Top 5 Books That Should Be Movies

(Post theme: Storybook Love by Mark Knopfler and Willy DeVille)

More Filmspotting catch-up. Hard to resist a Top 5 list that involves books, obviously!

I’m using roughly the same criteria as Josh & Adam (and Kristen) – in particular: anything that already has a film (even if it’s terrible) is excluded, and it has to be a full-length book. The latter is particularly challenging: in my opinion, short stories & novellas make the best page-to-film adaptations. Full-length books that would translate well to the screen are almost always going to be better as TV series. I’ve also avoided cheating this by suggesting a trilogy or series of films, although some of these could obviously have sequels.

There’s quite a bit of recency bias here. I’ve read a lot of books, but find it difficult to think back over which ones would work particularly well as films. I skimmed over my Goodreads list, but only recent reads have (my) ratings, and it’s tricky relying on average ratings – plus until recently I didn’t add books that I read but didn’t own (library, friends, family, etc).

5. Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus by Orson Scott Card. I’m generally wary of time travel stories (but am a sucker for time loops) although there are some great film examples. Ender’s Game was a terrible adaptation, so there’s a lot of risk here. (I’m aware of Card’s politics and religion, and my disagreement with most of it doesn’t change my enjoyment of his writing). There are some elements to the story that would play very well today: particularly, the environmental aspect, and the reality of Columbus’s impact on the people already living in the Americas. However, the titular redemption might be an issue. Gina Prince-Bythewood to direct (or maybe Roseanne Liang?), introducing new actors for the main cast, with either Justin Baldoni or Chris Evans to star as Columbus.

4. The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch. This would need a careful screenwriter, to emphasise the heist/con story and ensure the fantasy element is almost incidental (until it’s critical to the story). It would have to be a long film, but you could probably sacrifice some parts of the story that lead towards the sequels without losing what makes it a great story. Apparently Warner Bros. were working on an adaption, and after that fell through someone else was, but as far as I know there is nothing announced, so it’s up for grabs in this list. Ajay Friese as Locke, Ian Samuels to direct.

3. The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton (first published as The 7 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle). Apparently Netflix were going to make a series based on this, but gave up, so that frees it up for the list. I mentioned my love of time loops already, and this would be a great addition, mixed in with the Christie-esque aspects. I didn’t love the ending of the book so I feel this could be one of the rare examples of a film that’s better than the source material). Maybe Mark Ruffalo as the protagonist, but I don’t have a director in mind.

2. The Loneliest Girl in the Universe by Lauren James. I love the genre twist in the middle of this story, and it would translate well to the screen, although you’d need to ensure that marketing (especially trailers, which have become awful in recent years) didn’t ruin it. There’s a lot of written communication in the story, and not seeing one of the characters is important, but a good screenwriter could solve that. Lauren James fancast this herself, so it’s hard to argue for anyone else to star. To direct: Gary Ross (bringing elements from Pleasantville, The Hunger Games, and Ocean’s 8).

1. Beak of the Moon by Philip Temple. It’s one of my favourite stories and definitely my favourite NZ novel. It would make an amazing animated film, made entirely in Aotearoa with local talent. There are two huge challenges: firstly, it’s a long book – but I think a good screenwriter (keep Walsh and Jackson as far from this as possible!) could solve that and the imagery would do a lot of the work. More challenging is that all the main characters are male, and this is central to the story (and, in my limited understanding, to kea behaviour). I think you’d want relatively unknown actors to lead (Māori, in their 20s) although I could see cameos by Rhys Darby, Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement as the kākā, Taika Watiti as the kākāpō, Sam Neill as the albatross, and maybe Cliff Curtis as Glintamber. I have no idea who could direct – it should be someone local, and someone who can do animation well, which means someone new.

Honourable mentions (in no particular order):

• The Crystal Cave by Mary Stewart. I’m not sure the world really needs another Arthurian film, even if it is based on one of the best adaptations. It’s also probably too long to make a good film and The Hollow Hills would really need to be made as well. I’d still love to see it done well, and I think we’re at a point where there enough people that can do historical fantasy on screen very well. This did have a TV series adaptation, which probably excludes it (I haven’t seen that).
• Daughter of the Empire by Janny Wurts and Raymond E. Feist. Easily the best trilogy in the Riftwar Cycle, and Mara’s story, particularly in this first book, would easily be as compelling as Katniss, Tris, and Teresa were in the 2010s – and we’re due for a resurgence in great YA films (with less dystopia this time). However, I’m not sure you could do justice in a film, and it might have to be a TV series.
• Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir. Better than The Martian, which was a decent film. However, this is apparently going into production in 2024.
• Gideon the Ninth, by Tamsyn Muir. I think the fantasy/sci-fi mash-up, the LGBTQ+ aspects, the humour, and the action would all combine to make a great film. I wonder if it would be too confusing to tell in under 2 hours and that you’d need to make this a TV series instead. It also feels like it would really require also making the other books in the series (once they’re all finished) and some of those would be even more difficult, and that also disqualifies it from this list.
• Faerie Tale by Raymond E. Feist. Problem #1: I remember loving this story and re-reading it several times, but I haven’t read it in over 10 years, so it’s hard to recollect enough details to evaluate whether it would translate to the screen well. Problem #2: I watch hardly any supernatural thriller films, so don’t have any idea what it would be competing with. My gut feeling is that it would be great, though.
• Memory Man, by David Baldacci. This would clearly make a great film – it was only bumped off my top 5 because there are already a lot of great crime films and I’m not sure that this would add anything truly new.
• Hunting Party by Elizabeth Moon. This would be a great action/sci-fi story (much of the best sci-fi on film is space opera). I don’t have any reason for not including this, except that I couldn’t figure out which of my 5 top I would bump to make this. It’s a clear #6.