What book/books would you like to see adapted for the big screen?

Catcher in the Rye, The Thief Lord
Those are almost the only two I would enjoy to be a movie

Quoted from God of Thunder Catcher in the Rye, The Thief Lord Those are almost the only two I would enjoy to be a movie

Catcher in the Rye is a title which keeps bobbing up in my life. I've heard it's a classic.
I think I'll check it out.

Empire of The East should be adapted but sadly since it is something like Lord of The Rings and written many years ago with a better story and a little more graphic at that nobody has the balls to attempt such a film.

They already made a great film out of my favorite book Sleepers (They could make some of his other books as well)

Quoted from God of Thunder Catcher in the Rye, The Thief Lord Those are almost the only two I would enjoy to be a movie

The Thief Lord was filmed and was a straight to dvd release. I rented it from Block Buster a few weeks ago and thought that it was ok.

But I would like to see:

The Hobbit, The Spiderwick Chronicles (which is being made soon), and Inkheart.

-Chris

"The Devil's Elixir" by E.T.A. Hoffman

Probably one of the most evilish novels written during the 19° century

Michel 8)

I was just reading a conspiracy theories thread on another site and George Orwell's book 1984 was mentioned. People spoke about how at the time his book was released the idea of having cameras watching people's every move seemed like a far flung nightmare, but years later its actually happened. We have cameras everywhere. Hell, we've even got satellites in space that have the entire planet under surveillance. On top of this we have people being misled by the lying media and our governments are stripping away our rights with their terror laws. I think in this current world climate it's high time for a movie remake of George Orwell's 1984. Of course now I guess you'd have retitle it 2024 or something.      

I'm actually reading Catcher In The Rye right now (not for school, but for fun, if you can believe it).  It's a very good book, but I understand why it hasn't been adapted for the screen yet.  It's not really a story, but more so a teenager's view of the world.  If adapted, it would definitely be a voice-over heavy film.

As for me, I'm not sure what I want to see adapted.

...Actually, what I wouldn't mind seeing is another adaptation of All Quiet On The Western Front.  That's one of my favorite books and I've seen all the adaptations, but as good as the oscar-winning version was, I'd love to see it made again for a new generation.

- State Of Fear by Michael Chrichton. Totally nusty sci-fi thriller about eco-terrorism in the name of preventing global warming. It'll never get made though considering the author's note not only claims global warming is a hoax but compares the "theory" to a late 19th century study claiming race determines intelligence (I forget the name of the actual pseudoscience). Studios wouldn't produce it and the budget would be to high to produce independently. It'd make a fun movie, regardless of its agenda.

- Zombie by Joyce Carroll Oates. Really disturbing novel about a pedophilic serial killer told from the first person point-of-view. Very loosely based on the life of Jeffery Dahmer. Could make a good indie flick.

Also anything based on the works of H.P. Lovecraft. There've been a few loose adaptations but nothing as faithful and/or epic.

Two good choices above, with :

State Of Fear - which would indeed be a crackejack thriller with some nice action set pieces, but yep due to Chricton's stand on GW, doubt it'd see the light of day. Sad since his PREY was presold for a hefty sum and seems to have gone belly up, and I haven't heard a flurry of activity on his NEXT.

Any serious, grim, scary Lovecraft would be great. Stuart Gordon doesn't count lol. Looks like Del Toro may finally make At The Mountains Of Madness - which has the promise of being great.

I'd like to see any of Matthew Reilly's thrillers filmed - Ice Station, Maybe Area 51 or Seven Deadly Wonders. He writes impossibly breathless thrillers that seem to be designed to transfer to the screen.

The Traveling Vampire Show by Richard Laymon - a great gruesome B movie tale -

The Devils Of D-Day by Graham Masterton - a mapmaker traveling in rural France finds an Army tank which was abandonded in a small village during WW2. For years, villagers have heard sounds, awful, soul chilling sounds from INSIDE the sealed tank - and once the tank is opened, Hell literally breaks loose -

I Am Legend - the recent Will Smith movie got it wrong - this needs to be done right.  Small budget, dark, moody, Kurt Russell in the lead, and vampires - please.

Little Girl Lost - Richard Aleas - a nice noir-ish thriller: detective reads that his college sweetheart was found murdered on a NYC rooftop. He looks into what happened, trying to figure out how she went from pre-med student to stripper to a lifeless corpse. A great bittersweet thriller with a nice twist, could be a modern crime classic if done well.

Quoted from mikep Any serious, grim, scary Lovecraft would be great. Stuart Gordon doesn't count lol. Looks like Del Toro may finally make At The Mountains Of Madness - which has the promise of being great.

Actually, Gordon's Re-Animator is considered to be the most faithful Lovecraft adaptation yet. It's a little on the comedy side but so was the short story. Lovecraft intended it as a sort of parody on Frankenstein. I liked Dagon and Dreams In The Witch House too but neither are quite there yet... "serious, grim, scary Lovecraft" has yet to see the light of day. Maybe Del Toro will be the man to make it happen.

Oh I loved Re-Animator, and From Beyond for that matter. They are wild and deliciously over the top and lots of fun. I give Gordon props for being dilligent about getting HPL on screen, but right, the serious grim scary adaptation hasn't been done yet.

I have a list of books that I would love to adapt. How does one go about doing this? Does the screen writer need the rights to the novel before they adapt it? Any help on this matter would be greatly appreciated.

While you don't need anyone's permission to adapt a book, you'll need the author's permission and/or that of the publishers if you wish to do anything with it.


Phil

People ask this all the time so here goes a glimpse of the actual process...

1. If the book is in print contact the publisher and see who owns the copyright and see if the film rights are available for third party interests.

2. Get a lawyer.  I'm not kidding.  To acquire the rights to a novel is to acquire the worldwide rights to a novel.  It's useless to have the rights to just the US. There's no way you can clear the worldwide rights to something without a lawyer to go over about twenty individual contracts across twenty publishing companies.

3. If the rights are available contact the publisher, the writer and the writer's literary agent. Ideally, you would have your lawyer contact them with your proposal.  

3. Have a proposal that is not "I'm going to do a great job adapting and sell it to Hollywood, hooray!"  You're going to have to show what contacts you have and how much money you plan on making them.  What cut are you going to give the original novelist?  Do you have a deal with a production company that has a track record?  Do you have a distributor?  If you can't answer any of those questions just stop.

There's this myth that "lesser known" writers will allow you to adapt their work on spec.  It may be true of John Doe who published a book in 1964 and is living in retirement in Palm Springs but probably not of anyone who had a book published in the last twenty years.  Publishing companies retain reissue rights and many other subsidiary rights on books.  Even if the writer gives you the go ahead you probably won't be able to do anything without going through the publisher.

Adapted without permission scripts are useless to you.  Contests don't want them and agents don't want them as samples.  It's not even a rights issue.  It's the fact that the plot, the characters, etc, all belong to another writer.

My advice is to create your own material and unless the book is in the public domain not to even bother.  You won't be able to do anything with the property so don't live in this fanboy/fangirl fantasy where you think the author will love your adaptation so much they will give you worldwide rights and a cupcake with sprinkles on it. Published writers write for a living and they want to make money off their work.

Thanks for the insight. I never realy knew how this worked in the film industry. It's slightly different when you adapt novels for the stage.