Books you'd like to see made into movies?

[SoonerP226]

I almost forgot--John Ringo's The Last Centurion would make a good move, though Hollyweird would probably do to it what they did to Starship Troopers. Jack Campbell's Lost Fleet series would make a good series of movies, I think.

I have never seen any movie adaptation that was true to the original book,,,

Off the top of my head, these movies were extraordinarily faithful to their source works:
The Maltese Falcon
The Caine Mutiny
Hondo
Apollo 13/Lost Moon
The Big Sleep
The Longest Day (although it does use composite characters, it is still true to the spirits of the book and of the event)

Funny that none of those are recent books or movies (it's been almost 20 years since Apollo 13 was released)...then again, maybe there are new movies that are faithful to their source works, but I don't care enough to read them...

 

[SoonerP226]

More that I remembered--Daniel Suarez's Daemon and Freedom(tm) would make a good two-parter.

 

[bettingpython]

I think a lot of John Ringo's stuff would do well on the big screen.

 

[briarcreekguy]

I don't think Hollyweird could do it justice, but I'd like to see Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors on the big screen. The Cuban Missile Crisis part of W. Craig Reed's Red November would also make a good movie, and I'll second the Stainless Steel Rat series recommendation.

And one of these days, I really hope that someone makes Heinlein's Starship Troopers into a movie.

I too would like to see the Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors, made into a movie as my Grandad was on the USS Raymond, a destroyer escort, that was sent back to face the Japanese fleet, so the rest of the US fleet could escape. He said that they fired off all their ammo during the run. The Japanese couldn't lower their guns enough to hit them when they were close and missed them as they sailed away.

I know what you mean about Starship Troopers, one of my favorite novels as a lad, turned into one of the worst adaptations I have ever witnessed. Veerhoven missed all the important elements of the story and turned the mobile infantry into sadistic Nazis, minus their powered armor.

 

[tRidiot]

Clancy's Without Remorse

Without a doubt!

I'm gonna shake his hand and say,,,
"Nice job on King Kong!"

Then I'm gonna slap him to his knees and say,,,
"And that's for what you did to the Lord of the Rings!"

<RANT>

I've read those books at least once every two years since 1970,,,
He took some of the most beautiful literature ever penned,,,
And turned it into a video game action travesty.

I have never seen any movie adaptation that was true to the original book,,,
So I don't go into them with any great expectations,,,
But what Peter Jackson did to "The Trilogy",,,
Was nothing short of literary butchery.

The only thing that Paul Verhoeven got correct in Starship Troopers,,,
Was the connection of military (or some type) of service,,,
Being tied to you being a "citizen" who could vote.

I mean,,,
Mobile Infantry wore powered armor suits.

</RANT>

Aarond

.

As for this, I'm just shaking my head... I thought it was incredible. But oh well. lol

<edit> I mean LotR, not Starship Troopers.

 

[tRidiot]

What about a better adaptation of Battlefield Earth? I thought that could have been about 1000x better. :/

 

[dennishoddy]

I don't know. I'm a reader. Every time I've gone to watch a movie generated by a book, its not been faithful to the plot and leaves me lacking. There is something to the written word that appeals to me, and keeps me interested.

Half way through any movie, I'm thinking about how the hell to get out of there.

 

[AKguy1985]

I thought that the starship troopers movies were adapted from the book. I guess they just used the name.

 

[bettingpython]

What about a better adaptation of Battlefield Earth? I thought that could have been about 1000x better. :/

Or Dune for that matter.

The problem with Battlefield Earth and Dune was the complexity and length of the Novels. At 185K words Dune is a bit lengthy and I don't think it can be done well as a single serving movie. Battlefield Earth at 428K words can't be done as a single serving movie. Way too much detail loss.

 

[aarondhgraham]

As for this, I'm just shaking my head... I thought it was incredible. But oh well. lol

<edit> I mean LotR, not Starship Troopers.

If I had never read the books,,,
I would have enjoyed the movies very much.

He left way too many parts out of the movie,,,
He rearranged events and gave important lines to different characters,,,
He turned a somber and sage character (Gimli) into a comic relief character,,,
He completely rewrote the events that happened before and during the battle of Helms Deep.

I could go on forever.

Honestly, I want to slap the man to his knees,,,
Because having done the "epic" trilogy movie event,,,
It will be 50 years before someone else tries to do it correctly.

I waited for 40 years,,,
And he completely disappointed me.

Aarond

.