Books that should be filmed or serialised - discussion

[redmond]

Which books do you think should be made into a film or turned into a series.

Please give a brief reason why:

e.g.
James Lee Burke / Dave Robicheaux novels
A long-term recovering alcoholic good guy police detective in New Iberia with a dysfunctional sidekick Clete Purcel encounter and defeat governmental, state and local political gangsterism and tackle the enduring legacies of the Southern slavocracy.

[redmond]

Cormac McCarthy / Border Trilogy (All The Pretty Horses; The Crossing; Cities Of The Plain)

I'm not surprised that Cormac McCarthy's trilogy hasn't been conveyed to either cinema or TV. Coverting these beautifully-written stories - with their undercurrents of savagery - would be a challenge for even the most gifted screenwriter. But someone needs to make a fist of it and offer a hint to a mass audience of the excellence of this chunk of U.S. literature. No Country For Old Men and The Road were good stabs at other of his books and the former received this eulogy from The Guardian:

http://theguardian.com/books/2008/jan/12/fiction

.... So, if you haven't read them I'd urge you to give them a go.

[redmond]

Edward Marston / The Railway Detective series.

This might be one for Anglophile history buffs only but the stories about Robert Colbeck (The Railway Detective) and his assistant, Sergeant Victor Leeming, are gems. If you're looking for purple prose and convoluted plots then these aren't they. However, Marston is an historian with a penchant for railways so what you didn't know about, principally English, mid-19th Century railways, politics, economics and engineering you'll be gentled into. The characters are well-defined, engaging and cross the class divide believably. Am really surprised they haven't been made into a series.

[karina808]

Griffin and Sabine by Nick Bantock a simple love story with good actors (who know how to act) would be great!

[cajetillax]

I'd like to see an adaptation of The First Law trilogy, by Joe Abercrombie:



One of the best epic fantasy series I ever read. Since GOT was a big success, I don't understand why there is still no project to adapt these.

[JustKelli]

Go Tell The Bees That I Am Gone



Its book nine in the Outlander series. A "certain someone" who shall remain nameless has bought the option on it in case Outlander doesn't renew for season 9. They are currently filming season 6 and season 7 has the greenlight.

The book is out shortly.

[redmond]

Alexander Cordell / The Welsh Saga (aka The Mortymer Trilogy): Rape Of The Fair Country, Hosts Of Rebecca, Song Of The Earth)



There's something deliciously global about the gestation of these novels. Alexander Cordell, part-Welsh, is born in Ceylon (Sri Lanka) but finds his way back to Wales and re-adopts his heritage by writing about key episodes in the transformation (rape) of Wales and its people. Sniffy historians and litterateurs have baulked - but his popularity remains. Am ashamed and affronted that Welsh auteurs have not risen to the challenge. But once they have there's these to pursue:

The Second Mortymer Trilogy
Beloved Exile (1992)
Land of Heart’s Desire (1994)
The Love That God Forgot) (1995)

Other of his novels about Wales are:
This Proud and Savage Land (1985) - prequel to the first Mortymer trilogy
The Fire People (1972)
This Sweet & Bitter Earth (1977)
Land of My Fathers (1983)

[redmond]

Evelyn Sibley Lampman / The City Under The Back Steps



Somebody missed a trick by failing to make this children's story into a major feature film. Published in 1960, this tale of Craig and his cousin Jill inexplicably being shrunken so they become able to join an ant colony is perfect for the period. It's even more perfect now because it is an eco-friendly tale and the cgi is available to make it utterly believable off the page. Really hope there are Planet Suzy aficionados who are also producers able to take a punt on this one. (Yeah, right!)

[redmond]

Ray Bradbury / Martian Chronicles (U.K. tiltle - The Silver Locusts)



Although the 1980 miniseries was released on DVD/Blu Ray in 2019 its 40-year-old production values demand a remake. Seemingly, there were three TV episodes, two of them with Bradbury as the screen writer. There's an adventure game, too, based upon these episodes. But what there isn't is a complete realisation of the 26 stories in the Chronicles and I wish there were. So if different genres can be made to hang together as in, for example, the quirky Netflix compilation Love, Death and Robots, then the unified theme of the Chronicles should be a walk in the park for a completely new serialisation.

[redmond]

Celine (Louis-Ferdinand Destouches) / Journey To The End Of The Night



In his armoured train, traversing the vastnesses of old Russia to defeat the 16 nation coalition which, in the heart-chilling words of the strike-breaker Winston Churchill, aimed to 'strangle Bolshevism in its cradle' Trotsky used his down time to write critiques of European literature. (Genius eh?).

In a prescient assessment of the guy who became a fascist, Trotsky wrote ... Céline will not write any further novels expressing such aversion to lies and suspicion of the truth. This dissonance must resolve itself. Either the artist will adapt to the darkness or see the light of dawn.

But the novel of this pre-fascist is still great literature as the arch leftist duly noted.

(BTW. The films which bear this title have no connection to the book.)

[Aside: It's a shame that we can no longer appreciate our culture in the context of its historical specificity. In the name of inclusivity we are unpersoning our past as assuredly as any Orwellian novel (Unless, that is, you're a bourgeois who loves Wagner or any work conducted by Von Karajan)]

Let's get Celine's masterpiece onto the screen.

http://theguardian.com/books/2013/jun/15/celine-journey-cutting-edge-literature