Name a book that’s begging to be brought to screen.

Dancer From The Dance (1978)

I Am Legend

The Charlton Heston and Will Smith films were not the book.

The Vincent Price movie is good, but the script was gutted by censorship. It was supposed to be a Hammer film; it wound up being made in Italy with what was left of Richard Matheson's script. He had his name removed from the credits.

The Quran

The Widow's Guide to Sex & Dating.

Another vote for Dancer from the Dance.

I wouldn't mind seeing something on the big screen about hadrian and antinous.

I've said it before, and I will say it again ....

The Secret History by Donna Tartt

The book is very narration heavy, so I don't honestly know if it would be a good movie, but I am DYING to see it attempted.

A Treatise on Human Understanding.

The Mueller Report, as a TV movie, that is the only way the majority of Americans will ever know what is in it because they won't read it.

The Custom of the Country.

A wealthy, extremely beautiful, and extremely selfish and amoral girl comes to New York City from the Midwest to conquer the fashionable world at the turn of the century. She keeps ditching her husbands when she finds they do not make her happy, starting with a bookish member of Old New York "Knickerbocker" society, then moving on to a French marquis, ending up with a self-made multi-millionaire from her home town.

Undine Spragg: Sophie Turner

Ralph Marvell: Eddie Redmayne

Raymond, the Marquis de Chelles: Gaspard Ulliel

Elmer Moffatt: Sean Astin

I'd love to see Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land made into a movie. I know it would likely piss off religious fundies..

r6 Agreed, something independent/artistic.

R7. I w often that too. Also, agree it will be tough w all the narration but it could be ethereal and dark punctuated w lighter. If that makes sense.

The Swans of 5th Avenue

Middlemarch.

Dumb question but was Wicked (remember it was first a book) ever made into a movie? I'm drawing a blank. Obviously I know it was a play. But ever a movie?

R10, I love The Custom of the Country even more than Wharton’s better-known works (The Age of Innocence, The House of Mirth, Ethan Frome). I believe it is going to be an Amazon series with Scarlett Johansson. Not thrilled about the casting, but I will give her the benefit of the doubt. Your casting choices are aces.

At Swim, Two Boys

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay

Mein Kampf

Giovanni’s Room

R20=Trump

[quote]Dumb question but was Wicked (remember it was first a book) ever made into a movie? I'm drawing a blank. Obviously I know it was a play. But ever a movie?

No, though at one time it was announced they were going to adapt the novel as a miniseries.

Paul Theroux’s “Girls At Play”. Obscure and ancient, about a bunch of women in rural Africa being awful to each other.

My Pussy Stinks. By Cheryl.

Another vote for Dancer from the Dance. An insightful novel into the emergence of gay culture from the shadow of shame during the 60s and 70s.

The Front Runner, starring Travis Fimmel and Colin Ford.

Mary Renault's Alexander Trilogy.

Confederacy of Dunces is the ultimate book that should be made into a movie, but for various reasons, legal and otherwise, never has, though many have tried.

R10 Another vote for The Custom of the Country. I'd also suggest Armadale by Wilkie Collins as a novel that's film-worthy.

The Witching Hour

Fixer Chao by Han Ong about the hustler enlisted to be a fake feng shui guru to bilk the bastards who did the scheming protagonist wrong.

Want Not: an odd novel about freegans in NYC that had a lot of action for such a strange premise.

My Mother's House, a novella by Colette that's written so begging for adaptation as snippets of the author's life, ostensibly about her maverick mother.

Patricia Highsmith's The Blunderer and This Sweet Sickness. Really a bunch of her short stories would work.

Everyone Poops.

What Belongs to You

Educated by Tara Westover I'm sure it's in the works.

I started Educated and realized within a chapter or two that I wasn't interested in topic.

The Situation in Flushing

Red Rising by Pierce Brown

The Lymond Chronicles by Dorothy Dunnett

A Renaissance era Scottish anti-hero on the loose throughout Europe. Full of actual historical incident, intrigue and domestic drama.

Believe Me, J P Delaney

The Secret Pilgrim and Legacy of Spies, John Le Carre

Lost In Shangri-La

In New Guinea during WWII a group of American pilots and nurses go on a fun evening flight. They end up flying too far and too high and are forced to crash land in a mountain range. The mountains are too high and far for any type of rescue so they have to hike back hundreds of miles. Along they way they encounter indigenous tribes that have never been contacted by the modern world and are always at war with each other because it's the only thing that gives structure and meaning to their society. It's all a true story.

I second the nomination of The Secret History, which has been optioned for a movie twice but never made.

The Talisman by Steven King and Peter Straub.

The Cleveland Street Scandal.

And if you have to ask the plot, you need to hand in your gay card.

Penelope's Zoo

Have they done Wonder Bread and Ecstasy yet? It's an important story.

Great fantasy and time travel book.

Despite r43's cuntescent attitude, I did "ask the plot," and I agree with him it's a story I'd love to see told dramatically. Thanks, Wutta Kunt.

I keep hearing about The Custom Of The Country on the What Books Are You Reading threads. Surely ScarJo is 15+ years too old to play the leading lady?

R29, you can make a movie (or a mini-series) out of the prologue of Armadale alone. I have never read a book with so much plot.

How about a film of Collins' novel No Name?

[quote]Wonder Bread and Ecstacy

Given the book cover, which was one of the best cover designs ever, what a movie poster it will make!

Any books by Darwin Porter.

"Have they done 'Wonder Bread and Ecstasy' yet? It's an important story."

To whom and to what audience?

And sure, because "King Cobra" was such a huge, smashing success.

"The Erna Story"

I agree with The Secret History fans. It would make a great 6-hour limited series on Netflix or Amazon. That would give the filmmakers time to really delve into the characters.

"Time and Again" by Jack Finney. Time travel in Manhattan. Richard Madden for the lead (Si Morley) since he looks good in both contemporary and historical costume. I think that Robert Redford had the rights to it, but nothing became of it.

The discussion begins and ends with "A Confederacy of Dunces." It's practically unfilmable apparently, as many performers and writers have tried for decades to bring it to the screen.

The Charioteer

A Confederacy of Dunces is by far the most overrated novel discussed on DL.

Another vote for "Time and Again".

"The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian" by Sherman Alexie. Will never happen because Alexie had #Me Too issues.

OMG THANK YOU R46.!!! Read that as a kid and forgot what it was called! Instantly recognized the cover. It WOULD make a good movie. Love you!❤️

Another vote for The Charioteer, Mary Renault’s novel about a wounded Dunkirk vet who falls in love with both a Quaker orderly and a naval officer. Starring Taron Egerton, Josh Dylan and Jack Lowden.

Terry Pratchett discworld series with an American director and a real budget and some real actors so that "they" don't create a sack of shit out of it like they did with Hogfather.

Toni Morrison's "Song of Solomon."

"The Lord Won't Mind" by Gordon Merrick

This

The Boy Who Picked The Bullets Up, and its sequel, Panthers In The Skins Of Men.

It's a fucking war story masterpiece, and I'm certain would have been made into a movie if a straight author had penned it. It's incredibly cinematic.

The Rise of Silas Lapham by William Dean Howells: a nouveau riche Vermonter (Russell Crowe) and his wife (Laura Linney) attempt to crash 1880s Boston society while their daughters (Shalaine Woodley, Maika Monroe) vie for the love of a handsome blueblood (Alexander Ludwig).

Daisy Fay and the Miracle Man by Fannie Flagg

I would love to see someone like Ryan Murphy bring all of Jackie Collins' novels to the small screen, 5-6 episodes per book. Starting with Lovehead, then The World is Full of Divorced Women, and so on. No big name actors necessary, just talented unknowns, who are cast for their likeness to the characters described in the books. Lots of attention paid to the era - be it 60s 70s or 80s, the costumes, the hair, make-up, sets. Flashy and fun :)

never got the appeal of The Secret History. A bunch of rich campus guys fucking around and making a mess. so 80s. I would like to see a movie or better a miniseries based on Christina Stead' s Letty Fox.

Glamorama

Loved Glamorama. Total mindfuck and spot on about 21th century life. BEE was a clarvoyant with that.

The Persian Boy

Glamorama was in talks to be made into a film years back. I think it all fell apart due to (understandable) funding issues.

I can't imagine it ever being made these days.

R21 The guy who did "Moonlight" is working on "GIOVANNI'S ROOM".

R75 YES

A Little Life. May work better as a mini-series.

A remake of The Bonfire of the Vanities. The book is great, the movie is unwatchable.

A Gentleman in Moscow.

And also voting for previously mentioned Time and Again, and Kavilier and Clay.

Ok, Blood Meridian. Vigilantes roam the south west, killing Natives and Mexican nationals, Vicent D'onofrio plays their cult figure leader, the judge. Filming all of Jackie Collins novels is a fantastic idea.

Just wanted to say that I knew what R1 would be before I even opened this thread and I was right, and wholeheartedly agree.

Zelazny's "The Chronicles of Amber." Modern CGI should be able to handle the world-shifting nature of walking through shadow and the worlds of Chaos beautifully. And it's a compelling enough story to make a great "Game of Thrones"-ish epic presentation.

It wouldn't necessarily be my first choice of book that I WANT to see filmed, but I agree with all the posters who say The Secret History is "begging" to be brought to screen". I'm not sure why it hasn't been.

The book was a major commercial and critical hit, and it isn't THAT hard to film -- you can convey a great deal of narrative content with cinematic tools. It's not Ulysses.

And no matter what decade, the movie practically casts itself: any crop of up-and-coming young actors would be vying for those juicy roles. You'd think that someone like Bryan Singer would have snapped up the rights just for the casting couch opportunities alone (I know college-age is outside Singer's age range, but you get the idea).

And the story offers a good plot and ample thematic material; any director could put his stamp on it, and it wouldn't need a huge budget.

So that's book where I'm most curious why it hasn't been filmed yet.

It's too bad that the film wasn't made 20 years ago. Gwyneth Paltrow would have been a perfect Camilla, and Phillip Seymour Hoffman and fantastic Bunny. I could even imagine a skinny, pre-Batman Christian Bale as Richard.

For the 20 years ago version, Anthony Hopkins would have been the obvious choice for Julian, though my personal choice would have been Derek Jacobi.

THEY CAME TO BAGHDAD is a stand-alone by Agatha Christie which should have been made into a screwball comedy.

The Forgotten Soldier. The memoir of a German soldier on the Russian front. It's a fucking masterpiece. Paul Verhoeven wanted to make a movie of it, and his take would have been brilliant. Although one wonders if would have brought out its tenderness. The opening of Tom Cruise's film Valkyrie, where his jeep his strafed is to my mind a direct 'borrowing' from one of the most unforgettable moments in the book.

I'm currently reading The Secret History so please no more spoilers ;-)

I would love to see another Donna Tart book made into a movie: "The Goldfinch" . Or David Mitchells "Thousand autumns of Jacob de Zoet".

[R55]: I read an article in the Sunday NYT years ago, concerning a long interview with Robert Redford, about his efforts to direct and star in a film of Time and Again. Essentially, he had to give up on it, because technical skill at the time didn’t exist to depict a believable New York City in 1882. Too soon for CGI.

In 1996, I saw a stage musical version at the Old Globe in San Diego, with book problems , but a wonderful score by Skip Kennon, and starring the memorable Howard McGillin and Rebecca Luker. It’s a total shame this score has never been officially recorded.

Interestingly, the night I saw it, I was seated next to an older couple who had driven down from L. A. to check it out. As related by the wife, her husband had invested in Redford’s effort, presumably to no avail.

The late William Goldman's 1964 novel, BOYS AND GIRLS TOGETHER. His novels MARATHON MAN, THE PRINCESS BRIDE and BUTCH CASSIDY all made into films, but this great work never made it. Eight major characters, several of whom converge in the NYC theater world near the end, interesting subplots galore (two of them involving gay characters, astonishing at the time), and enough material to fill several seasons. It would make a great period piece and is utterly absorbing.

I read once a long time ago that it was being considered for a miniseries, but it never happened. Too bad; it is a great book that I often cite here whenever "favorite book" threads come up.

Any number of books by Mary Renault would make good movies. However, because most of them are centered around gay relationships, this is unlikely.

Perhaps her most commercially viable novel, The King Must Die, would make a good spectacle, all about action and adventure in ancient Athens and Crete. Plus, a hero who’s straight, a plus for producers.

You’d need someone lean and muscular, Alexander Skarsgard, for hero Theseus, and an exotic female, like Rosario Dawson, for heroine Ariadne. And, of course, Anthony Hopkins as King Aegeus, doing an Olivier-like cameo.

A movie of The King Must Die was announced in the 70’s, to star Maggie Smith and Calvin Culver, who was set to cross over from his previous career in gay porn.

But it never went further than the announcement.

The Billionaire’s Vinegar - was in development in 2015 with Mathew McConaughey and nothing happened. Could be an interesting movie to make.

One that a DLer recommended in a book thread: Wish Her Safe At Home. I want to see someone like Andrea Riseborough playing that character.

R18 yes, please! I would love that! But it would take a talented director not to fuck it up.

Ira Levin's "This Perfect Day".

"Abdul," based on the novel "The Kid," by Sapphire

I'm sure it's been mentioned before but I'm too lazy to search DL. I think that Edith Wharton's The Custom of the Country would make a great movie and be as popular as The House of Mirth and The Age of Innocence.

Susan Lenox: Her Fall and Rise by David Graham Phillips.. Yes, it was a 1930s Garbo vehicle, but that bears little resemblance to the original book, which is remarkably tough-minded and grittily realistic.

The Custom of the Country mini-series with ScarJo was first announced something like four years ago. I think she's too old to play the role now. They need a younger great beauty who can genuinely act for the part of Undine Spragg. It should NOT be one of those women who always do 19th-century drama, e.g. Dakota Fanning or Romola Garai (I would also argue neither of them are ravishing enough).

I would love to see a miniseries made of Iris Murdoch's best novel, "The Bell," which has a great setting (an English country house next to a convent of Anglican nuns in the 1950s), a great involved story, and an important gay subplot.

A movie about the behind the scenes chaos in the making of Bohemian Rhapsody would be great. The boys! The tantrums! The glamour!

I love Giovanni's Room, but it's like most of Virginia Woolf's novels in that it wouldn't be very satisfying as a film. The pleasure of it is in the telling of it--the beautiful language, and the unusual way it's structured, much more than the plot.

Devil in the White City could be an awesome film if done right!

They're supposedly making a movie of Devil in the White City with Leo di C.

[quote] Patricia Highsmith's The Blunderer

There's already a movie out starring Patrick Wilson. It was released in 2016 as A Kind of Murder

I don't believe D. H. Lawrence's The Plumed Serpent has ever been filmed. It's a very homoerotic novel.

The Royals by Kitty Kelley

And to think people used to get credit for doing this. Well done, OP.

[QUOTE]A Little Life. May work better as a mini-series.

I'm pretty sure this is already in the works. Not sure who the cast would be, but I could see Rami Malek being able to play a convincing Jude St. Clare.

I am loving all the enthusiasm for The Custom of the Country which is one of my favorite Wharton novels as well (and is weirdly forgotten for some reason). I am also obsessed with the suggestion someone made upthread about Sophie Turner playing her. Perfection.

Another vote for Andrew Holleran's brilliant Dancer from the Dance. I think with the increase in gay-related content, that should be a hot property. But casting would be absolutely essential to its success.

Amy Poehler bought the rights to The Great Believers. I believe it is going to be a mini-series.

I would love to seen an adaptation of At Danceteria and Other Stories (seems tailor-made for someone like Ryan Murphy) just so I can see who gets to play all the famous people. Malek could reprise his Freddie Mercury in the Princess Diana story and get another Emmy.

Were Malone and Sutherland Muscle Marys?

I'm very surprised no one has mentioned The Absolutist by John Boyne yet. The gay relationship is so beautiful and heartbreaking! I'm sure the movie would be mega successful, kinda like the love child of Dunkirk and CMBYN.

The potential cast could be interesting. How about these?

Tristan (17-21) - Joe Alwyn

Tristan (81) - Charles Dance

Will (19) - Edward Bluemel or Fionn Whitehead

Marian (25) - someone like Carey Mulligan

Marian (86) - Vanessa Redgrave

What do you think?

A book that definitely needs to be brought to screen is The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton. What a fascinating novel! I read it in one sitting, I just couldn't put it down. If I remember correctly, the TV rights were optioned by someone, but surprisingly there is no buzz. I suppose it would be hard to film because of all the internal monologue, but this could be such a great miniseries. The set and costume designers would be winning all the awards.

[quote] A movie about the behind the scenes chaos in the making of Bohemian Rhapsody would be great. The boys! The tantrums! The glamour!

What does that have to do with naming a book that's begging to be brought to the screen??

"A Confederacy of Dunces". I actually used to know the person who (at the time) had the rights for it but, in many ways, it is a very difficult project to tackle. Even the thought of who could be successfully cast in it is difficult to contemplate. I remember talking to it with my partner and we both thought Grace Zabriskie would be perfect for the role of Irene Reilly, but who do you cast as Ignatius, with Philip Seymour Hoffman gone?

I started reading a book called A Council of Dads by Bruce Feiler because it is being turned into a TV series this coming fall. It's a memoir of Feiler's "lost year," during which he discovers and is treated for cancer of the femur and decides to draft six of his male friends to act as substitute fathers for his three-year-old twin daughters. The Council is made up of superannuated rich kids like himself, and for that reason is something of a bore, but it is mostly a decent read, if relentlessly heterosexual in its concerns. I will probably watch the series.

R100 has lost the plot.

[QUOTE]but who do you cast as Ignatius, with Philip Seymour Hoffman gone?

Zach Galifinakis?

My Pet Goat...

"A Book" by Desi Arnaz

r104 thank you

La Theorie de l'information by Aurelien Bellanger. Unfortunately it's in French.

R120 Thanks for the tip! Never heard of this author, will check it out. When I read the synopsis, I imagined Xavier Dolan as the protagonist. Who would you cast?

It's a very good book, and you are welcome! Fascinating novelization of the life of another Xavier. For the main character I'd actually see a director, a guy like Stephane Braunschweig although he is a little too old for the part. Tough call because it is not a showy part, and it'll work best with an actor who is not a pretty boy.

The Front Runner!

Whatever happened to The Bell Jar with that actress from the Bourne series?

How about a children’s book? So much crap for kids nowadays...

Dramatization of a recent event...anyone?

Madeline??...

Frank Schätzing : "The Swarm" and / or "Limit"

How many miles to Babylon

"No Time For Goodbye" by Linwood Barclay.

A 14 year old girl wakes up one morning to find her entire family has disappeared- her father, mother and older brother are gone without a trace- they all vanished without any explanation. She finds out the truth 25 years later.

R98 I love the idea of Romola Garai as Undine Spragg. She was gorgeous in ANGEL, but that was 15 years ago.

The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach - It was optioned at one point for a TV series for HBO.

The Book of Joe by Jonathan Tropper

The Dark Phoenix Saga

Do it with Famke and James and Hugh and Patrick.

Let Claremont write it and Byrne can consult.

"Another Country" by James Baldwin

"Beautiful Ruins" by Jesse Walter

How to make love like a porn star

Susan Howatch's Starbridge series or The Rich are Different & Sins of the Father would make excellent mini-series.

I'd also love to see someone try to take on Adrian Tchaikovsky's Children of Time & Children of Ruin.

"I would love to see another Donna Tart book made into a movie: "The Goldfinch"

I just saw a preview for this movie last week. So, your wish (or nightmare) is coming true.

Meanwhile, I would love to see "Carter Beats the Devil" made into a mini-series.

AMC was going to produce a mini-series after the critical success of Mad Men, but I think their less than successful version of The Prisoner put a kibosh on that.

Then Tom Cruise optioned it. I'm glad he never made it because he would have sucked as Carter. He would have been terrible in any role.

I think the book is in development limbo at the moment.

"Gravity's Rainbow" by Thomas Pynchon

I wanted to see The Poisonwood Bible come to the screen for years. I just found out that HBO is in talks with Amy Adams about developing a series on the book.

I'd like to see Amazon Prime (or someone) make movies or miniseries out of George Pelecanos' novels.

Arthur C. Clarke, Rendezvous with Rama

Philip Jose Farmer, Riverworld

Robert Heinlein, Job: A Comedy of Justice

I know Rendezvous with Rama has "almost" made it a few times.

What's the word on that Lord of the Rings series? Is that still happening?

Another vote for Confederacy of the Dunces and yes on Zach G for Ignatius

Alan Hollinghurst's first, "The Swimming Pool Library"

Gore Vidal's groundbreaker

"The City and the Pillar" is significant because it is recognized as the first post-World War II novel whose gay protagonist is portrayed in a sympathetic manner and is not killed off at the end of the story for defying social norms. It is also recognized as one of the "definitive war-influenced gay novels", being one of the few books of its period dealing directly with male homosexuality

Maybe 75 years is still too soon.

R144 The ending makes us look bad.

Thanks for nothing, Gore.