I didn’t read this series when I was a kid, but I finally got around to reading Roger Zelazny’s Chronicles of Amber.
Given it’s an older series, I wasn’t sure how much I’d like it (some of those older series age horribly), but it was actually REALLY good still, and the few minor things that’d aged too much wouldn’t be hard to update for a modern audience.
But the concept of Amber is fantastic, Corwin’s behavior and arc perfect, and I think a TV series could do it justice nowadays. Man, some CGI artists could do some beautiful work depicting a hellride through shadow.
I also would really, really love to see Anne McCaffrey’s Dragonriders of Pern adapted…but there’s a few parts that have aged pretty badly, so it’d need careful handling of things like Lessa and F’lar’s relationship and such. And maybe, you know, keep Jaxom the hell away from Corana.
But I think the whole idea of threadfall, and Impressing dragons, could be done beautifully on the screen. I think a run from Dragonflight to All The Weyrs of Pern (including the Harper Hall Trilogy) could be done. (Then leave the later books out, they don’t really add much, lol.)
The series would need a top-notch composer scoring it, though. I’d vote for Natalie Holt. She did wonderfully with Loki, and it’d be a nice touch having a woman score the series that’d have the Harper Hall Trilogy included in it.
Old Man’s War! Pretty green people fighting aliens! What’s not to like?
I’m honestly surprised none of Scalzi’s works have ended up movies or television series or anything.
But yeah, Old Man’s War would be awesome. It’s such a fun concept.
There was supposed to be a ‘Redshirts’ movie, but it never happened.
That seems common–books are optioned, then the project never gets out of the ground. Then the options are sold again for X number of years, and rinse and repeat.
May be urban legend, but the story is that ‘Stranger In A Strange Land,’ by Robert Heinlein has been optioned more than any other book, and earned the writer more from options than from book sales. It came out in 1961, and was last optioned by SyFy network in 2016. David Bowie tried to make it, and ended up taking elements of it in ‘The Man Who Fell To earth.’
To be fair the first book is so much better than the rest that I think it should be a movie, not a show.
Discworld. I would love to see the shenanigans of Samuel Vines and co, Mort, the witches, and so many other wonderful stories
Theres a ton of BBC adaptations, I believe. I know of at least Going Postal and Hogfather
I know about The Light Fantastic and The Color of Magic (did i mix those two up?) But there’s more?
It’s crazy whats out there that you want but you never thought to look.
I have good news and bad news, you can indeed watch Samuel Comes in a TV series, but it’s utter shit. They just took the names and fucking butchered the rest. It’s called “The Watch” if you really want to do this to yourself.
Somewhat related, the hogfather and going postal adaptations are great!
They did one season of The Watch. It’s not bad.
The Lies of Locke Lamora would make a fantastic show/movie if done well, and I feel like the vast majority of it is pretty screen-friendly. Basically just some minor cgi for the scorpion-hawk and Falselight and you’re good.
No one has mentioned The Culture?
There really wouldn’t be much to update because a good chunk of it is still modern. Not only that, but Banks really fucked with gender, ideology, and civil rights in a way that is still incredibly relevant in 2023.
I also really want someone to try to portray Fwi-Song from Consider Phlebas.
I came looking for The Culture. Those are such great stories.
well it used to be wheel of time.
A real adaptation of the Foundation Series. Not the abomination we are getting from Apple.
I didn’t watch it until second season was out, I just didn’t see how they could possibly do it justice… look at how Altered Carbon floundered, I expected (and was proven right) the same problems.
People need to attach to characters and plot. It’s very hard to do that when the characters (or actor in the case of AC) change every chapter, and the plot arches over 10s of 1000s of years!
I have to say once I was able to let go of preconceptions based on the books and just enjoy it for what it is, I really enjoyed Foundation series.
I loved the books, and I loved season one on Apple TV. But then it lost me. I didn’t recognize any storyline anymore
I love the books and would like to see a 1:1 adaptation so I have no interest in the Apple show, but I’ve been told the show is good if you pretend the books do not exist.
I’d absolutely love a faithful adaptation of SnowCrash by Neil Stephonson to a TV series, don’t think a movie would be doable, unless they did a trilogy or something.
Abhorsen / Old Kingdom series.
I don’t like reading but I breezed through the first three books. I think all the dark, necromancy type stuff would be generally well received. The gates of the afterlife also sound really cool to be put in a visual form.
Yeah, it’s a really distinct take on necromancers. The visual look of everything, the rules of the world–all really well designed.
It’d be a great YA movie or series.
Yeah, I was looking for this one. It also always struck me as a good option for VR games once that is a bit more entrenched with the general public.
Well, I have some good news for you!
Stephen Colbert to Produce ‘Chronicles of Amber’ TV Series Adaptation.
Joe Abercrombie’s ‘First Law.’
Best Served Cold is in the early stages of being turned into a film with Rebecca Ferguson currently signed to lead. Abercrombie is joint writing the script, I believe.
Best Served Cold
Took me a minute to remember the plot. I hope they can do it justice.
If you haven’t seen it yet, check out ‘Blue Eye Samurai’ on Netflix. Not quite as cynical as Abercrombie, it has lots of swordplay, betrayals, and brave/stupid/honorable enemy.
Thanks for the tip! I’ll check it out for sure.
Brandon Sanderson’s Cosmere universe would be fantastic. The last thing I remember hearing was that he was working on a script for a Mistborn movie. I would’ve preferred a TV-show, but he feels it would work better as a movie, and I trust his judgement.
I both want and don’t want the stormlight archives books adapted to movies. On one hand, the books are amazing. On the other hand movie/tv adaptations usually go badly and it would require a lot of special effects that I think would come out badly
Hyperion Cantos (Dan Simmons)
Any of the Xeelee series (Stephen Baxter)
Quantum Magician series (Derek Künsken)
I always wonder why sci-fi gets mixed in with fantasy so much? It’s always a pain to find decent movie/show or a book because these categories are treated as the same thing.
In my mind they are trivial to separate and I struggle to think of a single book or a film/show that even comes close to crossing over.
I enjoy quality writing in either genre, but as I get older I gravitate towards sci-fi because most fantasy seems to be written for younger audience with some great exceptions like Chronicles of Amber or Witcher.
And just to stay on topic, I nominate Asprin’s Myth Adventures.
I always wonder why sci-fi gets mixed in with fantasy so much? It’s always a pain to find decent movie/show or a book because these categories are treated as the same thing.
As Arthur C. Clarke famously said:
“You have reached the end of your free trial subscription to ArthurCClarkeQuotes.com”“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic”A lot of Sci-Fi stuff is just fantasy with a different coat of paint. Any universe where the technology is just acting as a stand-in for magic qualifies. There are even many settings that blur the line between the two, like Warhammer 40K.
“Hard” Sci Fi is another beast entirely. That would be more like OG Star Trek or even something like The Twilight Zone. Something where the “magic” exists to explore thoughtful/philosophical “What if?” questions rather than simply as a system of magic to serve the fantasy.
As Arthur C. Clarke famously said:
“You have reached the end of your free trial subscription to ArthurCClarkeQuotes.com”“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic”I lol’d
The Sword of Shannara by Terry Brooks!
We had a Shannara series! Despite the creative license taken with some characters / the lore (Manu Bennett is an awesome actor but Allanon, the tall rangey ancient wizard? Really?), I was gutted that it got cancelled.
I never heard of it!
Is something Shannara not on prime? I was excited to see it there, but the acting and world building was so poor I didn’t get through season 1.
Demon Cycle series by Peter V. Brett. They had a film adaptation in the works a few years ago, but it fell through.
This is what I said but I’d want them to rework it some. Largely for far less rape.
