What book series would you like to see made into a movie trilogy or a show with multiple seasons?
What book series would you like to see made into a movie trilogy or a show with multiple seasons?
I've often wanted a movie/series based on the Dragonlance books or the Dark Elf trilogy. What would you all like to see done if you had the ability to do it?
None.
I don't see what making a film or TV series adds to any book, all they ever seem to do is a disservice to the original story in the attempt to squeeze as much money from it as possible.
I'd rather more fully voice acted audiobooks were made staying more true to the original texts but adding that extra element to draw you in than just one narrator trying to differentiate characters with different voices.
Worm
https://parahumans.wordpress.com/
My attention span makes reading really hard. I read this from start to finish. It's well worth the read if you're into stories like it
Discworld - preferably the City Watch novels. Books have been adapted a few times, but usually as lone events, and even the ones with a serious cast are just... okay.
Looking from one beloved dead author to another, Douglas Adams mercilessly chopped up the Hitchhiker's Guide between mediums. There was no "original version." It was all the same story, but sometimes with different events. That is the attitude necessary for capturing why Discworld is so good. Don't film a book, page-for-page. That's not how moving images work. Keep the characterization clear and fill in a storyboard from the Wikipedia description.
Anyway the real reason to go for a series would be consistent casting. Have the same guy play Vimes across a bunch of stories. Get cameos for Vetenari from the same wizened thespian. Call-forward future stories by turning bit-part scammers into Moist appearances, throw Gaspode in any scene with dogs, that sort of thing. Make Ankh-Morpork feel connected. Lived-in. Real, for a reality where wizards sometimes where fake glasses so people think they're badly disguised as wizards.
The Dying Earth series by Jack Vance.
It’s an old series, but the imagination and world building put into it should make for some great stories.The First Law series by Joe Abercrombie. I think it actually might become a movie.
World war Z made a pretty bad movie. However, it would do a gneat TV show, in the style of these 1990's show with in dependant episodes despite some metaplot
Robin Hobb's fantasy books would be interesting. Probably quite hard to adapt well though.
The Aubrey/Maturin series by Patrick O’Brien. 21.3 books of amazing naval adventures, spy stuff, and survival. They made a movie with Russell Crowe but it doesn’t nearly capture the scope of the novels.
Anything to do with Pern. Some good high fantasy and tech mixed. Might be a harder sell to the general public. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragonriders_of_Pern
The Brainship series (The ship who sang). This would go over well with the Star Trek, Star Wars fansbase, I think. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ship_Who_Sang
The Vorkosigan saga. This would also go well with the Star Trek/Wars fanbases. More political than Brainship series. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vorkosigan_Saga
The Dragearan books about Vlad Taltos by Steven Brust. Especially the first few. High fantasy mystery novels. This would be an easy sell, IMO. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Brust#Vlad_Taltos
This made me realize I haven't read any new books in a while.
I would love to see a movie or miniseries based on the "Bas-Lag" novels by China Mieville, which are "Perdido Street Station", "The Scar", and "Iron Council"
I think the best description of these books would be "Gritty Steampunk Fantasy" with a very generous dose of Weird. The writing is very descriptive, even when you really would rather not know about what's being described.
Some things that are mentioned in these three books:
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Mosquito people. The males are quiet and studious, the females are strong, dangerous, and driven mad by hunger
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Punishment factories. Criminals are sentenced to "Remaking". The Remade are people who have had either machinery or animal parts grafted onto them. Most Remakings are cruel and useless.
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Smokestone. Rock that will change unpredictably into smoke - and back into stone.
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Frog people who can make water hold a shape for a short time. A longshoreman's strike in one of the books involved a bunch of these guys forming a large gap in a river.
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Sentient steam powered constructs
*Drugs that let you experience other people's dreams.
There is a lot I have to leave out due to spoilers, but it would be an awesome series.
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I've always thought The Belgariad/Malloreon/prequels (David & Leigh Eddings) would make for an interesting anime. It's a very shonen kind of story and world.
They announced an Illuminatus! series back in 2019 that I haven't heard any news of since.
The Amtrak Wars.
Red Rising
The Very Hungry Caterpillar (starring Dwayne The Rock Johnson as the caterpillar)
I’ve just realised perhaps the Pleistocene series by Julian May could probably be pulled off, especially if using the original (to me) cover illustrations as visual ‘canon’.
There are some really great kids books I've read to my daughter that I think would work well in a visual medium.
In particular the work of Alastair Chisholm (Orion Lost, The Consequence Girl and Adam 2) would work well I think.
Also Jamie Littler's Frostheart series would be great.
I'd also like to see an adaptation of How To Train Your Dragon that's much closer to the books than the movie series of the same name. The books are so good but so different from those films, and their story and characters would make a great TV show IMO.
Earthbound/Mother 3 live action and serialised (or pretty much anything nintendo—zelda type got thing would be cool)
The Red Rising series is worth it.
he GONE series by Michael Grant. Ive wished for a series based on the books since I first touched them.
Bolo. They'd have to do it in the *Love, Death, and Robots" format, since they're all short stories and no recurring characters, but it'd be great like that.
Laurell Hamilton's Anita Blake series Kim Harrison's Hollows series Eric Flint's Ring of Fire Piers Anthony Xanth
I can't even imagine who might do them justice, but some of the books in Iain Banks' Culture series could be a real treat.
Any of the William Gibson trilogies. Even though The Peripheral didn't work out.
Early Mormon church history is about as bizzarre and dramatic as it gets. I think a well-produced & historically accurate dramaticization of the weird beginnings of the Mormon church would make for a good miniseries.
This happened for me with wheel of Time. Be careful what you wish for.
Ender's Game.
Hate the author, love the series. I've never been more angry with a movie, and a TV series with someone that's actually read the books BUT has also largely disassociated from OSC would go a long way towards repairing things.
I'd love the Wayfarer's series to be a collection of short TV shows. They could do like 6 hour long episodes per book. It would great
The Gaunt's Ghosts Warhammer 40,000 stories.
If I were allowed some creative direction, I would specify that unless it was there in the source material there will be zero scenes of people just explaining shit instead of showing it
The Webnovel "Mother of Learning" It has four arcs. Each arc is long enough to be made into two seasons, each containing 8 episodes.
Jhereg series by Steven Brust
The Gentlemen Bastards series could work well: Not too much CGI needed, and fancy rennaisance italy aesthetics deserve a fantasy show about thieving orphans!
I would watch a well made series based on the Parker novels by Richard Stark.
- Lord Valentine’s Castle, et al, by Robert Silverberg
- The Silicon Mage series by Barbara Hambly
- The Time of the Dark series by Barbara Hambly
- The Cliff Hardy series by Peter Corris
Ender's Game as season 1, and then Speaker For the Dead as seasons 2-3 (with a reworked ending rather than drawing from Xenocide).
Not a book, but I would love to see a cinematic adaptation of "East of West". The universe is beautifully drawn.
The Chronicles of Amber by Roger Zealazny is ripe for CGI heavy HBO treatment. I think it would be very well received at this day and age.
Tunnels hands down
- The Illuminae Files by Jay Kristoff and Aime Kaufman
- Scythe trilogy by Neal Shusterman
I feel like a Dark Elf Trilogy could only bring disappointment
Dungeon Crawler Carl.
I think Neuromancer would work well as a heavily stylized animation.
There's been talk multiple times of turning the Matthew Corbett series by Robert R. McCammon into a series.
I could see every book being turned into a maybe 10 episode season.
Calculus....early transcendentals.
GONE, really enjoyed that as a kid and when they then started making hunger game movies and everyone seemed to be following the formula I think it would've worked a treat around that time. It's not that similar to those however it's more supernatural mystery lord of the flies, but it would've felt like it belonged alongside the lines of hunger games and maze runner.
On another note the Jack Tanner books, especially Odin Mission would make great films or short series per book. Really enjoyed the pseudo retelling of world war 2 with bits of fiction mixed in.
I would love to see Feist's sagas on screen.
That said, I only chose those because I'm already lucky enough to be seeing Wheel of Time come to the small screen, and it's a joy.
Angry ghosts
The Malazan Book of the Fallen, by Steven Erikson.
Biggles!
Elvis Cole and Joe Pike series. Surprised it hasn't been done yet.