The Film Library

This SHOULD be a movie...

As lovers of literature and film, I am certain that many of you have done as I routinely do and imagine a short story or novel coming to the big screen.  It amazes me that more directors are not turning to classic literature for inspiration with all the tripe that is pouring out of Hollywood studios today.  There is a wealth of short stories that are easily relevant to today's audiences that would be so much better than the remake-of-a-remake-of-a-remake-of-a-film that we are getting now! 

Some of my top picks would include:

• Post Office, Women, Ham on Rye -Charles Bukowski

• Ask the Dust (or any of the Arturro Bandini series) -John Fante

• The Cask of Amantillado, Fall of the House of Usher, A Descent into the Maelstrom, The Gold Bug, The Masque of the Red Death -Edgar Allen Poe

• Young Goodman Brown -Nathaniel Hawthorne

• The Annunciation, any number of her short stories -Ellen Gilchrist

• A Good Man is Hard to Find, Good Country People, The Life You Save May Be Your Own, Parker's Back, and a few others -Flannery O'Connor

Thats my starter list... I'm curious to see what else everyone would like to see on the big screen, and maybe get a few recommended reads out of the list too.  Post your thoughts!

Re:This SHOULD be a movie...

[quote user="seely"

• The Cask of Amantillado, Fall of the House of Usher, A Descent into the Maelstrom, The Gold Bug, The Masque of the Red Death -Edgar Allen Poe

• Young Goodman Brown -Nathaniel Hawthorne

• A Good Man is Hard to Find, Good Country People, The Life You Save May Be Your Own, Parker's Back, and a few others -Flannery O'Conno

Some great short stories here, and it got me thinking about those movies Vincent Price made in 60s--movies that tell more than one short story. I wonder if modern audiences would let a movie get away with that. Did any of you see Tales From the Hood?

Re:This SHOULD be a movie...

I think the last story in Life After God by Douglas Coupland would make an extraordinary movie. I picture it sort of like a Wes Anderson movie, only not as quirky.

I can see Adrian Brody starring in it.

Re:This SHOULD be a movie...

SkyPilot:

Some great short stories here, and it got me thinking about those movies Vincent Price made in 60s--movies that tell more than one short story. I wonder if modern audiences would let a movie get away with that. Did any of you see Tales From the Hood?

Anthology movies have a really hard time of it, and more often than not aren't very successful. For every Creepshow, there's a couple Creepshow 2s. I did see Tales From The Hood, based on the writer/director's work on Fear Of A Black Hat, which I watched almost every weekend of my senior year in high school. A This Is Spinal Tap for rap, and utterly hilarious. But I digress. Tales From The Hood had some good concepts, and a couple creepy/funny scenes, but it felt a little too generic.

Re:This SHOULD be a movie...

I'll have to come out as a loser and say that the only stories I've read off of your list are the E.A. Poe stories. It's obvious where my tastes lie.

My normal assumption is that all adaptations are going to be inferior, but ocassionally that isn't the case(No Country For Old Men, of course). So, why did I start this group about movies based off of books? Well, because I can't help but read a novel these days and imagine how that film would look up on a big screen somewhere. Plus I tend to find new books more often from a movie I liked than from reviews in a magazine somewhere. So, here's a short list.

Oh, Pure and Radiant Heart by Lydia Millet, about Oppenheimer, Fermi and Szilard, at the exact instant the first atomic bomb goes off, finding themselves in modern day Arizona, where they each react negatively to what their invention wrought. It sounds high concept, but it's an incredibly thoughtful, melancholy and hopeful book, full of some incredibly beautiful language.

Gentlemen of the Road, by Michael Chabon, is pretty slight, and a very short novella, but if made in a swashbuckling, Robin Hood or Indiana Jones style, it could be incredibly fun.

An almost impossible to film book, but has the possibility of being very cool, is The Forever War, by Joe Haldeman. After the discovery of wormholes, which brough upon almost light speed travel, humanity discovers a race of aliens and enters a war with them. At such speeds, the human soldiers that get drafted may experience only 2 years of combat, but come home to an earth centuries past when they were born. Basically a metaphor for the Vietnam war(it was written in the 70s), the book is full of cool techno-babble, sociological musings and, maybe least expected, some emotion. Really, a book I can't recommend enough to anyone who is reading.

Re:This SHOULD be a movie...

   Actually, ALL of the E. A. Poe stories listed above HAVE been made into movies!   (Or were part of anthology movies) ...

   The one I would like to see done is a novel by Jack Ketchum called  "Off Season" ...   This is a brutal story in the tradition of  "The Hills Have Eyes:"  or  "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" .   A great and hard to find novel that would make a GREAT action packed movie!

Re:This SHOULD be a movie...

Interesting... any of them actually worth watching?  I had assumed somewhere along the way someone would have borrowed the material, but I guess I would be surprised if it was done well or with any amount of care/budget!

Dr_Gor:

   Actually, ALL of the E. A. Poe stories listed above HAVE been made into movies!   (Or were part of anthology movies) ...

 

Re:This SHOULD be a movie...

seely:

Interesting... any of them actually worth watching?  I had assumed somewhere along the way someone would have borrowed the material, but I guess I would be surprised if it was done well or with any amount of care/budget!

 

Dr_Gor:

   Actually, ALL of the E. A. Poe stories listed above HAVE been made into movies!   (Or were part of anthology movies) ...

 

   While there have been other adaptions of Poe's work over the years,   The one's staring Vincent Price were generally considered the best.   Most (if not all) of these adaptions were very well crafted by AIP.   In the 1960's, Poe and Price were an unbeatable combination.

   The Oblong Box

   Spirits of the Dead

   Witchfinder General

   The City Under The Sea

   The Tomb of Ligea

   The Masque of the Red Death

   The Haunted Palace

   The Raven

   Tales of Terror

   Pit and the Pendulum

   House of Usher

                                                                             < GOR >

Re:This SHOULD be a movie...

[quote user="TheWorkingDead"

Gentlemen of the Road, by Michael Chabon, is pretty slight, and a very short novella, but if made in a swashbuckling, Robin Hood or Indiana Jones style, it could be incredibly fun.

Hey you're right, that would be a lot of fun. Full of surprise and adventure and an entertaining shade of violence.

And by the way, not reading Charles Bukowski doesn't mean you're a loser. In fact, it's more likely someone who has read Charles Bukowski is a loser. (wink, wink -- it takes one to know one)

Re:This SHOULD be a movie...

Aye, the only reason to read Bukowski is to make yourself feel like less of a loser/jerk.

SkyPilot:

And by the way, not reading Charles Bukowski doesn't mean you're a loser. In fact, it's more likely someone who has read Charles Bukowski is a loser. (wink, wink -- it takes one to know one)