You ever read a book and think

[canesisters]

that it would make a great movie?

I just finished Stoneheart by Baer Charlton. Not exactly my usual 'drive time' audiobook choice, but a really good story.
Clear and varied characters. Redeeming thread throughout with good ending. It would make a great movie.

 

[seedcorn]

So where do you get your audio books?

 

[digitS']

I'm going kind of backwards from that, Debbie. As usual, I'm also behind. Behind & Backwards, see me Go!

I picked up a book of short stories this week. I'm not sure who reading this might recognize the name Ted Chiang, science fiction author. Since it's been so long since I have done any sci fi reading, any GenX author has to be new to me .

He wrote a short story called "Story of Your Life." We will see what he could mean by that title, eh? The story was made into a motion picture: "Arrival." The Atlantic rated it as the best film of 2016 and it was nominated for all sorts of awards and won several last year. See --- I have to hurry with that "last year" because 2017 will soon really be in the history books!

Steve

 

[Zeedman]

Frankly, @digitS' , having also read that story, I was surprised to see it expanded into a screenplay. Not many short stories are strong enough to make that transition... John W. Campbell Jr.'s short story "Who Goes There" (which became the basis of the movie "The Thing") comes to mind.

I'm a big sci-fi fan. The novella "The Days of Solomon Gursky" (Ian McDonald) would, I believe, make a spectacular movie.

There are quite a few sci-fi authors whose novels could make great movies. Some I'd really like to see:
Larry Niven - "Ringworld"
David Brin - the "Uplift" series
Greg Bear - "The Forge of God"
James Blish - "Jack of Eagles"
Brian Aldis "The Long Afternoon of Earth" ("Hothouse")
Fred Saberhagen - the "Berserker" series

I'm currently working my way through the "Star Carrier" series (Ian Douglas), in which the future human race is forced to defend itself against a hostile alien alliance.

 

[Pulsegleaner]

Not sure if it is the same thing but when I read E.R. Eddings's book "The Worm Ouroubrus" I said "This would make a GREAT TV series.... because it makes a lousy book!" (I objected to the needlessly pseudo archaic language which would be fine spoken, but was wearying to read.) But then again the ending would piss off the TV audiences as well.

I've always wanted to see Tad Williams "Tailchaser's Song (Think of The Lord of the Rings, but with cats) done as as animated movie (I have heard they are actually doing that sometime next year.)

James White's "Hospital Space Station" might make a nice TV series as well (General Hospital meets Star Trek)

 

[Ridgerunner]

I remember the movie they made from Battlefield Earth. I thought the book was great, read it several times. But the movie was horrible. How much of that was the story and how much was how the movie was made? I think they would need to do a much better job of explaining what was going on. I think that was the big failure, even if you had read the book it was often unclear what was going on. But there were other big issues with how it was made.

Zeedman, have you read the Safehold Series by David Weber. I think it is one you would enjoy.

 

[digitS']

James White's "Hospital Space Station" might make a nice TV series as well ...(

Pulsegleaner, are you saying that it is also "a lousy book?"

... the movie was horrible.

It often seems the case that people who enjoy the book, don't like the movie. I'd bet it's about 50:50. Sometimes, the production takes takes too much or too little artistic license. The usual disappointment is that the movie is woefully incomplete.

Steve

 

[ducks4you]

I help with DH's historical fiction. I am a brutal critic bc I really don't like fiction much, esPECIALLY when the author writes about things he/she knows very little about. For instance, a recent Hallmark Christmas movie---DH watches all sorts of movies and gets ideas from them...sometimes--had a quilting club and one of them was using a rotary cutter without a safety glove. Those rotary cutters are super sharp and only a newbie would do this. It sours me on the rest of the piece. I don't even want to talk about how many horse movies are written by someone who wouldn't know straw from hay, and that's me being nice!
I think that you will find that when a book is made into a movie and other people remake the movie, it is bc there is either something lacking in the book, or it is too long to do it justice. I have two examples.
"The Four Feathers"
I read the book. The author falls in love with the character "Captain John Durrance". John loses his sight in the desert and the author kind of forgets about the main character, "John Clements", who the story really revolves around. the 1939 film version does the story justice.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0031334/?ref_=nv_sr_2
"The Count of Monte Cristo"
I read the book, out loud, to DH on a road trip. Great revenge/hero story. The love interest, in the book, "Mercedes Iguanado," abandons the main character, "Edmond Dantes". I personally like the 2002 Disney version, where they get back together. Guy Pearce makes a delightful villain as "Fernand Mondego."
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0245844/?ref_=nv_sr_1
In the book Edmond saves a little slave girl and she becomes his ward and a recent version puts the two of them together as love interests. The Disney film doesn't even touch on this part of the story, but to me it doesn't matter. Let somebody make a miniseries out of it.
Maybe the best versions of books come from shorter stories.
Being a horse love/owner I am a sucker for the film version of
"Misty of Chincotegue"
I have a copy of the 1960ish film version but neither imdb nor Amazon could find me the link.

 

[Pulsegleaner]

Pulsegleaner, are you saying that it is also "a lousy book?"

Steve

No THOSE books (there are several of them) are fine. It's just the way they are structured is would be very conducive to a TV show. You know, one medical case per episode (someone years ago claimed they actually had TRIED to do a TV show but then White had died and his estate was a mess.)

I should have written it that the Eddison to me would ONLY be good for a TV show, that he should have done it as a screen play. That's a bit harsh (especially given the book was written in 1922 when there was no such thing as a screenplay, or even, I think a radio play) but that is how I see it. The story is there and it is a good story. The problem, as I said is Eddison's choice of language. He wants it to sound like a Medieval Romance or a Norse Saga, by writing the whole thing largely in Sixteenth century English, which makes the whole book sort of unapproachable.

What I am trying to say is that it is a good story to hear, but not one to read.

I sort of feel the same way about David Lindsay's A Voyage to Arcturus. The book isn't bad, but unless you are a MAJOR believer in Wittgenstein it's going to leave you cold (you have to believe that the supreme force in the universe is pain.)

 

[canesisters]

So where do you get your audio books?

Audible