Hey everyone, Brandi here.
Ilona Andrews are currently crunching to meet their deadlines, so in the meantime I’ve been tasked with updating the blog. I was trying to find something entertaining to talk about, and I remembered something I had thought about earlier and wanted to hear yall’s opinions.
Recently, I saw a trailer for The Kid Wh0 Would Be King. Now, I am aware that The Kid Who Would Be King does not derive from a book. However, its campiness and YA-oriented approach reminded me of what I personally consider to be one of the worst book-t0-film adaptations in existence.
I’m talking, of course, about the movie adaptation of Rick Riordian’s Percy Jackson & The Olympians. The book series had been an actual page turner for me, each novel being better than the last. I was so disappointed when all that promise was somehow dwindled away by a cheap and lazy rendition on the big screen that didn’t reflect or even really resemble the novel at all.
It wasn’t so much the casting that bothered me (personally, I loved Brandon T. Jackson as Grover) but the complete and utter disregard of the original plot and details. I was so frustrated as I watched it, because I actually went to the theater to see this and had been expecting one of my favorite books come alive visually only to be wildly disappointed.
I feel like movie renditions of books can either be absolutely amazing or completely horrible. I imagine a big reason behind this is the pressure to appeal to a mainstream audience who hasn’t read the books but may see the movie. But then the question is who are you really making the film for? Do you take a chance on that mass appeal or do you want to at least get the core fans of the books to buy a movie ticket?
The fans appreciate the attention to detail. With realistic expectations, we understand that it’s impossible to completely recreate the novel with actors because of the length of the narrative and books being a different media. But we want filmmakers to at least try. We still want a good story, not a patchy mess of random scenes from the book jammed together into an hour and a half of screen time.
I suppose my question for y’all today is what novel series would you hope to see one day as a feature film? And which already existing book to movie adaptation would you like to see redone, and why?
Thanks,
Brandi out!
My biggest adaptation disappointment was Harry Potter. Especially the last movie. I love the books and feel like the themes and important details got trampled.
The first Harry Potter movie got me to read the books, but I stopped watching them after the fourth movie because I lost interest. It seemed the further the series got the more oversimplified the movies became.
+1 on that!
I felt the exact same way… the books were a wonderful opening into the Wizarding World and each new book (much like the KD series) kept me waiting and wanting more.
I also liked the actors they chose for the parts, except for a few, and loved that these new visuals would populate the scenes as I read the books!
I was the same. Watched the first movie and then dived into the series. I wasn’t impressed with the preview for th he second movie so skipped those until a coworker talked me into checking out the later ones. Wasn’t impressed.
Worse, sometimes they tried to “do too much” – Goblet of Fire is the one that really turned me off of the films. To me, it felt like they took a random word from each page, strung them together, and called it a screen-play.
Yes!
+1 I agree whole heartedly!! Hugely disappointed from the 3rd book on ?
I’d love to see Kate Daniels – not on the big screen – I think it would be better as a tv series, there’s too much adult story to tell. I’d love to see Karen Chance Cassie Palmer / Dorina Bararab on TV as well, though it would be fun and funny, light relief. I’m currently re-reading Jill Kismet by Lilith Saintcrow and that would be good. It would be a dark and gritty and in line with perhaps a Hellboy / Consitantine vibe? I’m looking forward to Frank Herbert Dune adaptation by Denis Villeneuve. I haven’t read the books (well, not all of of them) but I believe Game of Thrones shows how brilliantly a fantasy show can be transformed and translated successfully, even when you consider leaving things out. A not so well done adaptation and which ruined it for me (despite some of the best, most awesome opening credits) is the Terry Brooks Shannara series. It was so young, so beautiful and all style with little substance to the material.
My most favourite tv adaptation so far is The Handmaids Tale by Margaret Atwood. I know some of the story has been changed as we are beyond the book now in series 2, but it so spectacularly conveys the fear, terror and oppression from the book. The acting is brilliant and the visuals along with the story are just…..amazing. And it isn’t just sci-fi or speculative fiction, the original story and tv adaptation meaning goes further than a shocking story. It shows how fragile rights are, how short a time we have had them, how much we take them for granted and how quickly and easily they can be removed.
For any great book or story, for me, TV is the most appropriate format for translating and more so in this golden age of television.
There is going to be a 2nd book from A. Margaret, I cannot wait to read that and I agree the tv series is a great adaption of the book and so was the original movie done in cough ahem the 80’s.
Agree, The Testements isn’t it?
yes correct – fast fwd 15 yrs in the future
Yes to Kate as a TV series! I’d need it on HBO or Starz so they’d do it just though.
Agreed – not on the CW and Netflix may struggle (thinking if Van Helson here, good premise, good start and it fizzled).
One of my favourite books is Ender’s Game and I was sorely disappointed in the film. However, it would have been difficult to film it as it was written given the implied ages of the characters at the beginning of the novel
That adaptation was awful- which was a travesty because the book was SO good! I have a feeling anything by OSC would be hard to adapt.
I’d love to see the Kate Daniels series by Ilona Andrews, Mercy Thompson or Alpha and Omega series by Patricia Briggs, or Anne McCaffrey’s Dragonriders of Pern to be made into either movies or TV shows by competent people. I’d also love to see a GOOD remake of Dune by Frank Herbert but I think it’d have to be a 2 part-er.
Angela – Dune wish granted (although I can’t tell you if will be good)!
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1160419/
Tv shows. I think Game of Thrones and True Blood have proved that’s the way to go.
Having said that, the LOTR movies are some of my all time favorites.
Absolutely! TV is a better format than trying to cram a book into 1.5 – 2.5 hour movie! It’s why HBO, Netflix and Showtime are doing so well with their adaptations. You can do a 5 or 10 episode arch and give you time for character development and PLOT that you just can’t do in a 2 hour format!
Yes! And Outlander on Starz has done a fantastic job. I feel that is partly to do with them working with the authors as well.
I did become disgruntled with TrueBlood as they left the book plots though. It got really wild at the end, and I didn’t even want to watch the last season due to that. Only change I really loved was that they kept Lafayette and that was solely because of the actor.
Years ago there was talk of making a Pern movie. Anne McCaffery told the story at a WorldCon (I think). The movie people felt that thread was not a good enough villain and wanted to put an actual person in charge of the thread. McCaffery had retained enough control to not allow the movie to be made.
Maybe someday her family will let someone make a good movie out of it.
I think the Pern series would make an amazing anime or game of thrones type show!! It would give them the span to really do it well, and I think with anime there wouldn’t be as much of an issue trying to get things to look good as there is with a live action show like game of thrones.
Yes please to Mercy Thompson too! Dune is being remade, and I am anxious to see how it turns out!
I would love to see Seanan McGuire’s Feed made into a movie. It’s a political thriller set after a zombie apocalypse. What else do you need?
My daughter loves the Percy Jackson movies, but I think it helps that she saw the movies first, then read the books a couple of years later.
I could seriously get behind that.
I find I’m leaning towards a bit of a less is more when it comes to most special effects – not because I don’t like massive things blowing up as much as the next person, but most filmmakers are so wretchedly dull in how they handle it. They don’t keep it visually fresh, and they don’t keep it driving the plot, and I get kind of bored and numb. (Counter-example – Fury Road, which was bonkers.) So I wince away from a lot of Fantasy epics, because I’m afraid they’ll just be trashed.
That’s a hard question. I feel like any book series that I really love I don’t want to see on the screen. I’m going to be disappointed and just don’t to experience what it sounds like you went through with the Percy Jackson series.
I guess I would pick L.O.T.R. The adaptation wasn’t bad. There were a fee things I’d like to change, sure, but overall I still enjoyed the movie franchise.
I really like Fellowship of the Ring. The others? Meh.
(I like the third Harry Potter movie for totally different reasons.)
I would love for World War Z to be redone as a miniseries in a similar format to Band of Brothers. Start the episode with the interview and flashback to the action.
Agree! I think the only thing the book and movie had in common was the title.
I typically won’t watch a movie if I’ve read the book because it makes me too angry. That being said, the only two movie adaptations I can say I really liked are The Hunt for Red October (only Sean Connery can pull off a Russian with a Scottish accent) and The Shining.
Ditto for “The Hunt for Red October.”
I feel that books, especially series, can be better served by being adapted into a limited series by people who are committed to telling the story. Unfortunately, many books I love would be too graphic on the screen and I wouldn’t be able to watch them.
I’d love someone to redo the Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind (I know that was done as a TV show instead of a movie but still). It was horribly botched. Barely followed the book at all. I can’t even begin to describe my disappointment in it.
Also it’d be wonderful if someone made a screen adaptation of the Kate Daniels series, and the Iron Druid series (Kevin Hearne).
Jim Butcher’s Dresden files would be good (the TV series wasn’t terrible but too short) also Kevin Hearne’s Iron Druid series would be amazing.
Yes to Dresden!
+1
Oh boy. There are so many book-to-movie adaptations that have completely bombed, like Eragon and Ender’s Game… but an up-and-coming adaptation I’m quite worried about would be the Artemis Fowl series… They’ve already planned to change up characters….
However, I would love to see the Innkeeper Chronicles series on screen or the Mercy Thompson series by Patricia Briggs!
I second the Eragon comment. That is the only movie my husband and I have actually walked out of before the ending. My favorite book adaptation was Lord of the Rings.
So disappointed in Eragon and worried about Artemis too! Those were excellent audiobooks when I was traveling. Always exciting!
Did you see where Amazon is making a Wheel of Time series?! I get stomach pains just thinking about it. If it is awful I will be devastated, but how could they possibly make it as good as the books? Those HUGE books! As a family of four, we wore out two complete sets of paperbacks, our hardbacks are shabby now, and I still reread them on a Kindle app. I paid for HBO when I heard they were making Game of Thrones, waited forever, watched 2 seasons, then gave up on the series entirely b/c GRRM won’t finish the danged books.
I love Wheel of Time, its my all time favorite series for an epic series (still love KD obviously). I think Rafe is a fan and Harriet is a consultant so I’m optimistic that they will get the themes right. It will never equal the books but as long as the themes and characterizations remain correct I will be fine with it.
This was my first thought. I do have hopes it will be okay. Not a ringing endorsement!! Just as long as it doesn’t suck. But there has to be SO much they’ll have to leave out or change.
I want to see Kate on the big screen!
Biggest disappointment was Dune. I would love to see that redone.
Worst for me was the TV series of Bitten by Kelley Armstrong. It was so disappointing compared to the books. I didn’t hate True Blood though it diverged quite a bit from the books. I liked the Harry Potter movies and The Lord of the Rings trilogy. I, too, would love to see Kate Daniels or Anne McCaffrey’s Dragonriders of Pern as a TV series but only if it was really well done, otherwise I’d prefer to use my own imagination.
I was disappointed with “Bitten” as well. I think the woman that played Elena wasn’t that bad but I did not care for Clayton and Jeremy. I was also disappointed with “True Blood” because I felt they focused too much on the sex and they changed the characters too much but I think most will be let down if a book or series they’ve read a number of times gets adapted because they know what the story and characters could be and don’t often understand why they would change it.
I don’t want ANY of my favourite books to be made into a film. Leave them alone, Hollywood, I’ve seen what you’ve done before and it’s frankly disturbing. I will never forget the hatchet job performed on ‘The Little White Horse’, and even casting Ioan Gruffudd couldn’t redeem how badly it had been butchered. *Shudders*
Agree – I generally don’t watch adaptations because they butcher the book.
The basic problem is that they are two different mediums that focus on different aspects of the work – books (the good ones) play into the imagination of the reader. The author creates a world that the reader envisions and each readers has his/her own imagine. The movie can never capture the same images for everyone and have a tendency to default to action to bring in the biggest crowds
Agree ENTIRELY. I have stopped watching any of them. The more I love a book/series, the less likely I am to be willing to even try to watch. Narrow-minded of me, perhaps, but “The Little White Horse” is a great example: I’m tired of the wreckage of my favorite stories. I’d love to see IA have the success of a film/tv sale, but I wouldn’t watch the result for love or money.
Ready Player One movie was a real disappointment. The book created a depth I enjoyed. The movie was really oversimplified. I would like to see it redone.
I loved Susan Cooper’s series ‘The Dark is Rising’. When it was made into a film it was terrible! No wonder they didn’t go past the first book.
I still reread that series!
Excellent series! The movie hurt my heart.
I was so looking forward to that movie…only to have that horrible mishmash. Unfortunately the same thing happened to a Wrinkle in Time, one of my all time favorite books.
Hands down the best book to movie adaptation is Grisham’s A Time to Kill. Stuck to the plot faithfully. Loved it. In general I don’t like movie adaptations from my favorite books. I might watch them on cable later but I’m not plunking down money at the movie theater. I’d love to see a Game of Thrones type cable series of the Wise Man’s Fear by Patrick Rothfuss. Like GOT the book series needs to be finished first.
I would absolutely love and hate for IA books to be turned into movies. Historically, there has been very very few books that had made it into the big screens with the right tone and feel to the original story. Let’s for a minute forget the deviations from the original plot, which could be annoying to fans, but what matters most to me is the general tone of the movie.
IA books are written in the first person. These books have an amazing amount of details, what Kate (or Nevada) sees, hears, senses, and most importantly, what she feels. You cannot proper share her thought process (detailed in the narration) in the movie. The actor simply can’t act out all the emotions that is clear in the book.
I like books with a good amount of detail describing everything. The surrounding scenery, the clothes, the expressions, the protagonists’ analysis of the situation, etc. In movies, unless you have a Sherlock Holmes / Watson kind of dynamic where they can discuss everything, thus explain to the audience in a feasible way, it would look stupid if your main character keeps on talking with his/herself.
So, as much as I would love Kate or Hidden Legacy come to life in the big screens, I think it would just ruin a good thing.
I hated the tv adaptation of Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander so much that I called the cable company and removed Starz from my lineup.
So sad! I think it’s actually been well done, but that’s just my opinion. Always nice to meet a fellow Outlander lover though!
I couldn’t watch all of the L.O T.R movies. They went soooo far away from the books, and did NOT even have a MENTION of Tom Bomdadil. The movies were gorgeous, and Tree beard looked perfect, but I grew up on the books…
The loss of Tom was one of the disappointments, but I felt like they didn’t totally murder the books like so many others. Hard to make something so epic into an exact movie though. I think people are correct about TV series being the better option.
Remade: Divergent movies (1,2 & 3) Plotlines and acting too outside of the book realm for my taste.
If The Others by Anne Bishop were made into a TV series or movies I would love it. The Hidden Legacy and Inkeeper as well. But I admit that I”ll be dissapointed if directors, screenwritters, etc, were unable to be faithful to the book’s spirit in each case (i.e Harry Potter have several differences but overall I consider them fairly represented).
I was so disappointed by Jurassic Park. Do’n’t get me wrong, I enjoy the movie, but from the first time I saw it to the most recent time I watched it (which was last week) I always finish the movie saying “why did the have to mess up Hammond. He is evil and must DIE”
As to a book I’d like to see adapted to a movie… I think most of the series I read are too long to be easily adapted to film. I think a 3 book series is about all that you can expect to be done and be done well. When you consider the time it takes to produce each movie, to keep the movie series going strong and the appearance of the characters close to the same throughout you really need to be making only three or four movies. And most books I enjoy have a lot more books in a series than 3.
I was real young when JP came out and for me, it was magic.
I have a different opinion, I am glad the movie differs from the book because the girl was so irritating in the book. I do agree with you on Hammond though.
I would like to see “Ella Enchanted” redone. None of the ridiculous fighting she was doing on magical folks getting equal treatment or her ability to defy physics because someone told her to. I also would love for “The Thirteenth Tale” to get a big screen adaptation so more people could see it.
As for what books I’d like to see adapted, I’m shocked “The Long Walk” by Stephen King still hasn’t be done. I’ve heard talks about it being adapted but so often movie deals fall through. It’s fairly simple but with the love of dystopian novels being made into films the last few years, it’d fit right in. Also, I’d love if they did Piers Anthony’s “Incarnations of Immortality”. I think the books would be great for a mini-series. Each book could easily work out into 1-2 episodes.
would so be all over anything done by Piers Anthony
I prefer my favorite books not to made into movies. Honestly, what actress could do Kate Daniels, Nevada Baylor, or Mercy Thompson justice? When I read a book I love my vision of the wonderful characters within become cemented in my mind. Things like what they look like, what they sound like, what they say, their facial expressions etc. I’m usually disappointed in the movie. The characters are not what I have pictures and some of the parts I like best in the book are changed or omitted.
Eragon. It was soooooooooooo bad, it hurt. It wasn’t my favorite series, but an easy read that I thought could be done really well on the screen. I think I watched the first half hour, then shut off my TV in rage at just how god awful it was. I didn’t particularily enjoy the Harry Potter movies either, not because of the casting (although I don’t care for Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint made up for him), but because what I pictured in my head was so much better than what the directors and CGI did.
I would love to see Tamora Pierce’s Tortall series, but I’m worried they’ll kiddie it up too much, or adult it too much. Pierce’s books are a CONSTANT re-read for me (all of them), even years later. Her books are the perfect coming of age sotires to me, and Hollywood never seems to get the balance right on those for me.
It’s so nice to read that there are a lot of other Tortall-fans among the BDH.
Deborah Harkness’ All Souls Trilogy is in production. The first book made into a series and while there were differences they stayed true to the story. I enjoyed it and look forward to book two. I was also disappointed in the Percy Jackson movies because I loved the books…the Clive Cussler book Sahara was also a cluster. I’ve loved his books and thought they would make great movies but they really messed that up. I think The Kate Daniels series would make a fantastic Movie, but you have to retain major creative control or someone can muck it up!!!
The 1st Percy Jackson was waayyyy better than the second(except for the Nathan Fillion cameo) but the 4 that read the books in my house were let down by some of the missing pieces. That’s true of any adaptation, though. Sometimes my favourite parts are different from the screen-writer’s and just don’t seem as important to the story as they do to the character.
Things I’d like filmed: Michelle Sagara’s Cast books done as a series. Tanya Huff’s The Silvered as a feature AND the Valour books as a series. Then maybe The Last Herald Mage by Mercedes Lackey. Anne Bishop’s Others, Alan Cole and Chris Bunch-Sten books. The Raven books by Patricia Briggs would lend themselves very well to a movie or two. If doing Ilona Andrews? The Innkeepers would be outstanding!
Redone? A Wrinkle in Time. Shannara. Dresden Files. The Help.
Worst book to film that comes to mind is Raise the Titanic by Clive Cussler not at all like the book. I would like to see JD Robb’s In Death series, but only if done well and better than Nora Roberts other books that have went to films , again as the books were far far better than ones put on film for TV. i love a to read and hate a great book ruined by cutting out large (and to me)important bits just to squeeze it into a 1 to 2 hour film.
Wheel of Time- I am alternatively terrified and delighted to see how that turns out.
Brandi I’m with you on the Percy Jackson series. I was so unhappy and in the theater going they were twelve not sixteen,she has blonde curly hair not brown straight hair, that’s not how any of this happened. I am number four was closer but not completely right either.
I would love to see Kate and Dina on the big screen and Mercy and Jane Yellowrock but I’m so scared that they would be so messed up that I would hate the movies.
The tv series are not any better they ruined Bitten, Vampire Diaries and True Blood to the point that they were so far from the books that they were just using the characters names.
For tv series I would love to see the Assassins Academy by Stacey Bruton. Night Prince Series by Jeaniene Frost.
I wouldn’t want any of my favorite books to be made into a movie or a series. I love the characters and the worlds as I see them in my head. So far, every adaption I have watched has ruined the pictures I had in me head…
I would love/hate to see the JD Robb In Death books made into a series. They could be great, but it would depend on so much.
Agree w/all above especially Percy Jackson and Eragon, they were so disappointing.
I really enjoyed Umbrella Academy on Netflix. It differs from the original run of comics and I’m ok with this. I enjoyed the adaptation. It was good enough for me to hunt down Dallas, the next set of Umbrella Academy comics.
I prefer series over movies because you can do more and touch on more story arcs.
That said, I would love to see Kristen Callahan’s Darkest London and Burn For Me by I.A. done in a series format. I think they both lend themselves to the serial and POV jumping that’s been popular in TV series lately. And, neither of those series would hurt too much of it wasn’t a shot for shot remake.
Kate Daniels or Iron and Magic, I don’t know if a movie or TV series could do them justice.
I would love to see KD as a well produced series, though I think it would be exceptionally difficult to make. I’m eagerly awaiting “Good Omens” on Amazon Prime, I absolutely loved the book and thus far the teasers look awesome. I think having Neil Gaimen so involved in production probably helped maintain the integrity of the story.
One of my biggest disappointments in the book-to-movie universe was “Eragon”. I literally spent most of the movie saying wtf throughout the entire thing. A huge shame, because the books were fantastic.
I would imagine an author has to have a difficult time deciding to hand over the reins to a director and script writers.
If you’re of a certain age, you may remember Little House on the Prairie – I remember being so excited when it was turned into a TV show, and in the beginning it was a lot like the books (otherwise, it’s always better in my imagination than on the screen).
I think my absolute favorite adaptation screen from book is Outlander. The attention to detail is amazing. I thought the Harry Potter adaptaions were ok, except Goblet of Fire. True Blood I also liked as I think the director got the feel of the book correctly he just took some artictis license within the world. Personally I dont mind when directors do that as they are artists being inspired by the books, its just when they rush the story or change things so much it doesnt even resemble the book anymore. I would love to see any of Ilona Andres books made jnto a series I think they would be amazing. I am most excited right now to see whatbthey do with Dune.
From a different point of view, I’ve heard that the movie “Stardust” matched the book quite closely.
One movie that could do with an ending that more closely matches the book is “Enemy Mine”. It’s a brilliant story.
Many of the books by Jane Lindskold would be cool.
I really enjoyed Lee child,s Jack Reacher series . Every book ,16 +
starts out Reacher is well over 6 feet , big build and not talkative . When Tom Cruise was cast I just could not get over the discrepancy.
I saw this image (hopefully it loads) and laughed until I cried and couldnt breathe.
I agree with the Percy Jackson novels and am further worried about Artemis Fowl coming soon. But the Hobbit mostly part 2 and 3 gave me a heart palpitations. I had to watch it in pieces. I felt like they took a simple book and added in sonmuch fluff it lost the plot.
I like going to the movies but I would prefer if they left books alone.
I have historically not enjoyed book-to-movies when it comes to Sci-fi and fantasy books. I think it’s because often, how it looks on screen is so much different that how I imagined it. As I’ve gotten older, I tend to watch the movies years after I’ve read the books, and the distance helps me to suspend my expectations of what I’m going to see and appreciate some ones else’s imagination at work. For example, the hall of prophecy scene in the 5th Harry Potter movie was fantastic.
That being said, I generally avoid movies from books that I really love. I know I’m going to be overly critical and hate them.
I would love to see Christopher Paolini’s Eragon redone by Peter Jackson… The books was so good I really enjoyed reading them all but the movie was horrible and dark. The books were so descriptive that in your minds eye you could see the blue of the dragons and of the giant jewels. The movie was black…
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel is the ONLY movie that is better than its book. The movie had a cast of excellent acting veterans who gave great performances. I think they also thoroughly enjoyed their roles. I found the book to be shallow in comparison.
Big novels should not be made into movies, it takes a tv series to do justice to one novel, Short stories are better starting points for movies, as the plot is already compressed and only has one or two main themes.
Some “novels” I find frustratingly short or lacking depth, and I suspect they were written with a movie adaption in mind.
The film adaption of ‘Eragon’ by Christopher Paolini is terrible. They completely miss out the time Eragon take raising his dragon from a hatchling which is so important as it shows the bond developing between dragon and rider. And they completely butcher the plot; missing of the end of the first book and sticking on the middle of the second book which means that they couldn’t have done a second film even if anybody had wanted to watch it.
Going back a bit there is also Judge Dredd (the Sylvester Stallone one). The film it self is not too bad but…Judge Dredd does NOT take his helmet off. Ever. I know that in order to get Stallone to agree to do the film they probably had to let him but frankly I would rather they had got a small name actor and done it properly.
As for what series I would like to see (done properly) it would have to be the Temeraire series by Naomi Novik. It’s basically the Napoleonic wars with dragons. Take ‘Master and Commander’ and put it in the air.
+1 for Naomi Novik. Peter Jackson did option it several years back, but I think it’s expired. Too bad! Think what he could have done with it.
+1 for Temeraire on screen! Would have loved to see Peter Jackson’s Version of it, as I mostly liked LOTR and Hobbit.
I always thought that the six-part BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice was one of the best book to tv adaptations. They stayed very faithful to the book. Also Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy was amazing.
oh yeah – that is an amazing and oft rewatched series, yup I even pull out my old VCR to rewatch it once or twice a year and agree it is close to the book.
Yes!!! Watch it almost every year. Best P & P done to date IMO. Love all the BBC versions of Austen’s books. I have them all. Firth is the only Darcy for me. And Ciarin Hinds as Captain Wentworth in Persuasion…. *sigh*
ERAGON!!! The movie completely failed to include the other races that were such an integral part of the books.
Casting is so important, though. Like the Jack Reacher comment above, I couldn’t get over how badly mis-cast the character of Murphy was in the Dresden Files TV adaptation. I’d love to see someone take another stab at that. Brilliant casting has saved a number of adaptations that would have otherwise been meh.
My basic rule of thumb is this: if the book was amazing, the movie is probably going to suck. TV series tend to do better. But even then, I often won’t watch a series that’s TOO faithful to books I’ve read because I already know what happens and it was probably better in my imagination.
Personal favorites: Stardust (faithful but stellar casting), The Red Tent, and the six part mini series adaptation of Dune from the late 90’s.
Janet Evanovich’s One for the Money was one of my biggest disappointment. The casting wasn’t particularly good, though the actors did a decent job. They just aren’t near what was described in the books. Joes character is supposed to be a Italian Sex God charmer and instead we get a pissed off Irish guy.
Several thoughts:
1. Well done adaptions I was generally pleased with: Holes, Ready Player One (given time and audience in mind since even reading it I missed historical nerd references), The Inheritance (How many people have seen AND read that one?!), and the most recent release of Sense and Sensibility on BBC as miniseries.
2. Frustrating Adaptations: Ella Enchanted (bar none the movie that most ignored the premise of the book as well as adding in extra and dumb content)
3. Adaptations I am GLAD I saw before reading the book as it inspired interest in the book or kept me reading when the book was dragging: City of Bones, Divergent, Game of Thrones (though that helped me realize my chronic commitment to favored characters would make this a heartbreaking series.)
4. Adaptions I would like to see: The Seer and the Sword by Victoria Hanley would adapt excellently! An adaption of A Countess Below Stairs or The Reluctant Heiress would be magical! An adaption of Silver Shark with the bionet and exotic world would translate to the screen well. There are a gazillion more including all Tamora Pierce or Robin Mckinley or so many others.
5. One should never let the movie tarnish the book or the book to tarnish the movie as they are separate experiences… Though I wish my brain would recognize this too! Thanks for asking Brandi!
Sunshine by Robin McKinley would be fantastic as a mini-series, especially if there was a second series telling what happens after they have destroyed Beau.
I was so disappointed by The Hobbit. It was a kid’s book! The movie was beautiful, but dark, an adult film, not at all in the spirt of the book.
I think the Innkeeper series would make a good TV show. Agree with some of the other posters that I’d love to see Pern come to life–but it would need a huge budget and the right people.
I think Katharine Kerr’s Nola O’Grady series would be a fun TV series too!
Cat and Bones and spin-off series by Jeanienne Frost. And The actors have to sound half as good as Tavia Gilbert makes me imagine the characters.
I agree!!!
Oh man. Redo The Hobbit. That was disappointing. The Innkeeper would be a fun movie
Hmmm. From IA I think Inn Keeper would make for a good tv series. Hidden Legacy both series,would likewise do well for tv. I’d love to see Ann Bishop’s stories on the big/small screen, Jennifer Fallen and Patricia Briggs. Truthfully, I have yet to really like any adaptation. The first Harry Potter movie would be about it. I just get too stuck on the book and the movie in my head.
I second Innkeeper and Hidden legacy!
I love the Innkeeper series. I found that world to be so interesting and think it would look amazing on film. The plots are tight and would adapt well to the big screen.
I would love to see any Ilona Andrews book made into either a live action film series, a TV or streaming series, or an animated series. Any of those — if done well — would suffice for me.
I’d also like to see Mercy Thompson and Dresden Files. I know the Dresden Files had a TV show at one time, but it was not done well, so I’d love to see that one redone by someone else.
Oh, wait, I just thought of some others. I’ll just make a list: Queen’s Thief by Megan Whalen Turner, anything by Larry Correia, the first six books of the Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich, anything by Carl Hiaasen that hasn’t already been made, and the Captain Lacey Regency Mysteries by Ashley Gardner.
I think my list is so long because, when I read, I often can see the whole thing play out cinematically in my head. That’s why my favorite authors tend to be the most adept at evoking clear imagery.
Dresden is being redone, according to the author site. I believe it’s through Amazon.
The Stephanie Plum 1st book was made into a movie but mis-cast (no one but Dwayne Johnson should play Ranger, IMHO) but was OK -ish. Katherine Heigl did a good Stephanie Plum, not too ditzy.
Dwayne Johnson was my thought, too. I thought Grandma Mazer was miscast as well. Unfortunately the people that would have been best were dead at that point (Estelle Getty and the old lady from Titanic).
As for books to movies, unless the original authors have a real say in the series, then I wouldn’t recommend any of them. I know people liked True Blood, but I just couldn’t get around to all the changes they had made to the characters and plot. I hadn’t read the Percy books, so I liked the movies fine (although I thought the first one was better).
None, they ruin a great book
Anything by Ilona Andrews would be great to see but I would think you would be best served as an animated series. That way ease of shifting, magic and casting would not be as hard to mess up. And as a serial it would be harder for the production company to justify taking out key parts and characters. The only thing I can take off the top of my head that would be reasonably easy to produce and I would love to see as far as live action is concerned is Jana Deleon’s Miss Fortune mystery series. As far as casting the only character I have set cast is Gertie. Betty White has to play her! No one else could do that roll the Justice it deserves.
This is strange I meant this to be its own comment but it works here too I guess. Maybe it’s just my phone but while I was trying to read all the comments the screen kept jerking up and down, going to different comments when I tried to scroll.
One book that I always thought would actually make a better movie than a book is “The lies of Locke Lamora” I think the visual medium would help it while still it maintains the air of mystery and confusion.
I would like to see Eragon redone. I really liked the books a lot even though I didn’t like the ending much. But the movie was a mess and the casting was awful. Talking about “But we want filmmakers to at least try. ” Well they didn’t!
I don’t really mind blackwashing or whitewashing or any kind of washing all that much in most cases as long as the character “feels” to match. But if we are talking about elf’s and the like we have expectations. The casting of Arya was an abomination to me. She is described as an ageless beauty with sleek raven hair, fathomless eyes AND pointy ears! How much is it to ask for at least the ears!! They already made her a curly blond blue-eyed giggly girl :'( She just didn’t feel/look like an elf at all.
The casting of the male lead was less dramatically bad, but he was a bit too green behind the ears to really pull it off.
And don’t even get me started on the dragon’s appearance!!! You’ll start a rant of epic proportions then 😀 The only thing I liked about that is the casting of her voice actor.
There are more things wrong with the movie, but this about covers the highlights.
Long story short. I’d REALLY love a do-over of Eragon.
+1 +100 +1000
I saw Eragon when it came out and was sitting next to a friend who had also enjoyed the books. I imagine we both had matching looks of horror on our faces throughout the movie… (It and the live action Avatar: The Last Airbender are the two worst movies I have ever seen. I remember almost nothing of them, and am glad for it…)
Yeah, Eragon was bad…
I ranted to my friend for a full two hours in the parking lot of the movie theatre after watching the last airbender movie. I was too mad to drive home. Ugh, just thinking about it makes me mad again
I feel like books into movies typically fail just because theres not enough time to encompass the whole book. No matter how they do it, it just always seems to fall flat for me. The best adaptations I’ve seen are usually done by drawing the book out into a tv show. Like the 1995 BBC version of pride and prejudice where the played out every scene over 5 episodes. The books we love are typically so nuanced and intricate that it’s hard to replicate and jam all into 1 film.
I kind of liked the “recent” incomplete Narnia films – especially the first one (in film-order.) Clearly, they were being trimmed down for the sake of the film, time, and all that, but there were some really great bits of “wonder” when Lucy popped out into the forest that first time. But then they started trying to do too much in too little time/space (I’m fairly certain I watched the third one..!)
But I’m also coming to realize, I’d really rather there be some “book franchises” – say, Ilona Andrews – and “movie franchises” that only exist (or at least start in) the TV/film world (say, Star Wars/Star Trek/Blade Runner.) That way, those of us with very fond memories of Book X won’t be horribly repulsed by So and So’s screen adaptation.
If I weren’t so concerned about screwing up screen adaptations, and maybe Anime might be the way to go, don’t forget Pat Wrede’s Enchanted Forest books!
(But I’d really hate to see someone butcher Bujold’s Vorkosigan books for the screen.)
I cannot even begin to imagine who would do justice to Miles!
Actually, the Harry Potter series was very well done because the author kept a tight control over the film. I believe it was in her contract that she had the final say on the script. I’m not sure about The Lord of The Rings series, but it was very well done. I taught those books to eighth graders and the movies were spot on – taking into account that they had to take out scenes because of time.
I think Harry Potter books 1 and 2 were done well, but then it got maknstream popular and they started to change things a bit… and they should have started splitting them into two from Goblet of Fire onwards (the lack of any actual qwiditch in the World Cup will forever annoy me) – and some of the details are missing too…
I don’t like how they dithered with Strider’s character in the movie version, giving him a fear of being like Isildor when in the books he was nothing but steadfast, but otherwise I agree with you on the Lord of the Rings. Well done. The Hobbit flew a bit off course though. Points for effort, if not execution.
Some said they liked Holes, but I was so disappointed by it. It’s interesting to see the number of people who like some versions while others don’t. Just a few to add that I haven’t seen on the comments so far:
– love Cassandra Clare’s book; movie sucked even though cast wasn’t the worst
– gonna own up to reading Twilight before it came out; again, some great actors over the films but so horrible! After that first film, I couldn’t believe they were green lit for more.
– thinking of Rob, I thought Water for Elephants was actually fairly well done
– The Giver was one of my favorite youth books; hurt my heart to watch even though I loved the cast
– I still haven’t watched Wrinkle in Time because that series was so epic to me when I was young, and I’m so concerned it will be awful.
– The Golden Compass was a crazy read; same theme- great actors, terrible movie.
I’ve enjoyed some adaptations, and I’ve already commented on them in the feeds, but there are so many more that have been flops. Now I remember why I tried to block them out. ??
–
There is a new golden compass TV series that is being made by BBC, hopefully that will float your boat :p
This. Just check out the cast, it’s going to be brilliant – God bless the BBC.
Would love the innkeeper.
I don’t know about Kate Daniels, you would need someone very talented to portray her, not only her fighting skills, but her humor and drive . And then Curran, Saiman, . Roland OMG, he would a dream for a great actor . Ilona has some very distinct quirky personalities that we love , but might be hard to realize on the screen.
I love Cat and Bones, would like to see them come to life.
Pat Briggs and Mercy Thompson is a great series, she might be cool but Bran might be hard to cast. Warren , great cowboy werewolf that loves Kyle a humanwho is an attorney. I would love to see them. And Honey, a beautiful blonde who is alsofierce werewolf fighter.
I love Nalini Singh Psy series, great characters, great stories and locations.
Also, Seanan McGuire and her October Daye series. She has a wonderful complex storyline and I love October, she is strong and complicated and loves Tybalt.
I like some of Sherrilyn Kenyon dark hunters.
And then we have J R Ward Black Brothhood.
Huge tattooed warriors, that fight and have mates and kids and cool names . The leader is Wrath who is blind and has a guide dog named George .
And recently I have fallen in love with Nicholas Petrie and Peter Ash. Great mysteries.
And Gregg Hurwitz and Orphan X .
Finally , just read a great mystery by Taylor Adams, called No exit. Just thrilling.
I read a lot. And love books and certain characters.Gail
Brandi, it is always lovely to hear from you and love your ideas and posts. Keep up the good work.
+1 Nalini Singh
Fun topic. Someone mentioned Stephanie Plum – love to that re-done by someone who really enjoyed the books. To me, that’s the key to almost any adaptation from books to movies, tv, series, you have to get writers and hopefully a director who love or at least have respect for the original works. It totally shows in the finished product whether they do, or it was just a project for a payday. We all understand that there will be changes moving the story from one medium to another but with true care for the original material, those changes maintain integrity to its spirit, story, and style that make it a good representation. Then fans and those who have not ever encountered it before can both enjoy the finished product. Best selling stories appeal for a reason.
So totally correct.
I loved lord of the rings, really well done, and practical magic, which was actually better than the book! Gasp!
The chronicles of Narnia was excellent, but ” the lightning thief” was just awful! And so was ‘wrinkle in time”! Meg turned from a skinny redhead with freckles into an African American girl and the original themes were tossed overboard for something g more ” updated” and politically correct .
I would love t ok see “Jane Yellowrock” novels done. But it would be incredibly hard to cast tdd Jane.
I am going to have to disagree with you on Narnia. The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe was well done. Prince Caspian was a disappointment and the Voyage of the Dawntreader was a travesty.
Also, I give kudos for the casting of A Wrinkle in Time. I don’t think Madeline L’Engle would have minded the change.
I loved reading Eragon and Golden Compass when I was in middle school and high school and both were utter failures made into movies as well.
Obviously I’d love to see a well-done Kate Daniels movie or TV series. I did like (but not love) the Harry Potter adaptations. The Giver I thought was well-done too.
Did you see the trailer for the new TV adaptation of the Golden Compass? I also thought the movie was a disappointment.. I hope the TV show will do the book justice.
They did Kelley Armstrong’s, Bitten. I saw it when I was living in Canada. Because I really enjoyed the author, I made myself watch the whole first season. There was not a second. She must have relinquished a good deal of control, because it did not tell her story…and was borderline porn. I’m still disappointed. Please AL, if you go to the big screen, protect your work. Don’t let Hollywood, or anyone else, ruin that wonderful thing you have. It’s so very special.
I would love to see The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August turned into a mini series. I don’t think the movie would be the best idea for a book that dense, but I definitely don’t think it needs an entire ongoing series
Agree re: Megan Whalen Turner’s Thief series.
I think it would be both ironic (given the series’ genesis as ‘fanfic about a show that never was’) and fantastic to see the Shadow Unit series by Elizabeth Bear, Emma Bull, Will Setters, Leah Bobet, Sarah Monette, others.
Because of the adult themes in most of the books it woud have to be on cable, but tech is good enough now I think to do justice to Anne McCaffery’s Pern series.
YES! and Lois McMaster Bujold’s Vorkosigan series and Sharing Knife.
Done well, “Pern,” would be superior to, “Star Wars.”
Imho
Totally agree with you Judy B! I read Dragonriders of Pern when I was in 5th grade and that started my love forever of sci-fi/fantasy fiction. Would love to see in my lifetime but only if done extremely well. Otherwise I’ll keep my version in my head. *grin*
Absolute worst adaptation (deviation from book characters plot, etc.) that worked brilliantly as a completely different storyline: How to Train Your Dragon. Toothless is a totally different breed of dragon and is courageous instead of a bullheaded little snot. I love both the books and the shows/movies. The books have a totally different voice and characterization and why and wherefore. Both are funny, poignant, and tell great stories.
My sibs (adults all) and parents (in their mid to late 60s) all sat down and listened for hours to the audiobook of book 1. They loved it-Toothless is such a naughty disobedient little snot. We’ve all seen the movies, though Dad didn’t mean to get caught up in it, he watched nearly the whole thing and buys Toothless themed stuff for my youngest sister for her collection, despite her being an adult with a home of her own…
While I can understand why the entire contents of a book can not be shown on screen, I want the sticking points of the plot and characters to be there. Harry Potter had that continuity for me (thanks Rowling). Harry Dresden was a partial success, but Murphy was All Wrong, for me… Alita: Battle Angel stayed true to the story that I can remember, but I don’t let myself refresh my memory/knowledge of the books for movies I want to see.
The thing a hate: when the adaptation turns people off of the books which loses sales for the author. The movie should make people want to read the book to delve deeper into the story for all the juicy gobets that the movie left out. A movie should not just half-heartedly trip through acting out the picture from the book’s dust jacket!
I totally agree that first person books do not allow for the nuances of characters thought process and emotional roller coastering in an adaptation.
You may want to check out Memoirs of a Geisha. Book was in first person and is one of the best book to film adaptations I’ve seen (personal opinion).
Only if you don’t mind Japanese roles being played by non-Japanese actors…
I would love to see the Dresden files re-done. It came out around when Harry Potter was still popular and they completely messed up the plot line and had a while chosen one episode. A whole point of contention in the series and Harry’s past and a whole book focuses on how new wizards break the laws because they don’t know the Jedi mind trick is illegal and harmful. Also he spends a bunch of time romancing Bianca one of the villains. Bianca literally tried to kill him, corrupts his girlfriend and starts a war. Them being romantically involved annoyed me.
Sorry, rant over. XD
But other than that I’d love to see innkeeper or hidden legacy. Not sure if Kate could be done without an insane budget. And I like how game of thrones and true blood were done season 1. I had read them both before they came out. Also the farseer trilogy by robin Hobb would be nice…
The Divergent movie adaptation was completely butchered, so I would love to have someone do that justice, even if it’s the small-screen Netflix type movie. I would also love to see “Children of Blood and Bone” either animated or CGI/live action.
I wish there was a Kate Daniels series I could star in ♥️
I star in it every time I read it.
I rather like American Gods, the Terry Pratchett films, Game of Thrones, Babylon Berlin and Lord of the Rings.
Looking forward to Good Omens.
Hated Eragon and Percy Jackson, and had some issues with The Hobbit (it still gets a thumbs up).
While it would be great to see any IA work on screen, I would hate to see it butchered. The same goes for Patricia Briggs, Faith Hunter or Grace Draven – I love them all too much to see a crappy movie! Only if Peter Jackson does it or someone decent for a tv show.
+
I just re-read good omens for the 1001 time now that we’re closing up on release date! Whee!?
I would love to see the Hidden Legacy series turned in to a tv show/ movie and as I type this my brain mixes Days of our Lives with Hidden Legacy’s characters….
A redone version of The Stand by Steven King, The Honor Herrington series by David Weber or The Nine Princes of Amber by Roger Zelany as a movie. My list could be very long.
I would love to see an “Innkeeper” series either on HBO or Netflix. The story possibilities are endless.
I am not a big movie watcher. I usually don’t watch movies or shows made from books that I enjoy. Part of the problem is I know it won’t be just like the book and they never ask me who they should cast!
However there are a couple ones that I have enjoyed the LOTR series and I think it was because it was a long time from me reading the books to when the movies came out. I also for some weird reason enjoyed Hitchikers guide to the Galaxy movie, probably because of Alan Rickman. Around 1980/81 for high school we read and watched “To Kill a Mocking Bird” to this day it still speaks to me. Gregory Peck seemed so powerful in black and white film I couldn’t conceive he could lose the case.
That being said I think JD Robb/ Nora Roberts “In Death” series would probably make a good series but I would hope they would keep true to the storylines. Also try to do casting that actually replicates the characters. While they can do a lot with makeup if a character has black hair either cast someone with black hair or dye it. Same goes with height and weight.
Yes!!! I love In Death, too.
I would also love to see Anne Bishop’s The Others series in film.
The one In Death book that popped in my mind is “Origin in Death” (aka the Icove Case). This was filmed in the book (see “Celebrity in Death”) thanks to Nadine Furst writing the book about the case. If someone took the Icove case on with Nora Roberts having control over the casting and the way it is done in the book, I think it would be a good movie. 🙂
I’ve always imagined Hilary Swank as Eve. Never figured out who could play Roarke, though.
None! Because it’ll get screwed up and once seen, certain things can’t be unseen.
I’m getting more interested in the question of WHO will serve the story best when making an adaptation, and which format is most effective.
Who would do well with Kate’s world, Shonda Rimes or Joss Whedon? (Or is there a member of the BDH who could take this on?)
Which is better for the story’s world? Book series to tv series (and should it be limited or ongoing?) Or, book series to movie, to movie series(a la HP or LOTR) or to integrated movie/tv mediaverse (a la Marvel/Avengers)?
Would it be better to see Dina and Gertrude Hunt via CGI or IMAX?
And has anyone mentioned the Diane Duanes’s Young Wizards or Patricia Wrede’s Enchanted Forest chronicles yet?
I think Young Wizards would be a good Netflix show, but not a movie. I think they’d go the Percy Jackson route if it was a movie.
I don’t know if it because I saw Cloud Atlas before reading it, but the movie to me was better. In general though movie adaptations just don’t do it for me.
I don,t usually watch movies where I have read the book first. It seems mostly a disappointment. And vice versa, the movies that I see before I have read the book don,t seem as good. But if there was one movie that I would like to see redone it would be Dune by Frank Herbert. Me and most of my friends that had read the book either howled with laughter or cringed in horror with a lot of the scenes in the movie.
They are redoing it. Announced some of the cast already.
The Innkeeper series would be great.
Love the Flanagan Ranger series.
The books I’d most want to see done as a movie are fantasy, and it seems like it’s… a lot easier to make a bad fantasy movie adaptation than a good one. That said, my favorite books growing up were Tamora Pierce’s books, and I would love to see something of hers on the big screen, if done well. I don’t think it’s likely to happen, but I would love it… (Pretty sure it’d be easier with her Emelan books than with the Tortall ones.)
I also think it would be fun to see Brent Weeks’s Nightangel Trilogy as a movie- it’s about a ninja assassin, so there’s plenty of action, and as long as the filmmakers could resist trying to make it darker and grittier than it already is (and don’t ruin the female characters, grr) I think it’d make for a fun movie. In a similar vein (but with showier magic), Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn books would be a visual treat.
I’d also like to see the Rachel Morgan series by Kim Harrison as a TV show!
I’d like to see Tamara Pierce’s Protector of the Small series adapted. Not too much magic to portray, so the budget doesn’t have to be prohibitive.
Yes I love tamora pierce! I was thinking they would make really good anime (because special effects and good costumes cost a lot and so they are likely to get it WRONG)
Oh man, an adaptation by the team and studio that did ATLA and Korra would be… So great. So, so great… Oh man. I never thought of it being animated. (I mean, an adaptation in Japan would also be good, but like, the writing for ATLA was so good (and if they did the later Emelan books, they would be more likely to not make all the characters straight) and the studio they used for animation was also awesome.)
I really hope the upcoming Wheel of Time TV show is good. It could go either way, right now we know way too little to say.
And in that vein, it is sad that the Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind was so poorly done. I liked the casting for Kahlan and Cara but the rest of the casting was meh and the writing sucked.
What could be really cool as a TV show would be Brandon Sanderson’s books. His mistborn world, particularly the stuff after the first 3 novels would be an awesome show
I would love if someone re-did James Clavell’s Shogun. It was made into a TV mini-series way back in the 80s. Unfortunately, James Clavell passed away in the early 90s so he would not be able to give any direction of a new movie/mini-series. Some of his other books were also made into TV mini-series that fell flat.
Jacqueline Carey’s Kushiel’s Dart series, Anne Bishop’s Black Jewels Trilogy, Your Kate Daniels series or Edge books, or InnKeeper series, anything by Scott Lynch or Joe Abercombrie. I could go on forever. This was just off the top of my head.
+1 for Kushiel’s Dart. If HBO isn’t at least considering it as a replacement for Game of Thrones, I personally think that they’re crazy.
I would love to see a good adaptation of the Dresden Files. Unfortunately, I agree with Jim that the best platform for it would be a netflix original animation or something along those lines. He is all for it, he just doesn’t have the time to put into making it happen right now.
I personally would love to see an adaptation of something from the Mercy Thompson universe, whether it be Mercy, Alpha/Omega, hell…I can probably watch an entire movie of Bran, Charles, Sam, or Asil just being themselves. ?
While I do like a good movie adaptation of a book or series, I think that with the new innovation on streaming such as Netflix and Hulu, it would be better to adapt it to a mini-series of 8-10 episodes that lets it have all those good plot stories and scenes that fans like. I liked the A Discovery of Witches TV and I later went to read the series because i watched the show.
Timeline by Michael Crichton is a great book but the movie was so disappointing! Also the Outlander series, the tv show is very welldone but just has something missing…
I would like to see Karen Marie Moning’s Fever series done as a series on Netflix or JD Robb’s In Death series ditto. I would also love to see a movie remake of Cassandra Clare’s The Mortal Instruments’ City of Bones, which I think received a hack job of epic proportions. About the only casting I agreed with was that of Magnus, who I felt was spot on. The others were pretty disastrous and the evisceration of the plot was appalling.
I’ll tell you what book to movie adaptation I’d like to see redone, Dune.
I was enthrall and captivated by the book but, as far as I was concerned, the movie was a huge disappointment.
I hear a remake might be in the works and with the huge leaps in CGI imagery I have high hopes of finally doing this epic story justice. With the right combination of top talent screen writers, directors, actors, and computer specialists I live in hope.
+1
+1
One that broke my heart was The Seeker: The Dark is Rising movie <>
They completely ruined the book of the same name in Susan Cooper’s Dark is Rising sequence.
For anyone who hasn’t read them you truly should give them a go.
Fabulous mythology & imagination dumbed down into nothingness (despite the always wonderful Ian McShane).
I loved those books until the end. I am still furious about the ending, even years later. Why, Susan Cooper, why?
I decided long ago that the series doesn’t have an ending. Sometimes it’s better that way.
Yes – to be honest when I re-read them I tend to end with The Grey King as Silver on the Tree upsets me too much.
Can still recite the poems though too to this day.
I think TV series are better option than movies when we talk about adaptations of books. They have more screen time so they can cut less scenes, they can show the story of the book without changing it too much (at least at the beginning) and have the possibility to develop well the characters. Of course, they are still two different ways of portraying a story so there are bound to be some differences but I think that with films it’s more difficulty to adapt a book or a series (trilogy…etc…).
I’ve wanted to see Sabriel by Garth Nix adapted for the big screen for a long time.
I also think that Bazil Broketail by Christopher Rowley has a lot of potential as a TV show or movie. It’s about dragon legionnaires! What’s not to like?
And if HBO isn’t considering Kushiel’s Legacy by Jacqueline Carey as a potential replacement for Game of Thrones I personally think that they’re insane. For that matter, Carey’s Santa Olivia has a lot of potential as well, and it’s pretty topical politically at the moment.
Oh, yes, and we can’t forget Seanan McGuire’s Into the Drowning Deep! (Feed would be fun as a TV show too, just to watch everyone’s reactions when they got to That Moment.)
Game of Thrones needs to be re-done!! Book one should have been at least 2 seasons! Not sure how all these people can even follow the plot without having read the book! What I would like to see ( if well done) in a series is The Innkeeper, Hidden Legacy by Ilona Andrews. I’d also like to see The Hollows, Jane Yellowrock, and just for fun the Cassie Palmer series. It seems like some of those action scenes were made for the screen!
Don’t be mean to me, bdh,,,
The ring in the movies bore no resemblance to Tolkien’s ring of power.
Nuff said.
“Gunmetal Magic,” would be an awesome movie.
I have made my peace with books made into movies and here is why: I work in a library and every time a horrible rendition of a beloved story is made, be it children’s, YA, or adult, the check outs and requests for those books soar. Doesn’t matter how suckish the movie, someone who would not have otherwise read the book will read the book.
This is why I am so excited for Disney’s rendition of Artemis Fowl coming out this summer. It is probably going to be a bad one-off but I don’t care. I love Eoin Colfer’s books (Holly, the fae cop kicks serious butt and his other stuff is great too, funny and sometimes dark) and now they are going out more than they have in the four previous years at the library. Viva la cinema!
+1 (Fantasy, sci-fi, horror book seller)
Agree with everyone who mentioned Ender’s game. The book was wonderful, the movie was a travesty. I understand that making a movie of the books must have been hard given the timeline and the ages of the characters and and and, but I really do wish Hollywood would stop looking at a book and thinking, “this is almost impossible to adapt to screen without fucking it up…oh well, lets do it anyway”
Both terrified and excited for the TV adaptation of Good Omens by Terry Prachett and Neil Gaiman. I loved the book and it would be wonderful to experience it again in a different format. I hope the fact that Gaiman is directly involved will mean it stays true to the book as much as possible.
Game of Thrones in many ways provided a benchmark of how to adapt fantasy books to the screen. I do believe that, generally, TV is a better medium for book series than movies. You have to cut a lot of detail to make a book fit in 2 hours.
Loved “The House with a Clock in its Walls” book as a kid, was disappointed in parts of the movie – the 4th of July ship battle in the backyard completely missing…..
why bother with CGI if you’re not going to use it for the really good scenes?!….
but the casting was good.
Agree totally about Dune, not a well-made nor well-cast movie.
I would love to see the Paradox Trilogy on screen
The worst book to movie is the Harry Potter series. How could they cut Dobbie funny scenes among others. My daughter who did not read the books loved the movies. I found myself saying what?. Oh no. But what about??♀️??♀️??♀️??♀️
I would ever so dearly want to see the Kate Daniels series as a movie, or even Hidden Legacy. But I think they would make really poor adaptations because the mode of storytelling in books and screen is so radically different. With KD and Hidden Legacy, we get so much rich, internal dialogue explaining the world that the movie/tv would have to pause in the middle of an important scene and explain all the things [I’m thinking, like, anime style, internal monologue narration layered over pic of main character w/ scrunch face.]. It would just fall flat because so much of the funnies come from Kate’s or Nevada’s explanations/thinking of the world juxtaposed with their reactions to it. InnKeeper doesn’t have quite the same problem because you can always have the Inn whip out a screen with the relevant information/documentary. Think of it this way, first, how easy would it be to adapt the book into a comic? Innkeeper: so easy, because it literally reads like a comic to me. KD/HL: not easy at all. Second, if a book can be easily adapted to a comic without a bunch of explanatory pages, it most likely will be easily adapted to the big screen [or little screen].
I think one of the best novel to film adaptations was ‘The Martian.’ Not because they got everything right – they didn’t – but because the filmmakers understood the difference between book storytelling and film storytelling. The novel is written like a captain’s log, so we don’t actually “see” things, just the main character’s opinion/reaction/detailing of the event. It’s funny as hell, because the main character takes quite a few liberties with what a captain’s log is. The movie does get the main character’s personality right, but if they were doing a direct adaptation, there would be no really personality to the setting. But, the film maker’s not only understood that they needed a setting with personality, they created a setting that matched the hardships the main character faced. We see not only his bunk area, but also pictures of his loved ones, which he didn’t talk about at all in the book. We see the HAB, but we also see, and feel, just how thin that material is between him and death. We see his body change, which he doesn’t really talk about. We see the world’s reaction to his “look, a pair of boobs!” comment. We do get some voice over, but it makes sense because we also see him making the log. It’s a wonderful adaptation because all the things the MC avoids talking about because it’s too painful in the book/captain’s log, we get to see now.
This is probably also why Harry Potter was able to translate to the big screen: because the books didn’t contain a whole lot of internal musings that couldn’t be covered up by Fred or George making inane comments.
I read The Martian before I saw the movie. Both were very good versions. The worst is what Hallmark did to For The Roses. They left out everything touching and charming in the book.
I debated with myself… should I or shouldn’t I post on this topic? My thing is I hate movies based off books. Hate them. The only few I could appreciate were Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. I found the movie had an epic battle scene, they got the characters right and Edmund was perfect. I also appreciated Peter Jackson tackling The Lord of the Rings. That was a HUGE world and what an adaptation. The thing with me is how I picture the characters in my head is waaaay better than any movie star. Harry Potter ruined it. The actors sucked at acting (except Snape and McGonagall) yes I hear you all booing haha! The characters I had in my head for HP were way better than the stars who filmed. I also dislike the adaptation, I know it wont be perfect but don’t cut major scenes and don’t change the characters from the book characters. That’s my rant. If any of my favourite authors were to have a movie I would not watch them. Just saying.
Well, Brandi, this is a tough question. I read alot. I gave up watching tv years ago as shows and movies did not match books and news was totally depressing. Same for comic book movies although Wonder Woman movie was closer in that movie sort of resembled comic book story in my opinion.
I think Harry Potter 1 movie and 2 were very close to books. Although I am a John Williams movie music fan, the score was well done too. Otherwise, I no longer expect book and movie to have any similarities. Based on book x is true for some movies. Others are A fantasy which is A shame.
Ilona Andrews Innkeeper series could be turned into live action movie– meaning real people or graphics. I think Hidden Legacy maybe. Kate Daniels and The Edge would be difficult. But best way anyway would be if Ilona Andrews maintained creative control. Otherwise it is someone else’s interpretation of their story/book.
I agree with other commentors about Bujold and Briggs. Maybe computer graphics are advanced enough now to pull off Bujold. Maybe.
Briggs though pulling off Bran will be very difficult in any visual medium. I have read her books and the graphic novels. Very different in that each medium has limitations as to how story can be presented.
I once saw an interview where a popular author said another author told him that once you sell your book to be made into a movie, you just have to let it go and take your money to the bank. I did not include names because I am paraphrasing. But it made an impression on me. How much control can authors have.
I really hope that the trend of more adult-oriented animations picks up. With the success of Castlevania (though I wasn’t thrilled with S2) on Netflix, I’d like to see more animated adaptations, largely because difficult-to-recreate things like “magic” and “advanced tech” that eat into budgets (looking at you GoT) would be considerably easier. (Much of which can look awful with bad/cheap CGI due to constraints. Just animate the whole show and you’re good.)
Adapting popular genre series (not unlike KD, for example) to Netflix limited animated series (10-13 eps seems reasonable for most genre books) would be an excellent step forward that I really hope the entertainment industry gets behind. I know that the perception that “cartoons are for kids” is still a cultural hurdle we’ll have to get past, but I’m hoping that things like Castlevania pave the way forward for such ventures.
In general movies usually fail to meet expectations. Much like Percy Jackson (which I loved as books) they cut too much and shrink narratives to fit time, budget, and bland generic audience tastes. When you’re spending millions to make a movie, you want to make those millions back. The most disastrous for me was World War Z. I have actually never seen the movie because the trailers alone told me that it was absolutely nothing like the book. When I heard it was going to be a movie, I was excited. I expected something more akin to District 9’s mockumentary style — interviews interspersed with acted portions to tell some select interviewee’s stories. Paramount basically purchased exclusive rights to the name “World War Z” and made up all the rest to make a bland, generic, running and fighting zombies movie. Which at the time were a dime a dozen.
I will also be honest and say that I have been less than thrilled with Gaiman’s American Gods and looking at the announcements for Good Omens.. I fear it will be more of the same. I understand that he wants to have a creative hand (yes!) and I understand there’s “more he wished to include” or even that American Gods needed some updating for modern times. But I think that sometimes things veer into odd or divergent directions that take away from the core story, muddle things up, or lean too hard into being ‘niche.’ Unfortunately that was the case for me with American Gods. And while I hope for better from Good Omens, I’m not holding my breath.
WRT original question:
I think any of IA’s book series would be great Netflix animated series. One book = one season of 10-13 eps. (KD would be my preference but Bayou Moon is my #1 fave IA book)
Saga (comic series) by Brian K. Vaughn
Abhorsen trilogy (The Old Kingdom) by Garth Nix
Fables (comic series) by Bill Willingham
The Nightside series by Simon R. Green
I’d say that I would honestly prefer animated series for all of them. The versatility of animation and the ability to have uncut narratives in limited/special series versus movies, are just so much better for adaptations than live action Hollywood films for me.
(P.S. – I like to pretend Dark Tower doesn’t exist.)
Kate Daniels. But I wouldn’t want it in a movie. But more a series on HBO or Netflix. I think it would be shredded in a movie format. There would be just too much being removed. Honestly, anymore I think that is the best format. I have been meaning to watch Terry Brook’s show Shanara Chronicles. I love his books too (my favorite was elfstones). I didn’t have MTV at the time so I never watched it. But I like the idea of a series more than a movie. For favorite books anyway. My son watched a series based on the Mortal Instruments and he said it was closer to the book (whereas the movie had to get cut and changed because it had been cut so much).
Books that I would LOVE to see adapted as films:
– Definitely anything by Ilona Andrews. I think the Innkeeper could work extremely well as a lighthearted yet poignant TV series with alien “guest-of-the-week” episode format :). Kate Daniels, Hidden Legacy or the Edge would have to have one hell of a budget and I am not sure that it’s even humanly possible to adapt KD succesfully.
– My dream is to see DWJ’s Howl’s Moving Castle adapted as a true-to-the-book movie. It has all the right ingrediences – adventure, magic, romance, humour… Miyazaki’s film was great in its own way, but we all know that the plot and characterizations were very very far from the original.
Imagine HMC adapted in the style of The Princess Bride or Stardust! Now that would be something!
– I am happy to see that one of my favorite series of historical romances – Julia Quinn’s Bridgertons – is being adapted by Netflix. I hope that it will be good and that it will open the door to other adaptations of historical romances (overlooked genre when it comes to big screen…), I personally hope for an adaptation of Lisa Kleypas’s Hathaways.
– (on that note, Sally Thorne’s Hating Game is being adapted as a movie and I am VERY WORRIED that they’re gonna ruin it)
Howl’s Moving Castle definitely needs to be remade. It was a really pretty movie, but plot wise a big disappointment.
I quite like the movie of HMC, even though it has only a passing resemblance to the excellent book. The movie is pretty, and at least we got a movie that’s watchable. It could have been so much worse!
+1
Anne McCaffrey Dragon books would be great to bring to screen. The special effects have improved that I think they could really come up with great looking dragons. But if you’ve seen Eragon you know they can ruin a great book very easily.
Agreed, Anne McCaffrey also has the Crystal Singer series, the Damia series, and the sentient plant PTB series that I would love to see as movies.
Someone told me there was a stipulation that her books could not be made into movies. Not sure if it’s true. I was also told that was a reason why Eragon never made it to #2.
Ohhhhh Bridgertons? I didn’t know that. That’s exciting.
I would love to see J.D. Robb’s In Death Series as a condensed movie/s or as an hour long series on a streaming service (or cable maybe).
I would like to see Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum Series movie made over because the first movie they was so not the book and a sad attempt.
I read The First Wives Club by Olivia Goldsmith in high school, and it was such a revelation. These women were used, damaged, and finally abandoned by their husbands. In the process of wreaking havoc and taking vengeance upon those that did me wrong, the first wives rebuild themselves, their lives, and develop new relationships and reaffirm old friendships. I love this book so much. There’s humor, yes, but so much more hard emotional work is done.
I was so excited when the movie came out my senior year in high school. Bette Midler!! I was less excited about Goldie Hawn, but ok.
Second scene in, I was already disappointed. The movie is all comedy and basic tropes about female empowerment but in my opinion completely missed the heart and soul of the book. And the plot got trampled!! Such a disappointment.
Oops , “did ‘em wrong”, not me.
Oh goodness, that makes me sad. I’ve never read those books but Hugh Wilson {director} was a friend and I saw him quite a bit when he was involved with that movie. 🙁
I loved the Wrinkle in Time books, but the movie seemed more about star names than the books, and the writing was mediocre.
However, now I that I have watched *The Umbrella Academy* on Netflix, I am eagerly awaiting Season 2, and I would like to go back to find Gerald Way’s comics that the series was more or less based upon. Maybe now that the TV series is gathering rave reviews, the older comics will be republished and the new comics hinted at will find a publisher. I love this series.
I keep waiting and waiting for a good adaptation of A Wrinkle in Time. It was my favorite book growing up and I still reread it occasionally. The whole explanation on tesseracts fascinated me so much I got my degree in mathematics. I’m always so disappointed! They leave out the heart of the story and it’s always just flat. I’m afraid I’m doomed to disappointment.
In the golden age of television is a shame to even try to jam an entire book in 90 minutes. I even found the harry potter movies disappointing.
But series like American Gods, Outlander, Umbrella Academy, His Dark Materials new series I’m the BBC, Good Omens, even Shadowhunters and True Blood are proving that a longer screen time resembles the setting of the books much better and allow for true adaptations instead of a quick recap of an entire story.
So true! I wish KD could be a series like GoT: one season for one book ?
That would be amazing!!
? I’m not sure what happened here. Don’t mind the crow.
I really LOVE that crow!
True Blood was such a great adaptation. But the Teagarden mysteries are not. I figure the KD could be done as animation. The Japanese do good animation movies that aren’t cartoony.
Has anyone read the book Ella Enchanted, and the subsequently horrible movie rendition of said awesome and beautiful book. One of the absolute worst book to film adaptations that i have ever seen. That book is so good and it deserves so much better. The cast was not the problem, it was the fact that the movie adaptation took a serious and moving book and turned it into a joke! Sorry, i will never get over my ire at the travesty and after reading this blog post, i couldn’t help but comment.
The book series/books that i most want to see adapted into a movie are the Ilona Andrews books! Specifically, the Kate Daniels series. The Kate Daniels series is my favorite series of all time, and I have re-read all the books so many times. It would be awesome to see the books made into a movie, but only if it was done well, of course.
Yes would totally love to see any of Ilinas books especially Kate Daniels and Hidden Legacy
Lol *Ilona* Darn autocorrect!
Yes, Ella Enchanted is a great book that got a terrible movie. But it would be a challenge to adopt, since so much of the action is within Ella’s mind and body, as she fights the effects of her “gift”.
I have seen the movie Ella Enchanted, but not read the book. So the movie worked for me. Interesting.
The Kate Daniels series is my favorite of all time, too!! I would love to see it made into a movie!! Just as long as it’s done well!!
If you want to see a fun review of the book vs the film watch this:
https://youtu.be/hzH43k96bZc
Wes – great link, and spot on review of both movie and book. Incredibly spoilery though, and the book is a fantastic read.
Agreed, Ella Enchanted was so disappointing. I was so excited for it, and for Cary Elwes especially, and it was all camp and none of the heartrending struggle. A missed opportunity.
Yes, I adored the book Ella Enchanted. It was one of my favorite books when I was 8-13. The movie just made me cringe. They should have stuck more to the original plot.
I think the problem with the movie version of Ella Enchanted is that the book was so dialog driven. There’s very little action and directly translating the story as written would make one boring movie. A good portion of the book is letters written back and forth. That’s one that should not have been attempted. It just doesn’t lend itself to a visual media. It works wonderfully as a book, movie not so much. But yes, they did make it so silly and so much drama.
I seem to be in minority when it comes to Ella Enchanted but I do enjoy the movie. It has low budget, slapstick humour and singing elves and yet I always smile and laugh when I watch it. And Cary Elwes’s over-the-top performance is to die for. Do not misunderstand me, I still love the book as well, but for me it’s one of those rare cases when I see the book and its “adaptation” as completely different entities. And if you let yourselves forget for a moment that the book exists, Ella Enchanted still works decently as a stand alone movie – which cannot be said for e.g. The Lighting Thief movie which is so poorly scripted and structured that it doesn’t make sense even if we ignore the book canon.
I recently watched Sundance’s adaptation of a Discovery of Witches and thought they did a good job considering the challenges of going from page to screen.
I’d love to see the Hum and the Shiver by Alex Bledsoe made into a great movie or better yet a series as it is a part of his Tufa series. Amazing storyteller and I’d love to hear the music that is such and integral part of the books.
I am very much enjoying the adaptation of A Discovery Of Witches (Harkness.) I am looking forward to seeing the adaptations of books 2 & 3. Fingers crossed.
I thought A Discovery of Witches was very well done, too
I just thought that they did such a poor job of casting the heroes in Discovery of Witches. The villains were spot on but had they never read any of the Twilight books to see how vampires were young not some old broad like they had for Ysabeau. She and Marcus were my two most disappointing castings. But the show itself was pretty good and Deborah Harkness got a cameo. That I thought was cool.
The ones I’d like to see turned into something (probably TV) would be AD Starrling’s Seventeen series and Michael J. Sullivan’s Riyria Revelations or Riyria Chronicles plus Innkeeper.
I want to see Jodi Taylor’s Chronicles of St. Mary’s on TV. Sort of Dr. Who without the aliens. 🙂
Seconded! I think this would be a great Netflix/BBC production.
Oh yes! That would be great! Genevieve Cogmans Invisible Library would be good too.
3rd, that’s a great idea
Anything Stephen King has written. It just doesn’t translate well. Also, the Charlene Harris Sookie Stackhouse books. The show drove me crazy. To be honest I try to see the movies first that way I’m pleasantly surprised by the books.
I really enjoyed the Sookie books, couldn’t make it past 15 minutes of True Blood. I don’t know why writers think nasty language is necessary, adds nothing and totally ruins my enjoyment.
After the first season of True Blood the story became that of the director, Alan Ball (I think that’s his name), but once I got past that disconnect I found the next few seasons enjoyable. While I read most of the Sookie Stackhouse series I really think that the director was a better story teller. (Disclosure: I will NOT read the last book and don’t think that I have seen all the tv shows.)
I enjoyed True Blood’s first few seasons, but the last season or two got really weird. Then it just got very bizarre with the “mother of all vampires” that had a religious bent to it. I tried watching the last season and could not get past the first few episodes!
I tried reading the books. I could not even get into the first book. The writing was SO BAD. I am sorry. Charlaine Harris is a terrible writer and if a book has terrible writing, no matter how original the plot, I will hate the book. So I think the show improved upon the books!
Hm. Okay, “When Worlds Collide” and “After Worlds Collide”, updated with modern SFX, good writing, modern science and politics, and sticking as strictly to the sequence of events in the books as possible. It would cost a fortune to make right.
I’d like to see the six Frank Herbert “Dune” books done as a six-season anime series. Full warnings about graphic content. None of the Brian Herbert stuff.
The “Clean Sweep” books would be filmable, to say the least.
I want Susan Cooper’s The Dark is Rising to be redone. This is a children’s series that I reread annually and I’m almost 40 now. It was so bad I didn’t make it past the first 10 minutes.
Yeah, that was a terrible adaptation.
I adored The Dark is Rising series and didn’t even bother to watch movie after seeing trailer. Moved it to LA. Like doing Harry Potter in 90210. I THINK NOT!!
Yes. So poorly done.
This is the first thing that came to mind. It was one of my favorite series growing up. Silver on the Tree was the first hardcover I ever owned. I asked for it as a gift because I couldn’t wait for the library to get it. When I saw saw the trailer I wanted to scream. No idea why they thought it would work if the set it in America.
I’m a reader. It’s an addiction. so I am all about the details books provide and how much they engage the reader’s imagination. There are some book to movie adaptations that I would probably refuse to even watch if they existed, since I love the books. If I look back to HP for example- I loved the books, but now details get confused because of the popularity of the films.
If I had to pick a series I would want to see on film, I would probably say chronicles of Elantra by Michele Sagara. For 2 reasons- 1. There is a lot to explore in the world which would provide some expansion to the story. 2 while I love the the series(probably is like 7 out of my top 10) , I am not attached to it so much that I would outright refuse to watch it if it were a tv series.
If there was a movie to redo – definitely Eragon. I really enjoyed the book when it first came out, but the movie was a MAJOR disappointment.
I think the Elantra series would also make an amazing Anime series, too. I am almost always disappointed with the casting for movies, which then ruins the book for me. If they made a movie or series of the KD world, who could possibly play Curran? And the actress cast as Kate could totally change the character and ruin it in the first scene. I think all of Ilona’s stories would be better translated as anime, but I am not going to hold my breath.
right! As much as I love KD – okay really anything Ilona Andrews- I would struggle to enjoy it between my impression of the characters and their relationships and that which the film/ series actually did. Sorry Ilona Andrews, but you are one of my favorite authors and I’m never quite satisfied with the transition from page to screen.
I know someone else mentioned GoT. I will confess that GoT is the ONLY book to tv series adaptation or even movie that I did not read the books for. Since I am enjoying the show, I refuse to read the books until after it’s all said and done.
I would like to see TV Series (maybe a miniseries, not a movie), based on:
Ilona Andrews: Innkeeper series
Tamora Pierce: Protector of the Small series and The Legend of Beka Cooper series
Lois McMaster Bujold: *Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance* and the other books featuring Lady Cordelia Naismith Vorkosigan, particularly *Shards of Honor* and *Barrayar*
Elizabeth Moon: The Serrano Legacy series (the Heris Serrano series and the Esmay Suiza/Barin Serrano and Brun Meager series)
and I would like to see Madeleine d’Engle’s Wrinkle in Time series done right.
Maybe with a miniseries, instead of a movie, the stories can be shown better without Hollywood’s glitz and glamour: more story, less star recognition.
I second a Tortall TV-series.
Well, I certainly would like to TV series based on Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan. For film serie I think that Rachel Morgan/The Hollows series would be great. Or maybe Nightside serie by Simon R. Green.
What I would like to see redone? That is easy: Fellowship of the Ring, Return of the King (Two Towers was actually best film of trilogy), mostly due to changes like too much focus on Arwen and leaving out of Tom Bombadil, Glorfindel, too little of Eowyn.
And the 5th Harry Potter film – it was too breef in describing Umbridge terror campaign and the Weasley twins part of resistance (actually best scene in the book).
Also I would like to scrub off my memory and off general existence holywood live-action remake of the Ghost in the Shell.
Also burn anything directed by Uwe Boll.
The worst book to film was The Shining by Stephen King. I loved the book. Animal hedges that come to life to attack. The inn actually being aware and forgetting to have Jack check on the old boiler so it ended up blowing itself up. And they couldn’t make that happen on film??? They had special effects back then. It was so ruined.
I’d love to see Jana DeLeon’s Fortune series made into a show. When Swamp Team 3 get up to their shenanigans, it’s laugh out loud hilarious.
I agree completely Swamp Team needs a series. I have laughed until I cried at their antics!
Hmm. ANY of Ilona Andrews’ books/series, but also any of Anne Bishop’s. Going with YA, I would do many illegal things to see Tamora Pierce’s worlds brought to life, and Percy Jackson done RIGHT.
-Tiffany
The Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich was a fav of mine but the movie “One for the Money”….not so much.
Hidden Legacy would make a great series. I think making books into a movie for the big screen is tough, I would rather see a TV series as you can get more out of it over a long period of time. But they did that with “The Magicians” the books where graphic the show was toned down but still good.
I… really… don’t want to see Kate or Innkeeper on the screen. Nor any of their others. NOT because I dislike them, exact opposite. But because I really do like my imagination’s version of everything and I think casting and having people say the lines would destroy my joy. I don’t even do audio books sooo there’s that.
I always wished they would do Anne McCaffery’s Dragon Riders of Pern, not because it’s a deep meaningful and powerful human story, but because… dragons!
Overall, I tend to avoid movies I’ve read as books first. Harry Potter has been the only exception. Others I just wind up sitting there going “Wait… that didn’t happen!”
I Am Legend was a real kicker to me, I LOVED the horrifying original story. Then Will Smith and his writer’s took it and butchered it, negating the entire point of the title. 🙁
I think, like book enjoyment, movies have a wide array of people they can entertain. What I may like, others hate, and vice versa. I’d just settle for original content that someone is making because they LOVE the concept. Not because paychecks are important.
I am still praying for Naomi Novik’s Temeraire series! Please!!!! The Napoleonic Era with dragons? I would so love to see this as a TV series!
Jim butcher or l.e.modessit both have several series/worlds that would make good tv if done properly. The characters are well done and the magic systems engaging.
Of course I would like innkeeper as a tv series.
They did do a Dresden TV series. It was a tragedy. They did great with the casting, and then horribly with everything else. I would legit love it if they could get Paul Blackthorne to play Dresden in a different adaptation. In addition to his name being 100% perfect, he did a good job with the role. I think the main issues I had with this adaptation were the completely unnecessary changes to the plot and characters, and the miniscule budget they seemed to have.
Rumor (confirmed by the man himself) has it that they’re developing a pilot for a second try on the dresden files. I don’t know whether to allow myself to hope or not….
I’d love for an Old Kingdom (Abhorsen) series, if it were done properly.
Martha Wells’ Murderbot series would be awesome if it were done right. If it were badly done, I’d never get over it though.
I was just thinking about the Murderbot series! Totally agree that if it was done well, it would be awesome.
I try to stay away from movies based on books because of how disappointing they are. After reading My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult I watched the movie. Big mistake! They completely changed the ending. I was so angry!
I actually preferred the movie ending, it made more sense to me. Having the younger sister die in the book felt like a cheap “gotcha!” at the end of a long, emotional, and sometimes tedious book. The whole point of the book was for Anna to make her own decisions regarding her own body… in the end, that power was stripped away from her once she died. I started avoiding Jodi Picoult books after that because of the way she often writes emotionally manipulative endings.
I’m almost always disappointed with films from books I love. I think it’s mostly because translation to film, especially with fantasy, is practically impossible. There’s just too much complexity that doesn’t carry over well. An example is Ender’s Game. I loved the film but at the same time was frustrated that there were so many wonderful things cut out. I get that there’s only so much they can put into two hours, so it becomes a “I loved it BUT” thing, haha.
I love all things Ilona Andrews but I honestly wouldn’t want to see any of their work turned into
a movie. I feel like it wouldn’t be given the treatment it deserves. Unless maybe it’s a big budget company and they did a series so they wouldn’t cut out so much–and that’s a big maybe. 😀
+1
+1
This is a list that could go on and on, simply because there are so many books I love. However, the movie adaptation of Eragon by Christopher Paolini was such an offense that the world is practically owed a do-over. I’m not saying it would reach Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter level, but with the proper motivation, funding, and original material consideration, it might have come close. It was based on a huge book with tons of detail, yet it was treated almost like a joke that no one ended up liking, whether bookworm or movie fan. Instead of watching something the movie market is already saturated with (I’m looking at you, Spiderman) get remade for the thousandth time, I’d love to see Eragon or any number of other mistreated stories give it another go.
Eragon was definitely an affront. The book itself wasn’t as good as I thought it was when I was 12, but the movie remains horrific.
I have strict rules on not watching movie/tv renditions of books. Watching them has been the start of much wailing and gnashing of teeth.
But like any rule there are exceptions. Exception #1 is the book and the movie are so incredibly different that it is basically different stories but with some characters having the same names. But the rule for the exception is I can do one or the other not both. Which is why I watch the How to Train Your Dragon movies, but don’t read the books.
Exception #2 is when it is a movie that is “inspired” by a book or play. Like 10 Things I Hate About You, you can see the Shakespearean spine, but they’ve taken it and made it their own.
I saw ‘How To Train Your Dragon’ as an adult and loved it, so I was exited when I discovered that they were based on a book (series). Especially since to book is usually beter than the movie. I’m afraid was rather dissapointed when I gave the book a try, since this adaption seems to be one of the exceptions.
They should redo the Harry Potter movies. The amount of crucial information that was left out from the books was disheartening.
I don’t think I’d like to see an Ilona Andrews TV series, per se, but I think KD and Innkeeper would make fantastic anime. Anime tends to do well with murderizing giant monsters and also balancing that with character development and emotions (looking at you, Daniels). Traditional TV tends to be constrained by budgets, which can make it harder to get good effects. Anime is more constrained by the skill of their studio/animators. I think I’d be irritated with how much would have to be left out of a movie to make it a reasonable length.
Excellent point about anime. I would support a lot more book series in animes than live-action.
Anime is definitely the way to go for fantasy. Series would be better than movies though.
Sci Fi did one season of the Dresden Files. Even with the author there, i felt it was a very low budget rendition of the series. There was no story we knew, it was all different , and they changed characters and their backgrounds :(. I was a Dresden movie based on a book thats done WELL.!
I really only enjoy books to movies if I either haven’t read the book in a very long time, or haven’t read the book at all. I think Dragon Flight by Anne McCaffrey with a bit of an update (to fix some things that were culturally acceptable in the 80’s, not so much now), would be awesome.
I would be interested in seeing a number of series turned into a TV series, though. The Mercy Thompson series would be great, as would The Innkeeper Chronicles. I would love to see Kate Daniels adapted, but each book has so much going on, I’m not sure it would work very well.
Yes….love Anne McCaffery.
I can’t think of any book I’d like to see as a movie. Now, a TV series?
For Netflix
– Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde
– Haunted series by Alexis Aaron
– Hidden Legacy by the authorlords ( I think this would be easier to adapt than Inkeeper or KD)
– Montague & Strong series by Orlando A. Sanchez
For Hallmark
– Dewberry Farm mysteries by Karen MacInerney
– The Wishcraft mysteries by Heather Blake
– Magical Cats series by Sofia Kelly
– Hat shop mysteries by Jenn McKinley
I don’t actually want Hallmark to do those books, I just figure that they’re the most likely company to make them! Generally, I’d like to see all the authors I read get a tv series ( make that money authors!), but I think most of the books would be too difficult to adapt and/or I can’t think of anyone to play the leads.
Anne McCaffery’s Dragon Riders of Pern – or of course – anything my Ilona Andrews.
The Dark Tower. Still with Idris Elba and Matthew McConaughey, but actually true to the book, and like 29387289 hours long to accommodate everything. XD
It has to be The Innkeeper Chronicles is got everything.
Ok,
I love this question. I would like… and this would be nuts. Robert Jordan’s wheel of time. The different cultures the epic scope, so much you could do!
Brandon Sanderson’s the reckeners series. Excellent premise, excellent options for drama and excitement.
Aside from KD and HL, I’d love to see Melanie Rawn’s Exiles, even though it is unfinished, Cecy Robson’s Wird Girls, and Marie Hall’s Kingdom series in movie or tv. Also, Kendare Blake’s Three Dark Crowns, Robin Lafevers’s His Fair Assasin, Pippa Dacosta’s Soul-Eater, and Yasmine Galenorn’s Wild Hunt. I think Little Women was my favorite book to movie adaption. Queen of the Damned was my least favorite.
I have always been a fan of Robert Heinlien. I would love to see some of his young reader books on screen. Podkayne of Mars, Star Beast, Citizen of the Galaxy or Red Planet. Then of course you have more adult books Stranger in a Strange Land, Glory Road or Farnham’s Freehold.
Of course the Innkeeper series, Poul Anderson’s Operation Chaos & Operation Luna. Also Piers Anthony’s Incarnations Of Immortality Books
On a Pale Horse, Bearing an Hourglass, Under a Velvet Cloak, With a Tangled Skein,
Wielding a Red Sword, Being a Green Mother, For Love of Evil, And Eternity and
Under a Velvet Cloak
I could go on & on but kids need tucking in.
The absolute worst film adaptation was Beast Master. Andrea Norton insisted that they remove her name from the credits. The movie had no relationship to the book. To say it was an abomination is being kind.
As a switch, Goodbye Mr. Chips with Peter O’Toole and Petula Clark was much better than the book it was based on.
Some of Larry Correia’s stuff would be adaptable, especially in anime.
The adaptation I was pleasantly surprised by was Reacher with Tom Cruise. I thought it was done well, close to the book, and good mindless entertainment.
I’d like to see the Stuart Woods Stone Barrington series made into movies. They are simple fluff that even Hollywood should not be able to screw up.
I don’t think Hollywood can do justice to books that have complex multistory lines. They might possibly be able to do the John Flanagan books without ruining them but only if they follow the books closely.
I love the Lord of the Rings trilogy – I cannot count how many times I have read it, including reading it aloud to my sons. They did an amazing job on the movies – it was one of the few book-to-movie series that worked. There were a few minor disappointments – various scenes that they had to leave out because of time constraints, and one major issue – I didn’t like what they did with the relationship between Aragorn & Eowyn – I felt it was completely out of character for Aragorn to give any encouragement whatsoever.
I personally don’t want any books I love to be made into movies because I am always disappointed. One adaption in particular illustrates how bad it can go: the Hobbit.
Grace
Saddly I don’t think that KD would be easy to adapt. Luckily Amazon is making a Hanna show based on the 2011 movie. I liked the movie, and the plot reminds me of Kate’s backstory. This is probably the closest thing we will get to a live action Kate Daniels.
If you aren’t watching The Dom’s Lost in Adaptation episodes on YouTube you are missing out. He’s covered almost 90% of the books mentioned in this thread.
As for me, I would love to see Innkeeper as a tv mini series and Kate Daniels given the GoT treatment with a season or 2 equaling a book. (books 1 and 2 could almost certainly be 1 season).
I would also go see a FAITHFUL remake of Watership Down. The BBC series was a disappointment 🙁
I would like to see Patricia Briggs Mercy Thompson and Alpha and Omega series done up on Netflix. Also Kevin Hearn’s Iron Druid series.
I would love to watch Kate Daniels and as for remakes, The Count of Monte Cristo still hasn’t had an accurate representation onscreen.
I really don’t watch anything nowadays; any spare time I have is used for reading.
However, I think “A Bollywood Affair” would make for a nice movie. “Gunmetal Magic” would also be good as a movie since it’s a standalone(kind of) in the KD world.
I agree that the “Ella Enchanted” movie was horrible as an adaptation. I was also disappointed with the tv-movie version of “Avalon High”. I’m guessing they thought their twist was more empowering, but I like the idea that secondary/side characters are very important to a story.
I would love to see the Blossom Culp stories turned into a series. I loved the “Child of Glass” movie even though it is completely different from the book it is based on (The Ghost Belonged to Me). The movie made me check out Richard Peck’s other books.
So many bad ones it’s hard but Tuck Everlasting comes to mind. Changing Winnie’s age from 12 to 16 to make it “more of a love story” changes the entire meaning of the books.
One book that improved from book to screen was Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. The book was a rambling mess, the movie was so much better edited and and tighter as it combined characters and such. I do realize the book was trying to tell a non-fiction story and couldn’t take as many liberties but it was still a mess.
As far as Ilona Andrews books. I really think The Edge series would translate well. And with most others, the Innkeeper series.
I am totally there with you about Lightning thief. They skipped the whole ARES sub plot line. It’s hilarious that Harry Potter was already out , and I think one of the Lord of the Rings books, surely the movie would have been equally good. But nope it went to the way of Avatar(air bender) ( Sorry Cameron the cartoon was out first ) .
There are a couple I would like to have redone: ( While not movie but tv )Dresden Files. They were trying too hard to make it like charms instead of a great series like Game of Thrones or American Gods. Maybe if they kinda thought it would be more doctor who-ish, it could have done very well.
I think the Hidden Legacy series would actually be pretty good. The movie PUSH special effect would work for most of the scenes in the first book. Well up until the end,but that might take more doctor strange type of special effects.
Kingslayer series by Pat Rothfuss. Great trilogy (well the third book a decade in the making XD) I think would make a great show or movie. There is enough time and skips (passages of times that were skipped?)in the books that there could be lots of filler plots or sub plots for more character development on the sub characters.
Mercy Thompson series by Patricia briggs– I think its a great series with coyote shapeshifter surviving in a pack of werewolves with a vampire friend who drives a the mystery machine. It’s a great series, but I dont know if a movie would cut it. Maybe if the started with Frost Burned with enough flashback to kinda cover the old books but not too much so first timers to the series can tell whats going on without losing track which timeline they are in.
I think I’m usually not that impressed with book series I’ve read that are made into movies. I’ve just resigned myself to either watching the movie or reading the series.
I have a whole list but do not think Hollywood would be able to due justice to any of them. My list is Faith Hunter’s Soulwood books and Jane Yellowrock books. Ilona Andrews Kate Daniels, Innkeeper and Hidden Legacy. Jana Deleon Swamp Team 3. John Ringo’s Black Tide Rising and Paladin of Shadows. All of these authors have the ability to make the reader see the person in their minds and Hollywood cannot follow that concept
The Dresden files would be interesting in a more Netflix version/adaptation, instead of a mainstream television series. ( I actually thought the casting was good, but the pacing was garbage.) As much hoopla as the Anne Rice vampire movies received, I still think they could’ve been better- the stories themselves probably have the audience to sell a longer series, for one. And if I had a true wish list, the Green Rider series by Kristen Britain, the Iron Druid series by Kevin Hearne, and anything by Robin McKinley would be amazing, But I’m still not over Ender’s Game, so there’s that…
I liked the casting for the Dresden Files, and then they ruined it by apparently never having read the books. Ancient Mai’s a dragon, and we meet her before Ebenezer McCoy? Bob’s a warlock that was imprisoned in a skull, not a being of pure knowledge? And other problems. I would definitely like to see it adapted onto Netflix.
I tend to not want my favorite books to be made into movies, because the movie actors always seem to replace the characters in my head, which takes away from my book experience. That being said, I think Something Wicked this Way Comes is in desperate need of a remake. I loved it as a kid, but it has not withstood the test of time.
My wish aren’t novels but a Comic book series:FABLES by Bill Willingham. I know the rights were bought by someone but it hasn’t been brought to fruition in years. I was so disappointed when ABC announced Once Upon A time. I was and am afraid it killed Fables from it’s own series. OUAT , whatever your opinions on it may be (mine negative) is too vanilla, sanitized to even be comparable. There is so much to Fables to even narrow it down.
My regret is STARDUST by Neil Gaiman. My favoritest favorite book ever. EVER. The movie was horrendous to me. Vile, unpalatable. The book to me is magic itself. No matter how many times I read it or listen to it on audiobook, it never ceases to take me away. It is on such a high pedestal that I don’t think any movie, or tv series could ever do it justice.
I really was disappointed by The Strain Tv adaptation. You could REALLY tell when Del Toro was not part of the director process after season 2. I think a lot of fans of the book series, or just TV watchers agreed they completely lost track of what their plot was and ended up with a ridiculously convoluted ending. Also Del Toro and Chuck Hogan who wrote the book did such a good job depicting and alluding to the religious mystical aspect of the Ancients in the book series, and the tv show writers completely cast that plot point off. But I will say many of the actors were really good in their respective roles and I await any new films they are in. But I hope the directors of the last 2 seasons know how much they bungled the story, it’s ok to take a story down a new route in a tv adaptation, but this was completely nonsensical in the overall story arch.
A series I’d love to see being made into a TV adaptation would be the Temeraire series by Naomi Novik. But I could see a lot of big problems with that ever being created, like the fact that almost every scene has one or more dragons in it and there are dragon aerial battles. As much fun as that would be the work to do a scene in GOT with the dragons is INTENSE! Look up how many hours it takes to do those scenes for the artists. So I can’t image a 10 book series with constant dragon fighting wouldn’t take several years to make with a huge crew of artists. So I ‘m not sure it’ll ever happen.
I think that no book can be reliably adapted into a movie without cutting a lot of stuff out, which to me makes the book readable. The best movies that came from books are usually based on short stories/Novelettes, such as Shawshank Redemption, or are loosely based on the central theme but then make it their own, such as Blade Runner and other works based on Philip K. Dick. I really like the recent trend of turning Fantasy books and comics into TV series, such as Game of Thrones and Umbrella Academy. I do think that the Cleansweep series would work as movies because they are short and not much would have to be cut out. Someone suggested Name of the Wind, I think that would have to be a TV show, with the chapters about before the school being worked into flashbacks over the first few episodes. Maybe it would push Patrick to finish book 3. Although I doubt it.
Name of the Wind has been picked up by Showtime. Patrick has a few mentions of being in CA for work on it in his blog. But it’s slow going and hasn’t seemed to speed along book three.
I also think some of the best adaptations are when the source material isn’t necessarily the best written material. For example, The Thin Man by Dashiell Hamet is not a good book at all (in my opinion) but the movie series was amazing because of the actors’ chemistry. Also some of the best adaptations come when the author is involved in the screenplay. For example, The Last Unicorn was adapted by author Peter S. Beagle and both book and movie are amazing. The Princess Bride is another example where the author was really involved in the adaptation, and the people making the movie loved the source material. I guess this can backfire too because I’ve heard many people think the 50 shades movies are trash partly because the author wouldn’t let anything change from her books (I haven’t seen the movies or read the books so I have no personal opinion).
Er- I think the Princess Bride book was written after the movie. William Goldman was an excellent screenwriter and it was written first as a screenplay. I do love both the book and movie more than I can say.
Nope, sorry. The book was originally published in 1973, the movie in 1987. Both are excellent!
For the Princess Bride, it helped that the author of the book was a screenwriter. He had written many movies before writing the book. When reading the book, it came off to me as very screenplay-like. While things were cut when transitioning from movie to book, whole scenes were transferred.
For me, a better example is Fried Green Tomatoes. Both the movie and book are excellent. The book has more, but the essential feelings and stories are captured in the movie very effectively.
Jumper, the original book deals with themes of physcial abuse, terrorism and crinminal activity and how the lead character discovers that some of his activities cause problems that his justifications of his actions cannot solve. The movie caused the Author Steven Gould to vow he would never sell the movie rights to any of his novels ever again. And the lead role was played by Hayden Christensen. Nuff said
Totally agree!
Absolutely, the movie was not only of poor quality but had nothing other than character named to do with a great book.
I was terribly, terribly disappointed in the Ender’s Game movie. One of my favorite novels of all time and then, just, bleh.
As for something I’d love to see made into a film? Hellooo, Kate. My husband and I argue over our perfect casting choices and who we would choose out of actors we love, it’s great fun. Other than that, I’ve always wanted the Jhereg books by Steven Brust to be made into something. Live-action, animation, I don’t care. Those books are amazing.
I’m trying to read Jhereg, and I’m having trouble getting into it. Maybe a movie would be great at helping me figure out what’s going on!
I want the Dragera series as a Netflix or something!! I love the series! Fantasy SciFi is a great combo!
I would like to see Ready Player One done again, this time using the actual book details, not the crap they decided to shove in. I was hugely disappointed that some of the main points of the book, like kids are the future and people need to work together were ignored. Inserting a wildly inappropriate love theme and then shoving the concept of needing to disconnect down the viewers throats instead of allowing them to come to that conclusion made this the worst adaptation I have EVER seen, it spat on the book it was supposed to be covering.
Eragon was a disappointment because they cut my favorite scenes and I felt like the telescoping of the time frame removed the emotional depth of the story. They could at least have done a one minute montage to tell the audience that the character spent months at the destination not a day.
My conclusion with movies based on books has been this, watch the movie, enjoy it. THEN read the book. I watched Lord of the Rings and Dune with great appreciation having not read the books first. When I did read the books and found more depth and great story to enjoy it did not ruin anything for me.
Watch the movie, then read the book became my mantra. So many lacklustre “adaptations”
To be fair, the Eragon film had some pretty terrible source material to draw on…
I was scrolling down to see if anyone had mentioned Eragon, not that i was completely captivated by the books but the movie could have been much better than it was (that being said Jeremy Irons was good for his role).
As for what I’d like to see redone, Jodorowsky’s Dune. OK it was never actually made in the first place but it was planned out and sounded amazing to me. There is a documentary about how the movie never came to be, it was a very interesting watch.
Oh my, Inkeeper would make an awesome tv series…
I loved the Sci-Fi mini-series remake of Dune and Children of Dune/God Emperor of Dune
If I could get any book to movie adaptation completely re-done…. it would have to be Starship Troopers. Oh gawd the movie barely resembled the book…. would much prefer making it more of a Sci-Fi drama that really brings out the lessons on leadership and politics than just trying to be over-the-top camp and action…
One of the best adaptations for me was The Expanse by S. E. Corey. (so excited/nervous that Amazon picked it up for a fourth season) For not being a scene by scene recreation of the books it holds pretty darn closely to the series.
One of the worst was The Host by Stephenie Meyer. I really really loved that book- so much better than the twilight series ever thought about being. I even got my husband and dad to read it and we showed up to the midnight showing of the movie so excited…..and were immediately soul crushed by the terrible choices that didn’t even make sense for adapting to the big screen as well as a directorial style that didn’t fit that book AT ALL. I didn’t really have a problem with the cast but the directing and editing and screen play was like matching tofu with ice cream – it just doesn’t compute. Wish They would remake that one so the book can shine the way it was meant to.
They are currently ( finally) adapting Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan for Amazon. I’m suuuuuuuuper excited /nervous about this one. If they do it right and don’t just turn it into Game of Thrones 2.0 then I’m on board all the way.
I’m also really excited about any of the series currently in development for Brandon Sanderson’s books. They are written so visually that I could totally see them adapting to the screen easily.
+1 for the Expanse
Amazon is doing WOT?? Oh, that is GREAT news! I have to go look for that; I love that series!
Never got past the second book of Wheel of Time. Loved the first one but that was that.
I would love to see Garth Nix’s Old Kingdom books turned into a television series. Sabriel is one of my favorite books. They could do each book as a mini series or a tv show in the vein of Sherlock, with extra time per episode. I would love to see the Dirk Gently’s Hollistic Detective Agency tv series continued (not a remake, since it was excellent to begin with, but was still cancelled). For a remake, I’d love to see a remake of the cartoon/comic series Cyber Six. The comic was very different from the children’s cartoon adaptation. While it was still good, a lot of story had to be removed or changed for the much younger audience. The comic series was never translated into English officially as far as I know, and the whole series is out of print.
Me tooooo
+1
I can’t figure why the Pern series has not been made into a movie.
Of course, either Kate or Nevada would be great to see on the screen !
Or at least “Moon is a Harsh Mistress” !
I saw Anne at a conference is the mid 80s and she said that she had sold the rights twice, each time they expired before anything much happened. She sold them at least once more before her death.
After Jurrasic Park I knew we had the tech to do dragons justice. So much more so after How to Train Your Dragons.
I have always thought that a TV series would be better. At this point I think they are too expensive to be made.
+1 Pern
I will never again make the mistake of watching a movie adaptation of a book i love/ am invested in.. even seeing all of these half-hearted recycles of my favorite comic books is rough (i won’t be seeing battle angel alita ☹).. I don’t think directors HAVE to cater to the fan base, but they should cater to the heart of the story and the author’s obvious intent at least- because CGI won’t save you.
Top biggest disappointment was the Hobbit movies. I walked out of the frist one when the Bown wizard used a slay of bunnies. NOPE
2nd isna Wrinkle in Time. They made the Mrs Ws silly, lost all the humor, made Charles Wallace adopted (why?), and took out off the horor of the IT planet. They could have done it, but went for slick gloss over ANY substance.
Peter Jackson needs an editor!
The original trilogy was really good because he wasn’t given free reign (rein?) and so had to concentrate on the story. (honestly the movie trilogy may be better in my mind than the books. The fundamental story is great, but Tolkiens writing is not the best, at least in my opinion. The movies did a great job of telling the story.)
Once he made lots of money, he was turned loose. His king Kong remake was an hour too long and had too much stuff in it, because no one told him no. And when I heard the Hobbit was going to be 3 movies instead of 2 because he had all this footage? I knew it was going to be a disaster.
I watched the first Lord of the Rings without reading the books. I loved it and really wanted to know what happened next. I trudged through reading until I got to the sequels; then I was hooked and love love loved the books. In turn, the subsequent movies were a disappointment.
For me then, it’s what you see/read first that you treasure.
I was disappointed in Jackson’s rendition of The Two Towers, as well as the underlying premise he promoted that “men / humans can’t be trusted to do the right thing”, which was diametrically opposite to Tolkein’s theme “there are good men who can be trusted to champion the Light and Right”. Two parts in particular enraged me:
1) The mangling of the scenes pertaining to the Ents and their decision to go to war. Jackson had them declaring a pest on both houses as it were, and was then forced to have Merry and Pippin to perform a very awkward and fatuous diversion to draw the Ents into the fight. This did a grave disservice to Tolkein and the actual message in the scene he wrote, where the Ents chose to stand with others for the Right despite the harm they and their charges had suffered over the ages.
2) The scene with Faramir, Frodo and Sam. Then again, the REAL Faramir’s behaviour reflected Tolkein’s theme of honourable men who could be trusted to do the right thing of his own accord – helping Frodo and Sam continue on their fated journey instead of forcing them to escape – which did not fit with Jackson’s own concept of the untrustworthiness of humans.
It’s a crying shame, as the adaptation of The Fellowship of the Ring was exceptional. Although the entire section pertaining to Tom Bombadil and the wraiths was excised, the story did not suffer for it and it kept the show’s length within the tolerance level of viewers. However, the changes in The Two Towers detrimentally detracted from the story without any corresponding benefit in the flow or duration of the story. It ended up being more about Jackson’s ego than a faithful rendition of a cherished story (that gained that status for damned good reason).
I gotta interject on this one a little. The Hobbit movies being a trilogy wasn’t entirely Peter Jackson’s fault. Originally he wanted to do a single movie for the book. It was the studio that insisted that it had be a trilogy otherwise they were going to drop him from the project and get someone else to do it.
Have to slightly disagree with the original trilogy being a good adaption. It started out good. True you lost a lot from Fellowship (Tom Bomadell (sp?)…don’t have it front of me and can’t remember exactly) and it was annoying that anything a hobbit did in the book that was ‘intelligent’ was attributed to Frodo (the ‘speak friend and enter’ thing was not Frodo in the book) and anything stupid is attributed to Merry/Pippin (those two plus Sam and fourth hobbit who isn’t in the movies totally played Frodo and knew what he was planning from the get go).
But once you start getting to Return it just gets really WTF?! When Frodo sends Sam away believing Gollum/Smeagle? I was in the theater with my sister and I was totally mumbling beneath my breath at the screen (I would have been yelling, except theater). Also all the Arwen crap, dear god she is in the actual books like 2 seconds (much more in the appendices granted). They had a strong female character and they made her into a pathetic puppy with a crush (Eowyn forever! ‘I am no man’ is one of the best lines ever!). I also miss all the music and chants (the Rankin Bass animated productions kept that part really well).
Harper, since you asked, the phrase is ‘free rein’ since it comes from relinquishing control (via reins) to the horse. Reign refers to period a sovereign rules or guides one’s subjects – e.g., reign of Queen Elizabeth II of England.
Agreed, Wrinkle in Time ??
Wrinkle in Time series was a fav of mine – the movie was HORRIBLE- I took my son and two nieces who all wanted to leave midway- so so disappointed
Bitten was adapted for TV, but it was so so bad. I watched a few episodes and they were so disappointing. I hated the actors they chose, they were awful and stilted. The scenery was plain stupid and the special effects looked like someone drew them with a crayon. Ugh. Worst adaptation ever.
I agree I loved the books from this series but the tv show was nothing like it. I was so disappointed I only got half way through the first episode before I gave up on it.
I agree, it was awful !! I was totally disappointed by this tv show.
I was sorry that I didn’t see Bitten, since I loved the books. I was curious to see how it translated to TV. Maybe now I don’t regret it as much (?).
I managed the whole first season of Bitten out of sheer morbid curiosity. Just to see how bad it would get. The author of the books told people to consider it an alternate timeline. People who lived in the book were killed off in the series and vice versa. Mind you, I actually liked some of the actors in the series and would watch them in other things. If you hadn’t read the book, it was likely enjoyable. I have a friend who never read any of Kelley Armstrong’s series and he loved the TV series. But from the bits and pieces he mentioned about episodes and how FAR off the book series they were, I will probably never manage to watch it even though Netflix has it available to stream.
However, my vote for the worst movie ever made from a book goes to Battlefield Earth. I read that very long book in high school and liked it a lot. The movie was a travesty from start to finish. Clan of the Cave Bear was a very close second. Both took long, wonderfully intricate stories and turned them into crap.
Agree! Bitter aftertaste still lingers from Battlefield Earth. Ugh!
Totally agree. Could not get passed first episode.
I have been lucky. So far, I have managed to see the movies before the books. They were different once I got around to reading the books but because I saw the movie first, I didn’t hate that. I just decided whoever made the movie didn’t read the book very well. Dune the movie and sci-fi channels versions are the one’s that stick out most in my head vs the actual books.
One of the worsts fir me was One for the money by Janet Evonovich. Everything was soooo wrong with it I couldn’t even handle it. Loved the attention to detail they used in HP and LOTR but I honestly feel that is a really hard thing to accomplish in movies. I would love to see JD Robb series imagined (and, duh, Kate!). But I think for those to have any justice done with them it would have to be a series done on HBO or something. Movies tend to rush some of the best stuff.
I agree about One for the Money. But it would have worked if they could have got Reba McIntyre with a Jersey accent.
Very, very much agree. I love Stephanie Plum and Lula and everyone but they were really, really off with the movie.
If I got to dream a dream, it would be that the dragon lance chronicles by Margaret Weis and tracy Hickman be done my the animation studio that did the final fantasy films but with a director who really followed the books (within reason). It would probably have to be a miniseries for there to be any hope of it being watchable but damn….I want to see the war of the lance on the big screen before I die.
It may stink as an adaptation, but (if you see it with the right crowd) Eragon is comedy gold.
Choice to be remade: Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card. Shaking my head at the movie. Just Ugh.
Choice to be made: my favorite YA novel right now is The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison. First, I want a sequel. I would love a ridunculously good movie out of it, but I think that would be difficult. Second choice that would be easier, probably, is The Ascendance Triology, aka The False Prince, The Runaway King, and The Shadow Throne, by Jennifer A Nielsen.
Oh, PS: I agree with Dynastic Sponge on 2 points. Innkeeper Series would be great. And Dune miniseries on Scifi was soooo good. Children of Dune was good too, but Dune knocked it out of the park for me.
I also love The Goblin Emperor and wished that she would write a sequel.
The Charlaine Harris tv show based on her books : Midnight Texas
The first season was pretty good and it had possibilities and then came the second season. It just totally ruined the story line and went beyond weird and didn’t even pull that off. True Blood … sad just sad… worst series based on the books, ever.
Dresden Files had such potential and they killed it with poor plot but the actors worked. One season only of that dog.
I would love to see a series whether movie series of tv series on the following:
J.D. Robb In Death series — it would be awesome but finding the actor for Roarke would be daunting.
Patty Briggs: Mercy Thompson and/or the Omega series. Ooh, awesome.
Faith Hunter: Jane Yellowrock series.
Ilona Andrews: Of course, that is a given because hey I re-read it all the time.
I just think the Innkeeper and Hidden Legacy would be an easier translation to movie or tv series. I am stumped by who could play a great Kate and not one actress ( I am old enough that old school actresses hit the bar more than the newest set) will fit in my head of who would work.
For total comic relief: Jana Deleon and her Swamp Team 3. My head says a set of older ladies ala Golden Girls and some one like the actress that played Agent David on NCIS tv show.
Agree with the Dresden files. Such great promise with those characters, and yet it didn’t really work. If you were willing to invest in the special effects budget, it could be amazing.
Another vote for Innkeeper as well. That has the potential for a great tv show (based around the set of the Inn) or a movie with sweeping visuals. Of course, I think everyone would be disappointed if their mental version of Baha-char didn’t match the screen version.
Yes! I think Ilona’s wish for Helen Mirren to play Caldenia is spot on – Ms. Mirren would absolutely SLAY it!
Ditto to In death, Omega, Innkeeper, and Hidden Legacy series. I would love them translated on to tv, or even an animated series. I think a tv series is better than a movie as it would allow the screenplay to remain true to the storyline.
Another series I want to see is the Psy-Changeling series by Nalini Singh. I love that one and it has great characters.
Yes to Janet Deleon’s Swamp Team 3
Well, here’s a REAL oldie for you…Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. I was very young…but if anyone has ever read the original novel, it’s quite a gangster book. Like, old time-Al Capone-pin-stripes-and-tommy-guns. Caractacus and the children are possessed of a perfectly lovely and alive mum, Mimsy, and it’s all set in post-WWII England. It’s a blast. As much as I adore Dick Van Dyke and Lionel Jeffries, I was completely disgusted as a child with all the silly ruffles and nonsense of the movie version. I wanted a true, Ian Fleming spy novel!
I grew up loving the movie and had no idea there was a book until I won a free copy of it. I read the book (probably middle school aged at the time) as was really confused. Almost nothing was remotely close. Looking at it now you watch the movie and realize it’s based off something written by the guy who wrote James Bond and it makes for a bit of a head-scratcher.
The worst book to film adaptation I’ve ever seen is Wlla Enchanted, followed by Percy Jackson. Don’t even bother calling it a book adaptation if all you’re going to keep is names, locations, and the most basic plot element.
I loved Dune & Children of Dune.
As to what should become a series or feature film, I’d like Elizabeth Peter’s Amelia Peabody mysteries, Hohn Flanagan’s Ranger Apprentice series (rights have been sold a second time), anything by Anne McCaffrey, Raymond E Feist’s books, Anne Bishop’s Others series, Patricia Briggs Mercy Thompson series, and of course any series by the author lords. As much as I’d like to see these made into films, I’d also be scared about how screwed up they could get. Fans miss Peeves in the HP movies, but the movies get the heart of the books IMO even though some things got twisted.
Kari, I agree. But I’d think a TV series adaptation of Anne Bishop ‘s the Others would be difficult to do w/o seeming like just another werewolf/changling series. They could get that this is an alternate world, but could they convey that the Others are not just transformed humans, but never were human? That for them human shape is a convenience, and does NOT mean humanity? That a major theme is they lack understanding of human nature? And if course vice versa. Also, it wouldn’t take much to use episodes as a platform for current events, causes, and themes. It has happened before.
I looked at this and thought some might think I’m dissing werewolf shows. I don’t mean that at all. It’s that the Others are *other*, not really werewolves, etc. in the traditional sense, though the term is used.
I actually think Harry Potter is one of the best adaptations – the detail in the sets etc. Really brings the books to life
Would love KD as a TV show!
And super exciting to hear about the Patrick Rothfuss tv show – if book 3 ever appears ?
Anne Bishop the Black Jewels Trilogy would be amazing as a tv show
Books I’d ike to see adapted in a TV series: The Heralds of Valdemar by Mercedes Lackey. If Netflix can pull off dragons, then sentient Spirit Horses should be doable as well. The issue might be in how they translate the mind powers (especially telepathy and empathy) on screen. As for the Magic part, if they start the series in publishing order they have full books before magic starts to make an appearence.
From our Authorlords: the Innkeeper series. As a TV series as well. It would transate so much better than in movie format.
I generally think that books are more made for TV series format than movie format, especially if the books are serialised like KD, Innkeeper, or Valdemar.
I always hoped that, after the movies, there would be an animated series of HP. It would really be awesome and probably the best media for the source material in my opnion.
Adaptations I did not like: The Hobbit movies. 2 would have been more than enough.
The Twilight series by Stephanie Meyer. First, I’m not a huge fan of the books. A bit too cheezy and marshmellow in some places for me, but I am a grown adult reading a YA novel so, there is that. But there were some elements that were really interesting as well. The screen adaptation just did not do it for me….Some actor choices, screenplay choices, dialogues and special effects were just……sigh……
If the started a Valdemar TV series with the Magic Promise trilogy it might be easier, there is tons of magic in that one.
And I agree the Innkeeper would make a great series. Can’t you just see the Bazaar scenes? All those aliens!
An interesting commentary on the movie process comes from the story of the creation of I am Number Four. This was amongst the conscious attempts to be ‘the next HP’, and was filmed before the book was even released. BUT – IMDB lists 5 screenwriters, the last of which, Marti Nixon, said that she threw away everything but the characters and the main storyline and started again – and the movie certainly works better than the book, not to mention that the sequels (to the book) were dire.
Ooops – Marti Noxon (sorry Marti)
PS: I’d pay to see Marti and Joss W take on any of Ilona’s stories!
Joss W rules 🙂 Any movie or series is a MUST see.
I agree Joss is a great creative mind, really, really tallented – but I’ve been turned off since it seems he is….how to best say this without ‘casting aspersions’ …not the feminist he claimed. It put a shadow on someone who I really looked up to as a writer. Please don’t flame me, everyone can do their own research and come to their own stances.
A Good Year by Peter Mayle
Personally, I thought the movie with Russell Crowe was better than the book.
Along lines of movie better than book – Silence of the Lambs.
A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness – amazing books and beautiful TV series. As usual not all of the books can be included on film, but a good all around job was done.
Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia – sad movie, really good books – maybe a remake could be better?
Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead – truly sad movie – a remake will most certainly make it better! Books are fantastic.
Any and all books by the author lords would be a must see on film or tv 🙂
Agreed, Discovery of Witches ?? They did a good adaptation. I went back and read it again and of course they couldn’t get it all in but close. And thank heavens they didn’t cram 3 books into one season.
I also enjoyed the Discovery of Witches adaptation. It reinforces my theory that a series is better than a movie for book adaptation, especially for books that are complex and multi-layered. Key examples for me are HP (after book 2) and Percy Jackson.
Successful? (I liked it) adaptation: I loved The Hunger Games, both the books and the movies. I think in average they included the highlight of the books in the movie and was it interesting even if you hadnt read the books.
Not good enough book->movie. Game of Ender. I really loved the book but watching the movie, I didnt feel any depth on it. The plot was too diluted and although as a movie itself it could be enterteining, I would like it to be more faithful to the book.
Future movies: the name of the wind (pleaseee). I have read about a project of a series, another of a movie… I dont know what is happening about this book but I want it already T.T (To be fair, I am waiting eagerly any adaptation of any other book I have ever read.)
Susan Cooper’s The Dark is Rising Sequence!! I adored the books as a kid and still re-read them every couple of years.
There was a movie made, based on the second book. It was AWFUL.
The whole series is set in the countryside of southwest England (mainly Cornwall) and Wales, and revolves around Arthurian legend. It is VERY British and absolutely lovely.
The movie was changed so the main character was a newly-arrived in the UK American boy ( it was at a time in movie-making where a Hero(TM) could never be anything other than American) who of course was better at everything than any of the other characters, plus it randomly added an irrelevant romantic interest, and the most accurate review description summarised it as an attempted filming of a really bad video game.
It’s probably resulted in Susan Cooper deciding to never let the movie crowd near her books again, but I think there are some people around now who might just do the series justice.
Agreed. I was part of the target audience for that movie (mid-teens). I loved the books. My cousin sent me the trailer, and I was like, “hard pass”. When it is obvious from the trailer that you don’t follow your source material, you’ve gone way too far off script (on script? off topic?)
Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, redo. How could this movie get so much right and then go totally wrong? The set up and background was wonderful. The second 1/2 of the movie ridiculous and missing too much. Why put so much into a movie and then drop the ball?
Also wish they would have followed up Golden Compass with a second movie, same actors. Too late now.
I think the better movie adaptations of novels are the ones that the author/s retain creative control of the movie itself.
No no no, you stay away from Kate Daniels, directors, you stay away…
Completely true! I was very disappointed in The Mortal Instruments film and tv interpretation. I think it is hard to take characters we love and identify with and reinvent them for a visual medium. Then you are seeing one person’s vision. The cool thing about books is that everyone gets their own vision!
I would love to see them do Stephen Kings Eye of the Dragon. I think it’s one of the best YA fantasy novels ever written. I would love to see Anne McCaffery’s Dragon Riders be a Netflix or HBO series. I would love to see The Dark is Rising redone as a Netflix series as it’s one of my favorite book series ever. I also love the Riddlemaster of Ged series. I think maybe the Blue Sword would be a good movie.
The Blue Sword would be terrific! Good catch!
Instead of making a movie based on a particular book, I think I would prefer a movie based in that world, with cameos of my favourite characters.
I also think that the Kate Daniels world would make a better open RPG. Basically Skyrim crossed with Fallout.
+1 – Ooo! Open RPG in Kate’s world … that’s an awesome thought!
I agree with the votes for Pern. I would love to see those done really well.
For a remake I would really love to see Jackson’s Return of the King done over. The first two films were really well done and mostly faithful to the books, but it all fell apart with the almighty green CGI hoard ruining one of my favorite scenes from the books. If they did nothing else, fixing the battle of Minas Tirith would make the film ten times as good.
I would really love to see John Steakley’s Armour made into a film. His other novel was adapted (badly), but Armour is by far the better story and it would look amazing if they did it right.
The other one is The Forever War. I think the themes could carry over really well and wouldn’t suffer from the age of the book like some of the older novels might. It’s something that would allow the authors to incorporate current political and social issues without ruining the story.
Best film to movie adaptation for me is “To Kill a Mockingbird,” which was almost word-for-word the book in film mode. The absolute worst was poor Julie Garwood’s “For the Roses.” The latter only had two things that were from the books, really – the names of the characters and that is was set in the west. Otherwise, I can fully comprehend why she has not let any of her other books go to film. What a terrible disappointment.
Loved “To Kill a Mocking Bird” both book and movie
Michelle Sagaras essaylien series please. Probably the best epic fantasy of my lifetime, so different than the retold Lotr clones. I’d also be ok with Eye of the World from Jordan, but the rest of it getting skipped.
Will wights cradle would also be nice. I think of the authorlords work I’d rather see Nevada on the big screen than Kate. The arc is tighter and fits the format better.
For remake, I want to see a better adaptation of Percy Jackson. (and Harry Potter as well 🙂 ). They can go the route of animation as long as they give justice to the books!
Agree on Innkeeper and Hidden Legacy to be translated to film or tv series. Another book which film rights has been purchased, but no updates, is Laini Taylor’s Daughter of Smoke and Bone. I hope that if it does materialize, they’ll be able to capture its magic.
Brandi’s thoughts really struck a chord with me. I remember being so disappointed in the film version of “The World According to Garp.” Of course, It was a fiendishly hard movie to adapt as much of the book was inside the characters’ heads. However the films I would most like to see remade are the Peter Jackson versions of the “Lord of the Rings.” When I watched those movies I got the unassailable impression that they were made for teenage boys who had not read the books (again, Brandi) or adults addicted to battle video games. Jackson cut out ninety percent of the magic and tripled the battle scenes to the point of utter boredom (except for the part of Legolas and the oliphant). I missed the magic, which maybe is why I love Ilona Andrews books!
Have you seen the extended versions of LOTR? More battles! More blood! Bits and pieces of storyline!
It is much easier to list the poor adaptations, than those done well. I agree with many of the previously suggested films, especially “The Lightning Thief “, and “Eragon” which were huge disappointments for my son. For me “I, Robot” is a terrible adaptation, because it is one that the only resemblance to the book is the names of the characters. But divorced from the book, the movie itself is a fun, action based film. This taught me not to expect movies to conform to the books, and to enjoy them on their own, if possible. However, I’d like to see a real “I, Robot” done right, i.e., following Asimov’s storylines and characterizations.
The “Dresden Files” is one adaptation that it is not possible to enjoy because it was so bad. I would like “Dresden” to be remade, because I think it has great potential in plot and characters. As for an adaptation that was well done, I’m looking back to “The Black Stallion”. The changes made in the movie made sense, and the filmography was lyrical.
The First Wife’s Club was a great book. I looked forward to seeing the movie, and was glad I saw it on TV and didn’t waste my money paying for it. It had wonderful potential and you know they went for the big names. They had the talent and some of the roles were cast right on, but they ran it in to the ground. Very rarely see a movie when it comes out now.
film/tv adaptions I’d like to see: Innkeeper; Pern (Anne’s books, not Todds); Patty Briggs’ Mercedes books; Keri Arthur’s Lizzy Grace books, and finally Gail Carriger’s steampunk series, The Parasol Protectorate 🙂
I would really like to see the Harry Potter books redone but more as a HBO series (like Game of Thrones) than as a movie. I just want them to be able to give the plots the time they deserve. The movies where good by book to movie standards but there is only so much you can fit in to a 3 hour movie.
Also if anyone likes to compare movies adaptations from books there is a really great youtube series I watch called “Lost in Adaptation” where this guy compares movies to the books they where based on. I like seeing what they changed even in books I haven’t read and he does a really good job of it.
Disney’s The Black Cauldron was an hour and twenty one minutes of my life that I’ll never get back. So, so, so, sooooo bad. I’d love to see The Chronicles of Prydain (by Lloyd Alexander) done right, either as a series of movies or a mini-series.
As for books I’d love to see on screen, if we’re talking about ones that no one has touched yet I’m going to say none. Don’t ruin my favorites with your horrible movie translations. Don’t.Touch.My.Books.!
Artemis Fowl is being made and I am crossing my fingers that it is good as the series. I would read these books to my son or he would read them. Personally, I would love to see the ugly little boy remade in this century. I saw the british show and I was not impressed.
I’m a huge fan of the Eragon series, so I was really excited to see the movie. I went to see it in the theater and was so utterly disappointed.
They introduced the king way too early, he wasn’t even supposed to show up. They removed an entire arc of the book from the movie. Sapphira had feathers for some odd reason. And the elves did not look like elves!! No pointy ears!
So yeah absolutely hated the movie.
Oops, I thought the add picture thing was for a profile pic. So ignore the picture at the bottom, it has nothing to do with my comment. ?
I couldn’t get past the costuming in Eragon. Elves are not one of the Native American tribes!!!!!! It was just awful. I’m on board with a TV series set as in the Innkeeper world. That way, the story’s are different (please don’t up the current ones!!!) but the setting…imagine Beast on the screen!
Invariably it’s a disappointment. I loved Life of Pi on the screen and I loved To kill a mockingbird. I liked the Lord of the rings trilogy but hated the Hobbit. Bridget Jones 1 was fun and I am thoroughly hooked on Game of Thrones. Shawshank redemption was superb. But always always prefer the books. I think our minds create such a rich visual world of the words we read which are so personal to each of us that unless the movie comes close to how we had visualized/ felt while reading it will always be a disappointment. The screen adaption of books we love takes away our ability to pace it for ourselves and i find myself invariably telling myself that the movies are just a broad outline and try not to expect too much
Hmmm, this is a tricky one..
I generally will watch the film version of a book I like and I’ll be honest I don’t really like it as much for two reasons:
1. The film being short means that a lot of events are being skipped or rushed so there is hard to get the climax and anticipation built up the way it was slowly and skillfully built by the authors in the book. For example, the characters fall in love too quickly “just because it needs to happen” rather than actually go through the motions so there doesn’t seem to be a real connection. It feels shallow. For me the solution would be to do a tv series instead of a film, if possible, but then this runs the risk of trying to drag out the plot more to fill the extra time. I do think though in the era of Netflix, it is much easier to find a middle ground so there is less compromise either way. A season can be 1, 2 or 3 books of a series depending on the plot.
2. In a film (or tv series) the audience don’t get to hear the character’s “inner” voice, the funny jokes that the character thinks or their failed expectations. That’s why a lot complain that the film lacks substance. Sometimes the actors try to act it out too much instead, which can look a bit cheesy.
The only films that I have genuinely enjoyed after reading the books was Hunger Games. Not sure why exactly, but it seemed to hit the right spot of good storytelling, quality production – good actors, graphics etc and not being cheesy. It followed the main storyline fairly well. I would love to see Kate Daniels, perhaps as a mini series..
Like some others, I’m always afraid to watch an adation of a book I love.
Aside from a lot of the suggestions made above, I would also like to add Shanna Swendson’s Enchanted, Inc.-series. I think I could easily see those novels as a TV-series.
I would like to see Tim Burton do “The Graveyard Book.”
Last of the Mohicans is a far better movie than the book. The only thing they kept was the title. The hero’s name was changed from Natty Bumppo to Hawkeye. The plot was changed to a love story. The book was so bad that Mark Twain wrote a hilarious review about all its literary shortcomings.
I would really like to see a movie or better yet, a series of Ben Aaronovitch’s Peter Grant series. It would have to be a BBC production, though and I would be worried that anyone other than the Dr. Who people might miss the funny, funny way they are written.
I didn’t think The Dresden Files were so bad, but the series was ended way too soon, before the characters could grow.
And any AuthorLords books or Pern or Michelle Sagara’s Chronicles of Elantra would be great. I also wonder if it might be possible to do Ann Leckie’s Ancillary Justice series — the books are marvellous in how the gender usage is turned on its head and I’m not sure how that would translate onto the screen.
I have to say, though, that I worry when a book I love gets on the big or small screen. My mind already has its own viewpoints about characters, etc. and seeing it crystallized by someone else doesn’t always work.
+one on the Elantra chronicles but it would have to be done right! With the authors approval!
Big +1 on the Peter Grant series!!!! Wouldn’t Trevor Noah be terrific? I don’t even know whether he is an actor but it’s his voice in my head for Peter. Not sure about Nightingale, maybe Edward Petherbridge. He was a wonderful Kord Peter Wimsey.
Lord!!! Peter Wimsey
+one on dragons of Pern, but a negative for Elantra for me. At book 10 I got to the point I really started to dislike the main character’s inability to grow up.
I would love to see the Elentra books as a Netflix series. You need time to build that fantastic world and a 90 min movie wouldn’t do any of the books justice.
Totally agree with this! Netflicks might also be able to put some character growth by the end of the series too ?
I second (or rather third) the suggestion for the Elentra series to made into a TV show (preferably on Netflix) over a move series. It’s definitely one of those book series that would benefit from an extended telling over all at once in a 2 hour movie.
I loved the Percy Jackson, it was the reason i picked up the book series. I’m not saying the movie was a very good adaptation, but as a movie it was really good and made you want to read the books.
Worlds worst adaptation in all of history is the live action remake of Avatar the Last Airbender!!! Good god that was horrific! Main characters were the wrong race, names pronounced the wrong way, the dialogue was horrible, the actors were wooden, they threw information at us, condensed a full 20 episodes into and hour and half film. But its looked pretty.
Followed by the atrocity known as Ella Enchanted. Loved the casting, but they butchered the story.
I would like to see both redone, and im getting my wish with airbender. Thank you Netflix!
I would like tamora pierces tortall series adapted, but not as a movie, a nice mini series. Per quartet of course. Same goes for Kate and Innkeeper.
I would love to see Tamora Pierce but I can see them ruining it too easily.
If Studio Ghibli made movies of Grace Dravens books Eidolon and Radiance I think they would be amazing!
+1!!!!!
Studio Ghibli made Howl’s Moving Castle, and, beautiful as the movie was, they butchered the book. Almost nothing of Diana Wynne Jones’s world-building and ideas was left. So be careful with that wish.
Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli often said in the interviews that there are two ways to go from a book to a movie:
1) take inspiration from the book (of the created world) and create one’s own story
or
2) to adapt the book and, in this case, to respect the flow as close as possible to the chapters.
Hayao Miyazaki always asked to note “inspired” on the film posters. He was honest with that.
I checked a bit. Movie posters say “based on”, not “inspired”. Wikipedia says “loosely based on”. I guess that’s fair enough. Character names were the same, there was a moving castle and a curse.
Castle in the Air wasn’t even recognizable
Actually on howls moving castle I was disappointed with the book when I read it since I love the movie ? the book is definitely completely different, and if I hadn’t loved the movie so much as it was I would have liked the book more.
The Totoro book is the same, but I’ve hesitated to read the books from all the other movies!! I dont want to ruin either one lol
Ooo good one! +1
Question for discussion: Was there ever a movie adaptation that you enjoyed more than the book it was adapted from?
For me personally, while I enjoyed Neil Gaiman’s Stardust as a book, I loved the movie adaptation so much better! And I’ve already seen it like fifty times…<3
The Princess Bride was a mediocre book, but a very entertaining movie,
Sadly, the only book I thought was a better movie was The Polar Express. Yes, I know it was a children’s book, only 12-13. pages. Lol! Leave my books alone, please.
I agree on The Polar Express! I really didn’t like the book but “had to” watch the movie with friends – and loved it! It felt like they actually added something to say to the story 😀
I just hate the Polar Express the characters look too human for animated and really are off-putting to me that I just can’t watch it 🙂
Who Framed Roger Rabbit was a great movie. Who Killed Roger Rabbit was a very mediocre book.
The original Blade Runner. It is a fantastic movie.
I’ve always wondered how someone read Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, which was a total snooze fest (imo), and turned it into such an amazing screenplay!
Good examples offered so far. I have to say the 90s version of The Man in the Iron Mask. Mostly unrecognizable but I HATED the book. I was dragged to the movie by friends and pleasantly surprised. I really like that movie.
I agree! And I like how Neil gaiman approvednof the alternate version of stardust!!
I was very disappointed with the tv rendition of sword of truth series. If they had only talked to me first… I also hated what they did with the Midnight, Texas series. Man I loved every one of those books and series. So disappointed. Now True Blood was pretty good even though they departed from the books. The acting was great and the stories were good until they ran out of ideas. I will nevah forget Russell Edgington. He was such a hoot.
Like to see:
Megan Whalen Turner – The Thief series
Lois Bujold -the Vorkosigan series AND the world of the five gods books
Lloyd Alexander – the Taran books
Seanan McGuire – the Incryptid series
Redone correctly —
The Wizard of Oz
any classic book that has been “Disney-fied”
MWT’s The Thief series is in my top 5, but I don’t know of any actors other than Robert Sheehan who could play Gen.
Lois McMaster Bujold, absolutely. Tho it would probably take a Peter Jackson to meld all the connected stories. Wouldn’t that be fun?
But at least we‘ve seen a Miles out there. Peter Dinklage, although they would have to hurry up with filming- he’s in his forties now and the first books with young Miles … difficult.
Disney butchered the one Lloyd Alexander book from the Chronicles of Pyrdain, The Black Cauldron. The book is about growing up during war and learning about true honor and sacrifice. The pauper prince who is so obnoxios about his station making him better than others tries to steal credit for retrieving the cauldron then redeems his honor by sacrificing his life to help defeat the big bad. Disney completely cut out his character and another who died on this quest. Instead they kill the non-human semi pet character Gurgi who had nothing needing to be redeemed.
I’d like to see this series redone as a miniseries but only if they can get the central themes right.
I always worry when a book I love gets made into a movie. I usually try to see it and keep in mind it’s not the book. (I told my Mom after seeing the Bourne Identity that it was a good movie if you just kept in mind it wasn’t the book.)
My favorite movie adapted from a book was Dashiell Hammet’s Thin Man. There are parts where the dialog is verbatim from the book. William Powell and Myrna Loy were fantastic in the movie, their chemistry was wonderful. Plus she was shown as his equal in the marriage in the 1930’s! Hollywood created multiple sequels and whoever wrote them really got the characters right especially since there was only one book to work from.
Yes to Miles!!! And I really would love to see Caz and Isa on screen too!!!
I would love to see J D Robb’s Eve Dallas brought to the screen with the actress who played ‘Jane Rizzoli’ playing Eve. Who would play Rourke though is a puzzle.
Huh huh. No way. I don’t think she is an Eve Dallas.
But I do agree about the movie.
This one would be very nice. The problem I see, is that the character of Eve Dallas grows over all (!) the books. There are 46 and counting … I would be afraid they would try to put all the development into one movie, but as a crime series I guess it would be wonderful.
Ooh.. I would love to see JD Robb’s Eve Dallas books in a movie or a series even. I have to agree that a series probably has more potential to do justice to the books.
My favorite book adaptation has to be The Stand by Stephen King. The mini-series was amazing.
Thinking about it, maybe a TV series would be better!
RE Eve Dallas: No, No, NO!!! As stated by others above, I, too, have mental pictures of all the characters in this continuing series, and I want to keep them and their wonderful-ness as I have imagined them while enjoying each book over the past 24 years . Selfish? Yes!, but let me keep “my” Eve, Roarke, Peabody, Mavis, McNabb, etc.
Daniel Craig
Too old to play Roarke, but he’d make a fantastic Chief Tibble.
I’d love to see either of Sarah J. Maas’s two storylines on either TV or the movie theater. I understand that her Throne of Glass series has been optioned; don’t know if anything has been done on that yet. I hope so!
I don’t want to see any of my favorite books on film, because in my experience, there is a 90% chance (or more) that the film will suck, or will at least disappoint me. I agree with others that Innkeeper and Hidden Legacy could be great if done properly, but since I am pessimistic that it would be done “properly”, I hope that no IA stories are done on film.
Maybe some creative genius could take a crappy book with a few promising points and make it into a good film.
Apologies to the authorlords, for wishing away a potential source of income. On the positive side, my wishes don’t appear to hold undue influence on the universe. LOL
Hands down it has to be Carrie Vaughn’s Kitty Norville series. All those great werewolves and vampires somehow just making it through another crazy day. It’s always a fantastic story of Kitty just being true to herself—and standing up for the underdogs (no matter their species!). Each book is a fabulous adventure into itself. I think that the grit and love could totally come off on-screen…I’d love to hear/see her show ‘Midnight Hour’…Kitty the werewolf just helping out…
I go back and forth on this. In the end, I think some books are ‘too much’ for a movie.
It’s a delicate trade off. In a movie you have big budgets for flashy fx, but limited time so things are squished and condensed. A tv series allows tine to fully flesh out a atory, but you sacrifice the fx budget.
And if a series is massive, you run into other potential pitfalls as you won’t keep the same writers, producers and directors which can cost you in continuity. For a recent example, look at The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi. If you were to take a popular series like Kate Daniels or The Dresden Files, you would likely end up with a mess after the third or forth film.
Then you have the question of whether of not the person adapting the series knows the material. For a good example, look at The M CU. It’s spear headed by a comic book geek who grew up into a producer/director. He knows and appreciates the heroes and does his best to do a faithful adaptation. If you gave something like Dresden to someone who only bothered to read Storm Front because that was the book he was adapting and didn’t bother to hire a fan of the material for continuity he’d likely do something stupid like merge Karin Murphy and Susan Rodriguez into one character because he didn’t realize that their story archs in the following books make that impossible.
For film, stick with single of short series. Nevada andRogan would do well as a trilogy of films. For longer series with the glut of characters that come from them, go with television or leave them in the mind.
I’m looking forward to to The Rook series and hope any of the series I love only get made on Netflix or HBO types of channels or SyFy. I really enjoyed the first Twilight movie but maybe not the rest.
Wait, what? The Rook series? Is that the book by Daniel O’Malley or something else entirely? Because I LOVE his books, that would be AWESOME!
Well said, couldn’t agree more.
Ursula K Le Guin’s A Wizard of Earthsea is a story I think all young teenagers should read. I was so excited for the film, however SciFi slaughtered it! They tried to make it a Harry Potter rip off rather than the amazing story it is. I’d still like to see it done right. It’s a novella, so it’s about perfect for a movie!
Is Wizard a novella? I always thought it was “fantasy novel for kids” length. Just like Lloyd Alexander’s Prydain books or the Narnia books.
There are far too many that miss the mark. Primarily due to removal of important storyline and characters, bad scripting, poor casting, and even worse directing and editing. But I’ll just moan about the two most recent for me that left an after taste:
1. The ghastly waste called the live action The Last Airbender movie. Extremely disappointed!!! I appreciate the attempt but I wish it had never happened. I think some things might always be better in animation versus live action anyway.
2. Another HUGE, GROSS INJUSTICE for me was the lamentable, over simplified screen version of one of my top three favorite books. When I heard there was to be a movie (in my lifetime no less) I was so flipping excited. But I told everyone that even with the magic of CGI and digital clarity I seriously doubted it would be done well. I was so right. I ABSOLUTELY loathe what they did with Orson Scott Card’s ENDER’S GAME. The omission of his siblings, their complex relationships, and their genius socio-political scheming on a galaxy scale was so glaring. That’s at least half of the book. This book sparked the wonderful series Speaker For The Dead. The movie watchers don’t get even a hint of what else there is they are missing out on. *sigh*
For the ones I want to see on screen if done very well:
1. Would love to see Anne McCaffrey’s Pern world come to life.
2. Also any of the three Ilona Andrew’s series but in this order: The Edge, Kate Daniels or The Innkeeper.
3. David Weber’s War God’s Own series with Bahzhell Bahnarkhson, or an Honorverse story or one from Saganami Island series.
4. Mercedes Lackey’s Valdemar world, especially Arrows of the Queen series. Or the Joust series with its dragons.
5. Patricia Briggs’ Mercy Thompson or Omega series.
6. Anything of Octavia Butler, Marjorie Liu, and Eileen Wilks.
7. Grace Draven’s Radiance and Eidolon books.
8. Re-do of Dune, Battlefield Earth and Dresden Files but as a movie. And Star Wars chapters 1-3 and now 8. hahahaha
A re-do of Dune is supposedly already on its way! https://www.popularmechanics.com/culture/movies/a25889196/dune-rumors-news/
Yippee! Thanks Maria! Keeping fingers crossed that it is so much better.
Strangejoyce if you have Netflix I would suggest looking up their version of avatar the last air bender. Not sure if it is currently airing or in the process of being created, but I here it is going to be amazing.
I think if anyone did the Kate Daniels series it would have to be something like HBO or Starz because there is way too much in each book for one 2 hour movie.
Okay, Valdemar would make a great series. The hard part would be deciding which set of books.
Mercy Thompson would be a good one as well. Much for the same reason as I would like to see the Kitty Norville books adapted. I like the idea of taking on the introduction of the preternatural world to the normies.
At the risk of offending the purists, I like what they’ve done with GoT. A lot has been wither left out or condensed, but the show is still enjoyable. With the right production crew and a home that will allow for flexibility in how many episodes you need for a “season” along with a sufficient budget, any of the above three could be done well.
I became a book worm at the age if 12, we had just moved country’s where I didn’t know the language or anyone, it was the summer and this was before cable and the internet. There was on TV a BBC series Jane Eyre with Roger Moore in it. Only problem I would miss episodes. When my Gran came to visit i asked her to bring books, Jane Eyre being one of them, same lot of books included the first three Discworld books by Terry Pratchett. I still sometimes see a movie or a TV show and then read the book. Bernard Cornwell’s Sharpe series, the tv mini series they did starring Sean Bean was very entertaining but very different from the books but it did introduce me to the books I wouldn’t have read otherwise.
The Narnia movies were very well done i think. I think Pern would be amazing on either Tv or movies, makes me really hope that happens. Wheel of Time…if it got the same type of treatment that GoT received then maybe but on the whole i dont think it would work to many different cultures, there would be a lot of editing.
I would love to see a remake of Willow, maybe…i still love the original story and acting but the special effects while cutting edge at the time are cringe worthy now.
Ok so the movie of Ender’s Game was bad bad bad but what if they were to make either movies or a tv series of Ender’s Shadow? I think that could be really good if written well.
Yes, Bean’s story is fascinating on its own. A series would be better not just a single movie.
“which book to bring to the big (or small) screen?” is a good way to waste some time and have some fun, but the important question is “who will bring it to the big (or small) screen?”. There are thousands of books, or series, that could make great movies (or TV shows) but the odds of getting a Peter Jackson Rings Trilogy quality product are very small.
Brandi, I agree with your take on the lightning thief (did you watch the sea of monsters?). I would love for the to do to the Percy Jackson series what they did for the Mortal Instruments series. I wasn’t a fan of the city of bones movie, but what I saw of the tv series was great.
I can’t think of any books or series that I want to be made into films ( mainly because all my favorite novels already are films as well).
I knew going into it that the movie The Seeker: The Dark is Rising was going to be bad, but I loved the books by Susan Cooper and wanted to at least support an adaptation attempt. I shouldn’t have bothered, it
I am not a big movie go-er, and usually if I’ve read the book I skip on the movie! But if I had to vote on a book that might actually tempt me to go see the movie, it would be Exo, the continuation of Steven Goulds Jumper series. Not only is it all “rah! Girlpower!” But I thought the ideas/ambition of the main character was terrific. And let’s face it, I wanna be Cent…or Cory….or Cent! Heck I’d be willing to be any of Cents friends 🙂
I think books that are series are best as a tv series rather than a movie. Movies cannot do a book justice. Google says that the average movie manuscript is 90 to 100 pages – a page is 1 minute of screen time. That just isn’t enough time to flesh out a book. Then there are all the focus groups which change characters around until they are not recognizable until the only thing the movie and book have in common is the same title.
So I think tv series are the way to go – time to play out the plot lines, character and world growth etc. but I think they should have a planned arc with a final date in mind rather than “jumping the shark” and driving it into the ground.
I’d love to see any of my favorite authors made into a tv series – Ilona Andrews, Grace Draven, Faith Hunter, CE Murphy, Patricia Briggs, Jeaniene Frost. Also DB Jackson’s (The Thieftaker) and Sam Witt (Horror genre – Pitchfork County)
Patricia Briggs’ Alpha and Omega series would be a great tv series. If the casting were right. And talk about the old days Andre Norton’s Witch World series could really be something special.
I can’t find my comment to post this under, but I had a silly thought. If KD ever gets picked up (no matter the format), and Ilona Andrews retains some sort of creative control (I’m imagining a perfect world here), can I just say +1000 for Nathan Fillon for Beau the Sherriff? I was thinking about casting, and immediately started giggling when this popped in my head. Benedict Cumberbatch would make an excellt Saimain too, imo.
Can’t text
Too busy cackling!
They need to redo Vampire Academy & Eragon.
Two of my favorite series and the movies completely ruined ’em.
They did not catch the essence of the books at all and lost an awesome chance for several movies, respectively.
As a child, I remember thinking that Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine would make a marvelous film. I was equally excited when they announced it. Yet it had to be the absolute worst rendition of book to screen I have ever seen. They changed the entire film and plot to seem mainstream, while failing miserably.
I also couldn’t get past the change of character relationships in Michael Crichton’s Timeline. I felt that changing the relationship between characters was completely unnecessary and changed the entire plot in a negative way.
I would love to see Tamora Pierce’s work on the big screen, but I could see it going horribly wrong, as mentioned above.
I would also like to see Sherwood Smith’s Crown Duel / Court Duel made into a mini-series. It has potential.
OMG Ella Enchanted was the worst ever!!!!!
I used that book in my classroom for years to help girls see strong women in fairy tales and introduce writing your own version of a fairy tale. Was so excited to see it made into a movie. It was horrible!!!
Favorite book to film: Outlander! Starz has done an excellent job! I don’t think it would have translated well to just a movie because we needed 12 hours for just the first book.
Worst: Most of the Stephen King movies. Stand by Me and Delores Claiborne being the exceptions.
Dolores Claiborne is just a harrowing movie. That really threw me for a loop. Kathy Bates was amazing.
I would love to see the first three Kate Daniels books. As much as I love the entire series, I think they (being “Hollywood” with quotes and a capital H) are guaranteed to screw up anything after Magic Strikes. If you think on it the first three books with the addition of dinner scene where Curran shows up and panties with bows are admired would be a great trilogy. Not to mention every time I see Iron Man or Winter Soldier I think a Scarlett Johansen could totally nail Kate ( a decade older is fine… I think a little experience on a woman is good) I got no ideas for Curran though… maybe Chris Evans? No not a&%hole enough… Just a thought.
I like how Neil Gaiman gets involved in his screen adaptations even when the changes are made like stardust he approves them! I love his books!
Worst adaptation ever: Eragon. I hadn’t read the books yet and watched the movie saying ok too much time on that… you skipped something here… ok nope a lot of something and I don’t know what but it was important!!! And hated the movie!!!
I’ve also found that a movie doesn’t have to follow the original book closely, as long as it captures the feel and intention of the book. That’s why I love the Lord of the Rings and even the Hobbit films. They manage to capture Tolkien’s spirit. I would love to see more Dark Tower films, or a TV series. Because, again, they did not follow the plot in the books, merely a possible plot because we know that there are many realities where Roland tries and each time he fails, the quest restarts.
Sorry, forgot to leave my name.
Hi Brandi, after the fantastic effort of Peter Jackson with Lord of the Rings, I looked forward to The Hobbit. Sadly, in trying to emulate the epic journey of the Lord of the Rings, they missed the wonderful story that was included in The Hobbit.
For me the worst adaptation of book to movie was Host. Host was a wonderful and thought provoking novel by Stephanie Meyer. Her own fame got in the way though from the Twlight hooplah and the wrong readers picked up the book. The novel was beautiful. The movie was so very bad I had to turn it off.
I have always thought that Inn Keeper would translate magnificently to the big screen or even Netflix or HBO. I’d love to see that. I remember the blog posts about which actors and actresses would cast best. That was fun!!!
I know the Naomi Novik Temeraire (Napoleanic military dragon) books have been optioned by Peter Jackson a decade ago- that would be amazing.
I felt personally attacked by what they did to Phillip Pullman’s Golden Compass…just…whyyyy?
Did you know that BBC is doing a series of Phillip Pullmans trilogy??? And that James Mcavoy plays the uncle and Eleven from Stranger Things plays Lyra!!
My choice for film adaption would be the Dragon Riders of Pern series. I do know that WB tried to purchase it at one time and was shot down because of their campy plans for it. It would have to be multiple movies or an excellent TV series to encompass it all.
My wish for a remake of a bad version would be Relic. I can only say, I’m glad most of the important characters were killed off so they couldn’t do any of the other books in the series.
Yeah, the WB is not the place for more ‘serious’ and ‘adult’ sci-fi and fantasy. They’d make a hash of it.
I doubt anyone will read this but I finally figured out why so many movie adaptations are so bad. It was a 2 stage process.
First was an appendix on a reprint of Blood Debt after the tv series came out, basically the original adaptation by the author and it’s devolution as the committee brainstormed until only 6 lines of the original remained. (The series at least remained fairly true to the spirit of the books so I can’t complain too much).
The second stage was seeing the special feature attached to the studio Ghibli version of Howl’s Moving Castle, in which the US producer was raving about Miyazaki’s genius…except every detail he mentioned was something from the book. And I realized that he not only hadn’t read the book, he didn’t know it existed!
And that’s why Hollywood adaptations suck rocks: Hollywood is illiterate, they don’t read the book – only the screenplay, and then they brainstorm until the screenplay is unrecognizable.
This doesn’t happen with every movie adaptation. Adaptations made in other countries tend to get it right – the BBC version of Pride and Prejudice, for example is outstanding, and of course there’s LOTR. But Hollywood fails repeatedly.
I would like to see movie adaptations of many books, with The Cloud Roads by Martha Wells at the head of the list…but not by Hollywood.
My rule-of-thumb: if the book comes first, read the book; if the movie comes first, see the movie. There are rare exceptions in which they are equally good in their own right (the BBC Pride and Prejudice, LOTR, Captain Blood, and Man on Fire come to mind), and most rare examples where the movie adaptations are better than the book (The Princess Bride, The Ghost and the Darkness, the 90s version of Man in the Iron Mask, and the 90s version of Last of the Mohicans) but in the vast majority of cases the adaptation, whether book (The Lost Boys) or movie (all those pointed out in previous posts) are most likely to be a big disappointment.
Wow there are some great ideas posted here Brandi!
I think , The Ship who Sang, another Anne M .book would make great si fi film
Kate Daniels series would be lovely, casting would be key and a great screen play.
I agree Radience , would be cool as a film ,it’s such a super beauty and the beast twist,I loved the book.
As the worlds biggest Innkeeper fan I would love those ,casting is key again and a good screen play….
I went nuts with all the story changes in Charlain Harris’s Sookie Stackhaus series in the TV, True Blood.I loved the books they had lots of humor,it was all lost ….
I kept thinking,he does not do that,she does not do that…it drove me wacky!
I hate the Lee Child , Jack Reacher movies,the reason Reacher can do what he does is his size , blond and speaks French…Tom C is just not Jack Reacher casting is big!I love most of the books…peter Jackson did well with the Hibbit and the lord of the rings,and the Harry Potters were well done in film version…
I’m torn on this subject. I’m almost always disappointed in the movie or TV series if I enjoyed the book(s). I would love to see KD as a premium cable or streaming series, but I’m afraid of what they would do to it. For instance, the “Women of the Otherworld” series that began with the book “Bitten” was completely butchered when shown on TV. The LOTR series had terrific production values but I think too much was omitted or changed around. Had I never read the books, I might have liked the adaptations better.
BUT. If somebody filmed KD and they stuck exactly to the books, there would be nothing new to watch. Would we really want that?
For the first either Honor Harrington’s series, Bujold’s Vorkosiegan or the Alera codex. The second question definately the Dresden Files
Some very good book to film adaptions (though not UF)
Miss Fisher (Kerry Greenwood),Nero Wolfe (2000 PBS version).
The hard part with book to film is I am so rarely engaged in the film medium.
IA’s I think Innkeeper would make a wonderful movie series, KD would be fun as a series.
Sherrilyn Kenyon’s Dark Hunters could be interesting as a showtime or HBO series. A lot of lore and differing characters and lots of sex and romance and killing for them.
YA – Tamora Pierce’s series just because you have so many strong self-sufficient women especially in the Tortall books. Meredith Ann Pierce just because, though those may be far more difficult to pull off correctly. Diane Duane’s Wizard series (and the Cat wizards)
Personally I found True Blood too far from the series in the focus moving from more of a first person view point to an ensemble cast.
I would like to see “Downblow Station” by C.J. Cherry as a mini series.There is so much going on in that universe. Also the House War series by Michelle West (Sahara) which covers about an 18 year span.
I think that to truly make a proper adaptation the writers/director have to truly believe in and love the source novels.
Game of Thrones is the classic example: completely involving the original author and editing down and compressing the storyline into something that works incredibly on screen.
I doubt I’ll ever read the books but by the deities I love the show.
What I don’t get is why, when GOT is probably the hottest property in 10 years, why isn’t someone developing Dragonriders of Pern? Pern done with the same production values as GOT would go stellar!
I’d love to see Innkeeper on screen. Dina creating rooms just by a thought – the SFX guys would have a field day. But I don’t think the studios would ever “get” the concept.
And as someone mentioned above – Princess Bride is an example of film totally rising above, while still staying true to, the source material.
Miss Fisher Mysteries. Absolutely love the books.
Post WW1 Australia–no CGI necessary. 3 seasons-really good casting, FABULOUS costuming. Scriptwriters should be shot…they took the book pages, shredded them, and tossed in air to land on pre-glued sheets. Added new characters, ignored other characters, changed some relationships.
Visually great, period language, but does not resemble the books at all.
Andre Norton’s ‘Beastmaster’ was a classic sci-fi turned into sword&sorcery-absolutely the ONLY thing brought from the book was animal communication ability. And they made 3 of them ?.
Personally, I would love to see the Percy Jackson series and the movie Eragon redone. Especially Eragon. I loved all four of the Inheritance series and was absolutely thrilled to discover the movie. But when I finally saw it, i realiZed that it didnt cover even one-tenth of the book. It was the worst movie adaptations of all times, even worse than the Twilight series, i would say..
The worst adaptation I’ve ever seen was Blood and Chocolate. The movie itself wasn’t bad on it’s own, (I’d have to say that falls to movies like Percy Jackson or The Immortal Instruments), kind of an indie film feel to it, but compared to the books…. so many things done wrong/utterly changed.
They made the bad guy who tried to kill the MC into her love interest, the surprise hero helping the MC behind the scenes into a murderous bad guy, turned the MC’s parents’ accidental death into a murder done and/or covered up by her pack, and changed the message of the book from Accepting All Parts Of Yourself into… I’m not even sure what. The main plot of the book was the MC thought she was blacking out and killing humans, and so was struggling with telling her pack, knowing they’d have to put her down if she was, with an underlining storyline of her trying to find the balance between her human and wolf side, both of which she loved and found beauty in but hadn’t quite figured out how to properly mesh. The main plot of the movie was a werewolf pack makes a monthly habit of hunting humans for fun/sport and the MC, who’s always hated being a werewolf, decides she doesn’t want to anymore, thus confirming the fact that all werewolves are evil and she’s right to reject her heritage and ignore it in order to live strictly as a human, all while falling in love with the human boy who tried to kill her in the books.
I really want them to redo the Percy Jackson books and actually do them right. And with the rise of streaming services doing to short series, I’d love to see them do the books like that.
I typically don’t watch movies, especially if they were originally a book. However, there 2 I can think of off the top of my head that I’ve seen. The Horse Whisperer was much better as a movie than the book, but still can’t say I actually liked it. I greatly enjoyed Sahara written by Clive Cussler and was rather disgusted that I even spent the money to go see it when turned into a movie.
There really isn’t anything I’d actually want to see turned into a movie or series as it never fails that it gets butchered.