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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
Sorry. Hit wrong button. No “unflag” buttons on my screen🙄
I haven’t read through the whole thread, so maybe somebody already replied to this, but Amazon is actually making a Wheel of Time series adaptation. Brandon Sanderson’s been very positive about the showrunner and the scripts he seen. They did go very PC multi-ethnic with the casting, though, so that’s a little concerning.
Jordan is very multi-culti. He’s clear that the Two Rivers is known for dark hair and eyes, and that Rand looks like a weirdo because he has blue eyes and red hair. Faile has “slanted” Saldeaean eyes. Tuon is the color of good earth. Etc.
And oh what a shame that would be.
< sarcasm mode = off >
Future band name detected.
If I had a billion dollars I would make all the Jerry Pournelle Falkenberg books as limited series. And I would do them properly and not let hollywood wreck them. That would be probably one of the most right wing tv shows ever made.
Only thing I can think to top it would be Tom Kratmans Carrera novels, which involve a lot of shooting of terrorists, media, sjws and the massive hatred of the UN and political correctness.
A little more subtle would be the General series by SM Stirling and David Drake. Men riding giant dogs and fighting barbarian armies while a supercomputer tries to rebuild civilization. Its pretty amazing.
If I were doing an animated series i would go and do David Webers Honor Harrington books. I think they would work better as an animation given the books take such a long period of time and the Prolong they use it would be more realistic.
Another limited series the Freehold book by Micheal Z Williamson, so we can see a true Minarchist state in operation.
It’ll make a sandworm outta ya, Leto, just eat it!
I’m guessing Jane is one you’d nominate for retirement from remakes?
Another unpopular opinion:
No more comic-book movies, please!
This may be far astray, but CGI could do wonders with the Divine Comedy.
I just want you to know that Jane was very hurt by your remark.
Very true. There was a Dante’s Inferno video game about a decade ago, but let’s just say it wasn’t very loyal to the source material. It had Dante going through hell with a giant whipping scythe and re-killing the dead and the demons. Amazing graphics, but….
Wonder why they never made a sequel….
Yeah, the book was a real let-down after that. Should’a let someone else do the novelization.
Disney should take another shot at this, so long as they refrain from the “outcasts singing about friendship” trope.
Preach brother!
I had a friend in New York with a band called “Kosher Mexican Cookies.”
I sort of wondered where they got the name, but I didn’t think too much about it. One day I was in D’Agostino’s, the NY grocery store, and looked up to see what aisle I was in. I was in “Kosher Mexican Cookies.” Ah ha…
At this point I think Disney should stay very very far away from any more beloved authors. Social distancing isn’t far enough, I am fully confident they would utterly ruin the story.
Completely agree with this.
I was all in favour of a Pride And Prejudice And Zombies movie, but they cheaped out on the budget.
Depends on the comic book.
I’ve occasionally thought that Mexican Vodka would be a good name for a band.
Blackadder hands Shakespeare a ballpoint pen. And he know what to do with it. Historical drama just isn’t what it used to be.
Hobbit: The Musical!
Helm’s Deep On Ice!
Did anyone see Love and Friendship? That was a brilliant and wickedly funny film (not a remake as far as I know).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MaSK3POHI0
Anime. It should be some kind of hybrid animation.
In fact…there is no reason I can see that people couldn’t produce tons of animation right now with home studios and computers. There is going to be a giant hole in streaming services as so many shows are halted.
Neither do I acknowledge that there has been a film made of the book Starship Troopers.
Or even the Black Tide Rising books.
I would love to see how they do G-Nome. That would be a kick.