Film adaptations you'd like to see

Here's one - GATHER, DARKNESS by Franz Leiber. A strangely prescient work originally serialized in ASTOUNDING SCIENCE FICTION in 1943. It was only published as a novel in 2000.

Here's a synopsis:

GATHER, DARKNESS! is a science-fiction classic. It tells the story of Armon Jarles, a man on the edge, living amidst the disputes of two rival powers at large in the world. 360 years after a nuclear holocaust ravaged mankind, throwing society back into the dark ages, the world is fraught with chaos and superstition. The new rulers over the masses of humanity are the techno-priests of the Great God, endowed with scientific knowledge lost to the rest of humanity. Jarles, originally of peasant descent, rises to become a priest of the Great God. He knows the gospel propagated by the priests to be a fraud, based on illusion and trickery.

Even more offensive to him is the paucity of true believers among the priesthood. One day he rebels against his priestly training and attempts to incite the peasants to rise up and demand freedom, but they are not ready. Jarles is not the only dissenter trying to sabotage and expose the false theocracy of the priesthood¿witchcraft is slowly gaining strength and support among the populace. Although Jarles is unaware, his rebellion against the power of the priests is about to throw him headlong into the middle of the greatest holy war the world has ever seen.

A stunning work. Shame it isn't more well known. It's the kind of thing I'd love to score.

The Holy Bible's Book Of Revelations by John of Patmos would be the ultimate disaster movie....

Though hardly a classic I used to want to see Tom Clancy's Executive Orders adapated. Properly long and epic film as close as they dared to the book even with Harrison Ford as now President Ryan. Putting together a new government, the Ebola virus plan, the (then) Second Gulf War etc. Just throw it all together.

Len Deighton's SS-GB though that might have worked in the 60's even with Michael Caine as Supt. Archer.

Yesterday's Children (second, longer edition from 1978 or so)
I went through this one with a highlighter around 1981 or so; thought then and still think there is a very smart movie in here. Claustrophobic, all on a spaceship in a time of war and you never get outside (besides a walk on the hull) to see any other perspectives, but there are some wildly different viewpoints of folks aboardship as to what they're chasing (or if they are chasing anything real at all.)

There was a planned film of it around 1981 that fell through. Andy Probert did some concept art for it, and Gerd Oswald supposed to direct, but I've heard various reasons for it falling through, some having to do with how they deviated from Gerrold's material, others just saying nobody wanted to see or fund a thinking man's space movie (true dat, 'specially back then.

And I still think Trevanian's SUMMER OF KATYA could be a good small film, but Keira Knightley is getting older all the time so you might need another rather boyishly-built girl to play Katya.

Stranger in a Strange Land

Hilly wrote:

Though hardly a classic I used to want to see Tom Clancy's Executive Orders adapated. Properly long and epic film as close as they dared to the book even with Harrison Ford as now President Ryan. Putting together a new government, the Ebola virus plan, the (then) Second Gulf War etc. Just throw it all together.

Ford said he is done with Jack Ryan, hence Affleck in Sums Of All Fears.

Oh I don't want to see Affleck in anothe Jack Ryan film.

It was sacrilegious!!

trevanian wrote:

And I still think Trevanian's SUMMER OF KATYA could be a good small film, but Keira Knightley is getting older all the time so you might need another rather boyishly-built girl to play Katya.

It would probably make for a better shorter-length film (like an hour-long episode from an anthology television series) than a full-length feature. The story is a bit slight to sustain a full-length film.

j7wild wrote:

Hilly wrote:

Though hardly a classic I used to want to see Tom Clancy's Executive Orders adapated. Properly long and epic film as close as they dared to the book even with Harrison Ford as now President Ryan. Putting together a new government, the Ebola virus plan, the (then) Second Gulf War etc. Just throw it all together.

Ford said he is done with Jack Ryan, hence Affleck in Sums Of All Fears.

Oh I don't want to see Affleck in anothe Jack Ryan film.

It was sacrilegious!!

hence the 'used' part of my post.

Sharky wrote:

Here's one - GATHER, DARKNESS by Franz Leiber. A strangely prescient work originally serialized in ASTOUNDING SCIENCE FICTION in 1943. It was only published as a novel in 2000.

Sounds fascinating.

Along similar lines, I'd love to see an adaptation of the Philip K. Dick/Roger Zelazny novel, DEUS IRAE. It's not a fantastic novel, but it contains ideas that could make for a striking, if very bizarre, film.

I also long for an adaptation of Nikos Kazantzakis' masterpiece, THE ODYSSEY: A MODERN SEQUEL. It'll never happen, of course, since it's a ginormous epic--we're talking LAWRENCE OF ARABIA scale, here--that is essentially an exploration of a philosophical belief system, and the audience for such a film is practically miniscule. The film adaptation lives on in my mind, at least.

j7wild wrote:

Hilly wrote:

Though hardly a classic I used to want to see Tom Clancy's Executive Orders adapated. Properly long and epic film as close as they dared to the book even with Harrison Ford as now President Ryan. Putting together a new government, the Ebola virus plan, the (then) Second Gulf War etc. Just throw it all together.

Ford said he is done with Jack Ryan, hence Affleck in Sums Of All Fears.

Oh I don't want to see Affleck in anothe Jack Ryan film.

It was sacrilegious!!

I'd love Ford to return as Jack Ryan (with Phillip Noyce returning to the director's chair). It would be the only way to properly revive the Ryan film franchise. Ford's Ryan has gravitas and charisma that a youngster like Affleck cannot hope to match. No one cares about Chris Pine or Hayden Christensen or Taylor Lautner or whoever as the new Jack Ryan, but Ford's return would be sheer dynamite - the most eagerly-awaited comeback performance since, well, Ford's return to the role of Indiana Jones (and, yes, I know how that turned out, but Ford deserves none of the blame for the trainwreck that is INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL).

I haven't really followed the Ryan literary series (the only Ryan novel I've read is THE SUM OF ALL FEARS, although I found it an absolutely cracking read and immeasurably superior to the dreadful film adaptation), so I've no real view on whether Ford should play President Jack Ryan* or just plain old Jack Ryan (although I see no immediate reason why a new film couldn't be a straight sequel to the 1994 film masterpiece CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER, with Ryan now the President for reasons that don't necessarily need to be gone into), but one thing is abundantly clear to me: Harrison Ford IS Jack Ryan!

*I guess AIR FORCE ONE is, effectively, a President Jack Ryan film.

I've lost all faith in Philip Noyce lately.

Harmsway wrote:

Along similar lines, I'd love to see an adaptation of the Philip K. Dick/Roger Zelazny novel, DEUS IRAE. It's not a fantastic novel, but it contains ideas that could make for a striking, if very bizarre, film.

I like to see a subversive Christian take on DEUS IRAE, particularly where the ending with the mural's concerned. Dick had a very vivid imagination, but alas a great thinker he was not. I find the best Hollywood adaptions of his works are those that take a good deal of liberty with them, and more about stamping the director's vision first and foremost.

Harmsway wrote:

I also long for an adaptation of Nikos Kazantzakis' masterpiece, THE ODYSSEY: A MODERN SEQUEL. It'll never happen, of course, since it's a ginormous epic--we're talking LAWRENCE OF ARABIA scale, here--that is essentially an exploration of a philosophical belief system, and the audience for such a film is practically miniscule. The film adaptation lives on in my mind, at least.

Sounds awesome.

Loomis wrote:

j7wild wrote:

Hilly wrote:

Though hardly a classic I used to want to see Tom Clancy's Executive Orders adapated. Properly long and epic film as close as they dared to the book even with Harrison Ford as now President Ryan. Putting together a new government, the Ebola virus plan, the (then) Second Gulf War etc. Just throw it all together.

Ford said he is done with Jack Ryan, hence Affleck in Sums Of All Fears.

Oh I don't want to see Affleck in anothe Jack Ryan film.

It was sacrilegious!!

I'd love Ford to return as Jack Ryan (with Phillip Noyce returning to the director's chair). It would be the only way to properly revive the Ryan film franchise. Ford's Ryan has gravitas and charisma that a youngster like Affleck cannot hope to match. No one cares about Chris Pine or Hayden Christensen or Taylor Lautner or whoever as the new Jack Ryan, but Ford's return would be sheer dynamite - the most eagerly-awaited comeback performance since, well, Ford's return to the role of Indiana Jones (and, yes, I know how that turned out, but Ford deserves none of the blame for the trainwreck that is INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL).

I haven't really followed the Ryan literary series (the only Ryan novel I've read is THE SUM OF ALL FEARS, although I found it an absolutely cracking read and immeasurably superior to the dreadful film adaptation), so I've no real view on whether Ford should play President Jack Ryan* or just plain old Jack Ryan (although I see no immediate reason why a new film couldn't be a straight sequel to the 1994 film masterpiece CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER, with Ryan now the President for reasons that don't necessarily need to be gone into), but one thing is abundantly clear to me: Harrison Ford IS Jack Ryan!

*I guess AIR FORCE ONE is, effectively, a President Jack Ryan film.

Air Force One is what put me in mind of Exective Orders Harrison Ford wise. Ryan in EO is effectively Ford's President Marshall minus the fighting and action. His family gets attacked again, rather there's a kidnap attempt on his youngest daughter but yes...agree AF1 is pretty much a President Ryan film.

Pretty solid post Loomis about Ford overall. Makes me wish it'd happen rather than the trainwreck Pine might make.

Sharky wrote:

I've lost all faith in Philip Noyce lately.

Well, all* directors are hit and miss. It's true that Noyce is the director of the superb CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER, but then again he also directed the pisspoor PATRIOT GAMES. Still, I've enjoyed most of the Noyce flicks I've seen - yep, even the likes of SLIVER and SALT, and he occasionally gets close to greatness, e.g. CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER and THE QUIET AMERICAN. Like all other directors, he's only as good as his script, his cast, his crew and his financiers.

*Yes, all.

I thought SALT was abysmal. The humourless and nastiness of the left on full show.

Sharky wrote:

Dick had a very vivid imagination, but alas a great thinker he was not.

On the contrary, I think he was often a splendid thinker. Deeply paranoid, yes, and perhaps even quite mad, but Dick had tremendous insight about humanity and cultural trends, and as such his novels tend to be very rich and profound. What I would say is that Dick isn't always the best storyteller; Dick came up with astonishing conceits, but rarely developed them in ways that were wholly satisfying.

But I do agree with you in that I wouldn't mind a different spin on the mural ending of DEUS IRAE, and I can think of many different directions in which it might go (not that I mind it so much as it stands). At any rate, it would be fascinating to see a film that was so interested in gnosticism and the notion of a Demiurge.

Sharky wrote:

I find the best Hollywood adaptions of his works are those that take a good deal of liberty with them, and more about stamping the director's vision first and foremost.

Don't those tend to be the best adaptations of everything? Adaptations that are deeply wedded to the source material rarely result in anything too inspiring.

Sharky wrote:

Sounds awesome.

I think it would be. But, of course, I find Kazantzakis' secular humanist philosophy to be fascinating, largely in its astonishing asceticism. Kazantzakis' philosophy runs so completely contrary to the belief systems in play today. THE ODYSSEY: A MODERN SEQUEL allowed him to paint those ideas on an extraordinarily large canvas (and the poetry, at least as translated by Kimon Friar, is breathtakingly beautiful).

Sharky wrote:

I thought SALT was abysmal.

Oh, don't get me wrong. I'm not saying it's a great film - far from it. But I found it a decent enough rainy-day rental. Passable brain-in-neutral entertainment, which was all I asked of it.

Sharky wrote:

The humourless and nastiness of the left on full show.

I can't recall anything especially left-wing about the film. Hell, if anything it's surely as right-wing as something like DIE ANOTHER DAY, with its scenes of captivity and torture in evil North Korea and its plot about wicked Russian commies putting sleeper agents inside the United States. No?

In any case, I myself tend to veer towards the left politically, so I don't care even if SALT is left-wing.

Loomis wrote:

I can't recall anything especially left-wing about the film. Hell, if anything it's surely as right-wing as something like DIE ANOTHER DAY, with its scenes of captivity and torture in evil North Korea and its plot about wicked Russian commies putting sleeper agents inside the United States. No?

It was just an accuse (like the BOURNE franchise) show a liberal Hollywood star kick the arses of the CIA and American personal, and glamourise treason. In fact, the North Koreans get off pretty easily here compared to the Yanks.

Ah, okay. I see where you're coming from.

Harmsway wrote:

trevanian wrote:

And I still think Trevanian's SUMMER OF KATYA could be a good small film, but Keira Knightley is getting older all the time so you might need another rather boyishly-built girl to play Katya.

It would probably make for a better shorter-length film (like an hour-long episode from an anthology television series) than a full-length feature. The story is a bit slight to sustain a full-length film.

If some place that attracted the right talent like HBO was doing antho series, I'd agree 100%.

Sharky wrote:

I thought SALT was abysmal. The humourless and nastiness of the left on full show.

I wouldn't say abysmal - more so mediocre. It's not a badly crafted film really, just one that doesn't sit well with me. Plus the music, cinematography and script (left-wing inclinations and lack of originality mostly) irritated me.

The title of the film was based on the flavor of the area between Jolie's legs, I heard.

THE ALIENIST by Caleb Carr (psychological profiling is created in an attempt to catch a sadistic murderer of boy whores in 1896 New York City)

HALO (would love to see this video game franchise turned into a film trilogy)

LOGAN'S RUN (currently in pre-production with a director attached)

POWER OF THE DARK CRYSTAL (sequel to the 1982 Jim Henson movie; allegedly partly filmed, then dropped/scrapped/abanonded)

VERTICAL RUN by Joseph Garber (at one time in pre-production with the then-unknown Wachowski Brothers attached to direct; it's like Die Hard, but in a skyscraper)

ICEFIRE by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens (Top Gun pilot clashes with environmental activist as two team up to save the pacific rim from an 800ft. wave moving 200 mph)
MOONFALL by Jack McDevitt (disaster/action flic as world deals with the impending loss of most or all of the moon)
STORMING INTREPID by Payne Harrison (probably would work best as an 80's period piece now, unless China is the new villain)
MEG by Steve Alten

WEAPONS OF CHOICE by John Birmingham (2031 U.S. naval fleet is time warped back to 1942, and it's more than just a clash of technology, as the 1942 military doesn't like having to deal with blacks, gays, and women in its forces...or some yet to be invented contraption called "the computer")

So many good ideas out there, so many poor decisions by Hollywood not to adapt these source materials

Mr. Brown wrote:

The title of the film was based on the flavor of the area between Jolie's legs, I heard.

I heard it was raspberry ripple.

Did Brad tell you that? Billy Bob said otherwise.

Mr. Brown wrote:

Did Brad tell you that? Billy Bob said otherwise.

I can't divulge my sources.

I owe Brad that at least.