved monsters! There is so much potential in this book to take movie goers on a roller-coaster ride through insanity and the lifestyles of the A-listers. Of course, any book by Ellis would make a great movie (and in fact, three have already).
3. The Charm School Nelson DeMille
The Charm School is a brilliant book by Nelson DeMille (the second on this list). It is about a group of American’s working at the US embassy in Soviet Russia. They accidentally stumble upon the “Charm School” – a school being run by the Soviets to train their spies to infiltrate American life. This is one of the best espionage books I have ever read and it would make an incredible movie. Someone needs to get on to this one FAST.
2. The Life of Jack Churchill
Jack Churchill is the man you aspire to be; a man of such unparalleled genius, god-like greatness, and staggering beauty that the fact a film has yet to be made of his life is nothing short of criminal. A skilled bagpipes player, Churchill joined the army during WWII, and went into battle with a sword, and a bow and arrows. He survived many dangerous missions and escaped from two different concentration camps. After the war, Churchill became a stunt archer for Hollywood movies, before devoting his life to surfboarding, becoming the first person to ride the River Severn’s five-foot tidal bore on his own home-made board. If there ever was a man who needed a film, it was Jack Churchill.
1. Foundation Series Isaac Asimov
I consider the Foundation series by Asimov to be his greatest work. I am just astounded that no one has bothered to make a screenplay from one of these books. They have the universal scope of the Star Wars movies and could potentially result in a trilogy of films of equal quality to the original three Star Wars movies. There is an entire franchise to benefit from here – yet no one has done so. This is the series of books I would most want to see made in to a film.
Am I first? wow if I am. I love the new site and the list! This site has saved me from hours of workplace boredom! Thanks!
or you can read the book and make your own movie in your mind
with no stupid twist and without spend 10 bucks in popcorn for your girl that cost you 2 bucks in your house
I’ve always thought that Brave New World would make a great movie. I’ve had dreams of how it would look. I would definitely pay money to see it at theaters. Fo sho!
There were two brave new world movies made the one I saw was garbage but it’s one of my favorite books
i thought a zombie film by the zombie’s point of view would be on the list.. never seen one
neXt by Micheal Crichton would make an amazing movie. Any book by Micheal Crichton would (Jurassic Park sure enough did).
Crichton’s “State of Fear” most likely will never be adapted for the screen; he said so himself. It deals with a group of eco-terrorists attempting to create a state of fear to further advance their GW agenda. Crichton emerged as somewhat of a skeptic himself after doing the research. Since Hollywood is basically liberal, and climate change is a liberal’s bread and butter, this book would sooner be burned than adapted to film.
I agree with the selction of the Foundation works on the list. I thought that the Hyperion cantos by Dan Simmons would make a great set of movies also. They are great books if you haven’t read them.
I second the Hyperion series nomination! Amazing how few have read Dan Simmons, he is a favorite of mine. Maybe The Terror by Simmons would fill a nice historical horror slot in the line-up. Also more Stephen Hunter movies to follow Shooter adapted from one of the many Bob Lee Swagger series would be nice too.
Maybe they will finally make the Arthur C. Clarke’s Rendezvous with Rama series that has been in developmental hell for almost 2 decades
YES!!! brave new word should definitely be made. I wouldn’t mind watching a movie full of perfect women. However, there wouldn’t be much action.
I just finished Pillars of the Earth last month. Let me tell you, it’s the best book I’ve ever read. I had to read it with a dictionary next to me, as many of the things mentioned, are obsolete or non-existant anymore. Adz for example. I strongly encourage everyone to read it.
Good list. I’m really hoping that they follow through on making Atlas Shrugged into a movie, although it would be hard to ram that whole book into a 3 hour time frame and still tell the story as intended. I heard that Brad Pitt has really gotten on board that ideology since being with Angelina Jolie, and he has some interest in doing the movie as well. I’m hoping that their star power can get it made.
I’m in the middle of reading the Foundation series and I have trouble imagining how it could be made into a good movie. It seems as though the the movies would be terribly slow. Kind of like making “Speaker of the Dead” and “Xenocide” into movies.
“Listversers love zombies…”
Yeah I think we can definitely check that one off now Jamie…
See comment #4 if you don’t know what I’m talking about.
Great list
the story of Churchill – wonderful.
“Eccentric until the end, Churchill would toss his briefcase out of the window of the commuter train he rode home every day. Passengers and conductors were shocked because they didn’t know he was throwing the luggage into his own backyard as the train passed by. It saved him the trouble of carrying it all the way home from the station.”
Number 6: Already done? I recall a movie, maybe a television programme, from way back. I can’t remember what it was called. I can recollect people slowly rising, grinning like idiots, inside a turning “thing” on their way to recycling. Hero of movie objects, escapes the city …
#3 reminds me of a Dean Koontz book I read a very long time ago. Can’t remember the title unfortunately. Charm School is probably a better story.
I think The Lovely Bones would make an incredible movie if done right. As well as Ender’s Game as long as it was good sci-fi not cheesy.
Hey jfrater,
http://imdb.com/title/tt0493762/
I don’t know if that has already been brought to your attention. Love the site!
Jfrater, someone might have brought this up already but with the new lay out (which I like by the way) you can’t click on a commenter’s name to learn more about them like we used to be able to do.
Is this going to stay like that?
Brave New World is one of my all time favorite books and I’ve been waiting for it to be made into an actual movie. I say actual, because it’s actually been made a couple of times for television, but those versions all stunk (imo).
1998 version: http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0145600/
1980 version: http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0080468/
There already is a movie of “Brave New World.” It only aired once on TV, but my mom has a copy from Craigslist that she uses for teaching English.
Also, World War Z would make a great film if they marketed it as a real documentary.
I love you Jfrater. Once I saw the name of this list, I immediately thought “Foundation Novels”. Great minds think alike.
Oh, and I think “Ass” from Idiocracy needs to be made.
Love the new look for the site!
Movies to make:
Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card – would be a great space shoot ‘em up
The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg by Twain – it’s a short story, but could certainly make a fantastic feature length film
Snow Crash by Stephenson- not enough sci-fi comedies as far as I’m concerned
riley: Peter Jackson IS making The Lovely Bones into a movie.. Set to be released next year.
Brave New World has already been made twice, in 1980 and 1998, as made-for-TV movies, but both are out of print. The 1980 version is supposed to be the better of the two.
I think the Artemis Fowl series should be made into movies, and not animation either.
Sharks couldn’t survive in Venetian c*****s. Nothing could. Those c*****s are filthy dirty filthy. I love Venice, but seriously, if the movie’s tagline is “don’t go into the water”, it’s not because of the sharks. It’s because the water is wrong.
Venice is so beautiful, though. Apparently it’s going to sink into the lagoon on its own volition (whale shark or not) which is very sad.
Quit using naughty language between your “c’s” and “l’s”!
Jordan G- That was a made-for-TV movie, so I don’t know if it counts…
But it actually ok, even for a TV movie. There were some pretty major changes from the book, but no more so than most other adaptations.
Plus, it had Mr Spock in it. So…. there’s that.
Mac- So the Venetian c*****s are highly polluted? Well then, what about “Mutated Sharks in Venice”?
I’ve got to pull for Stephen King’s Gunslinger/Dark Tower series and the great Roland Deschain. I used to swear that Lord of the Rings could never be properly filmed, so I wonder now about the Dark Tower.
World war Z. absolutely.
I’d like to see one of those disaster movies made about chernobyl, as well.
Cool list. 2 books that deserve to be filmed are A Confederacy of Dunces and The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. Both have scripts written, actors attached, but are stuck in development hell. “Dunces” had Will Ferrell attached to star, but due to some issue with the publisher, production never started. Kavalier and Clay had Natalie Portman and Tobey Maguire attached, with a script written by Michael Chabon himself, but this movie, too, has been bogged down by studio politics. Both books are classics and would make great movies.
Brave New World has had two TV movies made that were based on it. Brave New World in 1980 and 1998.
There are three books I feel should be mentioned here all are by the same author and there are many more that could be adapted well to the screen aside from these: ‘Tunnel in the Sky’ – Great action adventure and survival movie.
To Sail Beyond the Sunset – A story of a woman who lived and loved for over a century and at the end of her life found herself with still more time to spend.
Starman Jones – Big Adventures & grand vistas as a boy comes of age. Living and becoming a hero by his wits and a quirky memory.
Other honorable mentions would have been Methuselah’s Children, Farnham’s Freehold, Farmer in the Sky, The Cat That Walks through Walls, The Rolling Stones, Friday, and Time Enough for Love. There are more but I see my obsession is showing.
When I was last in Venice I was told that the ALL of the c*****s are refreshed every day because it is a tidal system – it is refreshed by the sea – so the water is actually very clean sea water.
The Gunslinger by Stephen King…
I dunno why, I guess I like stories set out in the desert. Stuff like “No Country For Old Men” have elements about it, but I think this would be an awesome movie, if directed properly.
Atlas Shrugged has been announced with Angelina Jolie in the starring role.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0480239/
Whether or not there will be a follow up to this announcement is beyond me.
(Remember the Halo movie?)
I can’t believe Borg stole my thunder. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay should totally be made into a movie. Let’s see I see WATCHEMEN is finally getting made, instead I’ll go with PREACHER, SANDMAN, and just about any of Alan moore’s creations at ABC Comics: Promethia, Greyshirt, TOP 10, etc.. I would also like to see Zippy the Pinhead made into a movie, and something animated in R Crumb’s style updating his take on life for the 21st Century.
Would a film version of “Atlas” really do justice to the novel?
(Completely off-topic…. I’m not sure how many regular posters this site has, but one poster uses my real first name as their username, and another poster uses my real last name. It’s funny, yet strange at the same time.)
Rearden: I can only hope so (like the nickname btw
)
FelixMG: they have been talking about it for a long time. I really hope they don’t put Brad Pitt in the role of John Galt!
I use my real first name, and my initials as my username. The community feel of the comments section makes me very secure about this.
BTW, it’s too bad the forums get no love.
Louis: Tunnel in the Sky would be freakin’ sweet to see. That was one of the only books I was forced to read in school that I actually liked, aside from 1984.
I’d like to see someone try to make Screwjack: A Short Story by Hunter S. Thompson into a movie. That book is trippy as hell.
Yogi: I’m just glad someone agrees. It’s one of my favorite books.
Joss: Your comment reminded me that Johnny Depp, who starred in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and paid for Thompson’s funeral, has bought the rights to The Rum Diary, Thompson’s first novel. I loved the book and hope it gets made into a film.
Hollywood would only make a book-to-movie if it could use over $3million in special effects just to make a statue or a frog talk.
-Andrea Carlena Beauman
Borg: I haven’t read that one. I tried to get into Thompson – wasn’t my cup of tea at the time. I might try again, though.
Oh, if we are goign to open this to Graphic Novels I am completely on boad with Preacher. However, the Planetary stories would make an insane group of films, it could be done with a relatively small budget, Joss Whedon would be the man to take those to film.
Joss: The Rum Diary was written before he adopted his gonzo style and so it is much more accessible than his later works. If anything, it reminds me of Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises (a bunch of American expatriates getting drunk and having ***** in foreign lands).
Many of the DeMille books (two of the best are on your list, plus I’d add “Up Country” for a terrific story about the fallout from the Vietnam War) would make good action-type movies. Too bad Clive Cussler is such a lunatic – judging from the lawsuit against ga-zillionaire Phil Anschutz over “Sahara” – since his Dirk Pitt character could have been America’s answer to the James Bond franchise — without the babes, of course.
i think its funny how the author say the foundation series are great then compares them to that load of crap star wars series
Life of Pi, Killing Pablo, Adventures in Two Worlds
Sharks in venice is already in production…
Brave New World has been made but it was a piece of crap.
JMurf: I’m not sure about killing pablo or adventures in two worlds, but a life of pi moving is being made. Set release date is sometime next year.
when I was reading The Charm School,the whole time I was thinking “why hasn’t this been made into a movie, yet?”
Mac: (#26) Actually, sharks are hardier than rats and can survive in the nastiest environments. And Venice’s c*****s are fed by a salt-water lagoon, so — so when did Hollywood worry about scientific accuracy anyway?
Anyway, “The Pillars of the Earth” puts me in mind of “The Spire” by William Golding (of “Lord of the Flies” fame). Definitely need a Terence Malick or Nicholas Roeg to direct.
Then, after all the Heinlein movies — “The Puppet Masters,” “Starship Troopers,” “Destination Moon” — when is someone going to show the guts and vision to do “Stranger in a Strange Land?” Steven Spielberg, are you listening?
Forgive the double post, but I just looked back and saw all Louis’s choices of Heinlein titles. Any of them would make watchable flicks. Good going, brother!
Alexis de Tocqueville and Antonin Dvorak, both foreigners who composed works to describe america and its peoples. Tocqueville wrote a book while Dvorak wrote one of the greatest symphonies in history.
Nikola Tesla and Thomas Edison, though there have been films that feature both none have captured their rivalry nor the intricacies of Tesla’s personality, he was crazy.
The labor riots of the late 1800′s in america, specifically in Pittsbugh. Little known story which has the same character potential as well a violence seen in Gangs Of New York. It would be a nice little history lesson on the involvement of government and bussiness too.
How about Red Storm Rising? Probably the best Clancy that hasn’t been turned into a movie. Sure you can argue with the literary value of it but come on, there is so much destruction in it that it would have enormous value with the masses that love blood and gore.
i recomend The Wanting Seed. it’s by Anthony Burgess, (a clockwork orange) set in the future where the Earth becomes grosly overpopulated. the government takes over by limiting couples to only one child, and only if the child is approved by them. The government endorses homo*****uality as a good thing to keep the population down, and plasters the city with “love your fellow man” posters.
Borg: You sold me. The Sun Also Rises is the only Hemingway book I could get myself to read all the way through. Well, I didn’t “get” myself to read it; I loved it. I’m writing it down and checking it out.