Books That Would Make Great TV Shows

[Luckylyn]

I think a show based on One Second After by William Forstchen which deals with the aftermath of the power going out all over the world could be fascinating.  It could be everything Revolution isn't.  It focuses on how one community tries to survive and all the hard choices that have to be made.

 

Tunnel in the Sky by Robert Heinlein where students get trapped on a distant planet used to test their survival skills is something I'd love to see.  There are only supposed to be there ten days but are stuck for years.

 

 

[Shannon L.]

I'd love to see a show about the Karp-Ciampi family in the novels by Robert Tannenbaum.  The plots are convoluted, but he creates such great characters. 

[FurryFury]

Zelazny's The Amber Chronicles, definitely. I hoped that after the success of Game of Thrones there would be more fantasy on TV, but it doesn't seem so, sadly. But Amber's just tailor-made for a TV adaptation (preferably a cable one).

[The Crazed Spruce]

I always thought the novel The Alienist by Caleb Carr was just ripe for adaptation.  In the book, a scientist in the late 1800's, who specializes in advanced (for the time) forensic techniques, assembles a team of experts to hunt a serial killer.  (Granted, it does cover a lot of the same ground that Murdoch Mysteries does, but I do love that show, and this book had a much more dramatic take on the concept.)
 
I also wouldn't mind seeing a show based on Sue Grafton's Kinsey Milhone books.  Or Ed McBane's 87th Precinct, for that matter.  (Yeah, I know, they've already made two pilot movies about the 87th that weren't picked up for series.  I'd still like to see it, though.)

And if we're talking science fiction, Spider Robinson's Callahan's Crosstime Saloon would make a great basis for a Twilight Zone-style anthology series.

Edited May 31, 2014 by The Crazed Spruce

[magdalene]

Dorothy Dunnett's THE LYMOND CHRONICLES. Adapting it for TV might be brilliant or an utter disaster. Maybe HBO would do it justice.

[Anela]

I could see The Book Thief, as a small series. I loved that book.

 

A Year by the Sea, about an older woman coming to life again.

[aradia22]

When I think of a book or series I'd like to see turned into a TV show, I think of something like Game of Thrones which isn't episodic. I want something with a very set story that won't allow the writers to make the gigantic mess of things that so many shows end up becoming or something that can be a miniseries. But the shows that tend to get picked up are episodic. What's your premise? What's the hook? Bonus points if it's some kind of police procedural.

 

Also, a lot of books are written in a movie-ish fashion where you don't flesh out all the details. On the one hand, this makes it seem like a movie adaptation is the better choice. On the other hand, a book like that would give you room to play. I can't think of a better example right now but Ella Enchanted could have been a much better movie than it was. But make no mistake, it was very movie-ish with large swaths of time just skipped over. But if you wanted to, you could go in and flesh out the time she spent at school or as a servant in a television show. So... kind of like the difference between Ever After and Reign. One story gets things done quickly and the other draws things out.

[ParadoxLost]

When I think of a book or series I'd like to see turned into a TV show, I think of something like Game of Thrones which isn't episodic. I want something with a very set story that won't allow the writers to make the gigantic mess of things that so many shows end up becoming or something that can be a miniseries. But the shows that tend to get picked up are episodic. What's your premise? What's the hook? Bonus points if it's some kind of police procedural.

 

I think J.D. Robb's In Death series would make the perfect TV show.  Its part romance and mystery (one homicide case per book).  Its set in the future, just enough to allow sci-fi elements and unique crimes but not so unfamiliar to be off putting to people that don't like that kind of thing.  The series brings in new characters with each crime and is now fairly well rounded with interesting secondary and reoccurring characters.

 

Its tough to describe without spoilers.  Its fifty or so books in and only two or three years have passed, so I think they could easily do a two to three episode arcs per book and stick to a season is a year in the life.

[selkie]

Ben Aaronovich's 'Rivers of London' series has been optioned for television. Since Aaronovich has been a Who scriptwriter, I wouldn't be surprised if the books were a little bit written with tv in mind. Here's hoping the series makes it because he just makes modern London come alive so wonderfully.

[Kromm]

Really the problem overall with book adaptations (and comic book ones) is that it's cheaper to make your own.  Thus the acclaimed comic book property, Fables, gets passed over for years because someone can sneak in with the same elements and make Once Upon A Time without paying for the rights.  Frankly I'm shocked that didn't happen with Vampire Diaries too (except maybe they didn't pay a lot for the rights, or the TV/movie options on it were secured a long time ago, before it became obvious it might cost some real coin later on).

 

I suppose options like that are the real key.  I don't know if Game Of Thrones had an option in place already, or really cost them that way.  I suspect it was the first.

 

BTW:  I always find myself wishing they'd make a real version of Temperance Brennan, with the real actual characters and circumstances from the books.  One thing I LOATHE are adaptations that use the name and nothing else (doubly so when it all goes to crap like it did eventually with Bones).  No, I don't think it would ever happen, I'm just ruminating on the fact that (other than featuring an older protagonist) how the actual books in a way are probably better fodder than what they made up.

[Tunia]

Piggybacking on the popularity of Southern Charm, I could see Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil adapted into a series expanding on the lives of the individual characters...and I DO mean characters!

[Kromm]

Zelazny's The Amber Chronicles, definitely. I hoped that after the success of Game of Thrones there would be more fantasy on TV, but it doesn't seem so, sadly. But Amber's just tailor-made for a TV adaptation (preferably a cable one).

While it's one of my favorite Fantasy series of all time, I think it just wouldn't be possible to make this as ANY kind of property, other than maybe as animated.  The settings change too constantly and are too "big" to fake out with something generic.

 

The most similar property I can think to Amber that might be possible is Philip José Farmer's World of Tiers.  Due to the nature of the world traveling I think this is a bit more doable, because it's MOSTLY just Earth and the World of Tiers (and for one book, one world called The Lavalite World), and most of the other places the series visits can be handled by internal sets.  The problem though is that it doesn't have the same level of compelling Family/Big Cast drama that the Amber books share with Game of Thrones.  So maybe for that reason this one doesn't work.

 

Maybe the best plan to "clone" the vibe of Game of Thrones is not to do another Fantasy, but instead Sci-Fi.  Dune was tried and that didn't work (and frankly Dune works more like Fantasy) but there are plenty of classic Sci-Fi books/series that delve into that kind of big, disparate Family Drama stuff.  No damn zombie stuff or post-Apocalyptic crap though.  DONE TO DEATH.  Nothing too hard Sci-Fi.  Just something pot-boilery and Space Opera-ish, akin to Star Wars, minus all the magic Jedi stuff (and maybe even the aliens) and just focusing on the political stuff.

[blueray]

Harry potter but not the same story just taking place in the wizarding world. It would be interesting to follow different students going to hogwarts and the daily stuff that happens. I suppose the main characters would start out as first years and grow up as the show went on (so cast would be young and british). And maybe some cameos ;).

[selkie]

There have apparently been a couple of near attempts in getting Dragonriders of Pern onto the small screen, including one that almost made it to casting before Anne McCaffrey, who had a producer role, pulled the plug because the network (I think it was the WB) wanted to make it a teen soap opera with dragons. Given how much better the FX is these days, I'd love to see someone else try to make a go of the universe while remaining more faithful to the feel of the books.

 

If you want soap opera, and can find the right lead actor for it, I'd love to see Lois Bujold's Vorkosigan saga as a series. There's a lot of room in Miles' Dendarii years where you could fill in gaps in the book canon. The problem is the lead- Miles is short (somewhere around 4"10") and twentysomething through much of the series, so Peter Dinkledge is too old if they're looking for a name, and the actor needs to be able to pull off Miles in full manic creative phase.

Edited June 13, 2014 by selkie

[Danny Franks]

I've been talking up this series around here, but I'll mention it again, seeing as Syfy have commissioned a show of it. The Expanse series by James S.A. Corey (collaborative pseudonym for Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck), starting with Leviathan Wakes.

 

Big, exciting, fast-paced space opera featuring a loveable band of characters and a well-thought-out world consisting of three opposing powers of Earth, and the human colonised Mars and Asteroid Belt stations. There's plenty of political intrigue and conniving, there will be plenty of action and suspense and mystery, and there will be a fair amount of Cronenberg style body-horror, if it's done right. Even some elements of noir, with burned out cop, Miller, one of the protagonists.

 

There's a lot of Firefly in it, but I hope it doesn't get pigeon-holed as a copy, because there's a lot more to it.

 

And I still think that the Wheel of Time could make a truly spectacular TV show, if it was given the HBO treatment. Not as grim and miserable as Game of Thrones is, which has been used as a criticism, but it has just as much to offer, and could be geared towards a larger demographic. Though it's just as likely to be done horribly, and end up as some Legend of the Seeker style trash.

Edited June 13, 2014 by Danny Franks

[Joe]

I read the first two Expanse books. I love space opera, but hated them. Perhaps because I don't like Firefly either. So they aren't for everyone.

[Luckylyn]

 

If you want soap opera, and can find the right lead actor for it, I'd love to see Lois Bujold's Vorkosigan saga as a series. There's a lot of room in Miles' Dendarii years where you could fill in gaps in the book canon. The problem is the lead- Miles is short (somewhere around 4"10") and twentysomething through much of the series, so Peter Dinkledge is too old if they're looking for a name, and the actor needs to be able to pull off Miles in full manic creative phase.

I'd love to watch the Vorkosigan Saga on tv.  Miles and his family are such fascinating people.

[Actionmage]

I'd love to see Lois Bujold's Vorkosigan saga as a series.

You, me and mostly my husband, selkie! Mr. Actionmage has been a fan for ages and would love for a good translation to the smaller screen, mostly so more story goodness could be enjoyed!

Miles and his family are such fascinating people.-- I'll second that; his mom would give various tv moms a run for The Most Awesome crown.

 

 

 

Mr. A and I also play Cast The Show for the 1632 series of books by Eric Flint. For those who may not know, a small West Virginia town is dropped into Germany during the titular year and the stories tell how this community works together and with the new neighbors. It's exciting and heart-warming and has hissable  Bad Guys and Gals and it's just swashbuckling good times for all ( or most)!

 

Maybe someone could be persuaded to adapt Marion Zimmer Bradley's The Firebrand  (mini-series or ongoing) or Anita Diamant's The Red Tent?  Then again, I like some 'looking at a familiar story from another point-of-view' treatments.

[ToxicUnicorn]

There have apparently been a couple of near attempts in getting Dragonriders of Pern onto the small screen, including one that almost made it to casting before Anne McCaffrey, who had a producer role, pulled the plug because the network (I think it was the WB) wanted to make it a teen soap opera with dragons. Given how much better the FX is these days, I'd love to see someone else try to make a go of the universe while remaining more faithful to the feel of the books.

This sparked me to think of the Narnia books.  It has always frustrated me that my kids found the first one or two boring and never finished the series.  I loved the idea of traveling back and forth through worlds, with time moving at different paces, as they did.  Garth Nix has an incredible series for kids (Keys to the Kingdom) that had this two-worlds phenomenon plus a lot of twists.  As an adult, I loved reading that along with my son as well. 

 

I would give almost any series a try, if it were based on that central conceit.  Normal folk who get caught up in a cause in another, more mystical and political world, become incredibly important there, yet must return occasionally to their more normal lives.

 

Just thinking out loud: I would not want to see child actors, (both series have teens as the protagonists), nor would I want to see adults in animal costumes.  The only time I've ever seen costuming work well was on Babylon 5 (with an honorable mention to Warf and Data - but a knee jerk reaction against nearly all other Star Trek aliens).  But the idea that there would be a disconnect between the regular world and a more magical one is one I've always loved in books. 

 

Sort of like Once Upon A Time, perhaps, except without Jennifer Morrison and Disney.  (To encapsulate why I won't watch that show in 4 words.)

[bmasters9]

There was an attempt at getting the Ramona Quimby stories by Beverly Cleary onto television; it was simply called Ramona, and it starred Sarah Polley, and it was on in 1988 on PBS. 

Edited September 8, 2014 by bmasters9

[galax-arena]

I thought that the Vampire Academy books would have made for a better series than movie.

[Constantinople]

I think Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin series would make a good television show, but I don't think it will happen because of

 

• the Russell Crowe movie
• the lead characters aren't Americans
• the expense, assuming a ship based story is more expensive to film than a land based one (such as the Sharpe series with Sean Bean).

[Athena]

 

• the expense, assuming a ship based story is more expensive to film than a land based one (such as the Sharpe series with Sean Bean).

 

 

The other example is the UK Horatio Hornblower series with Ioan Gruffudd (now on "Forever"). The cast were all interested in returning, but ship based TV shows are very expensive and have more logistical issues. There just aren't a lot of old ships and ports one can use anymore. I also read that casting arrangements and filming was difficult to arrange because of time of year and weather. 

[blueray]

Guardian of Time Trilogy by Marianne Curley. While I think this would be an awesome movie trilogy, seeing as theres three books. It could work for a series as well. It's about a group a teenagers (and adult characters) who are encharge of preserving history the way it already happened and also have powers of their own. They often travel back in time to stop people from changing it (mainly the evil characters). They do this while being in high school and doing normal teen stuff. It's a good book series about freindship, good vs evil and science fiction adventure.

 

As a tv show it would just follow various missions they have to do, while balencing their present lives, relationships with parents/outsiders and high school.

Edited October 8, 2014 by blueray

[CoderLady]

Speaking of the Horatio Hornblower series, after watching it I eagerly snapped up some of the books and was surprised to find out Hornblower became more of an unlikable asshole as he aged. The books the TV series was based on were the only ones where he wasn't a total jerk, and even then by the end of the series they were starting to have to make him a bit conflicted instead of deliberately unpleasant.

 

I think the series would have had to end where it did anyway or risk saddening a lot of people, including me. It was gorgeous while it lasted though.   

[Athena]

Speaking of the Horatio Hornblower series, after watching it I eagerly snapped up some of the books and was surprised to find out Hornblower became more of an unlikable asshole as he aged. The books the TV series was based on were the only ones where he wasn't a total jerk, and even then by the end of the series they were starting to have to make him a bit conflicted instead of deliberately unpleasant.

 

I think the series would have had to end where it did anyway or risk saddening a lot of people, including me. It was gorgeous while it lasted though.   

 

I think this is a rare instance in which I think the TV show/movie was better than the books in terms of characterization at least. I don't think they could have made Hornblower an asshole in the show. The whole series was about how noble he was. They changed some things from the books any way, and I think they would have had to if they ever took it to the end. 

[Cobalt Stargazer]

I think J.D. Robb's In Death series would make the perfect TV show.  Its part romance and mystery (one homicide case per book).  Its set in the future, just enough to allow sci-fi elements and unique crimes but not so unfamiliar to be off putting to people that don't like that kind of thing.  The series brings in new characters with each crime and is now fairly well rounded with interesting secondary and reoccurring characters.

 

Its tough to describe without spoilers.  Its fifty or so books in and only two or three years have passed, so I think they could easily do a two to three episode arcs per book and stick to a season is a year in the life.

 

Oh, man, I would watch the hell out of a show based on that. It would depend a lot on casting, though, particularly for the leads.

[Luckylyn]

They would have to get Dallas and Roarke right or it wouldn't work.  The chemistry between them would have to be explosive.  Also Dallas can be prickly, so they need an actress who can be tough, charismatic, and sympathetic.  I think viewers tend to be more tolerant of acerbic male characters than of female acerbic characters.  I wouldn't want writers pulling punches and making Dallas too soft.  A show based on those books could be really amazing with the right writers.

[kassygreene]

I'd loved to see In Death in video, but the casting would have to be perfect.  A few years back Lifetime did four of NR's books, and in my opinion none of them were at all well cast, and none of them were that watchable (it doesn't help that I only liked one of those books to start with - Montana Sky - and to make it fit 90 minutes they pretty much whacked out an entire subplot).

 

There haven't been many adaptations of books by my favorite authors, and I can't remember any that were worth a re-watch.  I remember a Jayne Ann Krentz book where all they kept was the name of one or two of the characters, otherwise the movie had nothing in common with the book that shared the title (saving grace: Chris Potter).  And I remember how completely the movie "based" on LaVyrle Spencer's The Fulfillment, butchered the story.

 

So, I dread the In Death books being filmed - there are just too many ways to blow it.

[Jeebus Cripes]

I thought I'd already pitched Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles here, but maybe I'm thinking of TWoP. I read something the other day about a producer being tied to The Vampire Lestat getting made into film. I feel like cable is the way to go. Queen of the Damned was a travesty that I think could all too easily happen again on film. Get some quality producers/writers, hire a stellar cast, and give the characters room to breathe in a series. It would be better than all the other vampire shite floating around right now.

[Actionmage]

Maybe a series based on Lies Across America and Lies My Teacher Told Me, both are non-fiction books by James W. Loewen.

 

It would probably end up on PBS, but it would be great to have historical places and textbooks set straight. I read both books as an adult and my jaw would regularly drop or clench.  The books showed that unless we are vigilant, our history is up for sale. Not just the textbooks either. How historic landmarks sometimes just aren't historically accurate at all. (By the by, the books are well-written and worth the read, angrifying as they are.)

 

Maybe get Mr. Loewen, or Jeff Foxworthy or Jessica Williams to head out to various spots, tape at some of these places and also speak about how textbooks are talking about history of that era/incident getting it wrong too.

[Miss Dee]

I always thought you could make an interesting fantasy/procedural hybrid on the Aurors from the Harry Potter series.

Edited March 7, 2015 by Miss Dee

[Snow Apple]

I use to love R. L. Stine's Fear Street books as a youngster and always thought it would make a good show. Maybe on the CW and with a good budget so it's not (too) cheesy.

[Kromm]

The greatest reason something wouldn't have been viable until now is obviously technological. Something so effects heavy that it would have sucked or been too expensive until now. But there are also marketing, licensing or dramatic reasons something might not have been viable until now either, so I wasn't specific in the title to FX.

I'll start. I want to see Roger Zelazny's Amber Universe. Game of Thrones established the TV viability of large scale fantasy. But the Amber books are far more effects heavy due to the nature of the powers of the major characters (travel to parallel universes which at the extremes don't always look Earth normal). The key is that unlike GoT, the Amber books also have a light fun side to them too. It's more fantasy adventure tale than grand fantasy.  However it also has the family shenanigans too.

Similarly there's also Phillip Jose Farmer's World of Tiers--which is fantasy adventure of a very similar type to the Amber books. I do think Zelazny's series is the better of these two similar series though. It's more focused and the cast would be more consistent (because the books are).

Neither of these shows would have been technologically viable until now. Not sure if they have the fanbases to be viable from a marketing standpoint, but I'm just spitballing here.

Moving over to Sci-Fi, I'd like to see a TV series version of Asimov's Robot books. Not his Foundation books, which are a snoozer, but his Sci-Fi/Detective themed Robot books. There was already a really horrible Will Smith version of I, Robot (which convinced me that Alex Proyas success with Dark City was a fluke, because I, Robot was SO awful), but it's been 13 years since then, so it's long enough to consider this a fresh start. Go back to the original books, The Caves of Steel (which apparently had a BBC adaptation but that was back in the mid-60s), The Naked Sun, and The Robots of Dawn and work at updating those.

One more, coming from Comics. Rather than bringing Green Lantern back to the movies, I'd rather see a stab at a TV show. Why? Because the best version of Green Lantern isn't the solo hero Hal Jordan, but the whole Green Lantern Corps. Meaning an Ensemble. Meaning that would get short shrift in a movie. Even 6 years ago a live action Green Lantern looked ridiculous, even in a theatrical. But I think we're close to it being possible in a limited TV series if banked by big money like Amazon or Netflix (probably Amazon, since Netflix is linked so much to Marvel now). Play up the ensemble--maybe even bringing in procedural elements (just in space). They ARE supposed to be Space Cops, after all. Lean away from the more cliche Superhero elements. Ground the villains less as big monsters and more as space gangsters and such. Obviously the power rings still have to produce giant green constructs, but there are ways to make that less silly. They certainly don't need spandex. Just give them cloth uniforms, and mute them down to LOOK like actual uniforms. You can even have the more modern stuff with the different color corps (Green, Purple, Blue, Orange, Red, etc.) waiting out there to be encountered... just root them more than in the comics, with the rings being tools instead of constant big scale weapons.  Clearly a lot of the more out there aliens in the GL universe of characters have to be eliminated or scaled back but... that's an acceptable cost IMO.

[Sandman87]

I'd like to see Jack Vance's four Planet of Adventure books done as a series. Action, romantic sub-plots, bizarre aliens, even more bizarre human societies, humor, drama, and basically anything one might want in an adventure show. And unlike a lot of works, there's a profoundly upbeat tone to the whole thing.

[Kromm]

An obvious (although controversial) one would be a Dune TV series.  It's been 17 years since the previous try at that (and it was only a mini-series, not a 13 episode deal). 

[Haleth]

Kromm, have you watched The Expanse, based on the book series of the same name?  I don't think I've seen you on the forum.  If you are looking for a very good scifi series with excellent production values you might give it a try.

[Danny Franks]

The Wheel of Time TV series finally seems to be a realistic prospect, with Sony Pictures TV announcing they have a show runner in place.

It's my favourite book series, and one I often dreamed would be adapted for the screen. But to be done true justice,  it would cost significantly more than Game of Thrones. The scale is so much bigger, the magic and fantastical aspects so much a key part of the world. It still might be a disaster, because there is so much that they could get wrong, but I'm so excited for how good it could be if it's done right.

[SirOsisOfLiver]

I've yet to find any book that has ever been done well as TV or a movie. As for sci-fi and the need for technology, I think that's a crutch. I'm thinking to 1968 and 2001: A Space Odyssey. I vividly recall being blown away by noticing the spaceship heading to the space station actually had people moving in the windows. No computers to do some animated touch-up. 1968 tech produced an awesome movie.

[navelgazer]

The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, even though I normally detest antiheroes; Dragonriders of Pern by Anne McCaffery; Liveship Traders and Farseer by Robin Hobb; and Tide Lords by Jennifer Fallon (except the finale, which was dreadful.)  Any of the Mercedes Lackey series would be good, but I particularly liked The Enduring Flame series she co-wrote with James Mallory.  

Someone should bury the dreck that was that Shannara series and remake it with better casting -- that guy was too bulked up to be a credible Allanon, at least to me.  And I'm not sure why The Golden Compass didn't work as a movie since His Dark Materials is really good despite the religious subtext.  They should give that series another go.  

[BookWoman56]

I second the vote for The Wheel of Time series, just because of the potential there. On a more ambitious scale, I'd like to see someone take the various Darkover novels by Marion Zimmer Bradley and turn them into a series. The novels are set in different periods, so it wouldn't work as a straightforward chronological series the way WoT would with the same characters, but there are groups of novels that occur in the same period. I would particularly like to see the books that focus on the Renunciates turned into a series or miniseries. Years ago I had thought Christine Lahti and Amy Madigan would be good for the roles of Magda and Jaelle, but they've aged out by now. 

[Ananayel]

Jumping on the Wheel of Time train. Also, The Chronicles of Master Li and Number Ten Ox by Barry Hughart. Awesome books. I own them in about four different formats. It would have to lean so heavily on effects that it would almost certainly be better animated.

[selkie]

Dragonriders of Pern was the first thing to come to mind when I saw the thread title. We know they can finally get the dragons right.

[Joimiaroxeu]

Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake series, and Nancy Kress' Beggars series. The Oryx and Crake books include a lot animal cross-hybrids that could look silly if the CGI isn't right. The Beggars series could look like something from the 1950s if the futuristic technology isn't rendered in a believable way.

[proserpina65]

9 hours ago, selkie said:

Dragonriders of Pern was the first thing to come to mind when I saw the thread title. We know they can finally get the dragons right.

Same with me.  And I'd add Naomi Novik's Temeraire series, for the same reason.  Dragons!

19 hours ago, navelgazer said:

And I'm not sure why The Golden Compass didn't work as a movie since His Dark Materials is really good despite the religious subtext.  They should give that series another go.  

The BBC is making a tv series of His Dark Materials.  Hopefully it will turn out really well.

[navelgazer]

4 hours ago, proserpina65 said:

The BBC is making a tv series of His Dark Materials.  Hopefully it will turn out really well.

Yay!  Thanks for the heads up!

[feverfew]

17 hours ago, selkie said:

Dragonriders of Pern was the first thing to come to mind when I saw the thread title. We know they can finally get the dragons right.

One of the problems* with the Pern-series is that the books follow so many different people across centuries - I mean; where would you start? Personally I would prefer to anchor the show with Menolly, since a lot of the discoveries happens after the Harper Hall-trilogy, but that might put the books too firmly in the young adult realm. Lessa's story is also interesting (as is Moreta's and Nerilka's), but nothing much happens in the years between Dragonflight and Dragonsinger, and you'd definitely want to tell the (political) story of North vs. South, as well as the discovery of the spaceship...

*Another problem is the slightly icky thing with the dragons mating/bonded humans. It went over my head when I read them as a teenager, but now it makes me squirmish. However, there's a great chance for cast diversity, since the Pernese are supposed to be decendants of space travellers, while 'normal' high fantasy has a tendency to look very Northern European.

I second the plea for a Liveship Traders-series. It has dragons, political ambitions, great female characters and one of the best villians ever written in Kennit. While the author's Farseer-trilogy is the starting point of that universe, Fitz really is an annoying protagonist, the sole female character is a cypher, and the Fool character is a potential minefield.

 

For a limited series I'd like to nominate The Golem and the Jinni by Helen Wecker, since our political climate makes it even more necessary to tell stories of different cultures coming together. And teenage-me has always wanted to see Tamora Pierce's Totall-stories come to life.

[selkie]

A The Black Company series has a lead (Eliza Dushku) and seems to be inching toward reality:

http://deadline.com/2017/04/eliza-dushku-star-the-black-company-series-adaptation-david-goyer-im-global-1202076367/

[SVNBob]

On 4/25/2017 at 1:36 AM, Kromm said:

Rather than bringing Green Lantern back to the movies, I'd rather see a stab at a TV show. [snip] You can even have the more modern stuff with the different color corps (Green, Purple, Blue, Orange, Red, etc.)

There was an animated Green Lantern series on Cartoon Network around 6 years ago, and it had an ensemble cast including a Red Lantern in the main cast.  And it was a critical darling, and well loved by fans.  But because the movie tanked, so did the associated toy sales.  Meaning the toys were still in the stores, so there wasn't a corporate market for more Green Lantern toys, even based on a different property.  So there wasn't a toy line for the series, which means there weren't funds for more episodes.

That said, it's been long enough for someone (DC/WB, on either their upcoming streaming service, or on CW with every other DC superhero show) to try again.  But I suspect that any new GL series would be compared to both the bad movie and the good animated series, and would have to win over the fans of the latter.

[Danny Franks]

19 hours ago, feverfew said:

I second the plea for a Liveship Traders-series. It has dragons, political ambitions, great female characters and one of the best villians ever written in Kennit. While the author's Farseer-trilogy is the starting point of that universe, Fitz really is an annoying protagonist, the sole female character is a cypher, and the Fool character is a potential minefield.

There's more than one female character in the series. Molly, Kettricken, Patience, Starling, Kettle and Celerity all play roles that range from middling to significant. Any adaptation would have to focus more on characters other than Fitz, but it never disappointed me that the book didn't, because it's told from Fitz's point of view. And he's not the most reliable narrator anyway, but I didn't find him annoying as much as I found some of his decisions and reactions annoying. But he is a teenage boy, so I was always more than happy to forgive and understand when he did something dumb.

I'd love to see an adaptation of the Farseer Trilogy, but I do agree that Liveship Traders would be more likely, and lends itself more easily to being converted to the screen. But it's not like the potential minefield of the Fool goes away, because you have Amber instead.

Edited April 28, 2017 by Danny Franks