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7 'unfilmable' sci-fi books—and the filmmakers who could adapt them
Watchmen, The Lord of the Rings: These are books that were commonly thought to be impossible to adapt to the big screen. That is, until a filmmaker such as Zack Snyder or Peter Jackson found the keys to unlock them.
Whatever you may think of the final results, the fact is that Snyder and Jackson succeeded in translating the books to film. And that got us thinking about other great works of SF literature that are supposedly unfilmable—and how they might be successfully adapted, and by whom.
It's a heady list. The following novels have captured the imaginations of generations of readers, but have so far been given a wide berth by filmmakers. We examine what makes these greats hard to shoot, and who out there in the dream factory actually has the kind of (dare we say it?) Snyder-ian vision to get the job done.
1. Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon
Why It's Great: An undisputed classic of science fiction, Gravity's Rainbow tells a sprawling, complex and convoluted story about the quest by several characters to uncover the mystery of a secret device to be installed in German V-2 rockets at the end of World War II.
Why It Can't Be Filmed: Any attempt to winnow the plot of Gravity's Rainbow down to feature-film length would not do justice to it. The book features a maddeningly digressive narrative structure, goes into minute detail about the most obscure aspects of history and technology and delights in the depravity of its characters.
Who Could Do It: Charlie Kaufman. He famously took a previously unfilmable book, The Orchid Thief, and made it work as a movie—Adaptation—by adding a meta-narrative about a screenwriter and his fictional twin brother. Kaufman is also conversant with science fiction and surrealism, as demonstrated in his Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Being John Malkovich. And he's no stranger to darkness, complexity or absurdity.
2. Hyperion and The Fall of Hyperion by Dan Simmons
Why It's Great: Set in a far-future universe in which hard SF concepts such as teleportation and artificial intelligence co-exist with philosophical mysteries about the existence of God, the two Hyperion novels play freely with the concept of time travel and galaxy-shaking events, but they also focus on the very personal stories of a group of pilgrims traveling to the title planet.
Why It Can't Be Filmed: The sheer scope and continuity of the Hyperion books—modeled roughly after The Canterbury Tales—mean that the director wouldn't be filming one movie; he or she would be filming dozens. You'd almost need a President Director overseeing a group of Joint Chiefs of Directing, all of whom would be off making their own movies. And let's not forget the difficulty of trying to create a believable and frightening Shrike.
Who Could Do It: French filmmaker Christophe Gans, s'il vous plait. His alternately slow-mo and fast-paced action sequences (have blobs of water ever looked as cool, or wet, as they did in Brotherhood of the Wolf?) would give visual horror to the Shrike, for sure. But Gans has an eye and love for beauty, too. Imagine his alien landscape, which would be both comfortingly familiar and strangely alien. Like Europe is for most Americans.
3. Identity Crisis by Brad Meltzer, art by Rags Morales
Why It's Great: Say what you will about retconning, none of it erases the fact that writer Brad Metzler crafted a cracking good murder mystery set in the DC universe: one that exposed the ugly underbelly of the seemingly unimpeachable Justice League of America. It also spotlighted second-tier characters such as the Green Arrow, Doctor Light and the Elongated Man.
Why It Can't Be Filmed: As we all know, most superhero movies get exponentially worse the more "named" heroes or villains get added. Identity Crisis offers up the entire Justice League, with snapshots of the Titans, the Outsiders and the Justice Society of America, not to mention a who's who of the DC universe's most nefarious evildoers. The casting alone would be a nightmare. And let's not forget that the story starts with a brutal murder.
Who Could Do It: Bryan Singer, but not for the reasons that you'd think. Sure, he brought two great cape franchises to life—but Identity Crisis isn't a superhero story. It's a whodunit. And who better to guide such a story onto film than the man who turned mousy con man "Verbal" Kint into the ruthless Keyser Soze in The Usual Suspects? Identity Crisis also shines in the little moments, and Singer has shown that he can take tertiary characters with brief screen time and make them pop. The comic-book boxed narration would work wonderfully on Singer's already established noir palette.
4. The Sandman Series by Neil Gaiman, art by Dave McKean
Why It's Great: Visually imaginative, thematically distinct and balanced on a razor's edge between whimsy and darkness, Neil Gaiman's Sandman comic is one of the defining milestones in the form. It's also a powerful and sometimes moving piece of storytelling, detailing the adventures of the King of Dreams and his Eternal siblings both in the real world and in fantasy realms.
Why It Can't Be Filmed: There is not a CGI special effects algorithm in existence that could render some of Gaiman's creations in Sandman in a way that would look anything but cheesy and ridiculous. And, sure, making a film that entices both fanboys and goth girls may be the holy grail from a box-office perspective, but good luck finding a writer (outside of Gaiman himself) who could package that duality in a 120-minute frame. Also, David Bowie is probably too old to play Morpheus now, so what's the point?
Who Could Do It: Neil Gaiman, meet Tarsem Singh. Only a collaboration between these two could render anything approaching a good Sandman film. Gaiman, of course, knows his own work inside and out. Singh, meanwhile, has proven himself a visionary in eye-melting features like The Fall and The Cell. If anyone could capture the anything-goes dark fantasy of the Dreaming on film, it would be him.
5. The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester
Why It's Great: It's The Count of Monte Cristo ... in space! Bester's tale of revenge and obsession features one of the most memorable characters in the history of SF in the person of Gully Foyle, and it's considered by many to be a precursor to and a source of inspiration for the cyberpunk movement.
Why It Can't Be Filmed: Much of what makes the book great is the style in which Bester tells it: He was one of science fiction's first great prose stylists, and without that prose a movie would be only a pale imitation. It would be equally problematic to cast the lead. Gully Foyle—the mad thug-turned-aristocrat hell-bent on revenge—is such a larger-than-life character and is so despicable-yet-fascinating that it's hard to imagine anyone pulling off the role.
Who Could Do It: The Fountain was not the masterpiece we'd hoped it would be, but if Darren Aronofsky had had his way, it could have been a great movie. Stars would require a director who could truly get into the mind of the protagonist, and given some of the characters Aronofsky has worked with before in previous films, in his hands—with the right actor in the role of Gully Foyle (The Fountain's Hugh Jackman?)—we could see The Stars My Destination coming to life on the screen.
6. A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr.
Why It's Great: Not only the best SF novel about post-apocalyptic monks, but also one of the best SF novels, period. A Canticle for Leibowitz is the pinnacle of the literature produced by the Cold War anxieties of the 1950s: It tells us that we are doomed to repeat the mistakes of our past, and that no matter how much we think we've progressed, in all likelihood humankind will live to see the world burnt to cinders by our own hand.
Why It Can't Be Filmed: Not only would the book basically require three separate films to tell the story, but the story is also understated and often introspective, not to mention relentlessly bleak. It could be that books like The Road (and its forthcoming film adaptation) will make audiences more receptive, but with so little action and no real possibility of adding any without a complete betrayal of the text, it doesn't seem like Hollywood material.
Who Could Do It: Tom Tykwer. He's best known for Run, Lola, Run, but his most recent film—Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (based on a book that it was said could not be filmed)—makes us think he could bring Canticle to the screen. Like Canticle, Perfume is dark and bleak and has little action (well, except for all the murdering), but in the end Tykwer makes it work brilliantly with pure auteuristic vision.
7. The Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe
Why It's Great: Gene Wolfe's four-part masterpiece is the pinnacle when it comes to the Dying Earth subgenre of science fiction. It features an imaginative and twisted far-future world, a protagonist/antihero who starts out life as a torturer and a strange mix of fantasy and far-flung SF. His archaic and often impenetrable language weaves words together to add flesh and texture to the bones of his story.
Why It Can't Be Filmed: Wolfe's dense writing would drive any screenwriter mad. And try finding actors who could speak his stylized patois without sounding absurd (Christopher Lee and, ... well, that's it). The books are also filled with digressions and stray thematic threads that would probably have to be cut, damaging the tone of the story. Plus, the problem of a hero who tortures for a living.
Who Could Do It: The Lord of the Rings was once similarly considered unfilmable, before Peter Jackson deftly amputated unnecessary plot points while maintaining the book's spirit in a way even the hardest-core Tolkien fans accepted. Jackson is the best man to take a stab at an epic that is, in essence, the pitch-dark side of high fantasy. As long as he casts Christopher Lee, we're there.
By Barak at 10:25 AM ON 06/02/09
Actually, the Hyperion Cantos is in the process of being adapted right now. Scott Derrickson ("The Day the Earth Stood Still") has been tapped to direct. According to IMDB, they're hoping for a 2010 release date, but given the scope of the novels, I wouldn't be surprised if that gets pushed back.
And its going to suck because anybody who's read the books knows they'll cut so much out of the story to fit it in a two hour slot.
By BlakOpal at 10:38 AM ON 06/02/09
I would love to see Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun series turned into a movie, but I know it won't happen. It's way too mature for today's audience that feeds off fluff.
By anachronite at 10:50 AM ON 06/02/09
How about Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land? or The Moon is a Harsh Mistress? MAybe not unfilmable, but damn they are super classics!
By pamsue at 11:02 AM ON 06/02/09
I'd LOVE to see Hyperion done on film... but it'd almost be better as a mini-series so you could tell each person's tale with the attention it deserves to each individual personality.
By ottovw at 11:05 AM ON 06/02/09
The New Sun books would be AMAZING! IF done right. LOL! Just 'read who could do it' and I was thinking: Peter Jackson did a GREAT job with 'Fellowship', and THAT should have been 'unfilmable'.
Hyperion... as a movie... whoa (thats a keanu reeves 'whoa').
By J at 11:15 AM ON 06/02/09
Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson. Same reasons as Gravity's Rainbow. His earlier novel, Zodiac, would make a great film though.
By DBM at 11:16 AM ON 06/02/09
Hollywood has failed in every attempt to adapt Isaac Asimov's books for the screen. I'd like to see Christopher Nolan take a crack at _The Ugly Little Boy_.
By stavenborn at 11:23 AM ON 06/02/09
The Dark Tower series by Stephen King. Although i hear now that J.J. Abrams has the movie rights to it and is going to work on it full time after Lost is over.
By Scjessey at 11:23 AM ON 06/02/09
Without a doubt, I think they need to take a crack at "Rendezvous with Rama" by Arthur C. Clarke. Morgan Freeman has had a project in the works to do this for some time, but the technical difficulties presented would presumably mean it would need a pretty big budget. Another problem is that this kind of "classic" science fiction from the Golden Era is not action/merchandise friendly in the manner of a Star Wars, so recouping the investment would be difficult.
By zonefish at 11:26 AM ON 06/02/09
Problem with any adaptation is that Hollywood never trusts the source material. They buy it for the name recognition and then proceed to boil it down to its lowest common denominator.
By grant at 11:28 AM ON 06/02/09
I like the Singh/Gaiman pairing for the Sandman. No writer could ever come close to pulling off a believable version of Gaiman's vision but himself. And I wasn't a big fan of "The Cell" but "The Fall" was gorgeous. I wouldn't mind seeing what they could pull off.
By Thomas at 11:36 AM ON 06/02/09
I'd like to see Niven's "Ringworld" on the screen. I think the challenges involve primarily CGI algorithms that just haven't even been dreamed of, let alone written, beginning with a whole different definition of "horizon".
By Danny at 11:41 AM ON 06/02/09
I've always wished someone would film The Sparrow (by Mary Doria Russell, maybe with bits of Children of God thrown on the end?) but fear it would turn out like a bad mishmash of Solaris and Contact. Any thoughts?
By hellpop at 11:54 AM ON 06/02/09
"Say what you will about retconning, none of it erases the fact that writer Brian Metzler "
Who is Brian Metzler? Never heard of this guy...
But seriously, we need an adaptation of Neuromancer. It needs to be like a cross between Blade Runner's vision of the future and The Matrix's vision of cyberspace.
By SeeSome at 12:00 PM ON 06/02/09
The Stars My Destination is un-filmable because the writing is stylish and the lead is a despicable thug turned aristocrat? Most actors would jump at that, it's like a SF gangster film. Plus, how many times has the Count of Monte Cristo been filmed?
It's got an automatic pitch to the studios... Scarface meets The Count of Monte Cristo... In Space! Pure gold!
TSMD is one of my favorite books of all-time. I'd love to see it made into a film
By Tat2 T's at 12:16 PM ON 06/02/09
I would love to see Brian Lumleys "necroscope" series adapted to the big screen
By Basilio at 12:30 PM ON 06/02/09
For my money, I'd love to see someone try to put Bradbury's short story "Frost and Fire" to the big screen. There's enough detail there to sustain 2 hours. I also agree with scjessey regarding "Rendezvous with Rama", as long as they don't try to do the sequels (Asimov should have never written the sequels, they're pitiful shadows of the original).
By Basilio at 12:34 PM ON 06/02/09
Oops, I meant Clarke. I had Asimov on the brain.
By ratlas at 12:49 PM ON 06/02/09
Anything by Jack Vance, especially the Lyonnesse trilogy. Maybe Jackson could manage that.
By pocketdoom at 12:51 PM ON 06/02/09
Rendevous with Rama could be a total toy line. You have the probe that first detects Rama. You have all the astronauts, the spaceship that takes the humans to Rama, and of course you have Rama itself. Different models but the one I like connects to the human spaceship and unfolds so you can see inside it. Then you can have New York with its moat. With Freezable Moat and action melting sequence.
there are so many merchandising possibilities for so many sci-fi books. Even if the movies are not done, I would like to see some more toy lines.
By Kevin at 12:51 PM ON 06/02/09
"Identity Crisis"?!? You must be joking. Hardly a SF classic. Substitute "Ringworld" -- unfilmable due to the impossible scale and the talk-talk-talk as the characters slowly explore the so very slowly changing landscape.
By Guy at 12:57 PM ON 06/02/09
How about Solaris? Two film adaptations have proved that it's unfilmable because they were both terrible.
By Slipperytrick at 12:57 PM ON 06/02/09
Dune...a decent version.
By farmerplease at 12:58 PM ON 06/02/09
I'd like to see anything ANYTHING by Philip José Farmer. Go ahead holly weird, just try it.
By fernando poo at 1:03 PM ON 06/02/09
These books are unfilmable ( as most are ) because, as it has been stated, you'd have to chop them to the bare bones to get them to fit into a 2 hour movie format. But most of these could work as a TV miniseries or weekly show. I'd rather see a small screen budget conscious version of a story well told rather than flashy bastardized feature film any day. Remember, there are no visual effects in books.
By Zorro 6 at 1:16 PM ON 06/02/09
I'd love to see almost any classic sf book done well (so rarely does that happen) but I'd really enjoy seeing a good (mini series?) adaptation of Julian May's Pliocene Exile/Galactic Milieu novels (Many Colored Land etc). Some cool visuals there...
By Farview at 1:18 PM ON 06/02/09
I'd like to ditto ratlas' call for an adaptation of some of Jack Vance's work though my vote would be for the Demon Princes novels. Hollywood loves franchises and if they did a good job with "The Star King" they'd have 4 read to go sequels. Plus the storyline is a classic revenge tale.
By Paul Atreides at 1:19 PM ON 06/02/09
No one's been able to adapt my story well enough to even consider it watchable (even with 6-8 hrs).... this is truly an unfilmable story.
By flarn at 1:21 PM ON 06/02/09
How about The Demolished Man (Alfred Bester) as directed by Andrew Dominik?
By Stonefox1313 at 1:27 PM ON 06/02/09
How about Amber by Roger Zlezney?
Imagine the cast for that one?
By Luke Jackson at 1:31 PM ON 06/02/09
So many of these supposedly "unfilmable" books really aren't.
By M at 1:36 PM ON 06/02/09
Book's I'd love to see done (for various reasons probably not as HollyWoods dogmatic 2 hour, but hey how bout something NOT locked into that 2 hour thing, say a big-budget "Mini-series" format?) Jack Vance's Dying Earth, or Green Magic (green Magic could fit in 2 hours, but doing it justice?), and Zelazny's Lord of Light (there was talk of doing this at 1 time, in the 70's classic comic book artist Jack Kirby was brought in to do artwork for set design). Bruce Sterling's Schismatrix. Vernor Vinge's True Names, or Across Realtime. It's sad how many great stories are out there, and HollyWood continues to "create" great steaming piles of crap (or the endless "remake", "re-boot", "re-whatever").
By Facepalm at 1:40 PM ON 06/02/09
a book can cover years and decades. A movie quickly looses coherence if it tries to cover more than 48h, some exceptions excluded. Just look at the Lord of the Rings, it seems as if it was a two week trip.
So most books with lots of detail taking place over the course of a long period of time will be hard to convert.
But talk about TV Series with multiple seasons, and all the books above are anything but unfilmable.
By BVK at 2:40 PM ON 06/02/09
Good list: I'd add Jordan's Wheel of Time because it's just too freaking long.
And I volunteer to personally lead the tank brigade into Hollywood if they ever try to film Childhood's End.
By kooldaddy at 2:54 PM ON 06/02/09
Piers Anthony's Xanth series, nuff said
By Zaphod at 3:01 PM ON 06/02/09
I agree with Stonefox. Zelazney's Amber series would be agreat, but it would have to be an entire TV series almost just to get the original Chronicles in and do them justice, much less the follow up books.
It's sad that to be considered "filmable" a sci-fi story has to lend itself to be boiled down to big special effects, lots of CGI and a simplistic plot. Even with its flaws, I felt that The Watchmen was a pretty good effort, and I loved the Sci-fi mini series of Dune (not so much Children of Dune, though.)
I'd love to see movies based on the Robert Silverberg adaptations of both Nightfall and The Ugly Little Boy. I thought The Bicentennial Man was a decent adaptation. Robin Williams was my biggest complaint.
Sci-Fi seems to want to keep doing versions of Riverworld. I wish they'd decide it was unfilmable and give up on that.
And whoever handed Asimov's Foundation series movie over to Roland Emerich needs to be zapped with a neuronic whip!
Maybe someone will get the idea to try and adapt some of Jack McDevitt's work someday. Most of what I've read so far I think would translate into good, solid sci-fi movies.
By utan at 3:05 PM ON 06/02/09
I wish the book of the new sun would be made into an awesome movie.... also, lord of the rings is not science fiction, and there was a cartoon version of it long before peter jackson made his version.
By Dr_Dank at 3:17 PM ON 06/02/09
Hey BVK I hate to be the guy to tell you this but (from Wikipedia):
On 12 August 2008, Variety reported that Universal Pictures had optioned the rights to produce feature film adaptations of The Wheel of Time books. They plan to adapt The Eye of the World as the first film.
By Dave_T at 3:31 PM ON 06/02/09
How about a mini-series of The Incarnations of Immortality by Piers Anthony? Eight books spread out over 16 hours.
By Matt at 3:34 PM ON 06/02/09
I'd dearly love to see Heinlein's "The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress" on screen, but again feel there's no way to do it justice short of a mini-series. Science Fiction novels in general have not fared well because of the constraints of fitting all of the story into a 2 hour window.
Short stories on the other hand, have had several good adaptations. DBM had a great idea with Asimov's "The Ugly Little Boy". How about Heinlein's "The Green Hills Of Earth"?
By NamgyalFR at 3:47 PM ON 06/02/09
What about "The Instrumentality of Mankind" by Cordwainer Smith ?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instrumentality_of_Mankind
IMHO, it is simply the best set of short stories and novels describing a coherent galactic civilization.
It is not worldwide famous but the poetry and the strength of the images are unparalleled. A director for it could be hard to find as he should be a poet and a visionary, like Kubrick but with more empathy.
By Photoprinter at 3:47 PM ON 06/02/09
It is surprising no one has said anything about Ursula K. Le Guin. How about a better film of "The Lathe of Heaven?" A very low budget version of it was done way back in 1980 for PBS. It was pretty good, but is REAL dated now, with some trippy hippie visual effects. The A&E remake in 2002 stunk! This would be an easy film to make, with a great story line.
By Robert at 4:32 PM ON 06/02/09
They can be made, but only if you want to put your audience to sleep. These are terrible ideas and terrible stories.
By turbo996 at 4:52 PM ON 06/02/09
What about "The Mote in God's Eye" by Larry Nivewn and Jerry Pournelle. Arguably the best 'first contact" novel ever written, not to mention Hugo and Nebula status.
By KingsMan at 4:56 PM ON 06/02/09
How about the Ender Wiggins story? Ender's Game is one of the few books I have read more than once. The stories are increasingly complex as the books progress. Fingers crossed that we will see these fantastic novels translated to celluloid.
By BornIn1142 at 5:03 PM ON 06/02/09
Idenity Crisis is hardly a "cracking good murder mystery". It's one of the worst whodunnits I've ever read. No mystery where the killer's only motive is a self-contradictory "I'm CRAZY!" is good.
By Dr_Dank at 5:05 PM ON 06/02/09
Oh please KingsMan, grow up and get out of junior high. Ender's game was a terribly predictable book and the sequels were even worse. I mean i figured out it wasn't a "simulation" before the first "battle" was over. And if you didn't, i have to question your gullibility. And let's face it, it's not like Orson Scott Card's prose is anything to get excited over. I basically think that the Ender novels are to science fiction what "Twilight" is to the vampire genre. Utter dreck designed for people with low reading levels
By Kevin at 5:10 PM ON 06/02/09
"The Left Hand of Darkness" is pretty unfilmable, too. Hugo/Nebula IIRC.
By Curt at 5:23 PM ON 06/02/09
Is there **anything** by Jack Chalker that could be filmed? Nothing comes to mind at the moment. But I would dearly love to see "Midnight At The Well Of Souls" made into a movie. But it would need to avoid the castration that most of Philip K. DIck's stories endured. I would imagine that Tim Burton **might** be able to pull it off, or maybe John Carpenter.
By Leis at 5:42 PM ON 06/02/09
As others have said, Piers Anthony's "Xanth" books and "Incarnations of Immortality" would be great movies/tv series. I'd love to see Clive Barker's The Great and Secret Show" and "Weaveworld", Douglas Adam's Dirk Gently books, and Terry Brooks' Shannara and Landover books all done as movie franchises.
By Photoprinter at 6:00 PM ON 06/02/09
How about the Hominids series by Robert J. Sawyer. this could be made into a movie without much effort.
By markc7 at 6:02 PM ON 06/02/09
"Time Enough for Love" would be incredible but probably unfilmable due to all the nudity and f*cking.
By ecgordon at 6:14 PM ON 06/02/09
I think Bester's The Stars My Destination is one of, if not the best SF novel ever written, and for years I have been hoping Terry Gilliam would take an interest in it.
By ecgordon at 6:18 PM ON 06/02/09
markc7's suggestion of Time Enough for Love would work as a series or mini-series, but you would have to start with the introduction of Lazarus Long in Methuselah's Children first.
By spike at 6:25 PM ON 06/02/09
Dune. Proven to be unfilmable, several times over.
By Tekzel at 6:59 PM ON 06/02/09
I am a huge fan of Peter F. Hamilton and I would love to see either Fallen Dragon, or the Night's Dawn trilogy made as a movie. The latter would be really hard because it is ridiculously long (but in a good way).
By Kylie at 7:00 PM ON 06/02/09
I'd love to see someone re-make Dune. Loved the books, but I never watched the movies because the covers look crap and I don't want to ruin the book. Who could make Dune?
By Wareq at 7:12 PM ON 06/02/09
Illuminatus! .
That is all
By lost fan at 7:13 PM ON 06/02/09
The whole time and scope of a TV series and they still managed to screw up The Sword of Truth
How about a re-boot...
By DAK at 7:17 PM ON 06/02/09
I would love to see Amber or "Drangonriders of Pern". You would have to release them as a series of movies like they did with LOTR and Harry Potter.
By dar at 7:43 PM ON 06/02/09
The freaky wonderful thing, is this is all possible. I mean, usually an article or discussion of this type is NOTHING but pie in the sky dreaming. Not now. Now it is almost a clarion call to these directors to get off their arse and do these projects. We live in amazing times.
By bluessky at 7:52 PM ON 06/02/09
Some of these were not the best choices.
Definitely agree about Farmer or Asimov being up there.
In addition, any film will never do a novel justice.
Audiences want mindless fluff films not films that make them think anymore.
All the "film adaptations" especially Lord of the Rings took highly intelligent, complex, and cornerstones of literature and made
them accessible to the masses.
Essentially making them mindless action films.
People no longer want to have to think and adapting novels and bringing them to the lowest common denominator is a way of helping the masses get more lazy.
But that said I think there are many novels and series that would make amazing "long series" such as 10-12 hours or a television series over several years.
I think Lord of the Rings would be amazing as a "long series"
By Ferrofluid at 8:06 PM ON 06/02/09
'Strata' by Terry Pratchett, rather a wonderful book from scifi to fantasy to steampunk.
By evanbrough at 8:28 PM ON 06/02/09
Singer did X-Men... what's the other cape movie he 'brought to life'? The only other one I know of is Superman Lifts, The Quest to Child Support. I wouldn't call what Singer did to that franchise 'bringing to life', but 'hammering the nail in the coffin.'
By volka at 8:31 PM ON 06/02/09
Star Kings: EDMOND HAMILTON
1. Has sequels
2. Popular ( in print over 60 years)
3.Always Fresh
4. Epic battles .
5. Easy for script adoption
By fire at 8:40 PM ON 06/02/09
the foundation series of isaac asimov there they make a movie of
By noland at 8:45 PM ON 06/02/09
Zelazny's "Lord of Light". Great story and characters. But like all the good suggestions above better as a mini series
By revver at 8:54 PM ON 06/02/09
I would like to see an addaptation of James Heroitt's It's a vet's life.
By Elendur at 9:00 PM ON 06/02/09
What about House of Leaves? It's not strictly science fiction, but it's also unfilmable almost by definition.
By Doctor at 9:06 PM ON 06/02/09
Another vote for "Moon is a Harsh Mistress" and "Dragonriders of Pern".
Also the Anita Blake series (at least the first half before they degraded into porn) and "Stranger in a Strange Land". Clarke's "Earthlight" would be good, too, as would the "Lensmen" series.
By Ahsatan at 9:19 PM ON 06/02/09
Alot of Piers Anthony's work would be great to see in mini-series such as Bio of a space Tyrant or Incarnations series; also would love to see "The Coldfire trilogy" or "This Alien Shore by C.S. Friedman... damn to many great SF works to even begin to make a list
By The Dark at 9:40 PM ON 06/02/09
I would love to see the Amber series by Zelazny and/or the Darkover series by Marion Zimmer Bradley. Both would be great series, not just single movies. And for fun, The Warlock in Spite of Himself by Stasheff....could be a great family movie.
By dzeetz at 9:46 PM ON 06/02/09
So many great suggestions! How about Silverberg's "Sailing to Byzantium?" Being a novella, it might be short enough to work in a two hour time frame. Plus, modern CGI would surely be up to the task with the imagery.
By naga at 10:40 PM ON 06/02/09
Why Neuromancer hasn't been done is beyond me.
Green Hills of Earth.
Something decent - and American - with anything Pratchet has ever put on paper. Good Omens shoudl have been a movie the moment the ink was dry.
Stranger in a Strange Land - also seems a no brainer.
Speaking of no brainers - Dr Dank - how is mom's basement? Got plenty of Cheeto's?
See, I have an MBA - can read, speak and think in 4 languages - and I found Ender's Game to be one of the best novels I've ever picked up. But I'm sure your world view (mom's old washing machine) makes you a better judge of science fiction literature than most, right?
By ProfS at 11:04 PM ON 06/02/09
While I think it could be 'filmed', I would love to see E.E. 'Doc' Smith's Lensman series turned into a film series. Only, show it in a Planitarium...please!
By RC at 11:09 PM ON 06/02/09
The Long Walk By S. King
By Opuscrokus at 11:54 PM ON 06/02/09
Add another vote for "Dragonriders of Pern" and "The Incarnations of Immortality" and "The Foundation" series.
But I'd also love to see Stephen Donaldson's "Thomas Covenant" books and Raymond Feist's "Riftwar" books. I know that's just wishful thinking on my part.
By lfhlaw at 12:24 AM ON 06/03/09
I agree with Opuscrokus
I think Feist's Riftwar Saga would be cool to bring to film.
Probably one of the most interesting series i read since LOTR.
Pier's Anthony's Incarnations of immortality would be good too, but I just don't know how it would be done.
The Land of Xanth, based on a ton of puns would not sure how that would work. Consider the odd names and other stuff. I think Xanth may play better as a cartoon.
Jack L Chalker's Labyrinth would be interesting to do and you could almost incorporate a slight sliver in the 1st film to introduce the 2nd book of that 2 series book.
By Lazlo at 12:59 AM ON 06/03/09
Heinlein's Methuselah's Children/TIme Enough for Love/Number of the Beast/Cat Who Walks thru Walls with Lazarus Long (hmmm, Laz-lo - wonder where THAT came from). Well...the whole series of books based on the lives of LL.
By Elitist at 1:02 AM ON 06/03/09
being a sci-fi elitist and knowitall I would say :
Star Maker by Olaf Stapleton.
But I guess most sci-fi fans are too stupid to understand/get that kind of thing, they'll probably watch dr who or something instead.
By jasonthegreat at 2:26 AM ON 06/03/09
I know its not sci-fi, but I would like to see the Dragonlance series made into a live action movie. That cartoon/cgi crap they did recently was rather disappointing.
Not as disappointing as the captcha on this site though
By Joesketeer at 3:00 AM ON 06/03/09
The Xanth series should be put under the category of things that just shouldn't be adapted. I mean come on, people, the author is practically drooling over little girls in their underwear. I'm still nauseous, and I haven't read that drek since high school.
I think that House of Leaves would be unfilmable, even though I adore the book. This is primarily because of the dense way its written and metawritten. Some books, like that and Gravity's Rainbow, depend highly on the structure of the verse and really any visual interpretation would lack the necessary impact. This is also why Ulysses by James Joyce was never adapted, and its been widely recognized as one of the best books in the English language.
Hyperion could use a better director than the guy that did The Day the Earth Stood Still remake. That was a mess of a movie.
I would love to see someone do a really good job with Neal Stephenson's work, though I would be angered by another hack job. After the debacle that was done with the Earthsea books (I'm still shocked they made the main character a Nordic blond rather than brownish-red skinned), I'm hesitant over learning Scifi picked up the rights to The Diamond Age. I guess only time will tell. The Baroque Trilogy would be monumental in scope and nearly impossible to film unless HBO were to make it into a series along the scale of what they plan to do for A Song of Fire and Ice.
By krom1 at 5:37 AM ON 06/03/09
sorry i hit send too soon
lol
the Necroscope series by brian lumley
unfilmable because its all about raising and spaking to the dead and vampires who shapeshift into giant sex parts when engaging each other etc.
it would have to be a hard R and 4 hours long.
perhaps all animated would work.
By MisterCosmic at 8:42 AM ON 06/03/09
Robert Silverberg's "Valentine" series... simply because I'd like to see castles on top of mountains so large they reached into space...
By ELAshley at 9:33 AM ON 06/03/09
It's not SCIFI, but I'd love to see a decent, by the book film of Edgar Rice Burrough's "Tarzan of the Apes". it's never been done. "The Legend of Greystoke" makes it halfway, but then kills itself immediately after Tarzan gets to civilization.
Peter Jackson did what no one thought possible with the Lord of the Rings, and Tarzan is far less complex. I reckon why "The Legend of Greystoke" failed was the producers felt the audience was too stupid to accept the WHOLE tale, and this after they gave the audience the least plausible half.
As for least filmable sci-fi book... my vote is for Harry Harrison's "West of Eden" trilogy. The ORIGINAL Land of the Lost.... minus Rick, Will and Holly Marshall.
By zool2259 at 11:37 AM ON 06/03/09
Most GOOD Science Fiction is not "Movie Theater" friendly. The vast majority need to be at least mini-series length just to be a fairly faithful version. I'm all in favor of dumping all reality shows for some good SciFi series' like Dragonriders or the Foreigner series, et. al. Just MHO
By baron_elric at 11:41 AM ON 06/03/09
I'm still waiting for a good movie treatment of Starship Troopers. From Heinlein, I'd also love to see good movies made of Moon is a Harsh Mistress, Stranger, and the paradox-laden The Door Into Summer.
From the original list, The Stars My Destination is a personal favorite. In describing it, you'd need to add the touch of Jumper that comes in with jaunting.
Lensman could make some amazingly epic films, though the final stories become so enormous in scope that it's hard to see how the reader's imagination could be improved on.
I'd still like to see a good adaptation of Conan. I was at the first showing of the movie where I lived. When Conan got to the tomb, and reached to take the sword from the skeletal figure in the throne, everyone in the theater was quivering with anticipation. And then...nothing happened. I knew then that I'd have to keep waiting to see Conan made into a movie. Haven't I waited long enough?
You want unfilmable stories? How about Ragnarok, as Del Rey described it in Day of the Giants? That could make a wonderful movie.
By ttomato at 12:12 PM ON 06/03/09
red mars! green mars! blue mars!
By Apostrophex at 12:15 PM ON 06/03/09
When I read the title of this article, the first thing that popped into my mind was "Book of the New Sun". So I was relieved to see it there!
Frankly, I think a more surrealist director than Peter Jackson would be better at adapting Book of the New Sun. Wolfe throws a lot of terms out there without explaining them, thus leaving a lot up to imagination. How about Del Toro? Can you imagine the Green Man episode or the flower fight directed by him? Actually, having just seen Drag Me to Hell, I think Raimi would do a pretty good job of showing two men fight to the death with vampiric flowers!
By Drew in Boston at 12:20 PM ON 06/03/09
It kills me that no one has mentioned Snow Crash or Anathem by Neal Stephenson. Cryptonomicon was mentioned by J up at the top though.
By Lee451 at 12:39 PM ON 06/03/09
I would love to see The Foundation Trilogy turned into a miniseries or a serial television series. It would have to be an immense undertaking due to all the plots, sub plots and numerous characters in the 3 novels.
By DupeOfURL at 1:19 PM ON 06/03/09
Was expecting to see "I, Robot" on there. If every a sci-fi book needed a DECENT movie treatment, it's Asimov's classic.
By carl at 2:02 PM ON 06/03/09
Zelazny's "Lord of Light". Great story and characters. But like all the good suggestions above better as a mini series
Not a mini-series - a Bollywood version. Obvious ?
By Cc at 3:03 PM ON 06/03/09
Two words: Snow Crash.
I wan't to see the carrier listen to some Reason. Hiro vs carrier. Yeah!
Also the entire Baroque Cycle, also by Neal Stephenson, as a TV miniseries. If they could do War and Peace recently, Baroque Cycle should be possible. But the scope is just too much.
I'll settle for Snow Crash. But they have to come up with an ending.. That's why it is unfilmable, as well as Cryptonomicon. But with the Baroque Cycle and Anathem, at least Stephenson has learned to end things.
By Joe at 3:49 PM ON 06/03/09
Perhaps Chris Nolan for Identity Crisis? Thoughts..
By a different tim at 3:50 PM ON 06/03/09
"The Divine Invasion" though it's certainly not the greatest sci fi novel, it's pretty damn un-filmable
By anitra at 4:18 PM ON 06/03/09
Well a book I didn't see here which totally should be is Ring World by Larry Niven...
By chad at 5:22 PM ON 06/03/09
all deserving films though will proably not see the light of day as for sandman Neil said that if it could be done right he is game and that the time is coming when a sandman film could actually happen the way it should
By HeathMarin at 7:06 PM ON 06/03/09
The first series I thought of when reading this article was Amber. I do agree with whoever said it, this would take a tv series to accomplish. I do not think it is truly unfilmable, technology today has made a lot more capable than used to be. Wheel of time question. have been a fan since 1994, I do not see how that much time could be put in a movie, the scope is tooooooo great.
By Sam Widges at 8:17 PM ON 06/03/09
It would be interesting to see someone tackle China Mievilles' " Perdido Street Station ". Cinematically, it would probably adapt well if it was done in the same format as 'Beowulf'
By karmicmonk at 9:19 PM ON 06/03/09
Ender's Game - great story, hard to convey without good children actors, Orson scott card has denied many a script for that same reason.
By IsoTek at 8:53 PM ON 06/04/09
Neuromancer, Mona Lisa Overdrive and Count Zero by Gibson
Starship Troopers (a better version than Verhoeven's piece of s@$!)
Snow Crash by Stephenson
Slan by van Vogt
The Moon is A Harsh Mistress and The Simulacrum by Dick
These are just some of the fine and facile writings I wish to see in a visual interpretation of some fashion before I die.
@ELAshley...It may not necessarily be that the failure of Greystoke was because it was producers felt the audience too dumb. It was more likely they felt the audience would be too impatient for a lenthy story. Back then the tendancy to create movies more than an hour was severely tested with several films (most notably "1900") failing to please audiences because they were too long. Greystoke is definately a story that deserves at least a 3 hour treatment.
By Woodsmaster at 9:01 PM ON 06/04/09
Another series of books that I think would be difficult to make into a movie is E.E. " Doc" Smith's "Lensman" series
By Joshua Calvert at 2:48 AM ON 06/05/09
Hyperion would be better served be best as a television series lead by Ronald Moore
By Oknight at 6:59 AM ON 06/05/09
These are exactly as "unfilmable" as, say, Moby Dick. What novel IS "filmable"?
By sergio at 9:36 AM ON 06/05/09
I think the book that is most unfilmable is 100 YEARS OF SOLITUDE for the Nobel Prize Winner Novelist Garcia Marquez
That is the best book I have ever read and it's simply impossible to put on film, due to its amazing literature and the complexity of its stories.
By MrFantastic at 5:51 PM ON 06/06/09
I have seen a few fantasy films in this scifi genre - so here's my two cents:
Elric of Melnibone and Fafhrd & the grey mouser. Those are classics and Elric done darkly and well would call upon some deft CGI.
By mawmon at 1:59 AM ON 06/07/09
The Hyperion Cantos would be beautiful and terrifying to see realised.
What would also be fantastic is the Necroscope series by Brian Lumley.
By Alex Johnson at 5:26 PM ON 06/07/09
I read all ffour books include "Hyperion" by Dan Simmons. It's very incredible and amazingly. I was shocked when i read them all. This is beyonf your imagination - like "Chronicles of Dune" by Frank Herbert. Very academical sci-fi novel. Very very good.
By sean gibbons at 12:14 PM ON 06/08/09
I agree with 'different tin' - 'Divine Invasion' is pretty unfimable -
However in respect to who could play the part of Gully Foyle in - the Stars my Destination - well at the risk of it being an obvious choice - perhaps Arnie back in the day might have been able to have a stab - as in obviously he can do thug - but also maybe a times can pull off being a bit more refined aswell...just a thought..
By mark at 1:38 PM ON 06/09/09
Mark Geston's Lords of the Starship would have made a great movie -- had Stanley Kubrick survived long enough to direct another one. I suppose Paul Verhoeven could do James Meredith's We all Died at Breakaway Station. Now THAT would be a movie worth seeing. I'd like to see Canticle done.
By divephotog at 9:14 AM ON 06/10/09
The Sci-Fi list is a start, and the entries here did a lot to expound upon it. Get the idea that the people at Sci-Fi are milking us for ideas on what to adapt next? I agree with many of the above, especially the "Lensman" and "Mote in God's Eye / Gripping Hand" suggestions. I would only add doing the rest of the 'Dune' series to the list, as the other books have a lot of material worth the screen treatment. Mini Series the first 3, then the second 3 as prequels, and then continue on with one or 2 mini's to complete the series, instead of leaving all that great material hanging. - KH
By sketchRtist at 8:17 PM ON 06/10/09
Add my vote for the Incantations of Immortality and two votes for the Dragonriders of Pern but only a series Like Potter. But I also want to add Swan song by Robert McCammon. That book was phenominal and I think maybe Peter Jackson or Guillermo Del Toro(is that his name) would be good for it.
By Wayspooled at 3:46 PM ON 06/11/09
I'd like to see an film version of C.J. Cherryh's Heavy Time or The Pride of Chanur. Any of her Hugo award books would work too I think, but those are the two that would be more interesting..
By Wildman at 1:37 PM ON 06/15/09
Wow... I can't belive nobody mentioned Fred Pohl Gateway stories and novels. Enough material that a great script could be fashioned and the CGI would be awesome.
Of course Ringworld should be a high priority. But even NIven's Gil Hamilton stories could be done justice. Let's face it... anything by Heinlein would be fun. As for cutting edge, my vote goes for Richard Morgan's Takashi Kovacs character and Neil Asher's Gridlinked stories. Finally, somebody at the S.F. channel has to wake up and smell the potential for Peter Hamilton's Pandora's Star/Judas Unchained epic to be converted into a mini series. (Or Mindstar Rising and Nano Flower.)
Oh well, so many great novels, so little funding for filming them...
By jeffd at 10:41 PM ON 06/15/09
Clarke's Childhood's End.... one of the MOST imaginatively visual novel I have ever read. The transformation of Earth at the end would have been a most difficult effort to produce on film.
By rn_damia at 6:45 PM ON 06/18/09
Dragonriders of Pern.... Incarnations of Immortality..... Rama.... LKHamilton's 'Faerie' series..... SK's the Long Walk, Talisman, Dragon's Eye.... Bova's Mars series
By Arturian at 7:21 AM ON 06/19/09
A Canticle for Leibowitz is a good choice. So is The Chronicles of Amber, as long as it's a series. It would be better if these highly imaginative works were adapted into series, rather than be filmed and made unrecognizeable. It would be interesting to see how they'd adapt The Left Hand of Darkness into something cinematic. But I have such respect for LeGuin's work that I'm not sure anyone would be able to capture her intelligence and creativity in a series of images.
By muffinman at 3:16 AM ON 06/20/09
Rendezvous with Rama.............wow
By POWERLOVER at 5:18 PM ON 06/24/09
Here's my two cents - anything by Tim Powers, especially "The Anubis Gates" or "Last Call" or the Alliance boks of CJ Cherryh
By txjim at 10:06 PM ON 06/26/09
My two faves have been mentioned, so throwing in a vote for Donaldson's Chronicles of Thomas Covenant and also for Dragonlance. Dragonlance Chronicles could do well given the Lord of the Rings Treatment, but the Thomas Covenant series is too vast and too dark a story for the money required to do it right. But it would be awesome to see!
By Ruleryak at 3:14 PM ON 07/03/09
A Canticle for Leibowitz is one of my favorite books. The triple timeline was certainly confusing the first time through but this is the sort of book you should really read at least twice. The idea of trying to interpret of present from scraps only with the perspective that hundreds of years of decomposition have passed is fascinating.
This is basically what I feel happened to our society (minus the two nuclear wars in this book) in respect to the dark ages. When "Saint" Cyril burned the Library of Alexandria it was the beginning of the religious takeover. Hundreds of years down the line certain monasteries attempted to piece history back together and that's all we have at this point. Imagine what was lost when the greatest compendiums of knowledge were sacked and burned (it wasn't just the Library of Alexandria - I mention that because it was the event that was chosen as holy when Saint Cyril was canonized - he was also the Pope by the way). It's been estimated we would be close to 1000 years further along in technological development and would have colonized other star systems had that not happened.
In short, Canticle is a wonderful thought provoking book and I'd love to see an adaptation on the silver screen.
By craigolopolis at 11:38 PM ON 07/03/09
The Name of the Wind would be a good but hard fantasy film adaptation.
I'd also love to see Ship of Fools, also known as Unto Leviathan in the UK (by Richard Paul Russo), adapted and expanded upon as a TV series. I think this would work better as a series because of the interesting and well drawn characters, plus the fact that he hasn't written any sequels to it, thus not taking advantage of tons of story potential that is left at the end of the novel.
I just began reading Alastair Reynolds House of Suns, and so far there are already several great scenes of epic visual quality in there that I would love to see done faithfully on the big screen.
Also, how about Iain M. Banks' The Culture? If not done as a series of films, how about a TV series. Maybe get Banks involved and have him help the writers come up with some brand new characters and plots that could be used to fill in some gaps between the stories from his existing novels.
By anon at 8:05 PM ON 07/07/09
Why isn't Ender's Game on this list. The author himself said that his book wouldn't be filmable.
By OneMadCow at 5:47 AM ON 07/08/09
Dr_Dank, let's compare, for a moment, the works of Orson Scott Card and those of yourself.
Silence.
...er..don't you hate awkward silences? Perhaps next time, shut yer piehole, sparky.
By Vorpal Rabbit at 3:03 PM ON 07/19/09
I would love to see Amber or Incarnations done.
The trick would be to do it well; Both require large casts (Especially Amber, but all of the incarnations cross paths in each book, multiple times), and at least for Amber, a huge amount of CGI would be needed; Especially for when Corwin would be crossing shadows.
By cuttinphilstope at 5:15 AM ON 07/20/09
I think Iain M Banks' Culture novels are filmable, and so don't belong on this list. I'd love to see a GSV or an Orbital on screen though - plenty of scope for some gee whiz CGI. I also think gun battles with invisible lasers would be surreal.
By ELIOTSPITZER at 8:59 PM ON 12/05/09
Dhalgren would be a trip.
By padre at 12:52 AM ON 01/01/10
I have some as well:
1. Incarnations of Immortality has been mentioned several times.
2. Battlefield Earth- Please don't let the awful movie with Travolta sway this vote. That is why that movie was awful; it is unfilmable. They stopped after 1/3 of the book!
3. The Dragonlance Chronicles- Although not technically sci-fi, there is way too much to make a decent movie with.
4. R.A. Salvatore's Drizzt Do'Urden novels. Along the same lines of Dragonlance.
Just my opinion....
By Proghog at 1:52 PM ON 01/04/10
I would love to see Peter F. Hamilton's The Nights Dawn Trilogy turned into movies or even a TV show on HBO or Showtime, but the amount of content and side stories would be a huge task on the level of Lord of the Rings to be made into films.
By Joesketeer at 5:59 AM ON 01/06/10
I would like to add Robert Silverburg's rather epic "Lord Valentine's Castle" to the list. I didn't see anybody list it and it is one of my new favorites, having just read it. It is a gorgeously written book, the only problem is I've heard the sequels aren't very good. Still, they could just stick to that one and have a really great film there. Majipoor on screen would be fantastic but the planet has so much in terms of background and cities it would make Star Wars look like a student art film in comparison.
Also, Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson would seem to me pretty unfilmable due to the absolute satire, it would be lost in translation I don't doubt.
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Joesketeer:
I would like to add Robert Silverburg's rather epic "Lord Valentine's Castle" to the list. I didn't see anybody li...More »