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.
I read Charm School a long time ago. It was a good book. I remember being very disturbed at the end.
I think someone made a movie very very similar to it – involving the whole Russian camp charading as an American village thing.
The hero was kidnapped and he thought he was in a weird American city where the only music being played was Sousa march music and everyone went to sock-hops and stuff. It turns out the russians were basing their camp on 20 year old American movies.
I thought it starred Brandon Fraser – but I looked at his IMDB and I couldn’t figure out which one it was.
Charm School would be very good – if a little out of date with the cold war being over.
vinny, check john travolta, he and arye gross i think did a goofy comedy like that, cant remeber name off hand
Brave New World was made into a move
There is a movie made based on the book by Aldous Huxley’s A Brave New World
Dante’s Inferno, or Divine Comedy, could make a good adaptation with some minor changes for political correctness. Technology now with CGI and mastery of model making techniques could do that story justice too. The imagery in the poem is extremely vivid and ones imagination is in high gear trying to visualize it. A good director with a vision could make it a very good movie. I said the Inferno because its the best and most elaborate and vivid of the three parts.
by the way I know about the comedy version thats out. Im talking about an epic adaptation that takes the scope of the literature and its setting(s).
I’d just like to see Inferno adapted as an epic in the same vein that Lord of the Rings is. That kind of epic and ‘meaningful’ adaptation. Not some bad modernization a la ‘Romeo and Juliet’ from the 90′s
I agree AJolie is not a suitable choice for Atlas Shrugged and I fully agree with rearden that you shouldn’t make movies from your favorite novels. Besides Atlas Shrugged is on such a large canvas that it would be difficult to do justice. Lots of gud books that I can add to my “Must Read” list ……..
great website ………
How about “The Long Walk” by Richard Bachman, aka Stephen King. Its one of my favorites of his
Any of Terry Pratchet’s “Discworld” series.
‘Scuse me, should be Pratchett.
what about the Twilight series? its an awesome book series about a girl who moves from pheonix to some town in the middle of nowhere, and goes to school and tries to fit in.
the thing is, there is this group of “cool” kids in the school that later turn out to be vampires. she befriends them and they go through many adventures together =D
I had to laugh at Sharks in Venice! I can’t believe nobody ever came up with that before.
If you have read “Odd Thomas” by Dean Koontz, about a man who can see ghosts and ghostly figures called Bodocks that only come around when evil is present. It is pretty creepy and would make an awesome movie.
Deathwatch by Robb White was my favorite book as a kid and I just recently read it again. That book would make a great movie for sure, except that fact that the main character is stripped of all his clothes during his ordeal in the desert.
If someone made a move of A Song of Ice and Fire…
…
…
… They would be horrible in comparison to the novels.
Du: Twilight is on its way! Look it up on imdb.com!
I think a movie about the life of Jeff Buckley is LOOOONG overdue. I’ve heard that his mother doesn’t want it to happen, but I’m not sure how true that is. I’ve also heard that Brad Pitt was at one time interested in buying the rights, but that was years ago and I haven’t heard anything since. He’s got a great life, it mirrors his father’s in such a spooky way (both young musicians on the verge of great success, both die very suddenly).
And who will play Mr. Buckley? I nominate James Franco. The resemblance is striking. Not too sure about his acting ability, but I’m sure he can pull off “aloof, yet haunted, free spirit”.
Number 2 sounds really interesting. I have always thought that wars should not be fought with guns and explosives and planes and such. Soldiers should be given a sword and shield or a poleaxe and storm the battlefield.
Generic Poster: A Song of Ice and Fire is supposed to be in the works for an HBO miniseries. That should give them more time to get all of the intrigue and depravity in.
How about doing a list of top ten movies that were made that shouldnt have been? (like junior…)
I have always loved Ayn Rand’s books and I believe Atlas Shrugged would make a wonderful movie – I really hope it gets made!
I would also love to see David Eddings “The Belgariad” made into a movie. It is a set of 5 books that are wonderful science fantasy! They could even make “The Mallorean” (another set of 5 books that follows “The Belagriad”) into a sequel. Between all 10 books, there is a lot of movie to make!
As much as I love the Dark Tower series, there is no way they could ever be made into movies. You’re talking about a seven book series, six of which are very, very long and one of which is a prequel. You’re talking about a narrative that jumps between worlds, crosses time, mixes with other King works and has a mythology that rivals anything in the LOTR universe. In other words, everything that makes the Dark Tower series such a rich experience would have to be jettisoned in favor of a straight foward narrative about the journey to the Tower itself. This is the same reason a mini-series version of another King work, “The Talisman”, has never gotten off the ground despite two different attempts.
There was a Confederacy of Dunces movie in the works, set to star John Candy. After his death, nobody else has been considered.
i know this is about books,
but someone should make a horror movie entitled “angel of death” about josef mengele, a famous nazi during the holocaust. that’s just what i think.
Concerning #10,or more specifically Samuel L Jackson.
The was a movie made called “the Clones of Bruce Lee” (Bruce Li) and also a movie called “They saved Hitler’s Brain”.
I havent seen either flics, but on titles alone, if you combine them and star S.L.J..
what would we get?
They Cloned Samuel L. Jackson’s Brain
The Clones Of Samuel Jackson Vs. Hitler
or ofcoarse
The Clones Of Samuel L Jackson
and last but whatever,
“Samuel L Jackson Clones All His Movie Characters and Fights Them In a Free For All Resulting in the Pulverized Remains Reconstituting and Fighting the CGI Clones of Bruce Lee and Hitler’s Brain”.
Yeh that would be one hell of a movie.
Diogenes: Yeh I agree,
“The Clones of Samuel L Jackson” would make a good flick.
Perhaps he purchased a castle which had once been occupied by a mad scientist, who had been working on his masterpiece before his mysterious disapearence. In a secret labratory, that Jackson discovers, there is Cloning Equipment capable of cultivating Samuel L Jackson’s grand desires.
i’m tired of these motherf%!@ing clones in this motherf%!@ing castle!
samuel l. jackson- #3 badass of alltime. (behind Jesus and Laurence Fishburne)
the speech of the horned god should be made into movies.
best fantasy books there ever was, several horseheads ahead of LoTR and harry potter. unfortunately: i think they only exist in norwegian…
fortunately: i am norwegian and is lucky enough to have been able to read the chronicles:P
You’re list….
it…
sucks the balls.
Check out this guy: Joshua A. Norton.
He was a “mentally unbalanced” man who lived in San Francisco through out the mid-1800′s. He thought he was royalty, and the rest of the city humored his delusions. He even had currency printed with his picture on it. It’s a really great story, and a good example of the kindness that human beings can have.
Here is the Wikipedia link for the full story:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joshua_A._Norton
That would make a good movie.
that kinda reminds me of this movie I just bought called Lars and the Real Girl.
I am disappointed and surprised that none of Chuck Palahniuk’s books were reccomended!!
He wrote Fight Club…an incredible movie…and the book is ten times more incredible.
On top of that, Fight Club is probably my least favorite book of his.
I know in the near future his book Choke will be released as a movie,
but I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to see movie versions of Haunted, Survivor, and Invisible Monsters.
If you haven’t read Chuck’s books yet, Jamie, I’d start doing that now… In my opinion, he is one of the most amazing writers of our time
.
Except that Brave New World has been made into an exceedingly bad movie (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0145600/ )
AnotherKiwi: The Movie you’re thinking of is logans run. Similar to Brave New World but is more often linked with The Island starring Ewan MacGregor and whats her name.
I wholeheartedly agree with your #1.
I would love to see the Foundation series on big screen !
Ever since I first read the entire foundation series (all seven or eight books) in 5th grade, I thought they should have been made into movies.
Yet another book that I’d like to see made into a movie is Neuromancer, by William Gibson.
I don’t want to see another movie based on an epic book. For this reason, several of these entries should be disqualified. Atlas Shrugged, for example, and Pillars, and Foundation.
Short stories make the best translations to film because they don’t have to be butchered. See Stephen King based movies, as well as P.K. Dick, for perfect examples. The shorter the story, the better the movie.
I’d love to see Catcher in the Rye. Perfectly succinct story.
A recent book I would love to see made is Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson. It doesn’t have the weight of the other suggestions, but has enough action/character development to make a great movie.
Brave New World NEEDS to be a movie, no excuses!
Neal Stephenson’s books need to be made into movies.
Snow Crash–all it needs is a 500 million dollar budget
Zodiac–this one would work straight out of the box
The Baroque Cycle–give this one the massive trilogy treatment a la LOTR and we’re good to go
Cryptonomicon–why not? another 500 million dollar movie that will be vastly misunderstood
The Diamond Age–just throw out the main plot, tack on a action/adventure or romance story and spend 500 million
Also Ringworld–but the budget will be 500 million
What I’m trying to say is that I, personally, will get these movies made for a mere 500 million dollars. Start passing the hat.
Pillars of the Earth is an AMAZING book
and writing a zombie book from the zombie’s POV would discredit the whole notion of being a zombie because zombies are supposed to be mindless, dead-ish ex-people… thats part of the scare-factor, I think
I’m reading Pillars of the Earth currently and while I believe it would have the potential to make a really amazing/epic movie…I think there is also too much potential to f*** it up. I definitely am on the fence about it…
You could pretty much pick any novel or short story of Stephen King’s and put it on this list, if decent direction is provided, CGI is downplayed, and the endings are left as-written. With the exception of The Shining, which in my opinion was really only made good by Nicholson’s performance, there’s been a severe waste of excellent movie-material in King’s works.
FOUNDATION series by Asimov definitely! With good writers who respect the original work, it’ll be a smash. If Star Wars can make it (the last two were kinda ‘stinkers’); if they can even remake “Hitchhiker’s Guide” – then the godfather of sci-fi can’t lose!!
I really think The Giver should have been turned into a movie…not that it deserves a spot up there instead of one already listed, but just adding…
Just wanted to throw in, legendary historian Howard Zinn (author of A Peoples History of the United States) has his own additions here: Stories Hollywood Never Tells. In this audio book he discusses some amazing stories of American history, which would make excellent movies, but probably wouldn’t make the establishment very happy.
what about heinliens methusula’s children, its time we saw lazarus long on the big screen
I’ve just heard recently that Foundation is going to get the movie treatment. Too bad Marty Feldman is long dead, he’d make a great Magnifico.
Love your list. I’ve read most of them. It strikes me funny how “atlas Shrugged”, one of my all time favorite books, can be read by two people and be seen in such opposite terms. I see the entitlement message of the book applying to the present status quo of corporations and the wealthy who think that they are entitled to maintain their position based on legacy.
However, i do see your point of view also and totally understand it and in some cases agree with it. I guesse the lines are not drawn black and white anymore as when Atlas Shrugged was written.
Ok. So I don’t know if this has been made yet, but The Giver. It was an amazing book about a time where color was gone and the was one person who had all the knowledge of the modern world. If it has been made someone please tell me.
Second the thought on the Foundation novels – would make great movies if done well.
Many of Heinlein’s works would make fine films – his juvenile’s would do well if updated and polished up…they have the right narrative length for films.
Also, the Stainless Steel Rat series by Harry Harrison would make really great films. Viva La Ratta!
If someone could work out how to visually include the mind-powers involved then the Julian May books series “The Saga of the Exiles”, “Intervention”, and “The Galactic Milieu Trilogy” would be indescribably awesome.
Marc Remillard is the greatest character in all of sci-fi IMHO.
Ender’s Game. ’nuff said.
Rifts (from the role playing game)
George Washington-Revolutionary War
Michael Moore an ultra-leftist ? You’re completely crazy (or politicaly ignorant, make your choice). He’s barely a social-democrat. Ultra-Left is far more on the left. Ultra leftists are people who makes terrorist attacks (in a non-revolutionnary period), like Baader and his friends. And surely, Michael Moore is more on the right than them.
I’m sorry for the “angry” look of my comment. I take the “politicaly ignorant” back.
‘I have had it with these mother*****in’ SHARKS in these mother*****in’ VENETIAN C*****S!’ That is seriously my new catchphrase. I’m going to spam that everywhere. In response to 177: Michael Moore is not an ultra-leftist, he’s a talented propagandist (is that a word?). I love Ender’s Game, but I see it as being extremely difficult to adapt. Brave New World…maybe. Literary classics tend to outshine their film counterparts when said counterparts predate the films by too great a margin.
I would also be very interested in a Clara Bow biopic if it contained a tour-de-force or at least notable performance as Bow and as her mother.
The Pillars of the Earth is one of my favorite books!