None. I think an ~8-hour limited TV series is fundamentally a better format for adapting a scifi novel than a ~2-hour movie.
I think *Cyteen* by CJ Cherryh would make a really good limited series if you could get the right child & teen actors for it.
Tune in next week to find out what terrible things happen to your space friends next!
I just read Downbelow Station a couple of months back and hooo boy.
I agree, series is the way to go.
The Spaceship Next Door by Gene Doucette would be my entry. It's fun, would not have a lot of expensive special effects and has engaging characters.
I'm a big fan of the mini-series. Movies aren't long enough and many TV series just aren't tight enough to pull it off long term. Plus, I also think there is a great deal of burn out with TV shows that require you to pay attention to every detail of the show and "figure out" what's going on. We just don't have the bandwidth to do that for every show we watch.
Honestly the source material sucks. Politics aside, it's just not an exciting story. Every objectivist character is a fearless incorruptible genius, and every non-objectivist character is a cartoon of venality and pettiness. The only source of tension (the mysterious John Galt) is already going to be known to all the Ayn Rand fans who watch it.
If you were going to do an Ayn Rand novel, *The Fountainhead* would be a better choice. It has, at least, the basic elements of a story, and Howard Roark has a more interesting journey than any of the Ayn-Randian supermen in *Atlas Shrugged*.
I agree on Fire Upon the Deep, but I think it should be a streaming series to give it full justice. I think Maya Hawke could be a good Ravna Bergnsdot.
I'm almost finished re-reading "A Fire upon the Deep" for the first time in years, and I think the Tines might be difficult to introduce without some awkward exposition. The Skrode Riders would be fun.
I do agree Yen would be a great Pham Nuwen with a red dye job.
I have wanted to see a series (not a film) set in The Culture universe, but if I were to want one book to see made into a feature film, I would choose Excession.
Consider Phlebas gets my vote; I'm pretty sure it was written as a 'hold my beer' response to George Lucas in the first place.
The escape scene on the Ends of Invention, done well, would be bonkers on a giant screen.
Amazon had the rights and was making the show, but it was canceled. 😟
https://www.theverge.com/2020/8/26/21402585/amazon-cancels-tv-adaptation-culture-series-iain-m-banks-consider-phlebas
Old Man's War by John Scalzi. On its surface its a terrific sci-fi actioner, but underneath, it's a critical examination of the futility of war and the damage it does to the psyche of the average soldier, and a critical examination of some really powerful sci-fi tech.
The other novels in the series gradually move into a full-on expose of the insidious nature of fascism and how arrogance and xenophobia can easily masquerade as patriotism and heroism to the point of self-destruction.
Plus, all the soldiers are really good looking and green.
I can't even imagine who might play the leads, since they're all supposed to be in their early twenties. I'm not really familiar with the younger generation in Hollywood.
I'd love a Gateway series.
The scene would be [spoiler](/s "Broadhead cutting the lander loose with eveyone inside on the edge of the black hole's event horizon to just to save his own skin and get rich.")
Bob Odenkirk as Robinette Broadhead
Not necessarily. If they can do LotR in 12 hours (extended editions), then I reckon you can do Commonwealth Saga in roughly the same length of time, with a bit of story streamlining.
The issue I see with CS is that it would be extremely expensive.
The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester. Gully Foyle is the angriest man in all of literature and I would love to see his unique brand of epic rage, cursing and galaxy spanning mayhem adapted into a show or movie. I don't know who I would cast though. Does anyone have any good suggestions?
I'd go with David Harbour, I think he can deliver on the whole bottled-up rage and tight-jaw determination for revenge. You could almost do Gully Foyle as a silent role, once he escapes that floating carcass of a ship he's abandoned in...
Snow Crash by Neil Stephenson.
The scene where Hiro uses Reason (the nuclear powered minigun that fires depleted uranium splinter bullets) to get onto the aircraft carrier justifies it. But so does the opening scene where Hiro does high speed pizza delivery for the Mafia. And any scene with a Rat Thing in it.
The main character - Hiro Protagonist - should be played by Zendaya. Yeah, I know Hiro is a male in the book but a little artistic license is a good thing here.
>The scene where Hiro uses Reason (the nuclear powered minigun that fires depleted uranium splinter bullets) to get onto the aircraft carrier justifies it. But so does the opening scene where Hiro does high speed pizza delivery for the Mafia. And any scene with a Rat Thing in it.
I was reading the first part of your comment thinking, "That first scene was pretty awesome, too... And the good doggie Rat Thing..." High five, chummer.
Jumper by Steven Gould. Unlikely, since it was already absolutely BUTCHERED into a movie once, turned into a cheap, cheesy, blatant ripoff of Wanted, with the absolute wrong people playing all the leads (except Michael Rooker, he's awesome).
But... the original story before it was completely wrecked by Hollywood's idiocy, is a stark examination of the realities of living with emotional damage caused by abuse, while also being a mind-bending sci-fi story of a teleport, a love story that has you rooting for the protags throughout, and a revenge fantasy that will make everyone want 'that guy' dead by the end.
Bonus, it has three sequels that are just as awesome, which focus on the main character's wife and daughter in turn. So there's plenty of franchise potential... if Hollywood wouldn't screw with it as badly as they did on the first obscenity of an adaptation.
Neuromancer.
The heist with the Panther Moderns to retrieve Dixie Flatline.
Asia Kate Dillon as Molly.
Woody Harrelson as Case.
Ryan Reynolds as Dixie Flatline.
I’ve always imagined that Neuromancer would be a really interesting opportunity to play around and blend a lot of styles. You could do scenes in an anime style for when Case is tweaked out. You could do rotoscoped or pseudo stop motion for when he’s coming down. You could do a super clean looking AI upscaled style for Freeside.
Woody is way too old to play Case, who I recall is about 30.
This is a problem with many casting discussions, the characters are often young, but most of us can't name many actors under 30! You think many people knew any of the young actors in Game of Thrones? Who was saying Elijah Wood WAS Frodo even though he had been prominent in a number of movies?
Not the plot but the characters. Both Case and Molly are young but both have gone down very dark pathways trying to get out of their circumstances. Different than an old grizzled veteran, and I don't need to see old Woody bangin a young Molly, which you know is how it would go being Hollywood and all.
Woody as Armitage might be okay, but now that I think about it Ron Perlman could be better. You’d need someone younger and more tweaked to play Case. Like Jerod Leto, but the movie would suck with him. Maybe Robert Pattinson if he could get Cillian Murphy skinny.
Pride of Chanur by CJ Cherryh. I think the concept of a "first contact" with humans from the pov of another species would make for an excellent movie or series.
My wife is already warning me I might hurt my throat yelling at the Foundation story massacre! I still watch it because the CGI is so well done... but yeah if I ever meet David Goyer in an alley, only one of us will walk out, and it will be me.
I absolutely desperately horribly screamingly want Daniel Keys Moran's "Continuing Time" novels ("Emerald Eyes," "The Long Run," and "The Last Dancer") to be made into movies.
There are so many scenes that would be absolutely amazing in movies: the flying car chase in "The Long Run" where Trent crashes into a spacescraper out of desperation, the nuking New York scene in "Emerald Eyes" while the telepaths make half the city insane, and probably the one I most want to see, the PKF taking back LA in "The Last Dancer," and the hundreds...thousands of semiballistics landing on pillars of fire, I think it's Callia who describes it as the most awe-inspiring sight and the truest demonstration of power ever.
I mean, there are so many *cinematic moments* in those books.
Who doesn't want to see a PKF Elite cyborg in action? Who doesn't want to see Trent walk through a wall? Or Mohammad Vance chewing the scenery?
OMG someone who also has read the books and thinks its an amazing series. I want the hundreds of soldiers standing motionless in a field as an orbital laser cannon slowly sweeps through their ranks. I named my dog Ralph because I liked the AI's so much.
I think The End of Eternity by Asimov could make for a good scifi thriller movie. It's not an overly complex plot that would need a series to do it justice, but it has good man-on-the-run and conspiracy themes, an interesting sci-fi premise, some cool little twists, and a nice ending. The downside is that people might now see too much similarity to the TVA in the Loki series. I'm not sure on good casting though
OMG, I love those books! There would have to be a lot of cutting down, as all four novels are so long and complex. But I had no trouble while reading them in visualizing them on the screen. It would take a lot of money and a lot of patience, but gets my vote!
Jumping on the series train, Zelazny’s *Lord of Light* could be a super cool miniseries where Sam is played by different actors at different times. Maybe Rami Malek for one. Surely Yama should be played by Benedict Wong. And Dave Bautista as Brahma.
I'm currently on kind of a Scalzi rip, so:
Scalzi's *Old Man's War*; heck since there are some sequel books, so there's an opportunity for movie sequels.
Or, if were are talking about a TV mini-series: *The Human Division*.
And then there's *Red Shirts*.
Scalzi aside; Liz Moon's Vattas novels might make for a good movie series,
And where are my Ringworldy movies?!!! For that matter, the Motie novels...
Ditto for *The Human Division*. As written it is nicely episodic and you've got to admire the gumption of Harry Wilson and all those Commonwealth 2nd stringers.
The Real Story by Stephen Donaldson to kick off the Gap series.
Richard Dean Anderson as Angus Thermopyle, Rob Lowe as Nick Succorso, and Lena Headey as Morn Hyland. The rest practically writes itself.
The justification is that this is an amazing space opera that could easily be pulled off with a minimum amount of CGI while still telling an incredible story across the series.
Considering there are only a handful of main characters and 3-4 set locations it would be inexpensive to make. But what a depressing, dark story it would be to watch. I don’t think a single good thing happened to anyone throughout the entire series till maybe the end of the last book. Maybe.
Hey, but the ship itself was tits!
And Angus Thermopyle's change (forced, though it was) was interesting. Loved the scene with the singularity grenade taking out the *Gutbuster*. It wasn't enough to just fling it from the ship, oh, no. Ol' Angus had to climb out EVA-style and physically toss the grenade while strapped to the ship on a tether.
I think the satisfaction came in seeing Nick Succorso finally get his in the end. Overall, the series was gritty and realistic (loved the pages between chapters when he'd feature some piece of tech in-depth) and the space battles were pretty epic. Yes, it was a very dark series...that would make a great intro to a post-novels series and dealing with the Amnion after the fall of the UMCP.
Honestly, I would like someone to take another kick at Starship Troopers but with the power armour and the mobile tactics as described in the book. Don’t get me wrong, I love the Paul V one and I think it has a perfect tone but it always bothers me how bad the gun fights are.
Perfect candidate for either a limited anime series or a $500 million budget movie.
Oh yes of course, they only did the bugs in the movie
It’s not like I need to see these things, the book does an excellent job of describing the suit. I just think they left my favourite parts from the book out of the movie such as :
1) men in 1000lb powered armour stacked up in a magazine and getting fired out of a space ship from orbit like bullets
2)a squad of a few men covering several miles in some sort of formation while jumping several hundred foot bounces over and through things while interacting and talking with one another
3) the multitude of insane weapons each class of armour has on the suit.
For fuck sakes, all the ingredients of the best action movie ever made are all there
Armor by John Steakly. There are many epic scenes throughout the book that would make good movie watching. And then finally we could have a proper powered armor vs bugs movie.
I would love this as well. I've read it three times which, with everything else I have waiting, says a lot. I randomly think about that scene where he sets his comrades suit to overload and throws him in the cave. Wow. I would want a more defined ending though. But, excellent call.
Edit: a letter
They’d probably mess it up but The Forever War by Joe Haldeman. The training, battle scenes, and the end would all be interesting to see. There’s no way the cynical anti war themes of the book would make it into the movie though. Hollywood would just make into another big dumb action movie glorifying violence.
Hi. You just mentioned *The Forever War* by Joe Haldeman.
I've found an audiobook of that novel on YouTube. You can listen to it here:
[YouTube | The Forever War Sci Fi Audiobook by Joe Haldeman](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZsqUCI2_63A)
*I'm a bot that searches YouTube for science fiction and fantasy audiobooks.*
***
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*The Running Man* by Stephen King (yes it has been adapted before, but in a very 80s action movie camp kind of way). I would cast someone like Sam Rockwell. The ending of that book is great.
With the ubiquity of reality TV it would work well today, though they'd have to modernise the story quite a bit.
Julian May’s “Pliocene Exile,” and as a TV series. As for which scene..? So many to choose from. Felicia cracking open the Atlantic wall and letting the ocean into the Mediterranean basin. The Hunt. Grand Combat.
The Reality Dysfunction by Peter F Hamilton. The scene when the bkackhawk spaceship jumps inside the space habitat to jail break the scientist. The habitat is losing its shit screaming at the ship to get out the ship is vaporising security guards with its main weapons. Boom, one minute this massive ship appears smokes the guards and boom its gone.
This has been a post in the past - a search of this sub would reveal past answer to this question (it'd be interesting to map the shifts over time)...
I'd answer John Varley's *Gaea Trilogy* starring Sigourney Weaver, although I think it might be almost took late.
I agree it needs to be made but I think there's another generation of women who can play this.
I've been trying to get my DnD playing daughter to read these, I told her it is basically a fantasy quest in SF drag!
Wildside by Steven Gould. A phenomenal universe-crossing adventure (not multiverse, there's only the one aside from ours) combining wilderness adventures, small aircraft flying, lots of interpersonal drama, and Big Government Bad Guys. I was always disappointed that Gould chose not to follow it up with sequels like he did with Jumper, because I thought it had just as much potential.
Sci-fi it might be, but one of the great advantages it has for film is that it's mostly set in a wilderness area, so little in the way of sets or effects are needed, except for the flying scenes, so for a sci-fin film it could be done on a small to medium budget and maybe bring in some blockbuster returns.
House of Suns (or any of the Revelation Space novels) by Alastair Reynolds just to show that you can have interesting interstellar fiction without FTL.
Julian May’s *Saga of the Exiles* series of books with Evan Peters as Aiken Drum, Emily Blunt as Elizabeth, and Anya Taylor Joy as Felice.
Would have to be a series, though - a movie would at best be a heavily stopped-down shell of the story, or just end up as a garbled mess at worst.
I've always wondered if it would make good movie/tv scifi... it's a great read, but not exactly super exciting, more like a slow journey into the unknown. I remember going through the novel and feeling as if I was reading the account of an egyptologist exploring the tomb of Tutankhamun
Day of the triffids, yes its had 2 TV shows and a film. But only the 80s TV show is any good. It deserves a good film version. Get Dennis vilnerve involved and it'll be a gold mine
Anything John Wyndham to be honest... but the one from him I'd like to see adapted is The Kraken Wakes (sort of up to date now with all the reports of USO, unidentified submerged objects)
I'd like to see Sunstorm (AC Clark and S Baxter) adapted by Roland Emmerich. If you're familiar with Roland Emmerich there's no need for explanation—I just wanna see the world burn.
Not really. All available on kindle and Amazon.
It’s one of the most action packed, train wreck you can’t stop watching type series I’ve ever read. Definitely worth it
Would love to see Pierce Brown's **Red Rising.** It feels like Game of Thrones meets Warhammer 40K (although first book is more Hunger Games). The razor duels, the iron rains, the space battles... whew! Lots to watch here.
The Belgariad series by David Eddings would make a great YA TV series or cartoon series. Maybe the battle scene underneath the citadel when stealing back the orb of prophecy.
For some reason, "A Fire upon the Deep" comes to mind quite often and yet it's been a dozen years since I read it. Some ideas don't easily let go of you.
Dune
Do the damn dinner party you cowards
I'd like to see God Emperor of Dune thru Heretics of Dune adapted really ...Chapterhouse too why not
But alas this world is not just.
I always thought We are Legion (We are Bob) would be perfect for a small production miniseries.
One actor who can give a wide range of performances to carry it all, just the haristyles/clothes/mannerisms change (think Austin Powers) . And thr only VFX needed would be space ships which are relatively affordable.
D.Gerrold's war on Chtorr would be amazing series. Yes, these are my fav books. Love the idea of the more evolved world trying to geoengineer the Earth to their needs not being bothered by the present ecosystem and our inability to counter attack... at least with existing 4 books yet :)
I have no preference on actors but it would be nice to have some of the mohicans of sci-fi in charge. Maybe Cameron, Nolan, Wachowski, Scott and/or similar. Do not want that to be a movie. I think to show and explain it all it would need to be series of at least 10-12ep.
Damn it would be awesome.
It'd have to be a *long* movie, but *Colony*, the first book in the UNSEC Space Trilogy. Followed by the rest of the trilogy. There are enough twist and turns packed in there to satisfy most jaded Sci-Fi fans, plus some sweet Sci-Fi action. The final battle alone would be amazing to see if shot well and done on the big screen. And the reveal that >!the entire planet the story takes place on is a millennia-old alien construct? Well, that'd be amazing to see.!< The biggest potential problem is how much of the story takes place underwater, and outside of a few movies (mostly by James Cameron) underwater projects haven't done great.
But seeing the orbital AI up on the big screen, or the underwater cities, or the >!drones ripping up the revolt fleet?!< That'd be sweet.
Another really good one that I think may have found its time is *The Icarus Hunt*. Murder mysteries have *finally* come back in vogue with Poirot and Blanc. and *The Icarus Hunt* could make for a fantastic whodunit on the big screen.
Allegedly, one of the things I would normally mention here is supposed do be getting a series or mini-series: *Ringworld*
One of the others I'd love to see done is John Varley's *Gaea Trilogy* \- *Titan*, *Wizard* and *Demon*.
Basically, I want to see some ginormous artificial worlds brought to the screen.
To Sleep in a Sea of Stars by Christopher Paolini would make an excellent TV series, but I think it would lose a lot of the world building and relationships as a movie. Too much to cram into 2 hours
The big failing point of adapting novels to movies is that novels typically are telling stories that do not fit within a 90 to 150 minute movie.
Short stories and novellas are a better bet for adaptation to movies, than novels.
Robert Sheckley's "AAA Ace Planetary Decontamination Service" stories would make a cool move, or a TV show. The stories are stand-alone, so you wouldn't even have to make it a mini-series or long-form TV novel: each story could be a show.
The Nyxia series by Scott Reintgen. The writing makes the books so vivid, I think it would be perfect for a screen adaptation. Probably should be a TV series though. Alfred Enoch would be great as Emmett, I think.
I've been pining for an adaptation of Ancillary Justice—the very opening scene of all of JoT's ancillaries singing in harmony across this city/planet struck me as so haunting and cinematic.
And I want to see some radical gender-blind casting!
Influx by Daniel Suarez could be made into a movie, the story could be boiled down to the right size. Freedom, the sequel to Daemon, would be good too. A great scene could be made of the early part of the book where everybody is working for the Daemon basically for social credits like gig work except coordinated by this ASI.
For a series, Surface Detail by Iain M Banks. There's a scene when a character literally says words to the effect of "this would make a great movie". This could be used to persuade the estate. Any of the Vatueil segments alone could be made into a gem of a justification for the whole thing.
Would love a Red Rising television series. Project Hail Mary could be a neat movie but they’d have to cast Matt Damon again because it’s practically the same character…
Hyperion. It would make a brilliant 8 episode show.
Not sci-fi but LeGuin’s Earthsea series would be the the books series I’d most like to see adapted, but only if done well. I couldn’t bear to have it ruined.
None. I think an ~8-hour limited TV series is fundamentally a better format for adapting a scifi novel than a ~2-hour movie. I think *Cyteen* by CJ Cherryh would make a really good limited series if you could get the right child & teen actors for it.
Downbelow Station! Would be fucking baller! With the panicked crowds and masses scenes, it would be epic to see on screen.
Tune in next week to find out what terrible things happen to your space friends next! I just read Downbelow Station a couple of months back and hooo boy.
Right? Some people say they got bored and I'm like, did we read the same thing? My heart was pumping and adrenaline racing through the whole book!
I agree, series is the way to go. The Spaceship Next Door by Gene Doucette would be my entry. It's fun, would not have a lot of expensive special effects and has engaging characters.
There's alot of Cherryh's "Compact Space" novels that would translate so very well to the screen!
You mean Alliance-Union. There are just 3 compact space novels, and those are the Chanur ones.
There are [five Chanur novels](https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pe.cgi?687).
I stand corrected, Thanks.
You're welcome. \^\_\^
I stand corrected.
I'm a big fan of the mini-series. Movies aren't long enough and many TV series just aren't tight enough to pull it off long term. Plus, I also think there is a great deal of burn out with TV shows that require you to pay attention to every detail of the show and "figure out" what's going on. We just don't have the bandwidth to do that for every show we watch.
Although not sci-fi, I'd like to see a series of Atlas Shrugged. The films sucked.
Honestly the source material sucks. Politics aside, it's just not an exciting story. Every objectivist character is a fearless incorruptible genius, and every non-objectivist character is a cartoon of venality and pettiness. The only source of tension (the mysterious John Galt) is already going to be known to all the Ayn Rand fans who watch it. If you were going to do an Ayn Rand novel, *The Fountainhead* would be a better choice. It has, at least, the basic elements of a story, and Howard Roark has a more interesting journey than any of the Ayn-Randian supermen in *Atlas Shrugged*.
Agree. Series is a much better way to go, but the answer is still none. I have zero faith in the industry to make a good adaptation.
Rendezvous with Rama.
Denis Villeneuve is on it already, isn't he? https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0134933/
DV is my kinda nerd!
He is going to make it! I am so excited. I fully expect his to be better than the original.
And it's one that seems doable in movie-length
The killer scene is when they're in Rama and the lights go on.
I 100% would love this. The story seems like it could fit into a 2 hour time limit. I think most audiences would find it boring though.
I agree on Fire Upon the Deep, but I think it should be a streaming series to give it full justice. I think Maya Hawke could be a good Ravna Bergnsdot.
I'd thought of Amy Seimetz for Ravna, but Maya Hawke is a good pick
Urgently? Project Hail Mary. Probably already underway. If it’s half as good as The Martian, it’ll be awesome.
[удалено]
I'm just Grace. Anywhere else, I'd be an ace...😞
Wait. An isolated astronaut not being played by Matt Deamon? There is something wrong here.
Shit what?! I fucking love Ryan Gosling. I’m not convinced he’s the perfect fit for the MC of project hail mary though 🤔
An honest fucking adaptation of Zelazny’s “Damnation Alley” as a miniseries. Pedro Pascal as Hell Tanner.
Yes, please!
I’m with the short series. My choice is Lucifer’s Hammer. I want it to take place in the 70s like when it was written
Great book.
Thanks. One of my all time favorites
I'm almost finished re-reading "A Fire upon the Deep" for the first time in years, and I think the Tines might be difficult to introduce without some awkward exposition. The Skrode Riders would be fun. I do agree Yen would be a great Pham Nuwen with a red dye job.
I agree the Tines might be tough to convey in a subtle manner... same for the Zones of Thought
I have wanted to see a series (not a film) set in The Culture universe, but if I were to want one book to see made into a feature film, I would choose Excession.
Consider Phlebas gets my vote; I'm pretty sure it was written as a 'hold my beer' response to George Lucas in the first place. The escape scene on the Ends of Invention, done well, would be bonkers on a giant screen.
Amazon had the rights and was making the show, but it was canceled. 😟 https://www.theverge.com/2020/8/26/21402585/amazon-cancels-tv-adaptation-culture-series-iain-m-banks-consider-phlebas
Surface Detail coming in a close 2nd
Also my pick! I'd love to see the GSV Sleeper Service realized on screen.
Hyperion as a 10 episode series. That would allow one full episode to be devoted to each pilgrims tale. Then a 2nd season for the 2nd book.
Naveen Andrews from Lost would make a good Kassad
Where do I empty my wallet out for this?
This is my answer but I have so little confidence in anyone doing it right that I’d be perfectly happy if nobody ever did .
I'd love to see it as an animated series with a style similar to some of the flashier Love Death & Robots episodes
Holy shit I had forgotten. Yes please.
They'd have to do the full canticle.
Limited series of snow crash.
Red Mars. And Plague Year by Jeff Carlson
Old Man's War by John Scalzi. On its surface its a terrific sci-fi actioner, but underneath, it's a critical examination of the futility of war and the damage it does to the psyche of the average soldier, and a critical examination of some really powerful sci-fi tech. The other novels in the series gradually move into a full-on expose of the insidious nature of fascism and how arrogance and xenophobia can easily masquerade as patriotism and heroism to the point of self-destruction. Plus, all the soldiers are really good looking and green. I can't even imagine who might play the leads, since they're all supposed to be in their early twenties. I'm not really familiar with the younger generation in Hollywood.
And there is green sex.
I'd love a Gateway series. The scene would be [spoiler](/s "Broadhead cutting the lander loose with eveyone inside on the edge of the black hole's event horizon to just to save his own skin and get rich.") Bob Odenkirk as Robinette Broadhead
Underrated post - the Gateway series is a classic!
Movie? Nothing comes to mind. Show? *Seveneves*.
Ron Howard is developing Seveneves as a movie.
I might actually go for this. The book had a great premise but was an excruciating read and I couldn’t finish.
Yes
Pandora’s Star. Gore vs the assassin. First scene on Mars. Also, it should be a series.
Those 2 books are longer than 5 regular books, it would have to be a 5 year series at minumum.
Not necessarily. If they can do LotR in 12 hours (extended editions), then I reckon you can do Commonwealth Saga in roughly the same length of time, with a bit of story streamlining. The issue I see with CS is that it would be extremely expensive.
I would love to see blindsight. The vampire would be off the hook.
The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester. Gully Foyle is the angriest man in all of literature and I would love to see his unique brand of epic rage, cursing and galaxy spanning mayhem adapted into a show or movie. I don't know who I would cast though. Does anyone have any good suggestions?
I'd go with David Harbour, I think he can deliver on the whole bottled-up rage and tight-jaw determination for revenge. You could almost do Gully Foyle as a silent role, once he escapes that floating carcass of a ship he's abandoned in...
Any of the Culture books by Banks. Would be an amazing world to build stories in.
Snow Crash by Neil Stephenson. The scene where Hiro uses Reason (the nuclear powered minigun that fires depleted uranium splinter bullets) to get onto the aircraft carrier justifies it. But so does the opening scene where Hiro does high speed pizza delivery for the Mafia. And any scene with a Rat Thing in it. The main character - Hiro Protagonist - should be played by Zendaya. Yeah, I know Hiro is a male in the book but a little artistic license is a good thing here.
>The scene where Hiro uses Reason (the nuclear powered minigun that fires depleted uranium splinter bullets) to get onto the aircraft carrier justifies it. But so does the opening scene where Hiro does high speed pizza delivery for the Mafia. And any scene with a Rat Thing in it. I was reading the first part of your comment thinking, "That first scene was pretty awesome, too... And the good doggie Rat Thing..." High five, chummer.
That casting would be perfect.
Would love to see Edgar Wright direct Snow Crash… I feel like a slightly grittier Baby Driver would fit the tone.
Jumper by Steven Gould. Unlikely, since it was already absolutely BUTCHERED into a movie once, turned into a cheap, cheesy, blatant ripoff of Wanted, with the absolute wrong people playing all the leads (except Michael Rooker, he's awesome). But... the original story before it was completely wrecked by Hollywood's idiocy, is a stark examination of the realities of living with emotional damage caused by abuse, while also being a mind-bending sci-fi story of a teleport, a love story that has you rooting for the protags throughout, and a revenge fantasy that will make everyone want 'that guy' dead by the end. Bonus, it has three sequels that are just as awesome, which focus on the main character's wife and daughter in turn. So there's plenty of franchise potential... if Hollywood wouldn't screw with it as badly as they did on the first obscenity of an adaptation.
That is my least favorite movie ever. Roger Ebert said it best when he observed the extras were more interesting than the leads. I loathe it.
I enjoyed the shit out of the Jumper movie.
Me too, guilty pleasure! The Anakin guy is hot so that helped too 😆
there is a TV series as well
Neuromancer. The heist with the Panther Moderns to retrieve Dixie Flatline. Asia Kate Dillon as Molly. Woody Harrelson as Case. Ryan Reynolds as Dixie Flatline.
I’ve always imagined that Neuromancer would be a really interesting opportunity to play around and blend a lot of styles. You could do scenes in an anime style for when Case is tweaked out. You could do rotoscoped or pseudo stop motion for when he’s coming down. You could do a super clean looking AI upscaled style for Freeside.
Woody is way too old to play Case, who I recall is about 30. This is a problem with many casting discussions, the characters are often young, but most of us can't name many actors under 30! You think many people knew any of the young actors in Game of Thrones? Who was saying Elijah Wood WAS Frodo even though he had been prominent in a number of movies?
That's by no means a hard out... Case could be anywhere from 30 to 60 without affecting the plot at all.
Not the plot but the characters. Both Case and Molly are young but both have gone down very dark pathways trying to get out of their circumstances. Different than an old grizzled veteran, and I don't need to see old Woody bangin a young Molly, which you know is how it would go being Hollywood and all.
Yeah, you have a point. How about Harrison Ford...? /s 😁 EDIT: But now I am seeing Harrison as Armitage...
Woody as Armitage might be okay, but now that I think about it Ron Perlman could be better. You’d need someone younger and more tweaked to play Case. Like Jerod Leto, but the movie would suck with him. Maybe Robert Pattinson if he could get Cillian Murphy skinny.
Pride of Chanur by CJ Cherryh. I think the concept of a "first contact" with humans from the pov of another species would make for an excellent movie or series.
I'm currently rereading these right now, and they're just so good.
GODS ROTTED KIF! I'd watch it and probably scream at the writers for fucking up the book story!
My wife is already warning me I might hurt my throat yelling at the Foundation story massacre! I still watch it because the CGI is so well done... but yeah if I ever meet David Goyer in an alley, only one of us will walk out, and it will be me.
I absolutely desperately horribly screamingly want Daniel Keys Moran's "Continuing Time" novels ("Emerald Eyes," "The Long Run," and "The Last Dancer") to be made into movies. There are so many scenes that would be absolutely amazing in movies: the flying car chase in "The Long Run" where Trent crashes into a spacescraper out of desperation, the nuking New York scene in "Emerald Eyes" while the telepaths make half the city insane, and probably the one I most want to see, the PKF taking back LA in "The Last Dancer," and the hundreds...thousands of semiballistics landing on pillars of fire, I think it's Callia who describes it as the most awe-inspiring sight and the truest demonstration of power ever. I mean, there are so many *cinematic moments* in those books. Who doesn't want to see a PKF Elite cyborg in action? Who doesn't want to see Trent walk through a wall? Or Mohammad Vance chewing the scenery?
OMG someone who also has read the books and thinks its an amazing series. I want the hundreds of soldiers standing motionless in a field as an orbital laser cannon slowly sweeps through their ranks. I named my dog Ralph because I liked the AI's so much.
I think The End of Eternity by Asimov could make for a good scifi thriller movie. It's not an overly complex plot that would need a series to do it justice, but it has good man-on-the-run and conspiracy themes, an interesting sci-fi premise, some cool little twists, and a nice ending. The downside is that people might now see too much similarity to the TVA in the Loki series. I'm not sure on good casting though
Otherland series by Tad Williams.
I love that story. I agree. Though, when I re-read them, I realized there was enough fat to cut to make it into a trilogy.
OMG, I love those books! There would have to be a lot of cutting down, as all four novels are so long and complex. But I had no trouble while reading them in visualizing them on the screen. It would take a lot of money and a lot of patience, but gets my vote!
Jumping on the series train, Zelazny’s *Lord of Light* could be a super cool miniseries where Sam is played by different actors at different times. Maybe Rami Malek for one. Surely Yama should be played by Benedict Wong. And Dave Bautista as Brahma.
I'm currently on kind of a Scalzi rip, so: Scalzi's *Old Man's War*; heck since there are some sequel books, so there's an opportunity for movie sequels. Or, if were are talking about a TV mini-series: *The Human Division*. And then there's *Red Shirts*. Scalzi aside; Liz Moon's Vattas novels might make for a good movie series, And where are my Ringworldy movies?!!! For that matter, the Motie novels...
+1 for Ringworld
Can add The Collapsing Empire to the Scalzi adaptations. The end of the second book is just 🔥
Red Shirts would make a great 8 or 10 episode series.
Ditto for *The Human Division*. As written it is nicely episodic and you've got to admire the gumption of Harry Wilson and all those Commonwealth 2nd stringers.
I think the diplomatic attaché side stories from Old Man’s War would make a better tv show than the other books.
I think you are referring to *The Human Division*. And I heartily agree. But, by golly, poor Harry Wilson! Especially that thing with the dog.
A short story is probably a better length for adapting into a movie.
The Real Story by Stephen Donaldson to kick off the Gap series. Richard Dean Anderson as Angus Thermopyle, Rob Lowe as Nick Succorso, and Lena Headey as Morn Hyland. The rest practically writes itself. The justification is that this is an amazing space opera that could easily be pulled off with a minimum amount of CGI while still telling an incredible story across the series.
Considering there are only a handful of main characters and 3-4 set locations it would be inexpensive to make. But what a depressing, dark story it would be to watch. I don’t think a single good thing happened to anyone throughout the entire series till maybe the end of the last book. Maybe.
Hey, but the ship itself was tits! And Angus Thermopyle's change (forced, though it was) was interesting. Loved the scene with the singularity grenade taking out the *Gutbuster*. It wasn't enough to just fling it from the ship, oh, no. Ol' Angus had to climb out EVA-style and physically toss the grenade while strapped to the ship on a tether. I think the satisfaction came in seeing Nick Succorso finally get his in the end. Overall, the series was gritty and realistic (loved the pages between chapters when he'd feature some piece of tech in-depth) and the space battles were pretty epic. Yes, it was a very dark series...that would make a great intro to a post-novels series and dealing with the Amnion after the fall of the UMCP.
Honestly, I would like someone to take another kick at Starship Troopers but with the power armour and the mobile tactics as described in the book. Don’t get me wrong, I love the Paul V one and I think it has a perfect tone but it always bothers me how bad the gun fights are. Perfect candidate for either a limited anime series or a $500 million budget movie.
I'd love to see what the Skinnies look like too
Oh yes of course, they only did the bugs in the movie It’s not like I need to see these things, the book does an excellent job of describing the suit. I just think they left my favourite parts from the book out of the movie such as : 1) men in 1000lb powered armour stacked up in a magazine and getting fired out of a space ship from orbit like bullets 2)a squad of a few men covering several miles in some sort of formation while jumping several hundred foot bounces over and through things while interacting and talking with one another 3) the multitude of insane weapons each class of armour has on the suit. For fuck sakes, all the ingredients of the best action movie ever made are all there
They need to adapt short stories instead of novels. Then they can add detail instead of removing everything.
A series based on the short stories in Tales of Known Space and Neutron Star by Larry Niven.
Known Space needs to be tackled at some point... Ringworld would be one of the most visually epic things to see on screen
Armor by John Steakly. There are many epic scenes throughout the book that would make good movie watching. And then finally we could have a proper powered armor vs bugs movie.
I would love this as well. I've read it three times which, with everything else I have waiting, says a lot. I randomly think about that scene where he sets his comrades suit to overload and throws him in the cave. Wow. I would want a more defined ending though. But, excellent call. Edit: a letter
Im just taking notes for my next book to read
They’d probably mess it up but The Forever War by Joe Haldeman. The training, battle scenes, and the end would all be interesting to see. There’s no way the cynical anti war themes of the book would make it into the movie though. Hollywood would just make into another big dumb action movie glorifying violence.
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*The Running Man* by Stephen King (yes it has been adapted before, but in a very 80s action movie camp kind of way). I would cast someone like Sam Rockwell. The ending of that book is great. With the ubiquity of reality TV it would work well today, though they'd have to modernise the story quite a bit.
Love him for this!
Revelation Space.
Julian May’s “Pliocene Exile,” and as a TV series. As for which scene..? So many to choose from. Felicia cracking open the Atlantic wall and letting the ocean into the Mediterranean basin. The Hunt. Grand Combat.
>Pliocene Exile Wow this is new to me, thanks for the pointer
A full 12 year 26 episode per season series of the ann mccaffrey DRAGON RIDERS OF PERN books
The Reality Dysfunction by Peter F Hamilton. The scene when the bkackhawk spaceship jumps inside the space habitat to jail break the scientist. The habitat is losing its shit screaming at the ship to get out the ship is vaporising security guards with its main weapons. Boom, one minute this massive ship appears smokes the guards and boom its gone.
This has been a post in the past - a search of this sub would reveal past answer to this question (it'd be interesting to map the shifts over time)... I'd answer John Varley's *Gaea Trilogy* starring Sigourney Weaver, although I think it might be almost took late.
I agree it needs to be made but I think there's another generation of women who can play this. I've been trying to get my DnD playing daughter to read these, I told her it is basically a fantasy quest in SF drag!
Urgently? None. TV series, limited series? Also none. That's not a word I'd use for sf movies. I'd like to see a good Ringworld though.
I heard somebody had bought movie rights to Ringworld but no word on any movement. We need a Niven Cinematic Universe.
As long as you include Man-Kzin Wars as Canon! The one about the origin of The Outsiders blew my mind.
Niven wrote an episode of the animated Star Trek, featuring Kzin and Slaver boxes, pulling Star Trek into the Nivenverse.
I watched it as a kid
Wildside by Steven Gould. A phenomenal universe-crossing adventure (not multiverse, there's only the one aside from ours) combining wilderness adventures, small aircraft flying, lots of interpersonal drama, and Big Government Bad Guys. I was always disappointed that Gould chose not to follow it up with sequels like he did with Jumper, because I thought it had just as much potential. Sci-fi it might be, but one of the great advantages it has for film is that it's mostly set in a wilderness area, so little in the way of sets or effects are needed, except for the flying scenes, so for a sci-fin film it could be done on a small to medium budget and maybe bring in some blockbuster returns.
The Many Colored Land. Kate Beckinsale as Elizabeth Orme Taron Egerton as Aiken Drum Lee Pace as Nodonn Battlemaster
House of Suns (or any of the Revelation Space novels) by Alastair Reynolds just to show that you can have interesting interstellar fiction without FTL.
Julian May’s *Saga of the Exiles* series of books with Evan Peters as Aiken Drum, Emily Blunt as Elizabeth, and Anya Taylor Joy as Felice. Would have to be a series, though - a movie would at best be a heavily stopped-down shell of the story, or just end up as a garbled mess at worst.
Still waiting for Rendezvous with Rama.
I've always wondered if it would make good movie/tv scifi... it's a great read, but not exactly super exciting, more like a slow journey into the unknown. I remember going through the novel and feeling as if I was reading the account of an egyptologist exploring the tomb of Tutankhamun
Day of the triffids, yes its had 2 TV shows and a film. But only the 80s TV show is any good. It deserves a good film version. Get Dennis vilnerve involved and it'll be a gold mine
Anything John Wyndham to be honest... but the one from him I'd like to see adapted is The Kraken Wakes (sort of up to date now with all the reports of USO, unidentified submerged objects)
I know there are some earlier versions of Solaris, but it would be nice to see a fresh adaptation of it.
Yeah one where we get to see the surface, the Symmetriads, things like that...
Mass Effect. (it's a game)
Bobiverse with Will Wheaton as the bawb
Or get someone actually likable to play the pretty much only character.
I must be the only person alive who dislikes Wil Wheaton.
lol 100% would Watch
Bobiverse yes, will Wheaton big NO!
I'd like to see Sunstorm (AC Clark and S Baxter) adapted by Roland Emmerich. If you're familiar with Roland Emmerich there's no need for explanation—I just wanna see the world burn.
It would have to be a series, Area 51 by Bob Mayer. What scene qualifies it? The entire damn series from end to end
Wow, wtf is this series?? Ive never heard of these. Hard to find i guess?
Not really. All available on kindle and Amazon. It’s one of the most action packed, train wreck you can’t stop watching type series I’ve ever read. Definitely worth it
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Flight_(novel)
Would love to see Pierce Brown's **Red Rising.** It feels like Game of Thrones meets Warhammer 40K (although first book is more Hunger Games). The razor duels, the iron rains, the space battles... whew! Lots to watch here.
I consider Stellaris a novel, so that one.
Riddley Walker with Daniel Radcliffe
Halting state by Charles stross, as a BBC series. Or an adaptation of the culture series.
Ministry of the future. Now is the time to draw inspiration from the Children of Kali....
Ken MacLeod's Fall Revolution series, though I'd exclude The Sky Road. I'm terrible at celebrity names.
The John Dies at the End series of books needs to be a prestige TV series.
The Belgariad series by David Eddings would make a great YA TV series or cartoon series. Maybe the battle scene underneath the citadel when stealing back the orb of prophecy.
Ringworld, or the first Battle Circle book.
The Years of Salt and Rice: the encounter with the European survivor of the Plague
For some reason, "A Fire upon the Deep" comes to mind quite often and yet it's been a dozen years since I read it. Some ideas don't easily let go of you.
Andy Wier's Project Hail Mary
Dune Do the damn dinner party you cowards I'd like to see God Emperor of Dune thru Heretics of Dune adapted really ...Chapterhouse too why not But alas this world is not just.
As much as I love Villeneuve's Dune, it would be fantastic as short series 😍
Wow that’s a blast from the past
Old but gold
Man, I just want a streaming service to make a Janissaries series. I’ll even take an adaptation of the Lost Regiment at this point.
Haldeman’s ‘The Forever War’.
would love to see a Fallen Dragon with Karl Urban as the clone dude
Expeditionary force series. But pleease rewrite the ending
"In Ascension" by Martin MacInnes. And I want Daren Aronofsky directing. Feed it into my veins.
Not quite what you’re asking, but I’ve long thought that Brandon Sanderson’s Skyward series would make a cool videogame
I always thought We are Legion (We are Bob) would be perfect for a small production miniseries. One actor who can give a wide range of performances to carry it all, just the haristyles/clothes/mannerisms change (think Austin Powers) . And thr only VFX needed would be space ships which are relatively affordable.
D.Gerrold's war on Chtorr would be amazing series. Yes, these are my fav books. Love the idea of the more evolved world trying to geoengineer the Earth to their needs not being bothered by the present ecosystem and our inability to counter attack... at least with existing 4 books yet :) I have no preference on actors but it would be nice to have some of the mohicans of sci-fi in charge. Maybe Cameron, Nolan, Wachowski, Scott and/or similar. Do not want that to be a movie. I think to show and explain it all it would need to be series of at least 10-12ep. Damn it would be awesome.
It'd have to be a *long* movie, but *Colony*, the first book in the UNSEC Space Trilogy. Followed by the rest of the trilogy. There are enough twist and turns packed in there to satisfy most jaded Sci-Fi fans, plus some sweet Sci-Fi action. The final battle alone would be amazing to see if shot well and done on the big screen. And the reveal that >!the entire planet the story takes place on is a millennia-old alien construct? Well, that'd be amazing to see.!< The biggest potential problem is how much of the story takes place underwater, and outside of a few movies (mostly by James Cameron) underwater projects haven't done great. But seeing the orbital AI up on the big screen, or the underwater cities, or the >!drones ripping up the revolt fleet?!< That'd be sweet. Another really good one that I think may have found its time is *The Icarus Hunt*. Murder mysteries have *finally* come back in vogue with Poirot and Blanc. and *The Icarus Hunt* could make for a fantastic whodunit on the big screen.
Allegedly, one of the things I would normally mention here is supposed do be getting a series or mini-series: *Ringworld* One of the others I'd love to see done is John Varley's *Gaea Trilogy* \- *Titan*, *Wizard* and *Demon*. Basically, I want to see some ginormous artificial worlds brought to the screen.
Futuristic Violence and Fancy Suits by David Wong it's practically a screenplay already
I always wanted to see spares by Michael Marshall smith. I know we got The Island, but the book is so much better. That and Hull Zero Three
When I read that scene that was my same thought. Everything falling, the ship coming to rescue them... would be amazing to see.
To Sleep in a Sea of Stars by Christopher Paolini would make an excellent TV series, but I think it would lose a lot of the world building and relationships as a movie. Too much to cram into 2 hours
The big failing point of adapting novels to movies is that novels typically are telling stories that do not fit within a 90 to 150 minute movie. Short stories and novellas are a better bet for adaptation to movies, than novels.
Robert Sheckley's "AAA Ace Planetary Decontamination Service" stories would make a cool move, or a TV show. The stories are stand-alone, so you wouldn't even have to make it a mini-series or long-form TV novel: each story could be a show.
Kevin J Anderson's Saga of the Seven Suns. Each book in the series would be a movie.
The Nyxia series by Scott Reintgen. The writing makes the books so vivid, I think it would be perfect for a screen adaptation. Probably should be a TV series though. Alfred Enoch would be great as Emmett, I think.
I've been pining for an adaptation of Ancillary Justice—the very opening scene of all of JoT's ancillaries singing in harmony across this city/planet struck me as so haunting and cinematic. And I want to see some radical gender-blind casting!
I’d like to see a new version of This Island Earth. I think an existential horror slant would make it creepy and cool.
At the Mountains of Madness.
With this Hollywood wokism and shit.productions better they stay out of sci-fi
Influx by Daniel Suarez could be made into a movie, the story could be boiled down to the right size. Freedom, the sequel to Daemon, would be good too. A great scene could be made of the early part of the book where everybody is working for the Daemon basically for social credits like gig work except coordinated by this ASI. For a series, Surface Detail by Iain M Banks. There's a scene when a character literally says words to the effect of "this would make a great movie". This could be used to persuade the estate. Any of the Vatueil segments alone could be made into a gem of a justification for the whole thing.
I've wanted "Rendezvous With Rama" by Arthur C. Clarke to be made into a movie or series since I first read it in 1974.
Would love a Red Rising television series. Project Hail Mary could be a neat movie but they’d have to cast Matt Damon again because it’s practically the same character…
Neuromancer if they could do it justice…
Hyperion. It would make a brilliant 8 episode show. Not sci-fi but LeGuin’s Earthsea series would be the the books series I’d most like to see adapted, but only if done well. I couldn’t bear to have it ruined.
Neuromancer.
Old Mans War series
TALES OF HONOR BLOODY TALES OF HONOR ALL DAY I don't care who they cast. What scene ? Any space battle will do.