What books would you like to see made into film, but at the same time hope they don’t?

[Soubriquet]

A court of thorns and roses.

I absolutely adore these books. I love all of her series TBF and on one hand it would be nice to see a film/tv adaption, but on the other, I hope they aren’t because I don’t think anyone could do them justice

My first thought too! When I read it I thought it seemed perfect for the screen. The special effects would need to be top notch though. It would probably push the eco aspects hard.

The Chronicles of St Mary’s. Would make a fantastic series if done properly, but I really don’t think it could be.

Stephen Kings The Dark Tower as a TV series. Not that weird crap they did a few years. But it's so long it's hard to trust they'd go to the end.

Ian Irvine's View From The Mirror. No idea on cast, but it's so vivid in my head when I read it, it would be amazing but so expensive

The Time series by Julie Mcelwain. I think they would make a great film. Bear with me, but the premise of the series is that a female FBI agent ends up at an English castle where she falls through a time wormhole and ends up living in Regency England. You might think they are fluffy Austenesque romances, but no, they are crime novels. She has to learn how to live in the past, develops relationships with people there and ends up using her skills to solve horrible, pretty gory crimes despite being constantly frustrated by the lack of things like DNA tests, fingerprint technology, hygiene and modern things in general.

The series is still being written so we have yet to find out if she ever manages to get back to the present. I'm not sure who I think would be a good choice to play the main character.

Totally agree with the previous poster who was appalled by The Secret of Moonacre film. Absolute travesty of a film!

My least favourite film adaptation is Howl's Moving Castle. I love that book and the film was awful. They even changed the main villain into a good character, WTF?

Georgette Heyer novels, but I really hope they don't as the actors could never live up to the characters. Plus the adaptions would be made hip and not faithful adaptions so ruin the plot and language.

Agree about Georgette Heyer. Would be lovely to see them done well, but they wouldn't be, and I'm not sure they'd know what audience to aim for.

Jodi Taylor's St Mary's books.
They could be brilliant, if they were made as carefully as the Harry Potter films, with a roll call of British actors and atmospheric buildings, painstaking set building, etc.
But when I think about the Americanised fuck up they made of the Dark is Rising series… nope.

Ubik, my favourite Philip K Dick book. There are scripts, but thus far, never happened. It could be incredible.

Mr Weston’s Good Wine by TF Powys. An odd book, could be an odder film. But I desperately wouldn't want it to be transposed to the American west, and because it's quite Christian and mystic, they would. Either that, or make it all slick magic and wizards, and that wouldn’t be right, either.

Another vote for St Mary's. They're my go to happy reading books, they seem perfect for a tv series but I doubt anyone could do them justice.

Lessons in Chemistry, the TV series was ruined for me by the casting of Lewis Pullman as Calvin Evans. If they do make a film, I just hope they stick more closely to the characters as described in the book.

Angels by Marian Keyes.

My sister lived in Santa Monica and so many of the scenes I can picture happening there.

The Poisonwood Bible

Most of the Discworld cannon. I think the Jonny books would translate well. The Truckers books - animated, perhaps?

I would once have also said the Dragons of Pern series, but since seeing Avatar I think that style would be perfect. TBH I wonder whether the concept of Avatar was heavily influenced by those books.

I'd love to see the Farseer Trilogy by Robin Hobb done in a similar fashion to Lord of the Rings - EPIC
I dread to think what it would actually be like.
I would assume that it would be as awful as The Dark Tower movie which devastated me- especially since my husband loved that movie but had never read the books (and never will as he is not a reader). That movie was sacrilegious

Good choice. Apart from its length, what would you consider to be the difficulties?

The Jasper Fforde books Shades of Grey and Red Side Story. They could be made really interesting by using filters to show what the characters actually see! ( The main premise is that certain 'ranks' of the population can see certain colours, the lower the rank the less colour can be seen).

I hear you OP I have just finished the first ACOTAR and loved it. Can't agree on Henry Cavill though, he's too clean cut for Rhysand but he'd make a good Tamlin? Rhysand needs to be much darker, I'm thinking Theo James?

I wish they would make a series of The Dark Is Rising with eight episodes and properly set in England with British actors. And it would need to have a genuinely sinister undertone like the book. That bastardy American film was unspeakably bad.

Another one for The Secret History!
And Discworld. Many a happy discussion I've had on here about the perfect casting for it.

The BBC is making a tv series of it.

There's a Sophie Kinsella book that's about 15 years old now called "Twenties Girl".
I thought it would make a fantastic film. It's got everything- comedy, mystery, 1920's fashions, romance! Think it would be fab

Here be Dragons by Sharon Penman. Welsh history is never portrayed..it's all about Scotland.

Turning a Georgette Heyer novel into a screenplay would miss about 95% of what makes them so wonderful.

On the other hand the Bridgerton books were rubbish to begin with so they were improved by being dramatised. BTW I did read all the Bridgerton books to confirm how bad they were 😉

Thanks TheMadGardener for the time travel recommendation, will probably hoover that up in due course!

Iain M. Banks Culture Novels. The scope of imagination is so immense, I think even with CGI they would really struggle to translate it to screen.

There was a novel I read about 20 years ago, by an Irish author, can't remember her name. I'm sure it was called "Biography of Desire" it was about a middle aged suburban housewife from Dublin who falls in love with another woman, the novel explored their thoughts and fears (it was of it's time obviously). There were such rich descriptions of places and the dialogue seemed so real.

I've tried to find it online but nothing comes up.

Also, there is a short story called Guests Of A Nation, again by an Irish writer called Frank O Connor (I don't have a thing about Irish writers honest) it's about the execution two British Soldiers by a group of Irish Republican fighters during the civil war. The story takes place over one night, while the British Men are held captive in a small isolated cottage, it carries on through to their killing. Sounds brutal but it's so beautifully written, the last paragraph is so poignant and melancholic I deify anybody to read it and not cry.

I thought Reese Witherspoon's production company had bought the film rights for that.

Aren't those Court of Thorns books for teenagers?