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Old 02-March-2007, 07:25 AM
Graybeard6 Graybeard6 is offline
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Default Science Fiction Books That Should Be Movies

Please note that I wrote "Science Fiction", not "SciFi" or Fantasy (although I'd like to see a really good adaptation of Lovecraft).
I'll throw out a few to start.
1. Anne McCaffery's "Dragonriders". Some co-workers played with this back in the '80s (one of us was a dead ringer for Lessa) and decided it could only be done with animation. Now it would be possible with CGI and live actors.
2. S.M. Stirling's "Nantucket Trilogy". could be as easily shot as "Master and Commander" was.
I have more, but what do the rest of you think?
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Old 02-March-2007, 09:43 AM
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I have no clue what genre House of Leaves would be, but I'd like to see it make it to the big screen. Intact.

The way it was written though, the chances of it surviving any form of adaptation would be slim.
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Old 02-March-2007, 11:34 AM
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Kin Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy could make a nice series of films, I think. Effects technology should now really enable us to put scenes like the escape down the rapidly flooding (which for Mars at that time means great bursts of instantly freezing water erupting from the ground) canyon in the first book, or the crash of the space elevator, or the sight of the ocean waves in 1/3 G on the screen well.
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Old 02-March-2007, 01:49 PM
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I've wrote it before, and I'll write it again: Haldeman's The Forever War.

It'll never happen, though.

I also think Marusek's "The Wedding Album" could be an outstanding short-film--ditto for (Sterling's ?) "Scherzo With Tyrannosaur".
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Old 02-March-2007, 02:00 PM
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David Gerrold's War Against the Chtorr..... just because we haven't had a decent scifi movie with a monster in it lately. And CGI can now do credit to the purple fur.
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Old 02-March-2007, 02:26 PM
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I would love to see John Varley's Titan triology, just because I love the books and I think it would be visually stunning. But looking at Hollywood's history of converting great SF books into movies, I think they would just completely muck them up.
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Old 02-March-2007, 02:29 PM
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Worse yet, they would make it decent. All that free love and loveless sex is just too much for this politically correct age.

I've always thought that Philip K. Dick's Divine Invasion would make a great movie -- if it were produced by a film industry from another universe, of course.
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Old 02-March-2007, 03:07 PM
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Hmm, how about Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelles The Mote in Gods Eye?
Action, plot twists, stunning visuals, jolly good aliens, strong characters, shocking revelations, moral dilemmas & that essential for movies, a love interest.
& how about Pouls Andersons War of the Wingmen/The Man Who Counts, a well thought out(scientifically plausible) planet there! Who would make a good Nicholas Van Rijn? I'd nominate John Rhys-Davies.
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Old 02-March-2007, 03:15 PM
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Hate to fall back on a franchise novel, but I'd love to see I, Jedi done as a miniseries.
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Old 02-March-2007, 03:17 PM
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Harlan Ellison wrote a brilliant script based on Asimov's I, Robot that I would love to see as a film.

Arthur C. Clarke's A Fall of Moondust seems almost intended to be turned into a movie, but even though it's a decent read it's not a classic.
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Old 02-March-2007, 03:17 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Jason Thompson View Post
Kin Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy could make a nice series of films, I think. Effects technology should now really enable us to put scenes like the escape down the rapidly flooding (which for Mars at that time means great bursts of instantly freezing water erupting from the ground) canyon in the first book, or the crash of the space elevator, or the sight of the ocean waves in 1/3 G on the screen well.
Yeah, and you could take out all the political machinations, which would actually make the story interesting.
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Old 02-March-2007, 03:24 PM
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I'd like to second David Gerrold's War Against the Chtorr.
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Old 02-March-2007, 04:12 PM
Ronald Brak Ronald Brak is offline
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Quote:
I've wrote it before, and I'll write it again: Haldeman's The Forever War.

It'll never happen, though.
I think think Hollywood might be willing to do an adaptation of The Forever War.

Hope you liked Starship Troopers.
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Old 02-March-2007, 04:15 PM
Ronald Brak Ronald Brak is offline
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I would like to see Hollywood do Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land.

However, perhaps I should point out that I enjoy watching train wrecks.
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Old 02-March-2007, 04:26 PM
Jason Thompson Jason Thompson is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ToSeek View Post
Yeah, and you could take out all the political machinations, which would actually make the story interesting.
Lol. That would actually make the story very very dull indeed, since without them there is no plot except 'people go to Mars and build a house'. However, there is certainly room to tone them down a bit, and the great long passages of descriptive prose would be covered in a single panning shot.

The more I think about it the more I am sure it could survive the transition from book to film quite well. Having said that, I did think Blue Mars was a bit anticlimactic after such a long trawl. Green Mars was great though.
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Old 02-March-2007, 04:33 PM
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Ben Bova's Mars would be interesting. Particularly since the Vice President character would take on a slightly more interesting twist, what with current events.
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Old 02-March-2007, 04:55 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Ronald Brak View Post
I would like to see Hollywood do Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land.

However, perhaps I should point out that I enjoy watching train wrecks.
This should make you happy.
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Old 02-March-2007, 05:44 PM
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Isaac Asimov's "Foundation Trilogy" would be an excellent epic, if it could be done right. I was not too happy with the movie "I Robot" based on his short stories. I could see a Foundation movie as part drama/suspense and part sci-fi. There's not a lot of shooting or chasing, mostly a mystery type of movie, where the viewer is given pieces of the mystery, until the end where things are resolved(mostly) and you sit there and just admire the work of a true genius like Asimov.

I am skeptical that "Foundation" would be made the way Asimov would have liked. Hollywood would probably trash it pretty good.
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Old 02-March-2007, 05:55 PM
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Psychohistory with a single man who violates its ability to predict human behavior has been done already. The Matrix Trilogy.
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Old 02-March-2007, 06:13 PM
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I'd think Niven's Ringworld could be easily made into a great space adventure.

Also, I could imagine that some of Peter F. Hamilton's space operas could be made into epic TV series.
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Old 02-March-2007, 06:16 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Doodler View Post
Psychohistory with a single man who violates its ability to predict human behavior has been done already. The Matrix Trilogy.
I do agree that some elements of The Matrix do agree with some of Asimov's