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Overlooked Series for TV or Movie Adaptation
The Game of Thrones book series is nihilistic nonsensical bilge. But it makes for “good” television because that sort of mess seems to be popular in today’s culture, what with all the sex, sorcery, and savagery. As an actual story though? It’s terrible. Which is probably why George R.R. Martin could never finish it – it had no real logical “out”, no escape from its cycles of violence and revenge, save what the HBO writers could force together. Until HBO picked it up, though, it was unlikely fare for Hollywood treatment – Hollywood typically shies away from overly long fantasy cycles simply because such things are very expensive to cast and produce well, to say nothing of finding good writers to translate novels into scripts you can actually film. For all the awfulness of its story, I do give full credit to HBO for the solid work they put into the project over nearly a decade – one can deplore the story but still admire the brilliant and extremely skilled craftwork involved in telling it, and (more importantly) sticking with it at that high level for so long. Would that The Hobbit had been given that same dedication.
And now it seems we are to receive another attempt at telling the story of Dune. I am not excited at the prospect. The David Lynch film of the 80s was terrible. The SciFi Channel’s miniseries of 20 years ago was much better. But why Dune? Why yet another attempt? If Hollywood is looking for that next “big epic”, surely there are other and better stories to tell? Dune, the first book, is interesting, but has its weaknesses, while the rest of the series gets rather strange. Haven’t other authors written better and more compelling fantasy or science-fiction epics? Or must we continually return to just a few “classics”, like Amazon is trying to do with its pending Tolkien series? I would like to propose a few other authors and series that Hollywood should consider instead, and would invite you to make your own suggestions as well.
Jack Vance – Lyonesse – You have all the vying factions and warring kingdoms, spies, betrayals, magic, pending doom, adventures, and quests that people loved in GoT, but series is more tightly told, not predicated on the nonsense of centuries of cultural and technological stasis, and its story arcs and overall narrative have definite beginnings, middles, and ends. The characters are also far more human, and thus more clever, and more fallible at the same time. Vance is not afraid to kill off characters, but does not do so because the Plot Wheel® demands it. Vance’s other works, from his Dying Earth stories to his science fiction, would also make good candidates – they are character driven tales in vivid worlds, but the worlds are ultimately only backdrops for the people in them.
Susan Cooper – The Dark Is Rising – Yes this is a children’s series, and yes Hollywood did, in its Harry-Potter enthusiasms, already put out a film, but it was dreadful (almost Lynch-Dune dreadful at that), and we should put it aside and start over. The series is a modern blending with ancient Anglo-Celtic mythology, and as such is very richly told.
Cornelia Funke – Inkheart – Like with Susan Cooper, Hollywood tried this one and blew it once already, in no small part because they could not decide whether it was a children’s story with some mature hints, or a more mature story as witnessed by a child, and of course they Americanized it. Andrew Klavan’s Another Kingdom series deals with some similar concepts as Funke, so if you enjoyed Klavan you would find this series familiar in some respects. Inkheart is a story series about our own world intersecting with a very rich and complicated parallel magical world, through the eyes of a young woman growing up in both.
What would you like to see made? What authors or series have been either unfairly overlooked, or badly mangled and worth another shot?
Or are there series (say, like Dune) that you think ought to be put out to pasture just on principle at this point?
Published in Entertainment
I don’t think “Thou art god” is a shocker any more. And without the introduction to the Martians in Red Planet, the exposition of the enigmatic and inscrutable all powerful Martians would be a bit of a challenge. And a lot of the real “action” is in the internal psychological reactions to Mike. And then there is the inevitable, yawn, another superhero response.
For Heinlein, while he didn’t work very hard to steer clear of Christ parallels, he saw the story his version of Philip Wylie’s Gladiator, a very early novel about a superman that served also as the inspiration for Superman. But without the silly costume and whatnot. When Heinlein started reading about how the college set was interpreting the book, it worried him. But it was also the book that made him independently wealthy.
There have been lots of Discworld tv movies in the UK.
Yes, the SciFi Channel did a great job on a responsible budget and the special effects of the day. Today, the problem with doing a Dune film is they will reduce Paul to just another superhero, where Herbert gives us genetic memory and foresight that might be Holmesian calculation or might be true psychic foresight and strange Bene Gesserit disciplines. Even Paul is feeling his way through the questions his abilities raise.
Can it be done in two hours to meet the constraints of a theater audience? A whopping good movie that can never do the book justice is possible, and that is 95% at the least of all such efforts. And if it gets somebody to poke into the book and navigate that rich melange of ideas, yeah, sure, why not?
I’ve just seen one. Are there more available in the US?
Terrible book. (Still better than Dune though).
Heinlein should have retired after Starship Troopers and Moon is a Harsh Mistress.
Non-fiction isn’t exactly what you asked about, but I would dearly love to see any or all of Erik Larson’s books made into movies or TV/streaming series. Of course The Devil in the White City is by far the best (and supposedly Hulu is working on something), but I’d watch anything based on his stuff.
ISWYDT.
Might The Night Circus be a good movie? Or maybe it’s already been optioned, I don’t know. I just finished it, and it was wonderful. The special-effects guys could have a field-day.
I prefer Dune. The ideas in Stranger fall apart without the Martian powers. Dune is more interesting as world building too.
Flashman.
And if I was king of the forrrrrest, I would pause the movie ever so often for the footnotes, delivered with acidic disdain by a John-Houseman type walking around the Flashman Library. To date myself even more, I would have cast Cary Elwes in the title role. Today’s actors seem to have too much smirky soy to carry off the role.
Yes, I know, they made a Flashman movie, but let us not dwell on that.
The plot hole with Dune is vast. How did the Spacer’s Guild discover spice if the spacers weren’t native to Arrakis?
Too close to an existing property, and how are you going to top Douglas Fairbanks Jr.?
Speaking of Elric and the Pinis, Wendy did an illustrated version of the first Elric book. And didn’t Wendy and Richard get divorced?
On another note: Thanks for reminding me of the Deryni series. It is unusual in the medieval fantasy genre for trying to be really medieval, i.e. there is an equivalent of the Catholic Church that is recognizeably Christian. I read the Camber books first, then the first Deryni trilogy. I was tickled to see there are many, many books in the series that I have not yet read.
I share your unpopular opinion with the minor change that I loathe the Hobbit films after the first one. The first one wins by making dwarves washing dishes fun to watch.
Since we’re mentioning fantasy series that would make good film or streaming series, though, David Eddings’ Belgariad and Mallorean come immediately to mind.
Mostly because she wrote them almost as if they were screenplays, starting about Goblet of Fire. And the totalitarian unmasking of the Ministry of Magic can be read as left or right-wing totalitarianism if you accept the premise that there is any totalitarianism that is not left-wing/statist.
HP escaped because Rowling got to call the shots.
But then again, ultimately, she didn’t escape.
It’s been long-optioned – that is why Molly doesn’t appear in Johnny Mnemonic.
I think Hollywood tends to take a two pronged approach that is guaranteed to destroy a story; first, they smooth over anything that might be challenging to a viewer because their job is to pull lots of people into the theater, get top dollar for syndication (however that works now), and get sequels green-lit.
And then, the director steps in and puts his ego on it.
Translation is hard, even with the purest of motives; there isn’t much that is pure in Hollywood.
I liked the beginning of The Hobbit, but the fight with the orcs and all the falling down of scaffolding, etc. was just too childish for me. I am grateful that I drew the line there as it seems the next two are universally reviled.
The same way I discovered pasta.
I’ll have to reread it, it’s been awhile and I dont remember ever considering the question you pose.
Gibson’s Neuromancer…..
Because space travel was extent, pre-guild. The spice had already made its way off world, it Enhanced the navigation skills of the guild ( and hence it monopoly) , it didn’t create it. Sequel/spinoff explanations posed by anyone other than Frank ( for example his dullard son) dont count.
I remember being shocked that Peter Jackson included one of the songs. And I sort of worried that there were going to be more.
Upon further reflection, that might have improved the trilogy.
Don’t know if any are currently streaming – you might have to subscribe to something like BritBox on Amazon at this point. We ordered them all on DVD, however, since it has been a long time since they appeared on Amazon.
Come to think of it, I first saw Hogfather on BBC America back in about 2006 or so… I remember Going Postal on Netflix, but that was a good 7 or 8 years ago too now, back when Netflix still had a useful UI.
The Wheel of Time is the next BIG Amazon tv series to come. It’s coming before the second age of Middle Earth series. They’re putting so much money into the two shows, especially LOTR.
Amazon has been hyping up WoT series for many months now. They constantly release information about casting and filming, I feel like every week. The pandemic has halted the filming, but I’m pretty sure principal photography started last fall. If you’re potentially interested, I encourage you to look into it.
There is an absurd number of fantasy and sci-fi stories that are going to be adapted by Amazon, Netflix, etc in the next 5 years or so. I think some of the books mentioned here are on that list. Amazon, especially, is looking for the next GoT, so they’re investing a lot of money into popular series.
I love Dune so I’m pretty excited/scared for the incoming movie. I like the director though and the cast is impressive.
My favorite fantasy series as a teenager was The Deathgate Cycle by Margaret Weiss and Tracy Hickman. I’m not sure how it holds up. Some of the worlds and other elements would require a lot of special effects.
The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant by Stephen R Donaldson was another series I enjoyed back then. It had fewer fantasy elements, so might be easier to translate to TV.
One the most memorable books I ever read, Nevermore by Harold Schecter, could be expanded into a detective series. The story is written from the perspective of Edgar Allen Poe working alongside Davy Crockett to solve a mystery. Chris Conner plays a Poe-like character in Altered Carbon and would be good for the role. Chris Pratt would do well as the cheerful and rambunctious Crockett.
Justified, Longmire and Bosch are evidence that a series of crime novels can be turned into a quality series of TV shows. The screen versions took liberties from the novels’ plot lines, etc. – but both the books and the TV series were fun.
I’m also with some previous commenters, believing the Master and Commander series would make a solid serialized TV program – provided it’s done by a company with deep enough pockets to pay for all those ship sets, costumes, etc.
Just saw on Twitter this morning that yesterday was the 30th anniversary of the Hugh Laurie/Stephan Frye Jeeves and Wooster series.
I’ll list some I know to come. Not necessarily everything I’m interested in, but just a PSA.
Wheel of Time
LOTR second age
Dune movie (most likely multiple if successful and a Bene Gesserit show)
Foundation
The Watch (Discworld)
The Stand
Brave New World
Narnia
Conan the Barbarian
Ringworld
This isn’t even counting that the Witcher, His Dark Materials, Locke and Key, Good Omens, The Boys, and a bunch of others came out last year. It’s sooooo much tv. The near future is filled with adaptations.
Or…