Books into movies...

[fajrdrako]

From March 12, 2009: Tami inspired this week’s question: What book do you think should be made into a movie? And do you have any suggestions for the producers?

I think my favourite series should be made into movies, or perhaps well-made miniseries:

1. The Lymond Chronicles by Dorothy Dunnett. Well-nigh impossible, probably, because what actor could ever adequately portray Lymond? On the other hand, I never thought anyone could adequately portray Aragorn son of Arathorn till I saw Viggo Mortensen in the role. These things can be done.
   
   
2. These Old Shades by Georgette Heyer. I'd like to cast Johnny Depp as the Duke of Avon - not that he is anything like my mental image of Avon, but wouldn't he gorgeous? And camp? And dangerous?
   
   Alternately, I'd like to see just about Any Georgette Heyer novel as a movie, done with the skill and care they've given to Jane Austen in the past. No, not the one with Keira Knightly - something true to the period.
   
   
3. The Vorkosigan series by Lois McMaster Bujold. Again, finding someone who could adequately portray Miles Vorkosigan would be a challenge, but not impossible. Given today's technology, I think David Tennant could do it.
   
   
4. Karin Lowachee's series about pirates, orphan boys and the battleship Macedon that starts with Warchild. Space opera with a psychological twist. Difficult because much of the action is interior (and with suspect narrators at that); but what gorgeous results we might get.
   
   
5. Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett, because I want to see Sam Vimes onscreen.
   
   
6. Megan Whalen Turner's series about Gen that starts with The Thief. Difficult because the writing is so devious, but... colourful, exciting, beautiful.
   
   
7. An artful remake of Prince of Foxes by Samuel Shellabarger, or any of his books.

For the second part of the question: I wouldn't stop anyone from making anything into a movie. There are lots of movies I wouldn't - and won't - go to see, including a rather high proportion of the ones that do get made. No big deal.

Comments

[sollersuk.livejournal.com]

The biggest problem with film versions of books is length. You have a couple of hours to tell a story that can have a lot of intricacy, so things have to be lost; not just subplots and minor characters, but often quite important bits. I've never seen a really satisfactory film version of a book, though if one has the elbow-room of a television series, it can be another matter - the (I think joint British/Australian) version of "The Day of the Triffids" is excellent.

Short stories need some padding, and sometimes it shows. Novella length is perfect. Unfortunately, this isn't a very popular length for published work.

So I would say that there isn't a single book that I would want to see filmed.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

The biggest problem with film versions of books is length.

Yes. Sometimes we have to postulate a series of movies, like with The Lord of the Rings. A cut-down version of Dunnett would be unthinkable.

I've never seen a really satisfactory film version of a book,

I have, but it's rare.

though if one has the elbow-room of a television series, it can be another matter - the (I think joint British/Australian) version of "The Day of the Triffids" is excellent.

I haven't seen that, but I've seen some good miniseries based on books. Jane Eyre is an example - it made several terrible movies, but at least one very good miniseries.

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

I've often been disappointed with film adaptations of books I like, but sometimes books I dislike can be improved. I think the film of L P Hartley's The Hireling (http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt0070180/usercomments-4) was better than the sentimental melodrama of the book: in the film, no-one dies, and it's more about the psychological damage done by WW1 to all its survivors. (And Peter gets his shirt off.)

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I haven't read or seen The Hireling but that's the way I felt about The Go-Between. I'm reminding myself to watch The Hireling, which I've been intending to do since the time it came out - I liked the trailers at the time.

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

It's superb. I'm just baffled by some comments and reviews other people have made on it: how can they discuss a film set c. 1920, with the 2 male leads an ex-sergeant-major and an ex-captain, without mentioning the war?!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I can't imagine. (I'd insert my Passchendaele icon here if I still had it up!)

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

Especially given that it's clear that both men are psychological/emotional casualties of war. The Sergeant-Major hasn't adjusted to civilian life, and is obsessive and violent, while the young officer is also in difficulties, as per this exchange with the heroine, when she asks him about his war experience:
Helen: Was it very bad?
[Hugh doesn't answer; his expression is hard to read in the darkness of the car]
Helen: Well, you're back now.
Hugh: Am I? Sometimes I wonder…

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Oh, good dialogue!

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

And of course, he just looks so young and vulnerable... but you know has come through 4 years of absolute hell.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Interesting circumstances. And the background for some very good fiction.

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

Indeed. And the film also has a very open ending, which would allow for fic.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Definitely!

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

I've just noticed your Silhouette icon! Gorgeous! (Grumbles bitterly about her and her girlfriend being killed off!)

– Well, I would have been very upset if they'd stuck to the book with The Hireling. Do not kill off the eye-candy is one of my tenets.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Grumbles bitterly about her and her girlfriend being killed off!

Except for Veidt, Silhouette and her girlfriend were my favourite characters in the movie.

Do not kill off the eye-candy is one of my tenets.

I approve of that - Watchmen should have listened.

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

I agree about the girls! (Still not sure about Veidt.)

Mind, it's a superhero movie… Maybe it was staged, so they could go undercover? There's always a get-out clause in films of this kind!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I like that explanation. After all, no one in comics is every permanently dead.

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

Exactly! I see no reason to assume the worst. Given her background (she's Austrian Jewish), maybe she's gone on a top secret mission hunting down fugitive Nazis?

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Very plausibly! Or under cover elsewhere because she wouldn't like the way US society went after the Keene Act.

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

Indeed. I certainly suspect she's gone back to Europe.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Tempts me to write fanfic telling her story. If I had time. Which I don't. I like the idea, though.