The problem with choosing a book to make into a film is that they are very different forms of media. A book lets you visualise the story as you read it whereas a film visualises the story for you. Compare two of the greatest Brisitsh directors of all time - David Lean and Michael Powell. I rate Powell ahead of Lean as whereas Lean generally adapted existing books, Powell tended towards material written for the film (normally using Emeric Pressburger).

Also if you adapted even a short book into a film completely faithfully, the film would run for hours. Of course, many films are based on short stories or plays where this is a lesser problem. Laurence Olivier was a fine British director in adapting Shakespeare such as his Henry V. Parts of that film go beyond the play in it's extraordinary imagination in opening up the play from being on stage to the outside world - I've always detected a sense of this is how Powell would have directed the film if he had made it. There is an interesting anecdote in Powell's autobiography "A Life in Movies". Whilst he was making Colonel Blimp, Olivier was commissioned by the studios to appear and produce Henry V. One day, Olivier came over to the set of Colonel Blimp and said to Powell "Micky, I wamt you to direct HenryV". Powell replied "Do you? Tell me about it".They went into considerable discussion as to how Olivier intended to open up the film and in the end Powell said "Why don't you direct the film yourself?" And the rest is history.

I wonder how much Powell influenced Olivier and for that matter how much Olivier influenced Powell.


As to what book I would like to see being filmed, many years ago I read Arthur C Clarke's Childhood's End. I felt then and still do that this is an extremely filmic story and frankly is a much better story than 2001. This has never been made into a film but a screenplay exists and Hilary Swank has been associated with a possible future version with Kimberly Peirce directing (they previously worked on Boys Don't Cry).

Thin Air by George E Simpson and Neal R. Burger
Read it about 30 odd years ago and as far as I am aware, it was never made in to a film. Though films have been made about the Philadelphia Experiment

The problem is not making books into films but doing it well.

 

I often thought I would like to have a film production company which adapted books to the screen and did it properly. I understand El Loros points about the difficulty in translating the written word to film but what drives me mad is when they kill off characters or make up new ones and thereby completely change the story.

 

I love Dean Koontz's books and think most of them would adapt very well to the big screen but every single time I have seen an adaptation they have been shockingly bad.

 

I would love to see The Boudicca quartet by Manda Scott on film but they would have to film all four books back to back I think for it to work,