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Author Topic: Top 5 Books that should be movies  (Read 22005 times)

wilson1290

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Top 5 Books that should be movies
« on: August 23, 2006, 09:16:30 PM »
Here's my list

1. The Things They Carried:
Having a minor in U.S. History, there was one point in my life where everything I read was Vietnam, I cant remember most of those books but Carried is steeped into my mind. Moving, funny, and calling to be filmed.

2. The Kite Runner:
Probably will be a film a couple years from now, I love the book from the moment I read it and it deserves every ounce of the praise and fanbase its gotten.

3. The Plot Against America: A coming of age tale in an alternate American history where Lindbergh beats Roosevelt as president, come on that has to make for a great film.

4. The Great Gatsby:
Has been made into a film already but no one has come close to recreating the self-loving and self-destructing culture of the Jazz Age.

5. Bless Me Ultima:
A beautiful coming of age tale that blends fantasy with reality, I read it in junior high and Ive loved it ever since.
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circuitsnake

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Top 5 Books that should be movies
« Reply #1 on: August 24, 2006, 06:07:44 AM »
I dunno. I mean this seems like a book review top 5 not a film review top 5.

choatime

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Re: Top 5 Books that should be movies
« Reply #2 on: August 24, 2006, 10:15:10 AM »
Quote from: "wilson1290"


1. The Things They Carried:
Having a minor in U.S. History, there was one point in my life where everything I read was Vietnam, I cant remember most of those books but Carried is steeped into my mind. Moving, funny, and calling to be filmed.


I haven't read Carried, but I recently read and really enjoyed Tim O'Brien's In the Lake of the Woods, and all the while I wondered if it could be made into a movie.  IMDB lists
a 1996 made-for-TV adaptation, but I am somewhat dubious.  It would take a really smart filmmaker, but I think it could be done really well.

I just now noticed that there is an adaptation of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time in production.  I'm really interested to see if Steven Kloves can pull it off.  It is such a wonderful book that I think could make a great film, but again, it could easily go awry.

MagnusFromBerlin

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Top 5 Books that should be movies
« Reply #3 on: August 24, 2006, 12:05:19 PM »
1. Douglas Coupland - Girlfriend in Coma
while reading this i thought this would make a rather good movie... it's about a rather strange apocalypse...

2. Philip K. Dick - Valis
with all the K Dick movies out, i wonder why noone ever tried this one... you could mix this perfectly with a Philip K. Dick biography on another level of the film...

3. Billy Childish - My Fault
i did watch "Billy Childish is Dead" yesterday, in the beginning Larry Clark discusses filming this book (never happend), i thought that's a great idea...

4. J.G. Ballard - High Rise
I wish Cronenberg would have filmed this early in his career, because reading the book the image in my mind was always scenes from "Shivers"...

ah. thought of a fifth one

5. Heiner Müller - Die Hamletmaschine
now, this is actually a play of which the Einstürzende Neubauten die an Audio-CD... if you could get the right director for it, this could make a great exprimental movie...  

-----

most atticpated currently in production adaptation would be "Where the Wild Things Are", Spike Jonze is doing it, I'm curious....

winrit

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Top 5 Books that should be movies
« Reply #4 on: August 24, 2006, 05:40:00 PM »
I would like to hear what CSSCHNEIDER thinks.  Any literature that has been overlooked?
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Wowser

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Top 5 Books that should be movies
« Reply #5 on: August 24, 2006, 05:52:07 PM »
The book I'm reading at the moment would make a good film: The Bird Artist, Howard Norman.

CSSCHNEIDER

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Top 5 Books that should be movies
« Reply #6 on: August 24, 2006, 06:42:28 PM »
Winrit, thanks for the plug.   I've been mulling it over in my head for a few days actually.  Its hard since I tend to read a lot of stuff after its made int movies.  But I've got some thoughts.

Survivor:  
This was mentioned in another thread.  Chuch Palaniuk's disection of a modern anti-christ and cult followings coupled with post-modern consumerism would make a really great film in the hands of the right director.  In those of a lesser talent could yield tragic results.


1776
David McCullough's broad disection of the year of our nation's birth won the Pulitzer.  It shows our forefathers as men, not the legendary giants we often grant them be.  While McCullough's other Revolutionary novel about John Adams is getting the Band of Brothers treatment by Playtone/Hanks and HBO, this would also make for a riveting Mini-Series.  

Redwall (Series)
I know that a BBC animated film exists for the first of this series, "Redwall" as well as one for one of its many sequels, but I think this would make a fabulous live action motion picture.  Combine miniature sets, with go-motion CGI enhanced characters and you have gold.  The story is about a mouse run abby being held under seige by a nefarious army of Rats, Weasels, Ferrets, and Stoats.  With the help of other woodland creatures the mice hope to stave off their enemies and uncover a mystery about their past.  

OK, the next two books I list are of SPECIAL SIGNIFICANCE.  As a filmmaker these are two books I dream of bringing to the screen someday.  They are really rather important books to me and ones I feel I would be able to do great justice to.

The Hiding Place
by Corrie Ten Boom

I read this book in 8th grade and its one of my all time favorites.  This centers on a family of watchmakers in the Netherlands during the Nazi Occupation.  Their religious beliefs cause them to join the Resistance and take into their care 6 Jews running from their fate with the Nazis.  What occurs in at once terrifying and a testament to the bravery of some people.  This book contains one of the most cinematic moments I've ever read in my life, one I recognized as a middle schooler as the stuff films were made to show.  The book also shows a side of concentration camps many films about this subject fail to deal with, the imprisonment of those who tried to save Jewish lives.
(There is already a film version of this, but it doesn't even come close to what the book can offer a movie.)

The Island
by Gary Paulson

Better known for his book Hatchet (An standard on many a summer reading list) Paulson wrote this incredible young adult story of a boy's reverence to nature.  
After his father is transfered to a small town time seems to have forgotten he makes friends with a girl his age and with an island that becomes his refuge and teaches him how to gorw up.  Its a bit pretentious at times, but ultimately it deals with becoming an adult, or at least a wiser teen in an incredible way.  It relates this boys journey to all he witnesses in nature, art, and beauty.  
If I made this I would cast Kristen Stewart in the female lead.  She's a really talented actress, perfect for the film.

This next book is one already in production, but its a runner up, if you will.

Torso
This may be a cheat as it is a Graphic Novel and is under development with David Fincher at the wheel.  I've stated before that this book feels a lot like Se7en, which it does.  Centering on Elliot Ness's later years in Cleveland, Torso is a true story of Ness's battle with political upheaval in the face of a serial killer.  Fincher, if he follows through with this, will make a pulp movie like we've not seen in years.
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CSSCHNEIDER

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Top 5 Books that should be movies
« Reply #7 on: August 24, 2006, 06:45:11 PM »
wilson1290,

I've read The Things They Carried.  Its a facinating book, one I think could make a good miniseries as there are scenes in this that could make hour long episodes in themselves.  Also, the book has something that might work against it in that some of it reads almost like stream of consiousness.  If done say by Terrance Malick you might have a winner.
Taste is discerning, not all encompassing.

It's Not What You're Like, It's What You Like

Know the Difference Between Arts and Crafts

"Pain is Temporary, Film is Forever..." --John Milius

Winner! BFCS Iconoclast Award 2007

alexarch

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Top 5 Books that should be movies
« Reply #8 on: August 24, 2006, 07:45:15 PM »
The Alienist - Caleb Carr - I'm surprised it hasn't been made into a movie yet.  I looked on the world-wide interwebnet to find out why and apparently Caleb Carr is in a continuing fight with the producer who bought the rights.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower - Stephen Chbosky - This book would have to overcome a few obstacles.  Like someone else's suggestion "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time," or "The Catcher in the Rye" the writer would have to convey the very specific and particular tone of the narrator.  Also, every character is a teenager, so it would have to resist being turned into a lame episode of Dawson's Creek or John Tucker Must Die...not that I don't like them, I loves me some teenage popcorn prattle, but I wouldn't want this book to be treated that way.  I would want for this movie to be indy and edgy - more similar in tone to Mysterious Skin.

How I Paid For College: A Novel of Sex, Theft, Friendship, and Musical Theater - Mark Acito - This is a book that I would love to be turned to a teenage sex romp, the sexier and booby and booty-filled the better.  This is a hilarious book.  I would love for Hollywood to turn out a gay-influenced teenage romp.  Unfortunately, the only people that would actually do it would be an independent with no budget, and it would be marketed to only the gays.  That would be a big mistake in my opinion.  This book is too universally funny to not appeal to the mainstream.

The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint - Brady Udall - Another book where the teenager is the protagonist.  The title kind of sounds like What's Eating Gilbert Grape, and the tone is very similar.  However, Edgar Mint is more of a loner searching for his father.  A really good book that made me cry more than once.

Middlesex - Jeffrey Eugenides - I'm surprised if it doesn't get turned into a movie.  It would have to be a very long movie or they might have to divide it into a couple of movies.  The multi-generational thing could be handled like The Joy Luck Club - in flashbacks, but the stories of the older generations are so rich I would hate to see it cut short like that.

Kilroy'sCarnival

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Top 5 Books that should be movies
« Reply #9 on: August 24, 2006, 08:33:58 PM »
This thread reminded me of an idea I had after seeing how Tristram Shandy was made into a movie.  But if I post it here, then someone might steal it before I write it! Yeah, that's it, I'm going to start right now, see, and when I win my Writers Guild award for best screenplay, I'll thank Wilson and the gang here at Filmspotting for the inspiration... who am I kidding. I'll give up and post it in a few days. Sigh.