The Adaptation Wishlist

[ThaOGDreamWeaver]

Bit more of a general topic, prompted by the news that finally - FINALLY - Marvel execs have taken my wise words of wisdom from tweets, emails, post-it notes added to their lunch and screaming messages in lipstick on their mirrors to heart...

 

...Thunderbolts is happening. Quick fan-gibber about that below...

Spoiler

If you're not familiar with it, it's the story of a new group of superheroes who emerge after the defeat of the Avengers. However, you rapidly figure out that all is not as it seems, and there's a big reveal - they're really the Masters Of Evil, plus one unwitting innocent (Jolt).

 

And that's where it gets a bit more interesting. Some of them (Zemo) stay bad. Others kinda like the whole hero thing (Moonstone, Beetle and Screaming Mimi) and start changing sides. Others still (Fixer) are purely self-motivated but happy to roll with whatever side suits them best that day. A whole mix of different characters with different arcs playing off each other. It's the one I've always wanted secretly to write - though from Fixer's PoV. 

 

The tradies, natch, think this is going to be Marvel's Suicide Squad, with Flo Pugh taking the lead and Jake Schreier helming. Jake's definitely another off-the-wall choice: aside from a raft of music videos, he's only made two movies - Paper Towns, with Cara Delevigne, and the criminally unknown Robot & Frank. (Weird premise, quite weird movie, but give it a try and it'll reward you. Oh, and be ready for at least one gutpunch). 

 

While that still sounds good to me, if they're going to do it justice, it needs to be Marvel's answer to Usual Suspects and throw at least one loop we couldn't have seen coming.

 

So - given that Marvel seem to be releasing a new show every ten minutes right now, DC have a few things on the go too with the CW and others, and every producer out there is on the lookout for the next big thing...

 

What would be your dream adaptation project?

Which movie version of your favourite books, comics, games, RPGs, albums, toys, fast-food outlets, highly specific fetishes, common household cleaning products or highway information signs would earn a cinema your $10* and a bucket of popcorn?
Or which movies haven't quite done their subject material justice and need rebooting?

 

_{*note for Americans and other aliens visiting the UK: if you desperately want to catch a flick while you're here, under no circumstances do it in Central London. It'd be cheaper to take the train 2 hours up my way, and the place is liable to be substantially cleaner.}

Edited June 10, 2022 by ThaOGDreamWeaver

[biostem]

It may be tricky and/or expensive to do, but I'd love to see an anime or western animation take on the RIFTS RPG.  I'd also love to see a Terminator series that strictly dealt with the future war, as depicted in T1 and T2;  have it be about some no-name soldier or group of soldiers, and not focused on John Connor.

[Techwright]

Big pulp, dieselpunk, and radio hero fan here.  So two concepts are my dreams.  Sadly, only one stands a chance at seeing the light of day.

 

1.  The inspiration:  A 1990s comic mini-series had Doc Savage and his crew investigating sinister goings on in 1930s New York City. They bump into The Shadow and his minions investigating the same trouble.  An uneasy alliance emerges between the leaders, though their allies are easier going.  It's a Superman/Batman kind of dynamic.  Savage is the light, the golden boy, the hero who will not knowingly kill, and works out in the open.  The Shadow is everything opposite. 

 

Now my dream:  Expand on that, and create a Radio/Pulp/Dieselpunk Movie Universe.  Have introductory movies and then crossovers with Doc Savage, The Shadow, Green Hornet & Kato, The Spider, The Phantom, etc.  all ticking down to an Avengers-type movie.  This would effectively reboot all the characters movies except The Spider, whom I don't think received one.  Bonus if they give solid, balanced parts to Doc's adventurous cousin Patricia Savage, Phantom's feisty wife Diana, and The Shadow's right hand, Margo Lane.

 

2. Inspiration - based on a concept used by NOW Comics in the 1990s, have a trilogy of movies showing that the Green Hornet & Kato are not just 1 team, but generations of two families woven together, originating with the 1930s-40s GH&K (the radio pair). (Actually originating even further back, but more on that in a moment.) In the comics, the TV GH&K were the second generation, with Britt Reid II being named for his uncle, and Bruce Lee's Kato being the son of the original Kato, who is now the head of a major Japanese tech conglomerate named Kato (seed funded by OG GH's wealth after WWII).  It is the Katos who provide all the technology the team uses through their company holdings.  The comics introduced a third generation, with two GH's, brothers, and the first female Kato, the much younger half-sister of TV Kato. The series introduced multiple deaths into the Reid-Kato dynamic, and at least one wedding between the families.  Oh, and the real origin?  The Lone Ranger.  He was Britt Reid I's uncle, and it was his silver mine that founded the family fortune.  Both characters were created and tied by the same creator.

 

The dream: The Green Hornet & Kato: Generations - an updating of the concepts in NOW comics.  Radio GH&K are deceased, and TV GH&K are the aged patriarchs, with new generations being introduced.   Positive result: rebooting the franchise while respecting what went before.  Bonus if we get a Lone Ranger & Tonto tie-in.

 

Edited June 11, 2022 by Techwright

[ThaOGDreamWeaver]

On 6/11/2022 at 2:14 AM, Techwright said:

Big pulp, dieselpunk, and radio hero fan here

 

Side note: I like that Disney+ has quietly rehabilitated The Rocketeer (and even produced a Disney Junior spin-off series). And I feel like The Shadow is one of those movies that has kind of aged into itself. (Is there such a thing as Deco-Punk?)

 

Personally, always liked the gentleman/gentlewoman-thief archetype. Columbia had a hugely successful run of two-reelers with Horatio Black (aka Boston Blackie) and Michael Lanyard (The Lone Wolf). Studios releasing rival offerings not being a new thing, RKO also had The Falcon and The Saint (yep, Simon Templar). Obviously we've had the Ocean's series, plus Hustle and Leverage, but rogues are always fun to write for...

 

Spoiler

...speaking of which, and just so this isn't externally searchable...

 

...next time I get time to fire up Final Draft, The Wizard Of Brooklyn (or possibly The Wonderful Witch Of Queens) might well be about a con artist who stops a terrorist incident with cunning, science and a little street magic.

 

Naturally, in the age of phone cameras, Twitter  and YouTube, they get hailed as a superhero (which they're not) then questioned by assorted trolls in hideously detailed explainer videos as to if they're a fraud (which of course they are, but for all the wrong reasons). 

 

Having to deal with the weight of a cape is a big thing: moreso if you never wanted it in the first place, kind of liked everything that comes with it, but then have to step up. Repeatedly.

 

Edit to add some more stuff without choking the thread:

 

Agatha Christie was ahead of her time in many ways, but the two I have never seen are Murder Of Roger Ackroyd and Curtain. 

(I think the British ITV series did Curtain but it hasn't been repeated).

 

I've very, very much enjoyed the Branagh adaptations - which given the way they're staged, and the Brit-heavy cast, come over as epic-budget remakes of the old Sunday-night dramas. Twisting the formula with Ackroyd would be very interesting, as Poirot isn't entirely the central character or (unreliable) narrator, and I wonder how you'd convey that on film. 

Edited June 13, 2022 by ThaOGDreamWeaver

[InvaderStych]

On 6/10/2022 at 2:15 PM, ThaOGDreamWeaver said:

What would be your dream adaptation project?

 

Personal Dream Project:

 

Posting this against my better judgement as there's a 0% chance anyone would adapt this properly.  That immersive (VR/MR/XR) media story telling has never really worked properly is the not the least of the issues with trying to adapt, but it is definitely one of the technical hurdles.  Still, as much as I'd love to see it done, I cannot think of anyone who would get it right. It is possible that some .... personal nostalgia .... is attached to this, but it does remain one of my favorite series for many reasons.

 

https://www.goodreads.com/series/53770-the-acts-of-caine

 

 

The Adaptation We Need:

 

Someone needs to take this lovely novella and bring it into 2022, but instead of infiltrating and destabilizing a totalitarian society, demonstrate how those same techniques can be used to create one by closing down a previously free society.

 

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/335919.Wasp

 

 

Honorable Mention:

 

I'm surprised this hasn't already been started. Only read the first two books, and while I thoroughly enjoyed and definitely recommend them they are the sort of Sci-Fi clearly written with the express goal of being easily adapted to film or TV.

 

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17333324-ancillary-justice?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=LPlyqkDlvu&rank=1

 

 

 

On 6/10/2022 at 2:15 PM, ThaOGDreamWeaver said:

Or which movies haven't quite done their subject material justice and need rebooting?

 

Reminds me of a conversation with a friend in college many, many years ago.  Hollywood keeps re-making movies that were good the first time around and ignoring those with a solid premise but terrible execution.  For example, Manchurian Candidate.  Zero reason to have re-made that one.  Leave Historically Significant Films Alone.

 

Struggling to recall the list we came up with.  It was a long time ago, and "college" was involved which means that sobriety was not. 😄

 

I do remember arguing that his top choice, Soylent Green, was indeed a terrible film when examined, but too much in the Historically Significant category to be a viable remake.  That and the reveal is burned into cultural memory at this point, so that renders the idea moot anyway.

 

At least it appears that the US Industry has finally figured out (seemingly) that re-making a recently released international movie is needlessly insulting and dumb.  They seem to have realized that we'll actually watch something with subtitles.  Don't be fooled by the red in my neck, I read and I'm not the only one around here that does. 😄

 

Could you imagine if Hollywood treated Parasite the way they treated Abre Los Ojos (re-made in English less than 5 years later as Vanilla Sky) a mere 20 years ago?  Had they learned this lesson sooner we would have been spared the atrocious remake of Oldboy during that era as well. 😄

 

Now, if we could just start making our own TV instead of copying everything you folks are doing over there across the pond maybe we'd be onto something. Fun fact: America has been copying British TV since the time of Sanford and Son. 😄

 

-------------------------

 

Ok, last of my rambling.  I am a sucker for Noir, and I dearly miss the cleverness of Code Era dialog.  The genre is just ripe for the picking for reboots/retreads/inversions/deconstructions, so I'm going to put this link here as folks might appreciate knowing that it is a thing:

 

https://archive.org/details/Film_Noir

Edited June 13, 2022 by InvaderStych

[Techwright]

9 hours ago, ThaOGDreamWeaver said:

 

Agatha Christie was ahead of her time in many ways, but the two I have never seen are Murder Of Roger Ackroyd and Curtain. 

(I think the British ITV series did Curtain but it hasn't been repeated).

 

Curtain was amazing.  David Suchet really threw everything into it.  He himself reported that he had to film the final scene out of sequence because it was so emotionally devastating and he needed something more stable to finish the shoot.

 

There's actually one other dream project I had in mind, and it comes in two flavors.   I'd really like to see a solid Dick Tracy TV series or web channel series created.  Either option should allow for the villains to come to the show piecemeal as in the comics and not all tied to Big Boy's organization as was in the 1990s movie.

 

1. Option 1 - Start with a young Tracy, in college.  Its the murder of his girlfriend's father, Mr. Trueheart, that changes Tracy's career choice. Time jump and he's now a beat cop with a degree in law enforcement.  He's ever seeking the truth behind Trueheart's murder and that gradually reveals Alphonse "Big Boy" Caprise and his organization.  Maybe end season 1 with Big Boy hiring contract killer Floyd "Flattop" Jones to deal with the cop.  Season 2 would see Tracy placed with the detective unit, Season 3 would introduce "the Kid", etc.  Vitamin Flintheart would be an Elon Musk type that befriends Tracy and supplies him with prototype gadgets.  He'd also be obsessed with the latest health trends.   So many characters to draw from, it would be a bit like CW's DC Comics series.  This option would completely freshen the Tracy franchise to today.  I'm not certain how much sci-fi to incorporate into it.  For example, would we really want Pruneface to be the last Nazi leader preserved to the present by cryogenics, like happened in the comics, or would we want him the leader of a current neo-Nazi organization?

 

2. Option 2 - Start with Tracy at the end of his career at a celebration for him, and intersperse brief scenes where people at the party ask for his backstory, followed by another sequential adventure of a younger Tracy rising through the ranks.  This would tell stories within different decades: 1970s, 80s, 90s, 00s, 10s.  Sort of a Young Indiana Jones in format.  This format would pay homage to the past while still leaving a bit for the present.

[Aracknight]

The Belgariad.  Discovered it in the 90's during high school.  Re-read it once a year.   It's a sword and sorcery (Sworcery?) series by David Eddings.  Can't recommend it enough, but it'd probably be butchered on the screen.

 

 

[ThaOGDreamWeaver]

23 hours ago, InvaderStych said:

I do remember arguing that his top choice, Soylent Green, was indeed a terrible film when examined, but too much in the Historically Significant category to be a viable remake.  That and the reveal is burned into cultural memory at this point, so that renders the idea moot anyway.

A few of my work's bigger nerds do drink the Soylent stuff (it's disgusting, btw) and know the gag but have never seen the movie.

70s conspiracy movies (China Syndrome, Capricorn One, Andromeda Strain) are all kinda moot now because there's way too many actual conspiracies kicking around.

 

Side note: the moon landings happened. 100%. One of my relatives worked at Reuters during that era. He always said that while you could maybe silence American patriots, probably the Brits, and possibly write off any CCCP theories as just propaganda, there were Australians involved and they would have blown the whole thing for a laugh.

[InvaderStych]

38 minutes ago, ThaOGDreamWeaver said:

A few of my work's bigger nerds do drink the Soylent stuff (it's disgusting, btw) and know the gag but have never seen the movie.

 

Well, if you've tried Soylent the beverage then you've pretty much tasted the sort of flavor that watching the movie would leave in your mouth.  It is ... not well made. 😄

 

Side Note:  The founder of Soylent is a bit of a garbage person:

 

https://laist.com/news/soylent-ceo-apology

 

I'm all for reused shipping container construction, but the guy just dropped a container on top of one of the rare open spaces around the Desert Sprawl that people can actually enjoy, left it to rot, and then called it an "experiment in sustainable living."

 

45 minutes ago, ThaOGDreamWeaver said:

Side note: the moon landings happened. 100%. One of my relatives worked at Reuters during that era. He always said that while you could maybe silence American patriots, probably the Brits, and possibly write off any CCCP theories as just propaganda, there were Australians involved and they would have blown the whole thing for a laugh.

 

Hah!  That's giving way too much credit to Americans for keeping silent.  But just for fun going to drop this here.  Turns out math can reliably predict how long a conspiracy can remain a secret based on the number of people involved in pulling it off.  Over 400,000 people worked on the first moon landing or missions leading to it in some capacity or another.  Had it been faked we'd have known in less than 4 years. Mathematically speaking. 😄

 

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/science/math-formula-charts-the-lifespan-of-hoaxes

 

 

[Techwright]

1 hour ago, InvaderStych said:

Hah!  That's giving way too much credit to Americans for keeping silent.  But just for fun going to drop this here.  Turns out math can reliably predict how long a conspiracy can remain a secret based on the number of people involved in pulling it off.  Over 400,000 people worked on the first moon landing or missions leading to it in some capacity or another.  Had it been faked we'd have known in less than 4 years. Mathematically speaking. 😄

 

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/science/math-formula-charts-the-lifespan-of-hoaxes

 

 

Two can keep a secret if one of them is dead.  400,000 though?  Phthhh...forget it.

 

Not into telescopes myself, but with today's technology, could they not just point a good one at the actual landing sites and still see the flags, rovers, and other left behind equipment?

[Frostbiter]

3 hours ago, Techwright said:

Two can keep a secret if one of them is dead.  400,000 though?  Phthhh...forget it.

 

Not into telescopes myself, but with today's technology, could they not just point a good one at the actual landing sites and still see the flags, rovers, and other left behind equipment?

 

You don't need to. All you need is the coordinates for one of the many mirrors they placed on the lunar surface and then have a high enough powered laser to bounce a beam back. They placed them there so we could observe the distance and position of the moon relative to the Earth.

[ThaOGDreamWeaver]

9 hours ago, InvaderStych said:

Had it been faked we'd have known in less than 4 years.

With the Australians on board, we'd have known in less than 4 beers.

(Still, they were a bloody clever bunch. If you want to know more, like Sam Neill being awesome, and enjoy movies with sheep in them, watch The Dish.)

 

3 hours ago, Frostbiter said:

Not into telescopes myself, but with today's technology, could they not just point a good one at the actual landing sites and still see the flags, rovers, and other left behind equipment?

 

Gah... are you just in the pocket of Big Telescope now like the rest of them???*

 

And I used to have a big enough laser to bounce off the Moon, but some guys from SHIELD came round and took it off me.
I mean, you drill into one little diamond vault and nobody trusts you any more.

 

_{*As opposed to asking if there's a Big Telescope in your pocket, which is basically trying to flirt in astronomer. (They're not good at it.)}

Edited June 15, 2022 by ThaOGDreamWeaver

[Frostbiter]

51 minutes ago, ThaOGDreamWeaver said:

With the Australians on board, we'd have known in less than 4 beers.

(Still, they were a bloody clever bunch. If you want to know more, like Sam Neill being awesome, and enjoy movies with sheep in them, watch The Dish.)

 

 

Gah... are you just in the pocket of Big Telescope now like the rest of them???*

 

And I used to have a big enough laser to bounce off the Moon, but some guys from SHIELD came round and took it off me.
I mean, you drill into one little diamond vault and nobody trusts you any more.

 

_{*As opposed to asking if there's a Big Telescope in your pocket, which is basically trying to flirt in astronomer. (They're not good at it.)}

 

Soon all will be Hubble. Hubble knows all, sees all.

[InvaderStych]

So ... is it too late to reboot the original?

 

 

[biostem]

10 hours ago, Techwright said:

Not into telescopes myself, but with today's technology, could they not just point a good one at the actual landing sites and still see the flags, rovers, and other left behind equipment?

Even on a "perfectly clear" night, you're still looking through many miles of atmosphere, not to mention that your telescope isn't going to be perfectly stable, and both the Earth and the moon are moving/rotating.  I'm not sure just how much you can actually discern, since your field of vision is several miles wide by the time the light bounces back to your eye.

Edited June 15, 2022 by biostem

[ThaOGDreamWeaver]

Rezzing this thread briefly: I have to admit, I did not see this coming. But Nic gonna Nic...

 

...hopefully Eoin has learned enough from the disastrous Artemis Fowl that this gets a better ride.

I really, really hope so, because there is not one word of this pitch that's not relevant to my interests. 

Edited July 12, 2022 by ThaOGDreamWeaver

[InvaderStych]

3 hours ago, ThaOGDreamWeaver said:

...hopefully Eoin has learned enough from the disastrous Artemis Fowl that this gets a better ride.

I really, really hope so, because there is not one word of this pitch that's not relevant to my interests. 

 

Yeah.  I know nothing about this author or previous novels/adaptations, but that is going on my book list post haste.

 

As far as the movie, well, Prisoners of the Ghostland was pretty satisfying, and actually a lot better than I expected to be so perhaps there is hope?

Given the premise and trailer, one could say much better than it deserved to be, lol ...

 

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6372694/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_8

 

 

[Frostbiter]

I'd really like a faithful (and with a budget) adaptation of The Dresden Files. The SciFi series was good in it's own way but never lived up to the huge shadow the books cast over it. I do have the un-aired two hour pilot and trust me, the series we got was good compared to the special effects used to try and make a faithful Storm Front.

[ThaOGDreamWeaver]

11 hours ago, Frostbiter said:

the huge shadow the books cast over it

...the huge zombie dinosaur shaped shadow, y'mean?

 

But I'm not sure you can do any of them justice without a half-series or limited-series order per book, rather than a movie. There's a lot going on in something like Blood Rites - you've certainly got enough action and backstory for the first episode to kick off with, and a box-full of (large breed) puppies to boot.

 

As for the Nic Cage produced series: I liked it in and of itself, like a series of shorts set in the Dresden world.

The Walls episode in particular. (Hint: do not mess with magic you do not fully understand. Double that if it involves waving parts of dead people around.)

 

[Frostbiter]

1 hour ago, ThaOGDreamWeaver said:

...the huge zombie dinosaur shaped shadow, y'mean?

 

But I'm not sure you can do any of them justice without a half-series or limited-series order per book, rather than a movie. There's a lot going on in something like Blood Rites - you've certainly got enough action and backstory for the first episode to kick off with, and a box-full of (large breed) puppies to boot.

 

As for the Nic Cage produced series: I liked it in and of itself, like a series of shorts set in the Dresden world.

The Walls episode in particular. (Hint: do not mess with magic you do not fully understand. Double that if it involves waving parts of dead people around.)

 

 

RIP (Again)

 

Sue the Dinosaur

66 Million BC - 66 Million BC

Oct 31st 2001-Oct 31st 2001

Edited July 14, 2022 by Frostbiter

[ThaOGDreamWeaver]

 

/em evillaugh