6 Sci-Fi/Fantasy Movies That Hollywood Should Be Making Instead of Candy Land Power Grid By Rebecca PahleJun 6th, 2012, 12:30 pm You are seeing this message because you have javascript disabled. To use our slideshows you need to enable javascript. There's no cross domain hackery or tracking voodoo, it's just some sweet jQuery animations. Please, think of the animations. In the meantime, enjoy the html version below. I guess. If that's your thing. Allow Us to Explain Anyone else get the feeling that Hollywood is out of ideas? Take a look at this summer’s studio releases. What do you see? A lot of entries into pre-existing franchises (The Avengers, The Amazing Spider-Man, Prometheus), a sequel or twelve (Men in Black III, Madagascar 3), some additions to the “edgy kid’s story” genre that’s refused to die since Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland made bank, two movies based on self-help books (Think Like a Man, What to Expect When You’re Expecting), and one that draws its inspiration from a board game (Battleship). Look, I’m not here to pooh-pooh the idea of sequels, prequels, reboots, remakes—there are some ridiculously unnecessary ones, sure, but if I told you my level of anticipation for The Dark Knight Rises is not positively stratospheric I’d be lying. I’m not asking that Hollywood start coming out with original content or anything, because A) that’s what indie movies are for, and B) it would be unrealistic. Hollywood exists to make money. If people pay to see Madagascar 3, they’re going to make Madagascar 4. That’s how it works. But still. Movie versions of Candy Land (and Adam Sandler is attached, oh goodie!), Stretch Armstrong, and the Ouija board are in the works. Hollywood, I implore you: If you’re going to adapt something, can’t it be something good? To that end, here are five sci-fi/fantasy books (plus one comic) that somehow, against all odds, haven’t made it to our collective eyeballs yet, whether because of a stint in development hell or because some studio bigwig decided to go for G.I. Joe: Retaliation, instead. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon Though Chabon’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Kavalier & Clay (which isn’t sci-fi or fantasy, but it’s about the comic book industry, so let it slide) hasn’t made it to the big screen yet, it’s not for lack of trying. Let’s take a look at a (partial) list of the people connected at one point or another to a film adaptation: You have Hollywood superpower Scott Rudin (#1), the first producer to win the EGOT, who bought the screen rights to the book even before it was published. In 2002 an Entertainment Weekly article noted that Rudin and director Sydney Pollack (#2) were talking to Jude Law (#3) about a starring role. Shortly thereafter, Billy Elliot director Stephen Daldry (#4) made clear his intention to helm a film version. Casting speculation started in earnest; to quote Michael Chabon on his Website: “It was a casting-buzz. It went like this: Tobey Maguire [#5] as Sam Clay. Jamie Bell [#6] as Joe Kavalier. Natalie Portman [#7] as Rosa Saks. It buzzed very seriously for about eleven minutes. Then it went away. My reaction (since you asked): Natalie Portman: perfect. Tobey Maguire: interesting choice, like to see it. Jamie Bell: isn't he, like, 15?” Other actors considered at one point include Andrew Garfield (#8), Ryan Gosling (#9), Ben Whishaw (#10) and Jason Schwartzman (#11). The project is still stuck in development hell, with Daldry commenting last year that he’d rather the project be an 8-part HBO miniseries. Earlier this month Benedict Cumberbatch, asked what his dream role would be if given a “blank check” to appear in anything, cited Kavalier & Clay. Sorry, Sherlock, but at the rate this project is going kid actors Max Records (Where the Wild Things Are) and Isaac Hempstead Wright (Game of Thrones) might have a better shot at eventually snagging a leading role. Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett This is another one of those development hell things. Terry Gilliam was attached to the script way back in 1999, and though over the years rumors kept popping up for fans to freak out over (Johnny Depp as Crowley? OMG! Robin Williams as Aziraphale? Err...), nothing actually happened. (Not surprising, giving Gilliam’s legendary difficulty getting his pet projects made. See: The Man Who Killed Don Quixote). Good Omens, in which angel and demon BFFs must put a stop to the plans of Heaven and Hell to bring about the Apocalypse, is one of those books where you can’t believe someone hasn’t made it yet. It has a large, passionate following of sci-fi geeks (who, as we know, tend to be very willing to plonk down money in support of things they like), plus both Gaiman and Pratchett have already had some of their other books adapted for the big screen. A Good Omens movie makes perfect sense! That may be why it’s being made into a four-part BBC miniseries, set to air next year and being co-directed by Terry Jones (of Monty Python fame) and Gavin Scott. Pardon my paranoia, but this sounds too good to be true, and I’m pretty sure it’s an elaborate prank Crowley is playing on us Good Omens fans. I’ll believe this miniseries is actually happening when I’m sitting on my sofa watching Crowley and Aziraphale chatting about ineffability while feeding ducks, and not a moment before. The Giver by Lois Lowry Step back, The Hunger Games. The Giver is the number one young adult dystopian novel and always will be. Jeff Bridges and producer Nikki Silver have been trying to get a film version going for over well a decade. (Bridges originally intended his father Lloyd to play the role ... to give you an idea of how long Bridges the Younger has been working on this movie, Lloyd Bridges passed away in 1998.) Though The Dude now intends to play The Giver -- and wouldn’t that be amazing? -- the movie seems no closer to helping middle school students avoid doing their summer reading than it ever has been. Fables by Bill Willingham We’re still neck-deep in the “edgy fairy tale” trend, but Fables, about fairy tale characters living in the modern world, is nowhere to be found. Harry Potter director David Yates (Order of the Phoenix, Half-Blood Prince, Deathly Hallows parts 1 and 2) was rumored to be attached to an adaptation of the long-running Vertigo comic series but it turns out he passed on the project. Fables fans looking forward to seeing creator Bill Willingham’s versions of Snow White, the Big Bad Wolf and the rest make it to the screen were disappointed yet again when plans for a TV version on ABC were scrapped. When ABC rolled out their fairy tale-themed fantasy drama Once Upon a Time last year, many Fables fans cried foul... though it should be noted that Willingham himself doesn’t believe Once to be a rip-off, a view he defended at length in an interview (well, an interview with himself) last year on Comic Book Resources. The Redwall Series by Brian Jacques It’s beloved by children (for whom it was written) and adults (who grew up with the 22-book series) alike. It has name recognition: Even if you haven’t read the series, you’re probably at least aware of it. It has franchise potential: If movie number one rakes in the dough, there’s plenty to pull from for a whole mess of sequels (direct-to-DVD or not; your choice, studio). There are talking animals, for Christ’s sake. Why hasn’t this been made into a movie yet? While Brian Jacques’ Redwall series, set a fantasy world populated with anthropomorphic animals, got a short-lived TV series (pictured) and a TV movie, no movie has made its way to the big screen yet. There was news back in 2009 that a company called IMAGEN Films would be helming an adaptation -- they even set up an official site for the film -- but it turned out that the planned project was never really planned at all. To quote an official Redwall.org email on the subject, “We were aware that a company called Imagen films were advertising a Redwall Movie for release in 2011 via a website called redwallthemovie.com. Unfortunately, however, the information contained at that site was/is untrue. Brian Jacques and the Redwall Abbey Company have never negotiated any film deal with Imagen. There are no plans at present to produce a Redwall Movie but any future projects will be announced first at www.redwall.org.” Needless to say, there have been no future film projects announced at redwall.org. Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke This one is kind of a personal dream of mine. The debut novel of British author Susanna Clarke, Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell spent some time on the New York Times bestseller list when it was released in 2004 and won a slew of awards in 2005, among them the Hugo Award and World Fantasy Award for Best Novel. Oh, and it was named the Best Novel of the year by Time Magazine, so there’s that. Shortly after its release the book was optioned by New Line Cinema, and though the first draft of a script was finished back in 2005, a movie version of Clarke’s splendid Harry Potter-meets-Jane Austen fantasy tale is no closer to being finished (or started, really). It’s not surprising. Jonathan Strange would make a horrible movie. A 1000+ pages fantasy novel/period piece, it spans decades in the lives of its two main characters, an up-and-coming magician and his curmudgeonly mentor, one of whom goes off and fights in the Napoleonic Wars as the Duke of Wellington’s right-hand magician. There’s just no way to squeeze everything into a two-hour movie... and I know that gets said a lot about adaptations, but that makes it no less true in this case. There’s the Battle of Waterloo, and it’s not even the climax of the book, for Pete’s sake. That said, Jonathan Strange would make a perfect BBC miniseries. Perfect. Four episodes (hell, make it six or seven, give us a whole season) would be sufficient time to flesh out the characters and their relationships, whereas a movie would probably end up having to jump from set piece to set piece just to squeeze everything in (*cough*HarryPotterandtheHalfBloodPrince*cough*). Fantasy TV is popular right now (see: Game of Thrones, Once Upon a Time) and British period dramas, though never really unpopular, have gained more visibility as of late due to Downton Abbey. The time is right for this, and I just want it to happen so I can start thinking in earnest about whom they should cast as the gentleman with the thistle-down hair... and the Raven King... and Jonathan Strange... and the Duke of Wellington... and, well, everybody. I just really love this book. Have a tip we should know? tips@themarysue.com Filed Under: Bill WillinghamCandy LandFablesGood OmensLois LowryMichael ChabonNeil GaimanRedwallTerry PratchettThe Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and ClayThe Giver Follow The Mary Sue: Previous PostNext Post Previous PostNext Post
