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    Authors completely missed out by TV / films

    Given the sheer volume of his work and how appealing it could be (horses, thrills, villains, action), why has Dick Francis's many books been so overlooked by TV companies?

    (Arguably this could have been in the books thread)

    #2
    It's not completely missed out but while every man and his dog was piling onto the LOTR/Harry Potter/GoT thing, Terry Pratchett was just bumbling along selling millions of Discworld books. This changed a bit when Sky popped up every two years to miss the entire point and Good Omens finally got made.

    There is a Men At Arms adaptation coming soon which looks so far away from the original as to be set on an entirely different Disc.

    Anyway, to the OP - was going to say Isaac Asimov. I, Robot wasn't much like the book. I know Foundation is coming soon - good luck with making that work.

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      #3
      Good call on Sir Pterry.

      I've read Foundation but didn't rate it much. The Bicentennial Man was an Asimov adaptation, but, yes, a lot of his stuff has been missed out.

      Same with Arthur C Clarke. Apart from the 2001 series, which he wrote parallel to the film, nothing has really been attempted that I'm aware of. (I have a dim memory of Rama being turned into something.)

      Iain M Banks's Culture novels are some more that have yet to be attempted. Although that would work more as a framework for a series rather than trying to turn the books into films.

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        #4
        Originally posted by Patrick Thistle View Post
        Given the sheer volume of his work and how appealing it could be (horses, thrills, villains, action), why has Dick Francis's many books been so overlooked by TV companies?

        (Arguably this could have been in the books thread)
        Convincingly filming sport of any kind and large sporting events in particular is difficult and expensive. Producers may look at DF's oeuvre and decide that there are easier options to pursue. There was a short lived series of film length TV adaptations in the late '80s starring Ian McShane, maybe in the wake of Inspector Morse kick starting a trend for two hour 'quality' thrillers.

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          #5
          Have any of Carl Hiaasen’s books been made into TV/movies apart from Strip Tease? Which of course wasn’t marketed as a comedy crime caper anyway.

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            #6
            Thanks Benjm - I didn't realise there had been an attempt.

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              #7
              Dick Francis certainly seems under adapted given his success. I wonder whether another reason is that he was effectively a very popular cult author and there were doubts about whether his appeal would translate to a wider audience than those who were already buying his books, a necessary jump for a successful film or television programme.

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                #8
                I'd put him more as niche than cult, but yeah, that's a point.

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                  #9
                  On a similar note, Jeffrey Archer. Also, Martin Amis?

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                    #10
                    Originally posted by diggedy derek View Post
                    On a similar note, Jeffrey Archer.
                    Phew!

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                      #11
                      There was a film adaptation of that Jeffrey Archer one Kane and Abel. It was actually extremely good, well the tear-jerker end was.

                      This thread immediately put me in mind of the Culture novels. I think they'd be utterly impossible to put on screen, mostly because if you asked 100 people to try and draw the universe and characters being described you'd not get anything remotely consensual.

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                        #12
                        Originally posted by Rogin the Armchair fan View Post

                        This thread immediately put me in mind of the Culture novels. I think they'd be utterly impossible to put on screen, mostly because if you asked 100 people to try and draw the universe and characters being described you'd not get anything remotely consensual.
                        That's not necessarily a bad thing. Varying interpretations can be both valid and interesting.

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                          #13
                          There’s a version of London Fields out there.

                          I think several Archer novels made it to Sunday night ITV mini-series in the late 80s.

                          Edit: Three. Kane and Abel, Not A Penny More, Not A Penny Less and First Among Equals.
                          Last edited by Snake Plissken; 19-08-2020, 17:36.

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                            #14
                            Originally posted by diggedy derek View Post
                            Also, Martin Amis?
                            There is a film of London Fields that was held back from release for several years but finally limped out two or three years ago. It is supposed to be absolutely terrible. Amis' reputation rests largely upon his facility as a prose stylist. Take that away and a lot of of his work is just nasty people with contrived names bumbling around West London, as if he were the portrait in Richard Curtis' attic.

                            Anyone who has seen the 1970 film of Take A Girl Like You might wish that his dad had been similarly neglected.

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                              #15
                              Have many of George Orwell's books or essays been filmed? 1984 and Animal Farm have been, of course, but the others? Keep the Aspidistra Flying I know of (was it any good), but is that it?

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                                #16
                                Originally posted by Snake Plissken View Post
                                There’s a version of London Fields out there.

                                I think several Archer novels made it to Sunday night ITV mini-series in the late 80s.

                                Edit: Three. Kane and Abel, Not A Penny More, Not A Penny Less and First Among Equals.
                                That's something I've learned today, then: I never knew about those, specifically the latter. I might have to try to see if that First Among Equals is available to view anywhere, as it's the only one of Archer's books I've ever read or indeed had the slightest inclination towards reading.

                                That, incidentally, was back when I was about 17 (1996-7) and thus at that idealistic age when politics seemed a slightly thrilling and vaguely noble calling – a notion I was fairly swiftly disabused of thereafter, naturally.

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                                  #17
                                  Amazon picked up the rights to Banks’s Culture novels a couple of years back, and sent somebody off to do a screenplay of Consider Phlebas. Not sure if it got off the drawing board, mind. Banks was rather vociferous about them not being filmed.

                                  But not much of Banks non sci-fi stuff has been filmed either. The Crow Road was a good bbc series in the 90s, and Stonemouth filmed about a decade ago - though I’ve neither seen it or read that book.

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                                    #18
                                    Originally posted by Nocturnal Submission View Post
                                    Have many of George Orwell's books or essays been filmed? 1984 and Animal Farm have been, of course, but the others? Keep the Aspidistra Flying I know of (was it any good), but is that it?
                                    But Animal Farm was ruined by the ending given it had been funded by the CIA.

                                    If Orwell himself wasn't anti-Bolshevik enough in his original treatise.

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                                      #19
                                      Albert Camus and Franz Kafka. And throw in JD Salinger I guess, but obviously not much material to go on there.

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                                        #20
                                        There have been at least two English language versions of The Trial I know of. One with Anthony Perkins and Jeanne Moreau (it was my introduction to Kafka, so I have fond memories. Which isn't the same as saying it was any good!) There's also a more recent version with Anthony Hopkins and Jason Robards. There's also at least two German productions of The Castle, and a recent Canadian version of Metamorphosis, none of which I've seen.

                                        Marcello Mastroianni was in a a version of The Stranger back in the 60s. And someone did The Plague in the 90s(?) I think there are other Camus screen versions too.
                                        Last edited by Amor de Cosmos; 19-08-2020, 20:36.

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                                          #21
                                          Originally posted by Guy Profumo View Post
                                          But Animal Farm was ruined by the ending given it had been funded by the CIA.
                                          That's been on telly recently. I couldn't believe the ending.

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                                            #22
                                            Kyle McLachlan was in a version of The Trial as well in the early 90s. (EDIT - sorry that's the Hopkins one)

                                            Use of Weapons is the only Culture novel that would really work as a film and it could easily be a two hour clich?d "mercenary comes out of retirement for one last job" caper. I really don't know how they would make the reveal at the end work.
                                            Last edited by Patrick Thistle; 19-08-2020, 20:51.

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                                              #23
                                              Originally posted by Walt Flanagans Dog View Post
                                              Albert Camus and Franz Kafka. And throw in JD Salinger I guess, but obviously not much material to go on there.
                                              If we're talking English language productions, then Eurolit in general. Umpteen versions of Les Mis and Tolstoy costume dramas, but not much Thomas Mann or Flaubert or [insert authors I've never read but Googled to sound knowledgeable].

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                                                #24
                                                According to IMDB there are half a dozen English language versions of Madame Bovary (not including TV series) the most recent in 2014. Death in Venice was almost certainly the biggest English Thomas Mann movie. I'd love to see a Buddenbrooks TV series, can't think of a novel that lends itself better to one.

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                                                  #25
                                                  Buddenbrooks has been done in German. I believe that subtitles are available.

                                                  https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0076992/

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