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View Full Version : 7 'unfilmable' sci-fi books—and the filmmakers who could adapt them


radio667
06-02-2009, 01:54 PM
from scifiwire.com ................. Watchmen, The Lord of the Rings: These are books that were commonly thought to be impossible to adapt to the big screen. That is, until a filmmaker such as Zack Snyder or Peter Jackson found the keys to unlock them.

Whatever you may think of the final results, the fact is that Snyder and Jackson succeeded in translating the books to film. And that got us thinking about other great works of SF literature that are supposedly unfilmable—and how they might be successfully adapted, and by whom.

It's a heady list. The following novels have captured the imaginations of generations of readers, but have so far been given a wide berth by filmmakers. We examine what makes these greats hard to shoot, and who out there in the dream factory actually has the kind of (dare we say it?) Snyder-ian vision to get the job done.

http://scifiwire.com/2009/06/7-unfilmable-sci-fi-books.php



Nicolas Cage played Charlie Kaufman, the filmmaker who adapted the unfilmable Orchid Thief

DeadMeatGF
06-02-2009, 02:34 PM
I thought - "Woohoo! Just my thing!"
Then I read it and thought "What a pile of cack - this writer has less than no brain at all!"

The main reason for all these books never making movies is that they are pure novel. No amount of SFX, traditional or CGI will ever alter the fact that these are stories that require you to create the environment yourself. The book I'm most familiar with, and a brilliant story it is, would be The Stars My Destination which could easily have been filmed years ago. It would also have been as crap then as it would now - nothing to do with the technical side of film-making, but because on celluloid it would make your average Terry Gilliam offering seem straightforward.
Many of the other offerings would fail simply for the same reason that Star Wars or Lord of the Rings would fail - if you compressed the whole story into a single film. You simply cannot compress that amount of "mental" storyline into cinematographic exposition.

Do us a favour, guys - leave well alone!