Saturday, February 19, 2011

Book Blogger Hop: A Night at the Movies

Book Blogger Hop
I’m a little bit off the pace this week so my contribution to the Book Blogger Hop, hosted at Crazy for Books, is a touch late.  The question posed this time by Jessica from a Great Read is:

“What book(s) would you like to see turned into a movie?”

In reality, my answer is quite straightforward: none, none, none!  In fact, I would go as far as to say that if any Hollywood producers happen to be reading this (as of course they do) and are considering giving the green light to filming a book I like, please just say no.  Put the book down and focus on something totally different because, in general, I hate film versions of books I have enjoyed.  Although I’m not OCD’ish and am not particularly details-oriented in my everyday life, I don’t cope very well with film adaptations that move away from a faithful reproduction of the original book.   So, really and truly, I don’t want any more movie versions of books.  Too many disappointments , too many shockers.

I know that this sort of defeats the point of the question though so I will try and answer it.  I’d start off by suggesting that the moviemakers go back and try and correct some of their previous excesses.  Maybe they could redo turkeys like Dune, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy or even Breakfast at Tiffany’s (not a BAD film, just not a patch on the Capote novel).  And these only touch the surface – Disney’s version of Hunchback of Notre Dame, anyone?

Assuming past grotesqueries have to be left unavenged, however, I would suggest the following two books as suitable candidates:

The Dark is Rising.  I have always felt that Susan Cooper’s  five book sequence is criminally underrated as a piece of children’s literature and a decent film adaptation might help to give it some long overdue recognition.  It is a wonderful saga of confrontation between the Dark and the Light incorporating elements of Celtic, Anglo-Saxon and Arthurian legend and myth.  A film version of The Dark is Rising, the second in the sequence, has been made but it was sooooooo bad and soooo unfaithful to the book that it should really be buried in a lead-lined casket and consigned to one of the lower circles of Hell.  It deserves so much better.

Feeding Frenzy.  This is a slightly quirky choice but I could see it working as an indie flick, with someone like Paul Giamatti as the lead.  Stuart Stevens came to Europe in the company of a six foot tall fashion assistant called Rat, got hold of a Mustang and attempted to eat in all of the (then) 29 three Michelin-starred restaurants in Europe.....on consecutive nights.  The result?  A kind of Hunter Thompson gonzo trek across the continent. Total chaos, great book, I’d go and see the film.

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