Interesting thought what would make good Sci-fi/Fantasy Movies. Previously much of sci-fi and fantasy was off limits as the settings (and other races) were unachievable at any price. Movies like the Avengers pictures, Project Hail Mary, Lord of the Rings and the recent Dune show that the capability is there (although at a steep price in some cases.
Some I can think of are:
Lensman series: Start with Galactic Patrol, tweak SOME of the characters (e.g. make C. MacDougall a full blown doctor instead of a nurse). The No Female Lensman will be a hard sell (with one exception) but I think it has to stay. At one point J Michael Straczynski of Babylon 5 fame was looking at this in the early 2010’s but I think the rights expired
Zelanzy’s Amber Series. Nine Princes in Amber starts as a noir pulp mystery and then goes weird. Casting will be hard, the initial movie shouldn’t be too hard/expensive, though, as we move through things, the movie cost goes up. Do it right, and it will be no problem
Heinlein The Moon is A Harsh Mistress, No aliens, mostly indoor shooting, a rogue AI this actually might be a cheap one and done right would be a stunner.
Connie Willis To Say Nothing of the Dog . Again mostly indoor shoots and outdoor in some equivalent to the River Thames River C. 1890. Get all the Victorian costumes from the BBC for a few pence. A comedy, a time travel story, a mystery, rescuing an extinct species, and some romances rolled all into one. It’d make a great date movie. Again, I think casting will be critical, people are going to have to really sell their roles and the number of modern actors who do that well are limited.
Matt Dinniman Dungeon Crawler Carl series: I just ran into this. It is a riot about how Earth and its populace get turned into a reality show of a dungeon. all the fantasy animals will be a bear and having a magically enhanced Persian cat as a main character may present issues, but again, limited sets, and this will draw the male/gamer audience back to the theater (and their Dates may just enjoy themselves in the process)
Any other thoughts on these (or others)?
All good stories that would make interesting movies. But whatever they use I’m already encouraged by the fact that “Project Hail Mary” got made and made good money ($656,315,453 and counting). Selecting something original and with a positive, hopeful spin on humanity’s future is a definitely hopeful sign.
And Project Hail Mary stuck MOSTLY to practical effects. So costs Project Hail Mary – $248 Million (with $48 million in film credits) Avengers Endgame – $356-400 Million Return of the King – $94 million Dune – (First of recent pair) – $165 million Project Hail Mary has made 2x+ so far and there’s still money for foreign showings and home media to be made. Endgame made not quite 3X (something like $1.1 billion) Dune made almost 3x ($465 Million) Return of the king cost $94 million (although how to count cost when you shoot all 3 films together is… Read more »
How about a really good special effects treatment of “Dr Who and the Daleks”? Or maybe a modernized Pellucidar with Tarzan? Tarzan still sells. Maybe EE Smith’s “Circus of the Galaxy” about heavy gravity circus performers who are undercover agents for the empire? Or Heinlein’s “Between Planets”?
I don’t know I’m kind of fond of the plumbers helper based Daleks. ERB is off of Hollywoods to do list due to the massive flop of John Carter (which is a darn shame and was almost wholly Disney marketing panicking over what to do with the Title A Princess of Mars), As for Heinlein juveniles, I prefer Citizen of the Galaxy and Starman Jones.
Or Larry Niven’s “Known Space” Universe stories set in the not-too -distant future, like the Gil “The Arm” Hamilton crime stories, Becalmed in Hell, The Jigsaw Man, or A Gift from Earth.
At one point somebody had rights to Ringworld (perhaps as a TV series like Amazon style). That’s clearly gone into production hell or it just became clear that even now it is too expensive. Some of the Beowulf Shaefer stuff might work. Becalmed in Hell might work, but you need to set it other than on Venus as the science has changed in 60+ years.
Robert Silverberg’s’ “Lord Valentine’s Castle”
Harlan Ellison’s short “I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream”.
All Niven’s and Pournell’s stuff. Lucifer’s Hammer for a start + plus anything featuring the Puppeteers.
“A Canticle for Leibowitz” by Walter Miller in the 1950’s.