What Book Would You Like to Make into a Movie or TV Series?

[thefr00n]

Of course, being that Sandman is owned by an American company (DC Comics), eliminating American involvement altogether would be a bit of a trick. :mrgreen:

Indeed.

I think what I'm objecting to is Hollywood's obsessive need to put their fingerprints on things to the point where what made the original good has been completely obscured or removed.

Off the top of my head, some examples. The Dark Is Rising by Susan Cooper became a sickly sweet vomit fest starring a blonde American boy - how? Hellblazer's John Constantine is a haggard sandy cockney who somehow became Keanu Reeves in the film version - how?

And don't get me started on The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Can you imagine, had it been faithful, how devastating Mr Hyde's murder of the Invisible Man would have been on screen? When handed some of the most dark, exciting material ever written, HOW DO YOU SCREW THAT UP SO ROYALLY?

Well, you follow the Hollywood school of adaptation: keep the title, ditch the rest.

[luxaeternam]

There have been some great suggestions on this list.
I've read a few things in the past year or so that inspire me - but they're all painfully long
Dahlquist's The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters - great saucy ripping yarn.
China Mieville's UnLunDun - anyone who loves the Phantom Tollbooth might like this.
Scarlett Thomas The End of Mr Y was another great read.
There have been others too (ah, long summer holidays...) but I think these three each have a particular style which would suit a visual adaptation.

[equinoxx]

I think what I'm objecting to is Hollywood's obsessive need to put their fingerprints on things to the point where what made the original good has been completely obscured or removed.

Off the top of my head, some examples. The Dark Is Rising by Susan Cooper became a sickly sweet vomit fest starring a blonde American boy - how? Hellblazer's John Constantine is a haggard sandy cockney who somehow became Keanu Reeves in the film version - how?

And don't get me started on The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Can you imagine, had it been faithful, how devastating Mr Hyde's murder of the Invisible Man would have been on screen? When handed some of the most dark, exciting material ever written, HOW DO YOU SCREW THAT UP SO ROYALLY?

In short, Corporate Hollywood Economics. Wherein making an actual good movie is, at best, secondary to making money. Which, of course, leads to focus groups and least-common-denominator marketing, and if that's ever ended well, it's news to me.

I mean, the way production costs start at stratospheric and quickly go interstellar, I get why studios are nervous about so-called "limited appeal" productions, and why they want to maximize their audiences. I don't necessarily agree with it, but I understand it. That's how you end up with Keanu Reeves as Constantine, and Tom Sawyer shoehorned into LXG.

I'm pretty sure it's also how all of Pauly Shore's movies got greenlit. Which, clearly, speaks volumes about their sampling methodologies. :mrgreen:

Anyway, to veer this back on-topic, here are a couple of books I wouldn't mind seeing on-screen (done right, of course):
-The Grounding of Group 6, Julian F. Thompson
-Andy Buckram's Tin Men, Carol Ryrie Brink

Yes, they're both aimed at younger readers, but they've both stuck with me ever since I first read them. Group 6 was actually optioned not long after it was originally published in the early 80s, but was never made, to my knowledge.

[WonderllamaProdu...]

I would rather enjoy seeing Stephen King's "Bag of Bones" on the big screen.

[Chris Ollis]

I liked Constantine and League OXG, granted I didn't watch them as anything to do with the source material but I thought both were good. Constantine as a very stylish demons movie and LOXG for being a complete laughable nonsense

[Frank Lee]

I liked LOXG because the scriptwriters had read and understood the original books. That they took them into the realms of (entertaining) nonsense is neather here nor there. Its not common these days for major media to try to adress Stevenson's preocupation with redemption or Conan Doyle's 'Chaps doing the right thing' thing.
On books to make: I'm gonna have a go at 'Under Milk Wood' one of these days

[lucindamc123]

I liked League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. It's been a long time since anyone wrote in this thread. Just about everything I read is more entertaining than most of what is on TV or in the movies today. I always picture books in my head as I read them anyway.

[Lionheart]

Oh, oh, Scott Pilgrim. It's a very good indie Graphic Novel, with a very unique art style and with partly familiar humour and plot...

...Sadly, it's getting a Film version (starring Michael Cera... jesus christ...) so that'd taint it enough.

But I'd mostly go for teenage-audience animated series.

[Trinity]

Oh, oh, Scott Pilgrim. It's a very good indie Graphic Novel, with a very unique art style and with partly familiar humour and plot...

...Sadly, it's getting a Film version (starring Michael Cera... jesus christ...) so that'd taint it enough.

But I'd mostly go for teenage-audience animated series.

Well, speaking of teenage audiences, comics and graphic novels, there's always Marvel Universe's

RUNAWAYS
http://www.marvel.com/universe/Runaways



Synopsis: The series tells of group of teen kids of who try to make amends for their supervillain parent's wrong doings by becoming superheroes. Since they have no official name, they are simply called "those kids in L.A." or "the Pride's kids" by most of the other Marvel characters.

An impressive list of writers and artists have worked on this title, including Joss Whedon. More details, including issues summaries and a cover gallery, at MergingMinds.org - http://runaways.mergingminds.org/

Supposedly, It's been optioned as a movie, but details are skimpy - http://www.moviejungle.com/search/details.asp?Movie_ID=5313

[Frank Lee]

at the risk of going off-topic here, How long will it be before Moviestorm can match the graphics in comic books? I extensively post-process my stuff but its not going to look as good as Sin City or 300 any time soon. An with comic art people know what it should look like. Cant help feeling your making things harder for yourself. Whereas half the teenagers on the planet have little or no knowlage of some insanely good classic books. . .

[luxaeternam]

at the risk of going off-topic here, How long will it be before Moviestorm can match the graphics in comic books? I extensively post-process my stuff but its not going to look as good as Sin City or 300 any time soon. An with comic art people know what it should look like. Cant help feeling your making things harder for yourself. Whereas half the teenagers on the planet have little or no knowlage of some insanely good classic books. . .

Well, you've got a few plugins available in post-production that might help you get there, even without using the cel-shading in Moviestorm itself. New Blue's cartoonr effect will help get the comic-book look, and I would strongly recommend something like Red Giant's magic bullet looks to get something approaching the Sin City look (you can adjust all the settings - but this plugin adds a lot of time to rendering).
For the 300 look, you want some sort of gritty effect where a maximum of detail and if possible where dynamic range is brought out in the raw material. If you can use some sort of particle creator to make a sepia plasma cloud you can use this as a background for greenscreened action. Then you transform your foreground layer into sepia and tweak the levels. You'll find quite a few webpages dealing with this particular look.

[Frank Lee]

used the majic bullet but liked the digital anarchy work, worked better on my setup. weve lost the topic here though. How about the Greek myths, they are some compleatly bonkers storys.

[thefr00n]

I liked LOXG because the scriptwriters had read and understood the original books.

That may be so. However, Martin Poll and Larry Cohen may disagree.

Personally I see no similarity between the books and the film beyond the title and the characters.

Back on topic, I would love to see a faithful adaptation of any of the Modesty Blaise books. That would kick ass.

[grouchobeer]

Anything written before 1963 only carries a copyright of 67 years and then it goes into public domain. I am not sure if a copyright can be renewed or not after 67 years. I think this varies depending upon what media it is. I am not sure. I do know the Beatles music will come into the public domain in 2012.

Anyway since this is 2007, I believe anything produced before 1940 is in the public domain.

Unfortunately, this is not true, at least in the US. January 1, 1923 is the cutoff date for PD.

There are exceptions, of course-- the original NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD is public domain, for example-- but 1923 is a good guideline.

As someone pointed out, this is due to Disney lobbying Congress so it can keep its copyright on that mouse. The next year anything else will fall into the public domain in US is 2019. Beatles music will not fall into PD until 70 years after the death of Sir Paul (at least the tunes he wrote.) And when that deadline draws nigh, Disney will no doubt keep extending the copyrights.

This is clearly unconstitutional in US. One of the few things that the Constitution specifically spells out for Congress to do is to allow artists copyrights for a limited time. In 1789, I believe it was 14 years, and that was renewable for another 14. I think the Founding Fathers would turn in their graves if they knew current copyright was up to 120 years. Even though life expectancy has increased dramatically, very few people live to be 120 now, and I think fewer will in future. In 1789, a lot of people lived to be over 28.

I am not sure if the law could be changed to allow works presently protected to come into the public domain sooner. But supposedly, no work that has entered the PD can be protected again by copyright, and this has happened. In any case, watch for Disney to try to extend copyright c. 2012.

This seems very piggish of them. Does STEAMBOAT WILLIE really generate a lot of dough for ABC Disney? Has it generated any since it was released on DVD years ago (with numerous other cartoons in the same set)? What they really want to protect is Mickey (and Donald, Goofy, Pluto, et. al.) It seems to me they could do this by trademark, which basically lasts forever as long as it's protected, and Disney has an army of lawyers to do just this sort of thing.

But Disney always has been a law unto itself. It was Disney who prevailed in one of the very few (I believe you could count them on one hand) successful copyright infringement cases against a PARODY (which before and since has always enjoyed broad judicial protection) in its case against Air Pirate Comics and the great Bobby London.

[thefr00n]

Agree with most of what you said, groucho, but the pedant in me feels I must point out that Night of the Living Dead is public domain by accident, not design.

When it was originally released, they forgot to put the copyright notice on it. US law requires notice of copyright, and so the film entered the public domain.

Despite making a reasonable portion of my income through royalties, I think copyright periods are excessive. Yes, reward creators, but too many limitations stifles future creativity, IMHO.

[grouchobeer]

Yes, pretty much everything post-1923 that is public domain in the US is there by accident-- either somebody forgot to renew the copyright or didn't put the notice on there in the first place.

I agree that copyright periods are excessive, even unconstitutional. And that's even before you consider the chilling effect a 120 year copyright has on the First Amendment.

[lucindamc123]

I know copyright laws seem to be restrictive however, as I have found with music, there are so many unpublished writers out there with great material. In fact, I have three movies in the works right now from unpublished authors who want their material made into movies, and that with my refilming GONE for film festivals will keep me pretty busy this year.

All the writers I have discovered are wonderful and i am thrilled to be able to make these into movies.

One is Ed Wode who is a published author but has many screenplays that have not been produced and we are working on a sitcom pilot to be marketed to a network.

Not only is it fun to use this material and a lot easier than writing my own since I tend to rewrite as I make a movie, but it is a good marketing tool for writers either wanting to market their screenplays or submit material for publication. Some busy reader at a publisher or production assistant at a studio is going to have more time to watch a movie than read a book or a script..

[geoff-uk]

How about a Stephen King Novel like "The Shining" or "It"? I've never read them myself but they seem to be well known.

[mike.carlin]

Only just looked at this thread but I've had The Caves of Steel in pre-production for a few weeks now.

The script is underway and I've begun designing the sets. My modding skills still leave a lot to be desired.

The character in question is Elijah Baley.

Incidentally, the Hollywood move, I, Robot was a mish-mash of all sorts of ideas from Asimov's Robot and Elijah Baley series that it doesn't really represent any one novel or short story.

If anyone's interested I created the Encyclopedia Galactica website many years ago but still viewable at http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Dimension/1136/ - shameful plug, I know. Sorry

[142810]

The Artemis Fowl series.