Fantasy/sci-fi that should be made

[300bhp/ton]

Over the past few years we have had quite a lot of good fantasy films and TV series. Be it from something recent like Warrior Nun, The Witcher, Legend of the Seeker. Or blockbusters like Warcraft.

The special effects capability these days, truly does bring this genre to life better than ever.


What fantasy or sci-fi do you feel has been missed and would be worthy of a film or series?


For me I'd love to see a 2-3 season series based in and around Menzoberranzan, maybe based on the Dark Elf Trilogy. While a Drittz centric story would be awesome, I suspect just the city of spiders could provide plenty of very interesting material, maybe veering off towards the War of the Spider Queen story line.

I suspect, much like The Witcher or GoT, this could be made and aimed for adult audiences, with everything that should entail.



On a slightly different theme, I've always been amazed that The Weirdstone of Brisingamen has never been featured in film or TV.


Thoughts?

[nikaiyo2]

I would like a REALLY dark Star Wars derived series.

Maybe more Sith centric maybe with Rob Zombie as the director!

[Zirconia]

Alistair Reynolds and Hamilton have quite a few tomes but not so much pew pew. Might be a bit deep.

[jimmythingy]

I would like to see a film version of Arthur C Clarke's Rama books I'm not sure they could pull it off though. Definitely a book to get your imagination going.

[Zirconia]

Apple TV are doing Foundation. However I fear Apple are being too nice with most they touch. They need more gritty stuff (apart from the few they have).

[peterperkins]

jimmythingy said:

I would like to see a film version of Arthur C Clarke's Rama books I'm not sure they could pull it off though. Definitely a book to get your imagination going.

Good call. Certainly the first one for a start.

Some of the follow on ones got very wordy witn rambling back stories.

[AshVX220]

nikaiyo2 said:

I would like a REALLY dark Star Wars derived series.

Maybe more Sith centric maybe with Rob Zombie as the director!

Never gonna happen while Disney hold the reigns.
However, I'd like to see the Thrawn series of books made into a series or movie trilogy.

[Riley Blue]

The Thursday Next novels by Jasper Fforde: http://www.jasperfforde.com/subindex/tn_index.html

Since my taste in films has been considered questionable, no doubt this suggestion will also be met with derision in which case

[irocfan]

300bhp/ton said:

For me I'd love to see a 2-3 season series based in and around Menzoberranzan, maybe based on the Dark Elf Trilogy. While a Drittz centric story would be awesome, I suspect just the city of spiders could provide plenty of very interesting material, maybe veering off towards the War of the Spider Queen story line.

good shout on that. The Forgotten Realms has a of potential full stop, as does Grey Hawk, the Dragonlance saga and, possibly, Ravenloft. My concern is that Marlon Wayans has (irrevocably?) tarnished the D&D 'brand' with the execrable efforts filmed about 20 years ago <sob sob>.

David Gemmell's: Legend, Waylander and Skilgannon books would be pretty epic (as might be his Troy/Lord of the Silver Bow trilogy)

[MissChief]

I’d love to see a miniseries made up of later Tom Clancy books. The Amazon stuff is Ok but now bears little resemblance to the books.

[geeks]

Always thought the In Her Name by Michael Hicks series would have done well as a TV series or as a series of films

The Space Team series by Barry Hutchison would also make good TV

[Scrump]

Riley Blue said:

The Thursday Next novels by Jasper Fforde: http://www.jasperfforde.com/subindex/tn_index.html

Since my taste in films has been considered questionable, no doubt this suggestion will also be met with derision in which case

Gets my vote. A great suggestion

[whitesocks]

The Midkemia series by Raymond E Feist is ripe for the picking.

Ringworld has been on and off the production boil for years now.

[Newc]

Zirconia said:

Alistair Reynolds and Hamilton have quite a few tomes but not so much pew pew. Might be a bit deep.

This is a good shout. The Hamilton Commonwealth stuff has a lot of politics / espionage / thriller type elements, and all the worlds are earth-like terraformed, so the sfx costs can be controlled. There's a clear story, and lots of well delineated characters; it would make a good TV series, 10 or 12 episodes.

[Dr Jekyll]

Zirconia said:

Apple TV are doing Foundation. However I fear Apple are being too nice with most they touch. They need more gritty stuff (apart from the few they have).

I always assumed the Foundation series was unfilmable. 'Exposition heavy' is the term I think.
People sit around discussing the answer to a problem, eventually someone comes up with an idea, they all say 'great, of course, how did we never realise before.' There's then a brief flurry of activity during which they discover they were completely wrong. Then it's back to sitting around chopping logic again. All too much like being at work.

The space battles would no doubt look impressive, but the battles don't really affect the plot, the fact that they don't almost is the plot.

Stephen Baxter's Time ships could be good, it could probably be about 3 films. The first being essentially a sequel to The Time Machine.

The same author's Moonseed seems to have been written with an eye on Hollywood, but since the End Of The World isn't actually averted probably not want film makers look for. Great author, but tends to be a bit depressing.

Edited by Dr Jekyll on Monday 3rd August 18:57

[jet_noise]

Roger Zelazny's Amber series.
Parallel universes including ours.
Likeable hero.
No particular love interest, heroine or regular sidekick though.

Harry Harrison's Stainless Steel Rat series.
Likeable hero.
Much humour.
Heroine who is also sidekick.
Grumpy boss.
Crime fighting.

ETA Rat

Edited by jet_noise on Monday 3rd August 19:37

[steveatesh]

Two book series by Steven Donaldson, the first one which could become a bit Like a Lord of the Rings Trilogy would be “The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant The Unbeliever” and the second one “Mordants Need”.

The former could be challenging as it was three series, each with a number of volumes, although it could be made as a TV series. No dragons but plenty of magic and other fantasy concepts.

“Mordants Need” would be a feature length movie in 2 parts, it involves the female lead being transported through a mirror into another world where the protagonists can likewise bring in other creatures or beings from other worlds. Set in what would be our Middle Ages it has plenty of scope for character building, fantasy and gore............

[whitesocks]

steveatesh said:

Two book series by Steven Donaldson, the first one which could become a bit Like a Lord of the Rings Trilogy would be “The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant The Unbeliever” and the second one “Mordants Need”.

The former could be challenging as it was three series, each with a number of volumes, although it could be made as a TV series. No dragons but plenty of magic and other fantasy concepts.

“Mordants Need” would be a feature length movie in 2 parts, it involves the female lead being transported through a mirror into another world where the protagonists can likewise bring in other creatures or beings from other worlds. Set in what would be our Middle Ages it has plenty of scope for character building, fantasy and gore............

This. Definitely

On the topic of too much exposition, if they ever filmed ChapterHouse Dune, it would be mostly scenes of people talking.

[mdavids]

Julian May's "Saga of the Exiles" could be quite interesting, although it's over 20 years since I last read them so maybe time hasn't been kind. It's an interesting premise - a one way time portal has been opened allowing travel back to the pliocene era. Various misfits take the trip hoping for a simpler existence only to find themselves enslaved by a superior alien race.

[rednotdead]

irocfan said:

David Gemmell's: Legend, Waylander and Skilgannon books would be pretty epic (as might be his Troy/Lord of the Silver Bow trilogy)

As an aside, I went to see Gemmell do a talkshop for the launch of the first Skilgannon novel (White Wolf) and he was asked how he came up with the name. It was some bod's name (S Kilgannon) but in his email address it was presented as skilgannon@. Gemmell just liked it as Skilgannon... He was bloody funny to listen to.