Christopher Webster [Celluloid 12.10.09] movie news book scifi



Back when I was in highschool, Jeff Noon's "VURT" was easily my favorite book. Heavily influenced by equal parts Irvine Welsh, William Gibson and "Alice in Wonderland," the book is dystopian cyberpunk on meth. I also remember that the rights were picked up by UK production house, Pathe, but then everything feel to s#!% when it was decided the project was unfilmable.

Another book that really got to me was "Snow Crash" by Neal Stephenson. Coincidently it is also a Cyberpunk book, though when I learned that Stephensen was one of the most erudite and prolific contemporary science fiction writers around, I picked up two more of his books: the code-breaker tome, "Cryptonomicon" and "The Diamond Age." A couple years back, George Clooney's production company reported it would a mini-series based on "The Diamond Age." Nothing has happened since, and I highly doubt anything will.


So now I put the question to you guys. Which cult author finally deserves an adaptation in the new decade?

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SMD (10 years ago) Reply

Richard Calder's books (Dead Girls, and the others) would be awesome on film, but they'd never get made because they are so...effed up. But they'd be awesome if done by a good director (like the folks who did Let the Right One In).

Anything by PKD, but written/directed by someone who actually understands PKD and can translate the psychosis and paranoia to the screen without washing it all down the tube with crappy animation overlays or excessive CGI...

quietearth (10 years ago) Reply

Mockingbird by Walter Tevis.

Nymphomation by Jeff Noon.

Replay by Ken Grimwood.

Valis by PKD.

White Light by Rudy Rucker.

The Silicon Man by Charles Platt.

More JG Ballard! Especially Chronopolis and Concentration City.

witchman (10 years ago) Reply

Tom De Haven: Freaks Amour
Will Baer: The Poe Trilogy
J.G. Ballard: High Rise, although i hear Vincenzo Natali has the rights and a script ready to go.

agentorange (10 years ago) Reply

Luckily we're getting a few Ballard flicks in the next couple years, High Rise included. Lets hope they're actually well done.

Alan (10 years ago) Reply

The DNA Cowboys series by Mick Farren would be ace...

brett (10 years ago) Reply

Alfred Kubin The Other Side

john Riordan (10 years ago) Reply

White Noise by Don Dillilo directed by David Fincher

olaaaa (10 years ago) Reply

Nova by Samuel R Delany...he doesn't seem like ultra mainstream sci-fi so I will count him as 'cult.' :D At least one attempt at adapting Delany is long overdue!

chuck (10 years ago) Reply

I'm very aprehensive about the up coming Cosmic Banditos movie. I'm equally concerned about the World War Z adaptation. I want to see Carl Hiassen's work on the screen. I second White Noise.

slimtaro (10 years ago) Reply

Crooked Little Vein by Warren Ellis
I Was Dora Suarez by Derek Raymond
Is Iain Banks considered "cult"? If so,
The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks

Ben Austwick (10 years ago) Reply

Some great suggestions in this thread, I certainly agree with Jeff Noon, JG Ballard, Iain Banks and Samuel R Delaney. Can't think of anything else actually...

NavySeabee (10 years ago) Reply

Harry Turtledove.
Would love to see the 'World War' series made into a movie or even a tv series. It'd make 'V' look tame.

Or 'Guns of the South' could be made into a movie. Wouldn't cost much to make, just put out a call to Civil War re-enactors and pay for the gun powder.

Anonymous (10 years ago) Reply

Alexander Belyayev's novels have been sadly overlooked when it comes to film adaptations. Only 4 of his novels have been adapted into films or tv series with the last one being Ariel in 1992. Stone Village Pictures announced back in 2008 that they would be remaking "The Amphibian Man" but there hasn't been any recent news on the project. "The Last Man from Atlantis" is another Belyayev adaptation that is supposedly in development from producer Jenia Kokotuha.

Anonymous (10 years ago) Reply

Either

S.M. Stirling ( Despite its flaws, I think both the Draka and Island in the sea of time series would make good movies)

Or

Thomas M. Disch (The Genocides, On wings of song etc...)

Anonymous (10 years ago) Reply

Jennifer Government by Max Barry
Flicker by Theodore Roszak
Both optioned as films at one point but neither successful.

rek (10 years ago) Reply

Anything by Greg Egan, but most of them would be very difficult to adapt. Permutation City, Quarantine, any number of stories from Axiomatic...

Serdar (10 years ago) Reply

My all-time favorite in this category: Alfred Bester's "The Stars My Destination." Sure, it's "Count of Monte Cristo" in space, but Bester's approach made it into a cry of hope for the little men to retake a world that had been since co-opted by the big men, and who were loathe to give it back. (The anime adaptation "Gankutsuou" takes some ideas from this book but leaves out Bester's transhumanist politics.)

Runner-up: Gertrude Freidberg's "The Revolving Boy." A very, very underrated and unsung SF novel from an author whose batting average for masterpieces was 1.000.

Another vote goes for Theodore Sturgeon's "More Than Human." The movie could be done cheap - but it would require a director that understands the human side of SF. Darren Aronofsky, methinks.

Harry Harrison's amazing "Deathworld" novels. Just the first one would do the job nicely.

Brian Aldiss's "Barefoot in the Head." Good GOD, would this be tough to film - it'd be like "Waking Life" meets Shigeru Izumiya's "Death Powder". But oh so rewarding. It's about Europe after WWIII was fought with chemical weapons -- hallucinogens -- and every single character in the book, including the book itself, is stoned out of its mind.

"WE", the original dystopia from 1924. Hilarious and horrifying in about equal measure. Get Philip Glass to do the score. (Anyone who's read the book should get a chuckle out of that.)

And while I'm at it, some manga:

"Berserk" - yes, it would cost a zillion dollars and never make a cent of it back, but my god, seeing the ascension of Femto on the big screen would be a four-pairs-of-pants experience.

"Claymore" - Cheaper than "Berserk" to stage, and probably a lot more approachable.

"Vampire Hunter D" - When I sat in on an interview panel with Hideyuki Kikuchi himself, he claimed the movie rights were owned by some producer in France, and he hadn't done anything with them yet. I find this inexplicable.

entizari (10 years ago) Reply

personally, I'd rather see original films than adaptations. they're books for a reason. not sure I've ever enjoyed an adaptation as much as the original if I hadn't seen the film first.

that said, some that'd be interesting to see:

a second for "The Stars My Destination", if only for further proof of what a lame watered down rip-off JUMPER was.

Caitlin R Kiernan's THRESHOLD
Tom Piccirilli's THE CHOIR OF ILL CHILDREN
John Shirley's A SONG CALLED YOUTH trilogy

on VURT: it's funny I read this shortly after Ryu Murakami's ALMOST TRANSPARENT BLUE. and VURT read pretty much like a SF version of the latter, can't remember which came first but both could make interesting films. though some films just don't work when you try to visualise a novel's imagery

Anonymous (10 years ago) Reply

Lord Horror - David Britton

metrofoe (10 years ago) Reply

I echo the suggestion for Samuel R Delany. Though it's really long, I would love to see an adaptation of Dhalgren. It has some keen visual elements that would translate well to film, including the dual suns, the orchid (a cool bladed weapon), and the scorpions (a hologram-using gang).

J-Man (10 years ago) Reply

The Ender series by Orson Scott Card, but I think that one is on the way, or am I wrong? Perhaps "Footfall" by Niven/Pournelle then. I would love to see those little elephant invanders parachute towards earth!

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