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?
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I want to see some Brandon Sanderson novels made into movies or TV shows. Preferably animated as I don't think a live action would work.
Word is that it's coming. And he's probably the most well known speculative fiction author without an adaptation.
Yes! The graphic audiobooks have been awesome.
The Culture series by Iain M Banks.
Though I am not sure how you would translate some of them (Excession...) into a visual story.
I honestly think that would ruin it for all the Culture fans. Much as I love Banks’ work, I like the movie of the books that I’ve produced in MY head more than what anyone else could make.
I'm kinda in this boat too. I'm glad Banks' estate didn't let the Amazon series go through. Something about a guy like Bezos hailing the books while being a billionaire capitalist egomaniac just makes me uneasy with the whole idea.
Post-scarcity communism is fine. I'd actually consider the culture just lib, not even left or right. It's a totally voluntary society. Except maybe for some special circumstances.
Post scarcity makes labels like communism/capitalism meaningless. They are both systems to deal with the scarcity of resources.
One of the best lines in Bank's work to describe this is from LTW:
"Money is a sign of poverty"
Ie: A society that needs money to apportion scarce resources is always poor as there is never enough to go around.
It certainly has shaped my own ethics and ideas.
I understand your point but feel it is a bit selfish.
But it would also create a lot more Culture fans. Just as the LOTR movies got a huge number of people to read Tolkien.
I would love to see more people read Banks.
If they are ever adapted no one is going to force you to watch and you can reread them when ever you want.
Totally agree with you, many people said the same about Lord of the rings before Peter Jackson made an amazing adaptation. That doesn't mean every adaptation is good, far from it, but that shouldn't stop people from trying.
My first thought. Though you could do Use of Weapons, Inversions, and The State of the Art. The Algebraist, Feersum Endjinn, The Player of Games, could all be their own trilogy. Use of Weapons, Look to Windward, Surface Detail etc.
I always thought the drone scenes would be so interesting on film like a mix between bullet time and 10000fps. Also weird storytelling seeing the other scenes pop up in drone time.
Redwall.
Do it in full photo realistic CGI; I want to see the beautiful castles and countryside, all the delicious food, and the gruesome battles in all their glory.
Instead of cgi I want it done with traditional cell animation on a huge budget. Like princess Mononoke or spirited away.
There already was a traditionally animated show though...
That would either be fire or a smoldering pile of shit.
There's so much source material that I think it could work.
The Redwall video game is actually a lot of fun, so there's that at least 🤩
Bit of a normie but the Dark Tower series would be awesome. Mixing tons of genres, having very different locations to film in. It would be extremely expensive to produce.
The gunslinging of Idris Elba in the movie was nice but everything else wasn't.
Yeah. That movie was a disappointment. I love Idris Elba in everything he does, but that movie should not have been made lol
Came here to say this. But tbf It will always be a horrible adaptation for a movie, even the first book, the shortest one, is to much for a movie.
Also I don't think they would ever adapt Odetta the way she is and she is awesome
Mike Flanagan is making the TV series. It's been in the works for a year or so and has King's nod of approval on it. No casting has been solidified yet and stuff is of course currently halted due to the strikes, but it's currently a high priority project after Hollywood can start up again.
Hyperion Cantos by Dan Simmons
Came here for this comment, wasn't disappointed.
Maybe? It's been decades since I read it, but I remember enjoying Hyperion and fucking hating Fall of Hyperion. It felt like Hyperion was amazing and well thought ought but then Fall was just mailed in.
Because Fall rushed the story with a fuck ton of plotlines. It really should have focused on continuing the story and have a third book conclude the major plotlines. That way a lot of things that happened wouldn't feel like they were pulled out of left field.
The Witcher but they actually follow the source material.
It does exist actually, it's just Polish media.
Not really, what you’re referencing is like a half-remembered retelling of a few of the stories from The Last Wish and Sword of Destiny.
I have only played The Witcher 3 and its DLCs and watched The Netflix show up until S02, so far I like it (especially the game).
I'm slowly introducing in the books/reading field, and just started with classics like Dracula (so far liking it) are the books of The Witcher stand on their own as a good entry point for my "current phase"?
yes
I also had only played the witcher III when I started the books. The games are all set after the events of the witcher saga (books), and are honestly just really really good fan fiction based on the characters (like, really the best fan fiction you could think of), so you can feel free to just read the books.
If you’re not a big reader (if I understand the note about dracula correctly) the witcher audio books are really well done, and the stories lend themselves very well to being listened to.
Finally, I could write a treatise on the failures of the netflix show, but it would all be old news—about 10% of the show is accurate to the stories told in the text (and the text is so much better), the rest is a bunch of made-up nonsense that serves nothing other than to muddy the narrative.
In short, yes, read the books (also why do people need to ask advice about reading books these days. just read books).
Thank you for the explanation! If they are a prequel of The Witcher III then that'll make it better for me!
About this, well, there is a reason why book communities exist right? I am not asking for validation in this matter but definitely like to hear all opinions and personal experience before setting off on this kind of time consuming activity.
I will only say this: reading a book takes no more time than it does to read a bunch of bullshit on the internet. Why would one need to consult with people prior to opening a book and reading 5, 10 or, 500 pages? I would argue that opening a book and reading it first is better than asking for peoples’ opinion and permission prior to reading anything.
To paraphrase Kamina: “Don’t believe in the text, believe in the text that believes in you!”
The Mars trilogy by KSR. I think 3 8 hour long episode seasons could work
Was going to say the same. They would make an amazing series of series.
As long as they edit it a bit. IMO, it felt like Robinson was paid by the word and padded the crap out of the novels.
Ursula le Guin anyone?
The Left Hand of Darkness might be interesting. The Word for Tree is Forest would likely get thought of as an odd Avatar clone. But The Dispossessed would probably never get made, people would find worth in the politics and abandon the megacorp making it.
Le Guin prose is exceptional and would be nearly impossible to bring to screen well. I'm sure it will be tried at some point. Maybe a dark horse, but I actually think The Lathe of Heaven might be the most adaptable. It's the simplest story and has plenty of room for exciting changes and visuals in a film.
Her Earthsea book was actually adapted. By Studio Ghibli no less. It was so bad that the dad of the director left the theater halfway through to have a smoke. Said dad was no other than Hayao Miyazaki (Director of Spirited Away, Howl's Miving Castle, Castle in the Sky, etc)
Mistborn by Brandan Sanderson.
If done right, he could probably pull off the entire Cosmere.
Give me animated cosmere over films any day, it's so expansive and only growing. A well done animated series would be incredible and easy to maintain.
Pretty much any Brandon Sanderson book series. Mistborn, Steelheart, Way of King's, Skyward.... Etc
*Stormlight Archives
I was gonna say that... Even if I just read Way Of Kings yet. It's so good. Really liked it.
I'm currently entering "The slump" in Wheel of time. Can't wait to get to Brandon books.
Wot-encyclopedia.com it has excellent chapter summaries for the slog books.
The Nights Dawn Trilogy by Peter F. Hamilton. Not as a trilogy, though, this would have to be series, maybe three seasons per book.
I came here to say this - Night's Dawn (or his other massive series the Commonwealth Saga) would make excellent TV. But it would have to be skilfully made, probably animated (like Sonnie's Edge in Love + Robots), and cover many, many seasons.
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
this would make an incredible adult animated series. I think doing skitter's bugs would be difficult as a live action
The First Law series by Joe Abercrombie. I think it actually might become a movie.
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.
Murderbot, but I don't think it could make the transition to film.
I thought that while reading it, so good but first person narrations can never really get adapted well.
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.
Fuckin this. I've been dreaming of a Warrior trilogy adaptation for years.
Asimov's Foundation series. It hasn't been done yet. By anyone.
Pretty sure you're just being a silly goose. Is the series on apple tv that bad?
The only thing it takes from Asimov is jargon. The books are about society and civilization. The show is about the emperor, Hari Seldon, and his magic. They're hardly related.
Spoiler alert
It's not actually bad as a sci-fi series, if it was its own thing it would be very acceptable. It's just bad as an adaptation of Foundation.
I'd like to see some 40k movies. Start with the Horus Heresy.
You're in luck!
As long as they do a better job than with rings of power.
They announced an Illuminatus! series back in 2019 that I haven't heard any news of since.
The Monster at the end of this Book. It’s the one with Grover from Sesame Street. They made a second one where Elmo fucking ruins it by being all annoying… Another Monster at the end of this Book. Maybe in the third one Grover kills Elmo?
I remember reading that when I was little; it was so fire :D
They don't make those little golden books for kids anymore, do they?
Yeah they do, including the update with stupid Elmo
The visuals would be amazing. I'd also like to see a depiction of the scene in the beginning of "Revelation Space" where Ilia gets pushed into a kilometers-high elevator shaft, and she belatedly remembers that she can just stop the ship accelerating to save herself.
The name of the wind.
A Name of the Wind adaptation would either be incredible or fucking awful, no in between.
Patrick needs to finish the dang o Series first and foremost, no more adaptations without finished source material plz.
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:
Mosquito people. The males are quiet and studious, the females are strong, dangerous, and driven mad by hunger
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.
Smokestone. Rock that will change unpredictably into smoke - and back into stone.
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.
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.
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.
Holy crap I forgot about Pern. I read a few of those in middle school and remember liking them a lot
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.
Encyclopedia Brown
They actually did make a TV show of it in the late 80s. Not that it couldn’t be done better today!
Holy crap! I didn't know that. Now I have to start searching for it.
It was on HBO, so it’s understandable if you missed it at the time
Yeah, we didn't have cable in the 80s because there was no cable where we lived.
Ummmmmm where can I watch this?!
There are some episodes on YouTube
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.
I have a couple. I’d love to see Prydain done right but I don’t have much hope anymore.
Temeraire got optioned by Peter Jackson years and years ago. I remember thinking that Richard Armitage would be a perfect Lawrence, but it’s been too long; I think he’s probably too old now.
I think the rights reverted back to the author.
I'd love for Temeraire to be a series, in my head I had Tom Hiddleston as Laurence but he might be aging out as well. Though Richard Armitage would also have been awesome.
All I can think is that it would cost a boatload of money. Boats, war and dragons.
I'd watch it as an animated series, then it wouldn't matter how old Armitage or Hiddleston were.
I’ll watch Hiddleston do anything, honestly.
Yeah, I really like live action but I think it has a better shot as animation. I don’t mind animation but I’m more drawn to live action. But it’s hard and costly to put a lot of fantasy to live-action screen.
Hell yes to Prydain but I'm not sure who would do it. I'm sure Disney associates it with their dark time in animation.
Abhorsen series by Garth Nix.
Didn't realize he was pumping out more books since I read the first three in grade school. Excellent series!
Yep, he's got three more in the series.
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.
The Riftwar Cycle from Feist. Each series is a season. And even side-series, like The Empire trilogy.
It seemed like it was finally going to happen - someone even acquired the rights, after Feist knocked back offers over and over due to them not being a "good fit".
But, a year later, it fell apart.
There actually was a 2008 animated Dragonlance movie with a good voice cast. But I hear it was terrible and I haven't forced myself to watch it.
Yeah, it is. Out of boredom, I watched it one Sunday when I had nothing to do and could only make like 20 minutes into it before I shut it off. It is not good at all lol.Here it is in its horrible glory
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.
The Red Rising series is worth it.
Laurell Hamilton's Anita Blake series Kim Harrison's Hollows series Eric Flint's Ring of Fire Piers Anthony Xanth
Any of the William Gibson trilogies. Even though The Peripheral didn't work out.
Three Body Problem/ Liu Cixin's Dark Forest goodness
It's being made by Netflix I think. I'm 2/3rds of the way through the books. I think it lends itself well to TV because the characters are only devices to move the plot along, rather than specific identities that you can invest in/relate to etc. Interested to see how it goes.
A Chinese show has already been released and an American one is releasing on Netflix soon. The Chinese version can be streamed on Viki. I'm about 1/3 of the way through (30 episodes) and I'm absolutely loving it. They don't dumb down any of the details with the science and is staying very true to the books so far. You just have to be willing to watch a subtitled show
I'm happy to be surprised but I doubt I'll like the US version as much. Nearly every US book adaptation I've watched has been dumbed down "for a wider audience" and changed quite substantially (looking at you, Silo and Beacon 23). This is also coming from D and D of GoT infamy, so we'll see if they can turn their track record around. At least this book is finished so they have the entire source material to work with
Uh... it is being made into a series. I also don't get the hype about three body problem. I thought that book was mediocre at best.
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.
Earthbound/Mother 3 live action and serialised (or pretty much anything nintendo—zelda type got thing would be cool)
he GONE series by Michael Grant. Ive wished for a series based on the books since I first touched them.
Nothing. I don't trust them to not try and make their own "vision" and fuck it up.
I don't really get that mentality. If the show is bad, the books are still just as good and you'll have lost nothing except maybe some wasted time.
If the show is bad my memories of that thing will be forever tainted. I'd rather they not be.
The "titan" series by John Varley. A good trilogy. Also a good five year series could be had with "ringworld" by Niven - the ongoing adventures that could feature six months of gathering the players and explaining their mission(s).
IF they're done right, of course.
That Titan trilogy is such a trip, I'd watch that for sure, just to see if they fully went for it.
There's one dragonlance movie and its like the worse film Ive ever seen in my life
I posted a link to it in here when someone mentioned it. It is so fucking bad. I can never get past 20 mins of watching it before I shut it off. Just before Tika shows them the garbage hatch to escape the Inn. Every damn time lol
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
I absolutely hated the Thomas Covenant novels. I hated the character, and I hated the plot devices. But I read them at a point in my life before I learned that you could put down books you didn't like; that you didn't have to finish something you started.
However: I do think they'd make a great miniseries. His internal, eternally whining self-pity would be minimized, making the character less loathsome. I mean, we're supposed to hate the character, but Donaldson sandblasted that soup cracker, leaving a hollow characature it was impossible to sympathize with on any level. In the media format translation process of distilling to imagery, Covenant might, like the anti-heros on The Boys, become less repellant. And the premise is interesting. It's become a trite trope, but it was more novel when it was introduced, and I think it'd fit the TV format well. I'd watch it.
Me too - I was so glad when I finished the first book, knowing I would never have to read another line of his whining, snivelling, excuse for a protagonist ever again.
I absolutely hated the Thomas Covenant novels. I hated the character, and I hated the plot devices. But I read them at a point in my life before I learned that you could put down books you didn't like; that you didn't have to finish something you started.
However: I do think they'd make a great miniseries. His internal, eternally whining self-pity would be minimized, making the character less loathsome. I mean, we're supposed to hate the character, but Donaldson sandblasted that soup cracker, leaving a hollow characature it was impossible to sympathize with on any level. In the media format translation process of distilling to imagery, Covenant might, like the anti-heros on The Boys, become less repellant. And the premise is interesting. It's become a trite trope, but it was more novel when it was introduced, and I think it'd fit the TV format well. I'd watch it.
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.
I'd like to see the more of the Discworld series as done by The Mob (the folks who have done the other adaptations). The Mob has actually been really respectful of the source material and have avoided any temptation to turn the books into the type of dreck which so often oozes out of Hollywood adaptations. Specifically, I would love to see Small Gods, though that means Pyramids first. And continuing the Rincewind series would be high on my list.
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
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.
I see your point. But if done right, the movie/show can be almost as good as the books (Fellowship of the Ring and One Piece). It just takes someone who loves the material being used or (in the case of One Piece) the creator watching over every step.
Maybe so but they are so few and far between, for me personally I can't think of an adaptation that I have really liked. I don't like The Lord of the Rings films that much but I actually dislike the books more in that case but I realise that I am an outlier with that opinion.
Yep. I wanted to mention Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn series but it already has a stellar GraphicAudio adaptation.
I love Sanderson novels and especially the Stormlight Archives. I know if Amazon or someone picked it up, they’d absolutely ruin it. Probably the only way we’d see a faithful adaptation would be in animated form.
Yup, I love Graphic Audio and am currently listening to Stormlight Archives by Sanderson produced by them. It is great!
It's that last part that effs it up. For example, I really liked Luhrman's Romeo+Juliet. That was a creative interpretation. I enjoyed Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I thought the books were decent, but the movie captured the best bits, IMO. Early seasons of Game of Thrones were good. I like some of the changes made to move the internal dialog to conversations. It gave the side characters more life.
It's when the artistic vision is cast aside in the name of profit, then the work of art suffers.
The Webnovel "Mother of Learning" It has four arcs. Each arc is long enough to be made into two seasons, each containing 8 episodes.
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.
This happened for me with wheel of Time. Be careful what you wish for.
Jhereg series by Steven Brust
Its not a series, just a standalone book but I would love to see a stop motion movie of the magnum opus. It's a book that was written by the makers of a stop motion short called the maker. I would love to see what they could do with a proper budget
https://youtu.be/YDXOioU_OKM?feature=shared here's the short that inspired the book
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I feel like a Dark Elf Trilogy could only bring disappointment
Biggles!
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.
Elvis Cole and Joe Pike series. Surprised it hasn't been done yet.
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).
The Malazan Book of the Fallen, by Steven Erikson.
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.
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.
Angry ghosts
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.
I rarely see The Edge Chronicles in these kinds of threads.
It's packed full of amazing lore.
Calculus....early transcendentals.
Dungeon Crawler Carl.
Tunnels hands down
Not a book, but I would love to see a cinematic adaptation of "East of West". The universe is beautifully drawn.
bobiverse by dennis e taylor
I really don't know about this one. I love the books, and with their success they've genome a bit more compatible with a screen adaptation, but a lot of it, and especially the first one, is a lot of internal monologue. In addition, the space physics and combat are amazing, but don't translate into visuals easily either. Like I said, love the story, and pains me to say it. Some stories are just not made for the screen, and I think this is one.