What book would you like to see made into a movie?

[clintessential]

MysFan
I've just spent the last 3 hours reading everything I could about "Authors Who Hated the Screen Versions of Their Books."
The results, as they say, are mixed. One bright spot(I'm defining "bright spot" as an author who is so incensed by the
disparity between his vision and the vision(or should I say myopia) of the philistines he sold his "hope diamond" to,
that he considered engaging in criminal activity to redress that wrong) was Anthony Burgess. He gave a rather spirited,
public evisceration of the movie Stanley Kubrick made of "Clockwork Orange." He went so far as to say that if he had
divined the life form his work would ultimately inhabit, he wouldn't have written it. . I say the results are
mixed because in many instances the author's dissaffection with the movie is conveyed by a third party(some boob
calling themselves a "journalist" who probably hasn't read the book and whose opinion of the film sounds like a
bad paraphrasing of Roger Ebert's review). Generally, what the search has yielded, is one sentence from an author's
bio(on Wikipedia) saying they didn't like the movie. And that's it. I should also say I'm new to the internet and any
education I've received in that regard is rather limited. Maybe I'm looking in the wrong places. I won't be deterred
however. This is a fascinating topic and I'm glad tonya10057 started it.

[MysFan]

clintessential - First, thanks so much!!! I appreciate the time and energy that went into your search. I hope at some point I can return the favor.

I too am new to the Internet as far as personal use. I did quite a bit of research on the status of bills in Congress and spent a lot of time reading Laws and Regulations, but nothing personal and for fun. So I am exploring, and often getting myself into trouble. But I lucked out when I found this book forum.

It is an interesting topic and I will continue the research. Oh, I never read A Clockwork Orange, but the movie was really, really bad. I always wondered if the director did not make the movie while on some kind of mind-altering drug. Especially as the time was right for that sort of thing.

Again, thanks for the assist.

[clintessential]

MysFan
There's no favor to return. I'm as interested in the topic as you are(the topic being, of course Authors Who Disagree
With A Filmakers Depiction of Their Ideas Onscreen). You'd think that a situation like the one that evolved during
the casting of "Gone With The Wind" would have more of a history. This isn't the first time I've researched an issue
considered peripheral to the production of a film(and come away empty handed). About six months ago I watched
"The Man in The Glass Booth", a movie that I hadn't seen since 1975, the year it was released. When it was over,
I logged on to the Wikipedia webpage to find out more about the movie's evolution. I was surprised to learn that
Robert Shaw, the British actor, had written the play that the movie was based on. Further reading revealed that
(hang on, this is a shocker) he sold the movie rights to a film maker, who hired him to be a "special advisor" during
production. Two weeks into filming, Shaw becomes so indignant over the desecration of his play that he storms off
the set and demands that his name be removed from any credits attendant to the film. The film maker agrees to his
request. This information, coupled with the films subject matter and the ambiguity of film/play's main character,
had raised questions too profound to ignore(at least to me, anyway). Without hesitation, the battle is joined.
Many hours later, after a non-stop effort to glean the answers to my very "metaphysical inquiry", I gave up. I have found
answers to the most obscure questions(which Watergate burgler is in possession of Che Guevara's watch?) online.
But nobody knows why Robert Shaw wrote a play about a Jew masquerading as a Nazi who wants to atone for a sin
he never committed by allowing himself to be tried and convicted for a crime he didn't commit by a court in Israel.
Seems a rather straightforward question to me.

[Amescu]

'Altered Carbon' by Richard Morgan. This novel is set 500 years in the future and shows how people are changed by only a few of major technological advances. The first is an implant that stores your brain pattern so if you die or are killed then you can be resurrected into a new body. Another is faster than light communication, so you can be transmitted anywhere mankind has ventured to by old fashioned and slow space travel.

The book explores how people have changed with the promise of effective immortality. Not much, it turns out, all the old vices remain. The movie should be a thinking man's action flick along the lines of Blade Runner.

[ralfy]

I forgot to mention Mishima's tetralogy.

[MysFan]

The book explores how people have changed with the promise of effective immortality. Not much, it turns out, all the old vices remain. The movie should be a thinking man's action flick along the lines of Blade Runner.

Bladerunner. Now there was a trendsetting film. I don't know if there was a book before this and the movie is based on it, how accurate the movie is to the book (if there is one), or if a book was written afterward. But I remember loving this movie, and then thinking "so this may be how our future looks?" I did not mind so much the globalization aspect, or the weather (I live in the Northwest after all), as I did the pollution and overall sense of depression.

I have watched it several times since it was initially released and I find that it is still futuristic, but at least as related to the pollution, we are moving toward it. I read an article that said that since about the 19th century, the fog in London has not been only fog. Since they relied a great deal on coal, and people tended to heat their homes and all with coal, there was this black cloud over the city. And now they say it is the same; the fog is at least partially pollution. Perhaps London will be the first to end up like Bladerunner's city.

-- 25 Sep 2012, 17:27 --

You'd think that a situation like the one that evolved during the casting of "Gone With The Wind" would have more of a history.

It is entirely possible that I got the whole Margaret Mitchell deal mixed up with another situation. When I read this in a magazine article I don't think they had even invented computers yet, much less had the Internet.

But as to the casting, there was a documentary on television about David Selznick (the one that developed Gone With the Wind as I know there have been several) and the making of Gone With the Wind. It showed actual screen tests of the numerous famous actresses that really wanted the part. Even Katherine Hepburn tested and I cannot imagine a less likely Scarlett. I call it a documentary, but it was probably a precursor to how they do that today for films that are popular. The whatever it was showed how the filming of the burning of Atlanta took place and some other facts about the process of making this film. What was clear to me, even when I saw this story, was that no way could this have been done today. It would have cost more than Waterworld. Without of course the bad box office.

I find this type of research fun and interesting too. It is great to have the Internet, but it can also be frustrating. It is kind of like calling up data from a computer, if we don't know the exact way to ask the question, it does not happen. I know after trying many, many times to find something I think to myself "It was easier when I went to the State Library and asked a Librarian!!" You know some of those people knew what we now rely on computers to know. When I go to the library today I usually get "well just look it up on the Internet."

Okay, I am not only dating myself, but pointing out what a Luddite I am!!! I hope as I go through and learn more about all this, it will get easier. I learned about quite a few sites for work; so now it is time for find out for fun!!!

[BirthCONTROL]

BirthCONTROL: A Husband's Honest Account of Pregnancy.

[Sandyshappy]

Would really love to see the Earth's Children series by Jean M. Auel made into a movie or a few movies would be completely amazing. they did do a movie a long time ago but was a big let down, with the technology now they could easily pull it off.

[samsmum]

im a huge jeffrey deaver fan, and loved the film version of 'the bone collector', so would like to see his series of stories based around the lincoln rhyme character made into films - excellent thrillers, with a twist at the end every time!!

[A Martin]

From Stardust To Babylon

[LouiseC]

Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers

[camilegordon]

What book would you like to see made into a movie/.and why?I would love to see honest illusions by Nora Roberts made into a movie because that's my all time favorite book.

spot on ! that would make a great flick so long as it had a decent director. . . . i think the antics of nicking jewels would create some cool set pieces for sure so maybe sam mendes could handel the action. . . not sure he'd be as good dealing with the relationship thing with Luke but it would still be a great flick.

[Redlegs]

A couple of books that I have read in the relatively recent past that I think would make great movies, in the hands of a skilled script writer and a director with a steady hand, would be The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford and The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers.

[Fran]

A couple of books that I have read in the relatively recent past that I think would make great movies, in the hands of a skilled script writer and a director with a steady hand, would be The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford and The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers.

@Redlegs
There is a movie version of The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, made in 1968 & starred Sondra Locke

[Redlegs]

A couple of books that I have read in the relatively recent past that I think would make great movies, in the hands of a skilled script writer and a director with a steady hand, would be The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford and The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers.

@Redlegs
There is a movie version of The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, made in 1968 & starred Sondra Locke

@Fran
Thanks for that info. I wonder how easy it would be to track down a copy?