Usually movies made from books aren't as good as the book... but occassionally there are surprises.


The Witching Hour, Anne Rice - envision it as a dark epic, 15 generations of history and a modern day ghost story. Would love to see this brought to the big screen!

Confessions of a Shopoholic, Sophia Kinsella - would be a chick flick but still fun! Becky Bloomwood would be more loveable than Bridget Jones. The following two books lend themselves to sequels nicely.

The Other Bolynne Girl or The Constant Princess, Phillipa Gregory - a period film but told from an interesting perspective. Melts fact and fiction very well.

What books have you read that you think would be a good movie?

ooh good thread magnolia, will have to put my thinking cap on.

The Other Bolyn Girl was actually adapted for tv by the bbc in England - like a tv movie, it wasn't as good as the book.
The Constant Princess - have you read it? do you have it? Can i borrow????? I wanted to buy it but everytime i go chaterhouse is sold out!
I would like to see all of Philippa Gregory's books made into movies, they are such wonderful stories and i always love period pieces

I've just read a book called the Time Travellers Wife that I think would make a good movie. It's about htis guy that jumps forward and backwards in time and keeps jumping back to meet his wife as a little girl, it's a really beautiful poignant book.

i'm sure i will think of more soon!

The Kite Runner would be sad but potentially beautiful.
The David Sedaris books would be very funny, maybe more for a sitcom.
I've been waiting for the Keith Moon biography Moon to be made into a movie; it could be amazing.

Sydney Sheldon- IF TOMORROW COMES.
adventure, con story... could be something like italian job.

Any Marvel or DC or Dark Horse or alternative comic ...... hey .... Anime comics will do too..... upcoming Transformers movie will be a hoot!

bellabella wrote:The Other Bolyn Girl was actually adapted for tv by the bbc in England - like a tv movie, it wasn't as good as the book.
The Constant Princess - have you read it? do you have it? Can i borrow????? I wanted to buy it but everytime i go chaterhouse is sold out!
I would like to see all of Philippa Gregory's books made into movies, they are such wonderful stories and i always love period pieces

wish i had seen that! would love to see what would be done if it was brought to the big screen or how it was done brought to the small one! The Constant Princess - shall give to you on Wednesday!

another book that held my interested and would translate well is Anna's Book, by Ruth Rendell writing as ****a Vine... slightly more of a mystery than i usually enjoy, but it is another one of those books that flashes between past and present and leaves you thinking about how different things are from how they seem.

as a young girl, i discovered my first smutty fiction book, Queenie, by Michael Korda. actually had a note sent home to my mother to inform her that i was reading inappropriate books, but that's another story. that was made into a tv movie which was really bad. still think the story, while dated a bit now, would make a good rags to riches tale.

Life of Pi, Yann Martel could be a brilliant movie... or it would be a complete flop. Not sure if the magic behind the book would work or not.

A Fine Balance, Rohinron Minstry would be a great epic but Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts may be more exciting.

Would love to see more books about life in the middle east produced... but not from a western perspective or a negative perspective.

Lord of the Rings? Then again I can't imagine anyone trying to make a movie out of that one.

Been thinking about this one for years - sorry its all fantasy - sci fi.. but these days you can do so much with that genre if you have a good story to start.

Somebody somewhere has to do the whole Foundation Series by Asimov. Someone has actually bought the movie rights. EPIC... It would be bigger and deeper than Star Wars

Also... someone has to do The Illuminatus Trilogy by Robert Anton Wilson.. especially these days..another Epic.

Diamond Age by Stephenson would be a good one also - with the battle of Shanghai and the mouse army and all.

Actually I did read a very interesting one a while back called "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time" about a boy with autism written from his point of view. Not quite what you expect as you end up with a lot of admiration for the kid. If they could capture the mood of the book it would make an interesting film.

I think Life of Pi is a really good book but i'm not sure about it for a movie, it is a little slow paced and so much of the story goes on in his mind rather than action, it would have to be very cleverly done to make a good movie form it.

dont think the life of pi would work in a movie....unless they set it in the hospital and captured all that humour then flashed back to the poignancy of the scenes at sea....can't really imagine it.
i totally agree with hammerforlife - 'the curious incident of the dog in the nightime' - it is just waiting to be made into a film.
has anyone seen sadie smith's white teeth? - it was an excellent book adn i heard they turned it into a movie
Janet Evanovich's funny stories about a female bounty hunter - i can really imagine them becoming movies, they are so funny

The Plot against America by Philip Roth...

Human Stain was made into a movie, and it wasn't all that bad. This one could be just as good.

This Thing of Darkness by Harry Thompson.

A book about the voyage made by Robert Fitzroy who was captain of the Beagle during the 5 years Charles Darwin was on board. Darwin came on board as a friend but they parted enemies. Fitzroy was very relidgeous and could not agree with Darwin's thinking on evolution. Darwin himself was a vicar in training before the voyage but changed his views. Their adventures together were quite swash buckling. Fighting off Patagonian Indian attacks, getting invloved in early South American revolutions in Argentina and Chile.

Most people remember Darwin but forget the man Fitzroy who was one of the best sea captians the RN ever had.

If the could also film the Arthurian books based on the stories by Bernard Cornwall (of Sharpe fame) that would be grand. The Winter King was the first in the series.

Got to think of another book, I wished I could see as a movie. Cant recall the authors name, but the book was " SUSAN'S DIARY FOR NICOLAS" ..Kinda love story, but very touching.

The easiest conversions are always those that have a lot of dialogue. Books with lots of text based descriptions or emotional introspection don't convert well.

All of Roddy Doyle's books are very dialogue based. It's just one character speaking to another, so basically reads like a script. Hence he's had great success with The Commitments - some other of his books were translated to TV series.

Whenever I'm in a bookshop, I always look at the amount of dialogue in the text. If there is loads, I'll wait for the film to come out as I hate reading scripts. I try to buy books only with big paragraphs.

Irvinelinds - I saw White Teeth (and read the book) I think it was a made for tv adaptation by the bbc or someone - remember it being pretty good though!

Am a huge fantasy buff... so after lord of the rings, there seems to be a movie market for that!

Would go for Raymond E. Feist... his first books... Apprentice (as part I) and Magician (part II); early books in riftwar saga... many other fantasy series are either too lenghty or too light... this one combines it all for a great movie with credible characters, great colourful setting and good action.

Hey,

Terri Pratchetts Fantasy series wouldn't go amiss, Mort being a good one off the top of my head about a boy who becomes Deaths Apprentice. Tim Burton or Pete jackson would porbaly handle the transition with ease.

^ Bad Omens would be a wonderful movie! Terri Pratchett's vivid imagination and flawless descriptions lend itself perfectly! can practically see the four horsemen of the apocolypse on motorcycles!

Agree with Teri Pratchet... my favourite remains Hogfather with of course the hogfather and the "o my God of Hangovers", John Cleese or mr Bean for the last character... of course the whole Citywatch/Sam Vimes series would make into a brilliant British detective/satire/comedy!

Saw Harry Potter IV last week... the movies are getting better but they are still not close to the books... on the other hand, the next book Part V sucked; so let's see if the movie can improve on that!

The Coffee Trader
kind of along the same lines as "Girl with Pearl Earring"