Subject: RE: BS: Movies they should make From: Shields Folk Date: 28 Apr 02 - 11:40 AM Probably the most famous year in English History would make a tremendous film: 1066. It would be either a tremendous success or an astronomical failure. I can picture the opening scene with the death of Edward the Confessor. Flash backs to the early meeting of Harold and William the Bastard. Closing scenes of the coronation of William at Westminster, with riots in the streets and loads of battle scenes in between. Of course the language would be Old English, Norman French and Norse. Subtitles would be essential. Like I said it would be a tremendous success or an astronomical failure. |
Subject: RE: BS: Movies they should make From: Cluin Date: 13 Apr 03 - 05:38 AM Alfred Bester's "The Stars My Destination" W.O. Mitchell's "For Art's Sake" or "The Black Bonspiel of Wullie MacCrimmon" |
Subject: RE: BS: Movies they should make From: alanabit Date: 13 Apr 03 - 10:34 AM For a serious film, I would like to see a really good version of Somerset Maugham's "The Razor's Edge". Alistair McLean's best book by far, "HMS Ulysees" would have to make a good movie. CS Forester's book "The Ship" is also full of strong characters and has the potential to make a great movie. Dennis Wheatley was a right wing loony of very little literary merit, however,his books - especially the Roger Brooke saga - were very entertaining and have plenty of suitable material for blockbuster movies. Trouble is, only an American company would have the resources to make one and Roger Brooke with an American accent is not a prospect which is likely to lure me to the cinema! |
Subject: RE: BS: Movies they should make From: Peter T. Date: 13 Apr 03 - 11:33 AM An extraordinary film could be made of Cortez' conquest of Mexico. It could be done now with computer graphics. For sheer adventure I cannot think of anything to compare (politically incorrect though it is, but the part of the female translator would be a gift for someone). yours, Peter T. |
Subject: RE: BS: Movies they should make From: Forum Lurker Date: 13 Apr 03 - 01:11 PM Peter T.-Well, if you glorified Cortez's conquest, it would be really un-PC, drawing a lot of flack. If you didn't, you wouldn't have a movie. I personally prefer films in which the hero is heroic. Books can do well with non-heroic or even anti-heroic protagonists, but film as a medium seems to have difficulty with it. I'd love to see a film version of Robert Jordan's "Wheel of Time" series, but that would have to be a multiseason TV show to do the plot any justice at all. Maybe Roger Zelazny's "Nine Princes in Amber." |
Subject: RE: BS: Movies they should make From: Peg Date: 13 Apr 03 - 01:48 PM The all-too-short life of Robert Burns... |
Subject: RE: BS: Movies they should make From: Micca Date: 13 Apr 03 - 03:17 PM I would like to see a good , faithful to the Books, version of some of the works of Thorne Smith,( leaving aside the versions of the Topper books) that would be possible with modern special effects, ie for Skin and bones, Nightlife of tje gods or the Stray Lamb, and The Bishops Jaegers!!1 |
Subject: RE: BS: Movies they should make From: McGrath of Harlow Date: 13 Apr 03 - 03:31 PM There's never been a movie of Catcher in the Rye, so far as I know. Salinger has never wanted one, I believe. Probably as well. |
Subject: RE: BS: Movies they should make From: GUEST,McGrath of Altcar Date: 13 Apr 03 - 03:47 PM WHY has Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" never been filmed. I know Apocalypse Now is based on it - right down to whole lines of text but - but it avoids the central issues of the novel - what a film that would make. |
Subject: RE: BS: Movies they should make From: AllisonA(Animaterra) Date: 13 Apr 03 - 05:19 PM In a totally different vein, having just finished "The Secret Life of Bees" I'd love to see a movie made of it. No sword fights, just a really good chick flick! |
Subject: RE: BS: Movies they should make From: Bill D Date: 13 Apr 03 - 06:30 PM funny someone should mention Roger Zelazny...my vote would be for his story "A Rose for Ecclesiastes", one of the most moving, carefully crafted little stories I know. It is just the right length for a movie, and with modern graphics, would be beautiful. |
Subject: RE: BS: Movies they should make From: Clinton Hammond Date: 13 Apr 03 - 06:51 PM William Gibsons "Neuromancer" needs to be made.. it'd show the world what a REAL cyberpunk movie could be... (The Matrix is o.k, but not really all that original...) Neil Gaimans "American Gods" would make a kick-ass movie, but I have no idea who you'd be able to cast as Shadow... For that matter, a lot of Gaimans stuff would make really good movies (and it's been tried and tired and tried, but the feckwits in Hollywood keep screwing them up, and he keeps shooting down the proposals... smart man.. very smart man!) Stardust... Neverwhere... Looking forward to the eventual (autumn/X-mas 2004) release of the movie "The Last Unicorn"... I just wish whats-his-face who played Steerpike in the miniseries version of Gormen-gack wasn't gonna be playing Schmendrick... Jonathan Rhys-Meyers.. I donno... maybe he won't suck and ruin what could be the best fantasy adaptation ever! |
Subject: RE: BS: Movies they should make From: McGrath of Harlow Date: 13 Apr 03 - 06:53 PM Here's book that I suspect noone will have come across - "Sold for a farthing" by Clare Kipps. Below is a post I made about it in a thread a couple of years ago. I was watching Babe the other day. It struck me as I was watching it the story of "Clarence the famous and beloved sparrow" would make a superb film: I've a lovely little book in front of me about a lady who, in 1940 a few days after Dunkirk , found an abandoned sparrow chick outside her door. She looked after it, meaning to return him to the wild. But he turned out to have a deformed wing, so he stayed with her until he died 12 years later -far longer than the lifetime of a wild sparrow. In the meantime he'd had all kinds of adventures, entertained people in air-raid shelters, and learnt to sing along with the piano (his rescuer had been a professional musician). As is well known, "sparrows can't sing", but Clarence never knew that. The books called Sold for a farthing, by Clara Kipps, and remarkably enough, though it's been out of print in Engkland (where it all happened) for many years, there's an American edition of it still available. Here is a relevant passage: Feeling that if a new-born infant is left outside one's doorstep something should be done about it, I picked it up, wrapped it in warm flannel and, sitting over the kitchen fire, endeavoured for several hours to revive it. After I had succeeded in opening its soft beak - an operation that required a delicate touch and immense patience to avoid injury - I propped it open with a spent match and dripped one drop of warm milk every minutes down the little throat. At the end of half-an-hour, though the bird was still quite cold, I noticed a slight movement of one skinny wing, so, after adding a little soaked bread to the last feed, I put it gently into a small pudding-basin lined and covered with wool, which I deposited in the airing-cupboard. Then fully expecting it to die in tye night, I went to bed. To my astonishment, early next morning I heard a faint continuous sound coming from that airing-cupbopard - an incredibly thin yet happy sound, the kind of noise a pin would make if it could sing; and there was the little creature, still in his porcelain cradle, but warm and alert and crying for breakfast. After that, his mouth was rarely shut; and as he required constant feeding, I took him with me in his basin to the Air-Raid Warden's post, where he began to serve is country by providing us with endless amusement during the long hours of waiting. I fed him on soaked bread mixed with Bemax, hard-boiled yolk of egg, and one drop of halibut-liver oil, given frequently in small quantities and pushed gently down his throat with the carefully pointed end of a match. Though the children of the neighbourhood constantly brought along caterpillars and worms in matchboxes tied with blue ribbon, I kept him strictly to this vegetarian diet; and he thrived and grew into a lusty and importunate fledgling. And I'll leave you with that. It's a great book. |
Subject: RE: BS: Movies they should make From: Gareth Date: 13 Apr 03 - 07:23 PM Unfortunatley we are likely to see "The Rescue of Jessica", or "Objective Bahgdad" And isn't it time an objective film of the PQ17 disaster was made ??? Gareth |
Subject: RE: BS: Movies they should make From: khandu Date: 13 Apr 03 - 07:35 PM "A Time to Kill a Mocking Birdman of Alcatraz" "The Godfather of the Bride of Frankenstein" "The Night of the Living Dead Men Tell No Tales of the Crypt" k |
Subject: RE: BS: Movies they should make From: Amos Date: 13 Apr 03 - 07:36 PM I'd like to see a film that weaves the parallel time-lines of the lives of George Bush, Sadaam Hussein, Osama Bin Laden, and maybe six chosen figures from the Mudcat Cafe -- I'm not saying which six, though! A |
Subject: RE: BS: Movies they should make From: Cluin Date: 13 Apr 03 - 07:42 PM McGrath of Altcar, I did see a B&W clip of a production of Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" once, with Boris Karloff in the role of Kurtz. It may have been a made-for-TV drama, one of those Hallmark things. "The horror... the horror..." |
Subject: RE: BS: Movies they should make From: khandu Date: 13 Apr 03 - 07:44 PM Peter Straub's "Ghost Story" should be done properly. The one version that was made was pure crap. It failed to capture the book in every way. I am surprised that Straub allowed his name on the finished product. This is the only book that has frightened me...and it did it both times I read it. k |
Subject: RE: BS: Movies they should make From: Clinton Hammond Date: 13 Apr 03 - 08:47 PM The IMDB has this entry for Boris K. playing Kurtz... "Playhouse 90" (1956) playing "Kurtz" in episode: "Heart of Darkness" 6 November 1958 Might make it easier to find if yer looking for it... :-) |
Subject: RE: BS: Movies they should make From: Forum Lurker Date: 13 Apr 03 - 09:04 PM Bill D.-I've never read that one. Is it sold as a novel, or only in anthologies? ClintonHammond-Neuromancer would be amazing if properly cast; film gets over Gibson's small flaw of sometimes confusing text. Snow Crash, by Neil Stephenson, might be an even better cyberpunk, if less archetypal. American Gods would probably be uncastable; who could possibly play the characters properly? |
Subject: RE: BS: Movies they should make From: Clinton Hammond Date: 13 Apr 03 - 10:10 PM I've never found any of Gibsons texts to be confusing... Snow Crash is a good 3/4 of a book... Stephenson can't write an ending to save his damn life... Casting American Gods? I donno... more importantly would be the script writing I think... |
Subject: RE: BS: Movies they should make From: Peg Date: 13 Apr 03 - 11:38 PM American Gods? Perfectly castable, with some forethought. Shadow: Johnny Depp Odin: Gene Hackman, or that bald guy from Homicide Shadow's wife: Rachel Weisz, or Rachel Griffiths Sheriff in town: Chris Cooper Freya: Toni Collette, or Alicia Witt |
Subject: RE: BS: Movies they should make From: Forum Lurker Date: 13 Apr 03 - 11:57 PM ClintonHammond-What was wrong with Snow Crash's ending? It resolved the conflict that formed the plot, and unlike Gibson didn't end up radically changing the universe in which the book was set. |
Subject: RE: BS: Movies they should make From: GUEST,pdc Date: 14 Apr 03 - 12:38 AM A tiny bit of thread creep -- my grandma, who died aged 96, only went to Grade 3, and although she had a successful and prosperous life, never got things quite right (favourite song: 75 Trombones; favourite flower the Philadelphium.) Her favourite books/movies were "How to Kill a Mockingbird," and "The Man in the Grey Flannels." Bless her heart -- I miss her! Thought you might enjoy this. |
Subject: RE: BS: Movies they should make From: Doug_Remley Date: 14 Apr 03 - 01:01 AM An author apparently living in Ireland, John Connolly, has written a few books that would make good movies. At the least they were good winter reading. Most of all I would enjoy a careful visual construction of "The Snokejumper" one of three novels written by the author of "The Horse Whisperer." |
Subject: RE: BS: Movies they should make From: Clinton Hammond Date: 14 Apr 03 - 02:40 AM Sorry Peg... I don't see Johnny Dep as Shadow at all... Shadow is a HUGE man, and looks like he might be part 1st Nations... Johnny just doens't fit either bill... Maybe Vin Diesel, but he's even too big... hehehehe Hackman is an interesting idea for Wednesday, but I think I'd rather see someone more 'Scandinavian'... There's got to be a few dudes left over from 'The 13th Warrior' who'd better fit the bill, and are likely more in need of the pay-cheque! LOL FL.. Everything 'cyberpunk' or 'post cp' I've ever read from Stephenson peetered out at the end... Cryptonomicon, Diamond Age and Snow Crash... I also don't see how the end of Neuromancer 'radically changed the universe in which it was set'... Wintermute even says, "Things aren't different. Things are things." (Maybe we can continue this as PMs or something... so as not to clutter up the thread eh... :-) ) |
Subject: RE: BS: Movies they should make From: Art Thieme Date: 16 Apr 03 - 03:48 AM The Creature From The Black Studies Program Art Thieme |
Subject: RE: BS: Movies they should make From: The Walrus Date: 16 Apr 03 - 04:48 AM Gareth, Do you want to try casting "Saving private Jessica"? The first problem is finding a British actor to play Saddam (well, it would be a Hollywierd film....). I understand that there are plans to make "Good Omens" (casting that could be fun). alanabit, Wheatley's 'Roger Brook' series? Hmmm, they might need to get an historian involved in the script, Wheatley was a little, shall we say lax, in that department. Regards Walrus |
Subject: RE: BS: Movies they should make From: MC Fat Date: 16 Apr 03 - 05:48 AM MC Fat - the Lean Years !! |
Subject: RE: BS: Movies they should make From: GUEST,Bagpuss Date: 16 Apr 03 - 06:12 AM Walrus - Terry Gilliam is signed up to make Good Omens, but the last I heard (from Neil Gaimans blog) was that they are having trouble with the funding. I hope it has better luck than the Don Quixote movie he was last involved with. Bagpuss |
Subject: RE: BS: Movies they should make From: Rapparee Date: 16 Apr 03 - 07:26 AM MUCH of Robert Heinlein would be quite filmable IF they remained true to the original work. I'm glad Virginia threatened to sue over "Starship Troopers," as I found it to be a disappointment ("really sucked" better sums it up). A well done "Glory Road" would be excellent. The "Sector General" series of James White -- oh yeah! Why TV hasn't snatched this up is beyond me. I understand that Dana Stabenow's Kate Shugak series is to be filmed. That's great! And I don't think that Dana will put up with a lot of crappy changes. I'd like to see a good film set in the Neolithic, but Jean Auel's stuff doesn't make it. Perhaps a good Bronze Age epic based on the "Tain" instead? And why not put the Sister Fidelma stuff on film? A good make of "A Canticle For Leibowitz" would be dynamite. For the kids, how about Isaac Asimov's "Lucky Starr" series (which he wrote as "Paul French")? While we're in SF, consider the Lensman series.... |
Subject: RE: BS: Movies they should make From: Amos Date: 16 Apr 03 - 08:53 AM It has always been a mystery to me why the Lensman series was never made -- it's such classic space opera. It would have out-done Star Trek! A |
Subject: RE: BS: Movies they should make From: alanabit Date: 16 Apr 03 - 09:41 AM Hey Walrus, you don't think Hollywood would be interested in history, do you? They pay folks good money to heave out stuff like historical accuracy! |
Subject: RE: BS: Movies they should make From: Peg Date: 16 Apr 03 - 11:25 AM True, Clinton, Shadow should be a big guy; but I was thinking more of affect and intensity. And since most actors are tiny, Johnny Depp could look tall if he needed to... Peter Fonda or Keith Carradine spring to mind but they are way too old. There's a guy who was in Session 9 (can't remember his name) who'd be perfect now that I think of it... Vin Diesel isn't an actor in my book; just a dumb bald hunk of meat. As for Wednesday being Scandinavian, he didn't seem to be described that way in the book; big and imposing, more like. But in that case, maybe someone like Philip Seymour Hoffman or Ed Begley Jr.? |
Subject: RE: BS: Movies they should make From: Clinton Hammond Date: 16 Apr 03 - 01:33 PM " Vin Diesel isn't an actor in my book; just a dumb bald hunk of meat." Then yer selling the dude short, Peg... His work is constantly improving, and I suspect it won't be long before we start to see him do some really wonderful stuff... Look at his fantastic work in The Iron Giant? :-) (I'm also secretly hoping that xXx will replace James Bond in my life time... ) And I'm afraid that since you suggested him, I'm (o.k... 'we're', cause I brought it up with Herself over cooking dinner the other night and she agreed,) stuck on it now... Hackman is a really good idea for Wednesday... Maybe we should mail him a copy of the book, and suggest it to him eh? On the subject of Good Omens... I have to admit, the book left me really cold, and I don't really see how such an "Internal monologue" drivein book can possibly ever make it to the big screen and still remain intact... I suspect it'll be another specatular failure like Johnny Mnemonic, and New Rose Hotel... The IMDB.com says "Status described as 'stalled' by the director in a recent Onion interview." and I have to admit, I kinda hope it stays that way... Faerie Tale by Raymond Feist would make a GREAT medium budget horror/fantasy film... Kinda "Legend", meets "The Exorcist"! LOL |
Subject: RE: BS: Movies they should make From: Firecat Date: 16 Apr 03 - 04:10 PM I reckon they should make "Moonwind", "The Warriors Of Taan" or "Children Of The Dust" by Louise Lawrence into films. I had to do an adaptation of a bit of "Children Of The Dust" for my A Level English coursework, and it worked really well. Any of L. J. Smith's Night World books would be good too, especially "Enchantress" or "Daughters Of Darkness"! |
Subject: RE: BS: Movies they should make From: Bill D Date: 16 Apr 03 - 07:55 PM "Bill D.-I've never read that one. Is it sold as a novel, or only in anthologies?"...it is fairly short, and is no doubt only part of collections |
Subject: RE: BS: Movies they should make From: Bill D Date: 16 Apr 03 - 08:03 PM Forum Lurker...well, I mis-spoke....look here sources for book |
Subject: RE: BS: Movies they should make From: GUEST Date: 16 Apr 03 - 08:07 PM raymond feist's krondor books... |
Subject: RE: BS: Movies they should make From: MikeofNorthumbria Date: 17 Apr 03 - 10:18 AM A fascinating thread. Many admirable novels have already been proposed as candidates for moviedom, but here are a few more suggestions. Confessions of a Justified Sinner - James Hogg A Hero of Our Time - Mikhail Lermontov The Light and the Dark - C P Snow Stranger in a Strange Land - Robert Heinlein The Left Hand of Darkness - Ursula LeGuin The Satanic Verses - Salman Rushdie And as for non-fictional sources - how about a bio-pic of Bob Copper, based on "A Song for Every Season"? Wassail! |
Subject: RE: BS: Movies they should make From: Forum Lurker Date: 17 Apr 03 - 10:53 AM I think "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" might adapt to film more easily than "STranger in a Strange Land." |
Subject: RE: BS: Movies they should make From: Peg Date: 17 Apr 03 - 11:56 AM I believe The Left Hand of Darkness has already been made into a film...or was that The Lathe of Heaven? |
Subject: RE: BS: Movies they should make From: Clinton Hammond Date: 17 Apr 03 - 12:45 PM IMDB finds no film version of The Left Hand of Darkness.. which is really too bad... Lathe Of Heaven was made for TV twice... once in 1980 and again in 2002 |
Subject: RE: BS: Movies they should make From: jaze Date: 17 Apr 03 - 07:13 PM Sacajawea,by Anna Lee Waldo. An epic book that would make a great epic movie of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. |
Subject: RE: BS: Movies they should make From: Gareth Date: 18 Apr 03 - 02:35 PM I see that my satirical comment on "Objective Bagdhad" seems to have gone under most peoples heads. Gareth |
Subject: RE: BS: Movies they should make From: The Walrus Date: 18 Apr 03 - 05:23 PM Gareth, "Objective Bagdhad" So we need an Americanised Tasmanian, a batch of American extras as cannon fodder, a couple of Hawaiiians to stand in as Gurkhas and a lot of chinese to act as the enemy..... Oooops sorry, that's "Objective Burma" "Objective Bagdhad" - Who do you reckon will get the lead, Stallone, Swartzenegger or Gibson? Worried Walrus |
Subject: RE: BS: Movies they should make From: Ely Date: 18 Apr 03 - 07:37 PM It's too limited a subject to ever sell, but I always wished they would make a movie of the children's book _Thee, Hannah_ about a Quaker girl in Philadelphia in the 1850's. I'm a sucker for films with lots of costumes, but it has a nice little message about courage versus material frills. I'd also like to see a film made about the escape from the Nazis of the Dutch writer Jan de Hartog (or, at least, Jan's version of his escape from the Nazis). If ever I could see Bruce Willis in a "historical" role, this is it. |
Subject: RE: BS: Movies they should make From: McGrath of Harlow Date: 18 Apr 03 - 08:59 PM "The first problem is finding a British actor to play Saddam (well, it would be a Hollywierd film....)." I have a feeling they might start going in for French villains. |
Subject: RE: BS: Movies they should make From: GUEST Date: 19 Apr 03 - 03:09 AM the morgan llewyllyn books...like 1916, 1921....and red branch and the bard... |
Subject: RE: BS: Movies they should make From: Peter Kasin Date: 20 Apr 03 - 03:02 AM Herbert Asbury's "The Barbary Coast." Spike Milligan's "Puckoon." John Steinbeck's "In Dubious Battle." Chanteyranger |