Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Books I want to see on the big screen

Some people hate it when a book gets made into a movie. Not me. I'm all for it. Even if most of the time I think the book is better. I get to be the director when I'm reading the book so it's my vision. Of course I think it's better. I'm very vain. But that doesn't mean I hate every movie based on a book. All of this rambling is to introduce this week's Tuesday Top Ten topic hosted by the Broke and the Bookish: top ten books I'd like to see made into movies. Some of these may have already been made into a movie, but I'd like someone to give it another go. Some of them haven't been made yet and hurry up already Hollywood and give these a try! You're clearly out of ideas anyway. Let's get to it, shall we?

1. Fool by Christopher Moore - He actually talked about this possibly being made into a stage play (!!!) but I would also love to see this on screen. King Lear but from the Fool's point of view, with lots of dirty jokes and some very touching moments.

2. The Big Over Easy by Jasper Fforde - I considered the Thursday Next series, but I'm not sure if it would work on screen. The Nursery Crime series, however, has a shot. And Hollywood seems to be all about re-purposing characters. Abraham Lincoln is about to be a vampire hunter, Edgar Allen Poe is going to help detectives solve murders based on his crimes, so why can't Jack Spratt be a detective working to solve the Humpty Dumpty murder?

3. The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins - I realize this has been made into a movie but awhile ago and I haven't seen it. Haven't just finished reading this and LOVING a number of the characters (Marian, Fosco, Mr. Fairlie) it would be so much fun to actually see them. If there could be references to Marian being a velociraptor all the better.

4. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke- This might work better as a mini-series but regardless, this would be so much fun on screen. Magic brought to life in Victorian England? Yes please!

5. Zeitoun by Dave Eggers - It's funny and heartbreaking, and don't movies always advertise that you'll laugh and you'll cry? This is just the type of story the academy loves to award. AND it's based on a true story. Really I'm surprised it hasn't happened yet.

6. 11/22/63 by Stephen King - I actually heard they were making this into a movie, which isn't really surprising. King movies can be pretty hit or miss but the fact that this one isn't a horror story means there's more chance things will go right.

7. This Is Where I Leave You by Jonathan Tropper - Middle-aged white guy problems but oh so funny. The Foxman family hasn't been in the same room as one another in years but with the father's death everyone comes together. Of course Judd's wife won't be joining the family, seeing how Judd just caught her in bed with his boss. Judd's in crisis which sucks for him but is hilarious for us.

8. Tokyo Vice by Jake Adelstein - Jake is the only American working at the Japanese newspaper working the crime beat and he learns of Tokyo's seedy underbelly. He wrote the book because he learned too much about some Yakuza crime bosses and figured if the book was out there, there's no reason to silence him. Hollywood loves crime stories, especially ones with conspiracies. And again, true story!

9. My Name is Will: A Novel of Sex, Drugs and Shakespeare by Jess Winfield - It's Shakespeare so, you know, classy. But it's also sex and drugs so, you know, Hollywood. Everybody wins! There's a contemporary story of a professional student studying Shakespeare and then scenes of Shakespeare's early inspirations. Like a prequel to Shakespeare in Love. Kind of.

10. Time and Again by Jack Finney - Another time travel story but different from King's telling. There's no famous political figure but we do get to visit New York in the 1800s. And there's a mystery! Plus a lot of the setting is spent in my "if I could live anywhere I'd want to live here" building, NYCs Dakota.

What books do you think would make great movies?

Comments (13)

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NO NO LIKING TIME AND AGAIN.

Aside from that, DUDE another version of WiW needs to be made. And they need to get Marian right. I don't know who should play her, but someone amazing.

I need to finish reading Jonathan Strange....
2 replies · active 671 weeks ago
Why no Time and Again? They just need to make the main character less sexist.

I can't imagine who would play Marian. You can't screw up that casting. Also I watched part of the video you posted before (and will give it more attention when I don't have people watching me watch it) but I do not approve of that Fosco! He is too greasy.
Ok, GRANTED this is my opinion from like age 17, but I remember at the very end the author put in some jackass statement about war or something and it pissed me off. Like "Oh, the past was so superior because of blahblah." And I LOVE the past, but it was a dumb ending.

....your opinion re Fosco makes sense. But I enjoy him kicking his little legs.
The thing is, if they (re)made The Woman in White, they'd almost definitely get some super attractive actress to play her, and that would just be WRONG and EVIL and the audience has to love Marian for her character and not her face!

Yay, a little epilogue to The Woman in White discussions!

Also, since I hear that 11/22/63 isn't necessarily a horror-y book, it could work as a film, a la The Green Mile or The Shawshank Redemption. Cause, the horror? It is not so good. At least none of the Stephen King films I've seen are...
1 reply · active 671 weeks ago
Yeah they def would get an attractive actress for Marian because audiences cannot sympathize with less than physical perfection. Or maybe they'd take a hot actress but give her something small to ugly her up. Like Selma Hayek in Frida.

I was totally thinking "well Green Mile and Shawshank worked so this one could too". Great minds, my friend. I do think there's some chance of 11/22/63 going off the rails just cos of the whole supernatural/time traveling stuff. Shawshank didn't have to worry about the supernatural but Green Mile handled it fairly well.
The Bid Over Easy would be such a fun movie. I loved Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell too- great picks!
1 reply · active 671 weeks ago
Thank ya! I would love to see The Big Over Easy as a movie. Nursery rhyme characters as detectives. They'd have to play the whole thing straight and have the laughs just come from the absurd set up.
Oh man, if they could do a Strange and Norell miniseries with the production values of, say, Downton Abbey? I would be a very, very happy man.
1 reply · active 671 weeks ago
I really need to see that show...
Also, the wife saw The Woman in White on The Great White Way and was less than impressed, to say the least.
1 reply · active 671 weeks ago
That's because no one consulted me about how to make it better. Obv.
Sigh, I missed out on so much in the WiW readalong. Damn damn damn busytimes. I need to try those nursery-crime Fforde books, I've only read the Thursday ones of his so far!
1 reply · active 671 weeks ago
Alice mentioned hosting another readalong this summer. Hopefully things won't be so crazy for you and you can join that one!

Def try the Nursery Crime stuff. I think you'd enjoy!

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