What Sci-Fi Book Series would YOU want to see on the Big Screen? (1 Viewer)

[Keith Cobby]

A younger Angelina Jolie.

I was thinking of her when I posed the question, and also Margot Robbie. But who would play Slippery Jim?

 

[Capt D McMars]

I was thinking of her when I posed the question, and also Margot Robbie. But who would play Slippery Jim?

That's a hard one, but here are some ideas; yonger versions of these guys, for various reasons...in a semi serious portral I'd go with either Bruce Campbell (Evil Dead) or maybe Johnny Depp . For a wider ranged portral of the slippery diGriz, a few ideas could be Jack Nicholson, Hugh Jackman or Robert Downey Jr. or even Val Kilmer (the Saint)..just to get the ball rolling!!

 

[Keith Cobby]

I came up with Hugh Jackman as well. Being very familiar with the books I can see him clearly (as I can James Bond) in my mind. Would make a great series of films (or maybe television), strong character, great femme fatale, and a cast of oddballs!

 

[Capt D McMars]

I came up with Hugh Jackman as well. Being very familiar with the books I can see him clearly (as I can James Bond) in my mind. Would make a great series of films (or maybe television), strong character, great femme fatale, and a cast of oddballs!

I'd prefer movies, better budget, LOL!!!

 

[Walter Kittel]

Personally speaking, I'd probably go with someone just a bit younger (in their 40s) like Tom Hardy for the role of Slippery Jim. I have not ready any books from that series in a long, and I mean long time. My memories of the series are pretty vague other than enjoying them quite a bit.

On the subject of Harry Harrison - how about Bill, the Galactic Hero starring Chris Pratt?

- Walter.

 

[Capt D McMars]

Personally speaking, I'd probably go with someone just a bit younger (in their 40s) like Tom Hardy for the role of Slippery Jim. I have not ready any books from that series in a long, and I mean long time. My memories of the series are pretty vague other than enjoying them quite a bit.

On the subject of Harry Harrison - how about Bill, the Galactic Hero starring Chris Pratt?

- Walter.

you must have missed my preface, "a Younger version" - now these are a little too old but in their prime..?

 

[Keith Cobby]

The other Harry Harrison books I like are The Technicolor Time Machine (would also make a great film) and, of course, Make Room! Make Room!, which became Soylent Green on film, with a very memorable final appearance by Edward G. Robinson.

 

[bretw1967]

Athur C.'s Rendezvous With Rama.

I agree - but it's a series that again, kind of goes off the rails in subsequent volumes. The first book is CLASSIC *first contact* stuff, and I can totally see RAMA being a big screen experience, but after Rama, I'd like to see it go in a different direction than Clarke went...

 

[Capt D McMars]

I agree - but it's a series that again, kind of goes off the rails in subsequent volumes. The first book is CLASSIC *first contact* stuff, and I can totally see RAMA being a big screen experience, but after Rama, I'd like to see it go in a different direction than Clarke went...

then it's not Clark but your storyline. That's why it's so hard to create a film thst is canon to the book, because we all see and feel the books a little differently. anyti,e someone is given the task to adapt a book to film, you either make some people happy or no one happy, because afterall it was their intertipation of the book, or because of time or budget restrictions it gets a machette taken to it before during or after, in the edting room!!
Todays tech makes so many storys to be created that weren't even possible 8 to 10 years ago!!

 

[Rich Vincent]

Would love to see the cult classic "Replay" by Ken Grimwood. Not necessarily a big screen special effects film but very filmable. Would have a strong cross-over appeal to non-genre audiences as well. Couldn't put it down when I read it.

 

[Desdinova]

Yet another vote for the Stainless Steel Rat.

I'd also love to see Frederick Pohl's Gateway series with a five season run; each season covering in-depth each book in the series.

And while the topic is SF, I'd like to diverge into fantasy for a sentence and mention how awesome Robert Aspirin's Myth series and Jack Chalker's Dancing God series would make a great collection and fit in nicely with the work the BBC has done with Pratchett's Discworld books.

 

[Dave Upton]

For me, I'd love to see these books considered:

Starship's Mage - Glynn Stewart
Steward is an indie author, but he has two excellent series, this one and Duchy of Terra that are both easily movie/TV adaptation worthy.

Silo trilogy by Hugh Howley

 

[Edwin-S]

Harry Harrison's "Starsmashers of The Galaxy Rangers".
Alan Dean Foster's "Slipt".
Alan Dean Foster's "Phule's Company"
Robert Aspirin's "Myth" series.
Adam Warren's take on "The Dirty Pair".

All wishful thinking.

Edit: Correction, Robert Aspirin's "Phule's Company", not Alan Dean Foster.

 

[Capt D McMars]

Yet another vote for the Stainless Steel Rat.

I'd also love to see Frederick Pohl's Gateway series with a five season run; each season covering in-depth each book in the series.

And while the topic is SF, I'd like to diverge into fantasy for a sentence and mention how awesome Robert Aspirin's Myth series and Jack Chalker's Dancing God series would make a great collection and fit in nicely with the work the BBC has done with Pratchett's Discworld books.

I think will it be a blast also to have the fire clown done, another one of my favorite books

 

[jcroy]

Back in the day, my younger self would have wanted to see something like "Shockwave Rider" or "Islands In The Net" as a movie.

Since then with technology changing so drastically, these two pieces seem somewhat quaint or even "mudane" now. Might not make a good movie nowadays.

 

[Keith Cobby]

Harry Harrison's "Starsmashers of The Galaxy Rangers".
Alan Dean Foster's "Slipt".
Alan Dean Foster's "Phule's Company"
Robert Aspirin's "Myth" series.
Adam Warren's take on "The Dirty Pair".

All wishful thinking.

Edit: Correction, Robert Aspirin's "Phule's Company", not Alan Dean Foster.

I'd forgotten Starsmashers of the Galaxy Rangers, it was the first Harry Harrison book I read. Would make a fun film.

 

[Keith Cobby]

you must have missed my preface, "a Younger version" - now these are a little too old but in their prime..?

I watched Iron Man 2 yesterday. I'm not a big Marvel fan, but Robert Downey Jr. Is fantastic as Iron Man, he's the Rat for me!

 

[jcroy]

Many years ago I would have answered with William Gibson's Neuromancer. But the aesthetic of that novel, and its genre, has been utilized so heavily over the years by so much entertainment that it no longer holds that appeal for me, as an adaptation. (I still really love the novel.)

I would have to agree.

The window for the sprawl trilogy to have possibly made any impact (however good or bad) as a movie, died back in the mid-late 1990s. With films like Dark City, 13th Floor, The Matrix, etc .... it pretty much made the neuromancer style into something quaint and not very interesting anymore.

Slightly earlier in 1995, I think what completely screwed the pooch for further Gibson stuff as potential films, was the piss poor Johnny Mnemonic movie.

 

[jcroy]

In hindsight, cyberpunk only really worked well as a written literary form. In the window between Blade Runner and the first Matrix movies, cyberpunk was largely a failure in other forms of media like movies, tv shows, video games, magazines (ie. mondo 2000), comics, etc ....

The latest failure which could be the final nail in the coffin, is the botched launch of the recent Cyberpunk 2077 video game.

It was the ultimate 1980s extrapolated "retro future" which never came, in a long line of other failed sci-fi "futures which never came".

 

[Walter Kittel]

In hindsight, cyberpunk only really worked well as a written literary form. In the window between Blade Runner and the first Matrix movies, cyberpunk was largely a failure in other forms of media like movies, tv shows, video games, magazines (ie. mondo 2000), comics, etc ....

The latest failure which could be the final nail in the coffin, is the botched launch of the recent Cyberpunk 2077 video game.

It was the ultimate 1980s extrapolated "retro future" which never came, in a long line of other failed sci-fi "futures which never came".

I agree, and I find it ironic, since part of the attraction of the sub-genre is the 'visual' nature of the stories, at least in terms of authors like William Gibson, Bruce Sterling, Rudy Rucker, and Pat Cadigan (amongst others). Gibson in particular had a writing style that lent itself well to visualization of his settings often through the use of metaphors. "The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel".

About the only really successful 'cyberpunk-ish' adaptation that I can think of is Netflix's adaption of Altered Carbon, which I previously mentioned. And this is probably as much a detective story as it is anything else. (At least season one. For whatever reason I still haven't gotten around to watching season two - which I assume is based upon another Takeshi Kovacs novel by Richard Morgan.)

To get this a little bit back on topic, thinking about cyberpunk and adaptations... I am not certain if this book could lend itself to adaptation, but I'll mention Neil Stephenson's Snow Crash.

Snow Crash

In reality, Hiro Protagonist delivers pizza for Uncle E…

www.goodreads.com

- Walter.