Sci-fi Fans Sound Off on “Unfilmable” Books They Want to See Become Movies

A hypothetical question on Reddit has movie fans thinking about their favorite books that would be considered “unfilmable” and how which ones they think should get a shot. Started by a thread in the /r/movies subreddit where user “Darth_Se7en” asked the question, “Now that we’ve had successful film adaptations of LOTR and DUNE, what ‘unfilmable’ popular scifi books are next to be tried?” To his point there was long a held belief that Frank Herberts franchise and even The Lord of the Rings would be impossible to do justice in live-action, despite attempts that occurred. Now that both have happened and are Oscar winners however, nothing is off the table. 

The most common reply with nearly every title that was mentioned in the thread is that most sci-fi and fantasy novels aren’t unfilmable anymore. Naturally a handful of listed books and comics have elements about them that would make them difficult to adapt beyond prose, be it mystery surrounding the plot or specific themes that may be scary to major movie studios to even bring to life. Despite this almost every answer had fans coming together in their love for these stories and the hope that they’ll see the big screen. With Denis Villeneuve already hoping to follow-up Dune Part Two with an adaptation of Dune Messiah, anything seems fair game these days.

Earthsea

“I love Earthsea so much. I can’t imagine how’d they do it though. Theres like 10 years between the first 2 books and then 20 between the 2 and 3rd? And then Tehanu starts right after 3 but the 5th book is a short story collection.” – /u/cmonyer3ds

“Ged was the greatest sorcerer in all Earthsea, but once he was called Sparrowhawk, a reckless youth, hungry for power and knowledge, who tampered with long-held secrets and loosed a terrible shadow upon the world. This is the tale of his testing, how he mastered the mighty words of power, tamed an ancient dragon, and crossed death’s threshold to restore the balance. An exciting re-launch of the classic Earthsea Cycle, by fantasy literature legend Ursula K. Le Guin, winner of a Newbery Honor, the National Book Award, Pushcart Prize, and six Nebula Awards.”

Rendezvous with Rama

“Can’t believe it hasn’t been done by now.” – /u/TheBlackHandofFate

“An enormous cylindrical object has entered Earth’s solar system on a collision course with the sun. A team of astronauts are sent to explore the mysterious craft, which the denizens of the solar system name Rama. What they find is astonishing evidence of a civilization far more advanced than ours. They find an interior stretching over fifty kilometers; a forbidding cylindrical sea; mysterious and inaccessible buildings; and strange machine-animal hybrids, or “biots,” that inhabit the ship. But what they don’t find is an alien presence. So who―and where―are the Ramans?”

Hyperion

“Easily my favorite series of scifi novels.” – /u/AlterMyStateOfMind 

“On the world called Hyperion, beyond the reach of galactic law, waits a creature called the Shrike. There are those who worship it. There are those who fear it. And there are those who have vowed to destroy it. In the Valley of the Time Tombs, where huge, brooding structures move backward through time, the Shrike waits for them all…On the eve of Armageddon, with the entire galaxy at war, seven pilgrims set forth on a final voyage to Hyperion seeking the answers to the unsolved riddles of their lives. Each carries a desperate hope—and a terrible secret. And one may hold the fate of humanity in his hands.”

Discworld

“A well budgeted, large scope version would be so wonderful. But after that atrocity on the BBC recently I doubt his estate will ever allow another adaption.” /u/photohoodoo

Perdido Street Station

“I’d love to see that too but I question how they would pull off all the half humans. The special effects budget might be prohibitive.” – /u/Dangeresque2015

“The metropolis of New Crobuzon sprawls at the center of the world. Humans and mutants and arcane races brood in the gloom beneath its chimneys, where the river is sluggish with unnatural effluent and foundries pound into the night. For a thousand years, the Parliament and its brutal militias have ruled over a vast economy of workers and artists, spies and soldiers, magicians, crooks, and junkies. Now a stranger has arrived, with a pocketful of gold and an impossible demand. And something unthinkable is released.”

The Forever War

“Always astonished me how invested I get in the book when so much of it is unrelatable for me. It needs the treatment of a great director and production company who doesn’t want to do a big franchise and is comfortable with one big movie trying to make a statement.” – /u/TheGRS

“The Earth’s leaders have drawn a line in the interstellar sand–despite the fact that the fierce alien enemy they would oppose is inscrutable, unconquerable, and very far away. A reluctant conscript drafted into an elite Military unit, Private William Mandella has been propelled through space and time to fight in the distant thousand-year conflict; to perform his duties and do whatever it takes to survive the ordeal and return home. But “home” may be even more terrifying than battle, because, thanks to the time dilation caused by space travel, Mandella is aging months while the Earth he left behind is aging centuries… ”

House of Leaves

“The absolute only way that a House of Leaves adaptation could be called a successful adaptation of the novel is if it does to the moviegoer what it does to the book reader, i.e. fundamentally make them re-evaluate what the experience of going to see a movie can entail and is allowed to do.” – /u/Pjoernrachzarck