just for fun: which story you've written would you like to see as a movie?

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preyer

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or WIP, for that matter.

for me (and this is one story i need to get back to), it's most likely a story called, 'the golden rules,' based on alchemy in more of a scientific sense rather than its dual philosophical meanings. it's doubtlessly my most rounded story idea, equal parts alchemy, suspense, humour, romance, etc.. being a very visual person (a fact confirmed with practically every critique anyone's ever done on a story of mine), it's also the most visually appealing (with the possible exception of a bullfighting story, but that ain't SF or F), being set in a nameless 17th century european country. the premise is based on a real story where the alchemist, a fraud, is imprisoned by the king for twenty years, always on the verge of execution but conning his way out of it all the time. if you're like me, you see the obvious appeal in that.

basically, johann is an alchemist who is mistaken for a great alchemist. the gold-crazy king, like the real life story, imprisons him and threatens execution, which over the years he manages to scam his way out of. of course, he's not the only alchemist imprisoned in the tower/lab, he's got twelve other alchemists to keep him company... and show him how to con the king. they're all old men who bicker, fight and snap at one another more than anything else when they're not working to devise a new con job to spare their lives, playing chess, discussing philosophy or otherwise goofing off.

it's cliche, but johann falls in love with the princess. having the opportunity to escape, he turns it down-- he will do so only with the princess at his side. his big competition, however, is an arab prince who shows up with an endless gold supply to help support the king's wars. all the prince wants is, of course, the princess.

i throw in some appearances by noted real-life conmen like cogliostro (sp -- i'd have to look his name back up just to be sure my memory hasn't failed yet again) and work in some real-life story details based on alchemy lore. for instance, there's one story based around a man who supposedly discovered the philosopher's stone (i forget his name off-hand, but he's mentioned as the one in the second harry potter book), which i'd probably try to work in loosely just for fun. (one facet of alchemy is trying to discover the philosopher's stone, or create an elixir of life. some viewed alchemy purely as a philosophic ideal, while others thought of only creating gold. some viewed it in any combination of those. it's really an interesting subject. for the record, scientists indeed created gold in 20th century (in the thirties or forties, afair), but the power, technology and resources that went into it prove its inviability. but, it *can* be done from a technical perspective.)

were i to write all my story ideas out, i see this one as being the best for a big-screener. a high-budget big-screener, but....
 

DaveKuzminski

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I have several I'd like to see produced as films.

Redwing, Dragon Detective is one that I'd like to see produced as a movie. Dragons left Earth upon realizing that mankind was threatening their existence. Because they were capable of space flight, they migrated to Venus, but some of their kind have returned to Earth for illegal black market purposes. The authorities send Redwing to break up the gang.

Knight Spirits involves the crash of an Earth recon ship on another planet. The last dying survivor of the crash takes it upon himself to teach one survivor, from a wooden ship his spacecraft hit while crashing, how to use a flying suit so he can reach the far off mainland instead of dying on the deserted atoll they came to meet upon. The survivor proves to be more intelligent than the dying Earth man expected and returns to the downed spacecraft to collect the other suits and establish a religious order of flying knights.

An Age of Heroes covers numerous traders and others whose exploits mark them as heroes in opposing tyranny. They live in a world where wizards and sea witches exist and to whom they owe their existence, but they're now on their own to rule themselves and establish trade and their own cultures. Some use ships powered by huge beasts. Others depend upon their own strength to row their ships. Others use sail, oar, and beasts as they seek to place everything and everyone else under their dominion.

Dark Unicorn uses the premise that dark unicorns have the ability to travel through time. As the only one left, he seeks out compatible humans who can atune themselves to his voice and help him go back in time to prevent the other unicorns from becoming extinct.

I have others, but these are particular favorites I'd like to see featured.
 
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spacejock2

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For this I need to stretch the definition of story out to a whole novel.

I would love to see Hal Spacejock made into a film, providing they don't hack it to bits to suit the mythical movie goer. (You know the one - about 11 years old with two brain cells and the attention span of a gerbil. Satisfied with endless chase/gunfight/chase/gunfight cycles, with perhaps the briefest of interludes during which the macho hero impresses birds with the size of his weapon.)

The good news for film-makers is that there are already three books in the series and the characters are engaging, fun and flawed in interesting ways. The bad news is that despite having bouts of car chases & combat, there are no birds in tight outfits until book 2 ;-)
 

Zane Curtis

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I know this is supposed to be a fun thread, but my answer is still, "none of them."

When everyone does the whole Hollywood fantasy thing, they always imagine their movie will be something like a Harry Potter or a Lord of the Rings. They don't consider that their work might be devalued if it gets made into a big Hollywood turkey that tanks at the box office.

I can save myself all that angst and effort if I just cut out the middle man and write "loser" on my forehead with a permanent marker. ;)
 

HConn

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Zane Curtis said:
They don't consider that their work might be devalued if it gets made into a big Hollywood turkey that tanks at the box office.

Maybe the movie will be bad, but that won't change your book (or whatever), which will still be in it's original form in the bookstores. And I can't imagine it would hurt sales.

As for work I'd like to see made into a movie, I pick the script they're shooting right now. Yeah, I wrote a script, and principle photography commenced today. It's low-budget, non-Hollywood, let's-put-on-a-show-in-Farmer-Brown's-old-barn filmmaking.

Wish me luck.
 

triceretops

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DINOTHON...robotic piloted dinosaurs fight it out in a dry lake bed for 48 hours. (what's very strange is that this damn near got optioned by two famous producers and a director)

CAVE ISLAND...a journey to the center of the earth in modern times via the kentucky cave system where they find a huge underground sea, and upon it an island of very strange creatures like Manphibians, and giant catmanders. Doh!

WORD WARS...I'll tell you when I'm finished with it.

Tri
 

Zane Curtis

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HConn said:
As for work I'd like to see made into a movie, I pick the script they're shooting right now. Yeah, I wrote a script, and principle photography commenced today. It's low-budget, non-Hollywood, let's-put-on-a-show-in-Farmer-Brown's-old-barn filmmaking.

That's probably the best way to go about it. If you can do without the big money, you can avoid getting sucked into the whole Hollywood thing. Because I hear all these horror stories... Like the guys looking at Terry Pratchett's Mort, who said, "Great story! Love the concept. But can we lose the whole death angle?"
 

HConn

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I would love to be involved in Hollywood filmmaking. Some people are crazy stupid, but others are brilliant, vigorous, creative people.

The reason we're going DIY is because we aren't in L.A. and aren't going there anytime soon.
 

spacejock2

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HConn said:
Maybe the movie will be bad, but that won't change your book (or whatever), which will still be in it's original form in the bookstores. And I can't imagine it would hurt sales.

Ah. The problem is, if the film is successful they could do a novelisation of it, using another writer. Check the contract fine print to make sure YOUR book is IT.
 

katiemac

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I would love to be involved in Hollywood filmmaking. Some people are crazy stupid, but others are brilliant, vigorous, creative people.



I'm with HConn here. Sometimes I think the film industry is just so fascinating, and I'd love the opportunity to be able to tell a story in another way without writing.

Back to topic, though, I think of my WIP as a film all the time. It plays like a movie reel in my brain, and I think it would be something visually entertaining as well (because I'm a visual person, I hope the writing reflects that) if the right director came around.

Plus, I just got the crazy idea a couple of weeks ago to try to develop a screenplay/tv series, so we'll have to see what route that takes. Unforuntately I haven't the experience to play director myself, so I'll have to look up to somebody else who's brilliant.
 

DaveKuzminski

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Most of the people in film making aren't brilliant. They just happen to have money to produce films. If they were brilliant, they'd produce hit movies more often than not. As it stands, most film makers are lucky to manage just one hit. A few do better than that.
 

whitehound

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spacejock2 said:
Ah. The problem is, if the film is successful they could do a novelisation of it, using another writer. Check the contract fine print to make sure YOUR book is IT.
And retain some sort of editorial control over the film itself. Otherwise you could get the sort of situation where a film studio totally massacred Andre Norton's Beastmaster - apart from the title and the basic idea of a guy working with trained animals, the film bore no resemblance to the book *whatsoever* - yet presumably having sold the rights to this film company she would then not have been able to get someone else to do a decent version of it, nor to make a film of the sequel because she couldn't make a (recognisable) film of the original.
 

katiemac

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A few do better than that.

Exactly, Dave. Hence, one of the "brilliant" ones. I would hope that if someone wanted to make a film out of something I wrote, they would snag one of these great directors, along with a great cast. There have been too many unspectacular movie versions of great novels, and I'm a terrible critic when it comes to movies. I probably couldn't watch a film adaptation of something I wrote, unless I was really excited about the people involved. I'd probably cave in the end, though.

When it comes to book sales, though, I think it would help sales, no matter if the movie turns out terribly or not. You'd have to have a fan base, no matter how big or small, for the film to be made in the first place. A movie would advanced the hype, you'd get redistribution with a different cover, and there's tons of people who would rather "read the book first."

After the film, if they liked it they might read it. If they didn't, well, they probably weren't going to read the novel anyway. They might even pick it up to see what the heck went wrong with the film.

Who knows.
 

spacejock2

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The movie adaptation which made me sick to the stomach? The Borrowers. Read Mary Norton's original series and try to reconcile it with the truly awful film of the same name.
 

HConn

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DaveKuzminski said:
Most of the people in film making aren't brilliant. They just happen to have money to produce films. If they were brilliant, they'd produce hit movies more often than not. As it stands, most film makers are lucky to manage just one hit. A few do better than that.

I would never say that most people in filmmaking are brilliant. In fact, I didn't.

The truth is, it's incredibly hard to make a good movie. The resources it takes, the technical experience required, the creative skills necessary, the cooperation, teamwork, unity of vision...

And then there's the scary, scary costs of it all, the sudden disasters, the headaches with locations, the compromises you have to make because something goes terribly terribly wrong and you can't go off your schedule to fix it.

It's much, much harder to make a movie than most people realize. It's a dumbass thing to undertake, and a person should only do it if they really, really, really want to meet some hot actresses. ;)
 

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Quick'n'dirty answer: All of 'em.

Best answer: The one that kept me out of every creative writing program in America. When I submitted chapters with the app, the universal response(outside of rejection) was one of horror at my having the nerve to send them that sort of story.

So that one should be a film. Heck, it should be a published book, but I have no luck at all getting agents.
 

SeanDSchaffer

Really, the only story I've ever written that I ever saw as a potential film would be my first and presently my only published story. I commonly refer to this story by the letters WC on these boards. I imagined that work in movie form as I wrote it, as sort of a Cecil.B. DeMille epic. In fact, I even have a 'score' for it in my mind, which happens to be Elmer Bernstein's music for Mr. DeMille's movie, 'The Ten Commandments.' All that said, WC would definitely be the one choice I would have for someday being turned into a film, at least at this present time.

Truthfully, though, I'd like to get it back from the 'Publisher' that has it now, because I really think I could have written it much better than that 'publisher' --they're more of a printer, actually -- has it 'available' presently. I think if a real publisher gets it, their editors will know exactly how to make the story soar to new heights of great storytelling.

Someday, maybe, both dreams could come true? It's always a possibility.
 

Ivonia

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I had a question relating to this topic (and no, I don't have any suggestions atm for the topic in case you're wondering).

It's probably still "experimental" if anything, but has there ever been a novel written and a movie made that instead of merely being adaptations, complemented each other in the overall story? For instance, the novel covers one aspect of the story (and the overall majority of it), while the movie, although it still travels along the same path, covers other parts of the story that the novel only hints at?

I am attempting to write something like that (although I'm obviously going to hold the movie rights until I have more prestige/standing, in case the book does well), where if you read the novel and see the movie, you can see the overall picture better (in my story, the novel basically only covers events the hero himself sees, and only hears about other things that occur from his friends/news sources. The movie would follow the hero at many of those key events, but would probably branch off a little from time to time and show those actual events the hero only hears about in the novel, some of which are pretty brutal/painful to even describe).

I suppose I'm thinking too big, but hey, if it works, then I will have told a better story for many people (and I'm big on trying to entertain people with a good story). And yes, I realize that this will take a ton of effort to have it work. But I for one am tired of seeing adaptations that are usually poor in comparision (and yes, I know, a novel is different medium than film, which is why I'm attempting to learn both) and usually end up more or less contradicting each other or being plain bad (and in case you're wondering, this story of mine was originally going to be a screenplay first, but I just can't bear the thought of giving up all my rights to it, including being able to tell the story the way I envisioned it, hence the novel).
 

katiemac

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It's probably still "experimental" if anything, but has there ever been a novel written and a movie made that instead of merely being adaptations, complemented each other in the overall story? For instance, the novel covers one aspect of the story (and the overall majority of it), while the movie, although it still travels along the same path, covers other parts of the story that the novel only hints at?

That's an interesting thought, Ivonia. The best I can come up with would be such films which are "loosely based" on the novel in question. Most recently, "Fever Pitch," based on a Nick Hornby novel. I think what you're talking about would be more common in films based from short stories, but again I have no examples.
 

maestrowork

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I think even a bad movie would help the book sales (I can't count how many bad Stephen King movies there are -- but they all helped his sales).

My books would probably make pretty good TV movies (Hallmark, perhaps?) but not sure about feature films. I do think The Pacific Between would be nice -- filmed in California and Asia, with Hugh Jackman, Gong Li and Amanda Peets as leads.

CTN would make a very nice epic -- but probably more of a miniseries than a feature film.
 

preyer

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i wonder which works out better, short stories or novels, when considering which to turn into a movie.

invonia, i think the best thing you could hope for is having a 'matrix' situation. obviously, movies like 'star wars' are the exception, but as far as 'complimenting' goes (or in lucas' case, contradiction) have got a whole slew of novels that details the inbetween stories, backstory, and the expanded universe tales that progress the story, not to mention the comic books and the short cartoon series which ostensibly links episode II to III (at least it introduces general grievious). the 'matrix' even had a linking videogame between movies.

i figure if 'they' think it's a good enough story, it's going to be made into a movie eventually. let's face it, that's where the money is. if i was in it for the money, i'd write screenplays, heh heh. i'd venture to say that unless you produce your own movie, then your story will be compromised to a certain extent for the sake of telling the best story in that medium. even then you've got practical matters and other visions coming into play.

i myself, were it a choice between screenplay and novel, i think i'd seriously consider the former. if nothing else, you'd have one helluva outline to do your novel by *if* it doesn't get optioned. if it's optioned, that's basically free money if you ask me. if they never make the movie, oh, well, then you can sell the novel. if people buy the book, sell them back the option. suckers. the way i see it, though, is you'd have missed out on that first round of income. and from what i gather, you'd live more comfortably on option money than advances and royalties off one book: of course, that's probably wrong and lots of variables go into it, just something to look into (though i'm sure you already have :)).

i think people have deep decisions to make in terms of their artistic visions when separating novels from screenplays. by that, what do we want out of it. realistically, even if i wrote and sold every novel idea i had, i'm sure to lead a life of relative obscurity outside a particular circle of people who might look forwards to my next book. who knows, though, it's a slim possibility i get lucky and happen to write the next 'da vinci code.' chances are that's not going to happen. :)

were i able to establish myself as a solid writer, i figure there's the very real possibillity to earn a comfortable living from that. and i could go to a convention and be recognized, or do some book signings and feel like a big man for a day. maybe someone would recognize me on the street. i'd get a mention in the local newspaper when i died. and i'd be cool with all that.

or, i could write tons and tons of screenplays. probably three or four for every novel. getting half of them optioned would, afaik, support me and mine better than being a novelist, the difference being that even if i wrote the screenplay for a blockbuster, no one will still know my name. to be honest, i don't even pay attention to who writes a script. when you rent a movie, it's extremely rare to find the writer's name mentioned prominantly on the back unless the director wrote it, too. in essence, i'd probably be even more obscure as a screenwriter than as a novelist. at least as novelist, i'd get *some* recognition, but i sacrifice some money and certainly as a screenwriter give up a lot of artistic vision.

writing scripts is tempting. i'll no doubt give it a go eventually, especially if i can't sell any novels. i mean, what good is not having your book published? at least if it's made into a movie, *some* part of the story gets across.

'the golden rules' would make a kick-as s movie, i've no doubt, but it would be an expensive one to do. as an aside, i think george lucas is by far a better businessman than he is a storyteller. his business accumen is genius. he's shown hollywood the way in that if you want to tell any story you want you practically have to own your own production company to do it, especially the digital fx studios. i remember reading that if lucas had to pay full-price to have EPI made the cost would be over $300 million.

i should amend myself: the best movie i could write would be a script for aquaman. oh, man, do i have a hundred ideas for that. at double the cost of 'the golden rules', lol.
 
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