November 6th, 2007
15. Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
Large-scale, ambitious fiction doesn't work in films when hacked to pieces and squished into 90 minutes, so two movies and a Peter Jackson-esque dedication to perfection would be needed for David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas. The book has six stories presented in different formats; Cloud Atlas Vol. 1 would launch the stories of a 19th-century seafarer (as related in a diary); a 1930s composer (as related in letters); an investigative journalist in the '70s (as written in a novel); a present-day book publisher (as shown in a film); a clone in a dystopic future (as told in an interview); and a primitive tribesman in a far, post-apocalyptic future (as related in verbal storytelling). Cloud Atlas Vol. 2 would then work backward through the stories' conclusions, ending with the seafarer. Why now for Cloud Atlas? Because it's been a long time since there's been a good film in any one of its genres.
16. A Heartbreaking Work Of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers
The film rights to Dave Eggers' terrific, perfectly titled memoir were purchased in 2002, two years after the book's release, and various directors have been rumored to be attached. The story, which revolves around Eggers' efforts to raise his little brother after their parents' deaths, has apparently been adapted for the screen already, by novelist Nick Hornby and John Cusack's writing partner, D.V. Divicentes, and director Kim Peirce (Boys Don't Cry) is the latest director supposedly attached. She'd be a good choice, considering that the slow-moving story will take a deft touch to bring to life without any Hollywood sap attached.
17. King Dork by Frank Portman
Will Ferrell's company purchased the movie rights to Frank Portman's hilarious teen-lit novel King Dork not long after it was published, and though production hasn't begun, the movie is in active development. (This, of course, means little—but at least they're talking about it!) If done right, a Dork movie could slot alongside great adolescent-angst dramedies; Portman, singer of the long-running punk band The Mr. T Experience, knows of what he speaks. The main character, Tom Henderson—the titular King Dork, also known by a variety of demeaning nicknames—and his best friend constantly start new bands, imagining names and album covers, each described in loving detail. It would be a mistake to give the movie over too completely to the story's mystery aspect, though, so they'll need to tread lightly and study Portman's characters as much as the plot.
18. Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
Jeffrey Eugenides' Pulitzer-winning second novel nestles a small, personal story about a young person coming of age in Michigan while becoming aware of his/her intersexuality within a larger story of intertwined families, genocide, and American immigration. A film version would be an ambitious undertaking, but it'd make a great project for any director who could capture Eugenides' gentle, biting irony and hone into the book's examination of identity and the many uncontrollable factors that shape it, even in a country that values fresh starts.
19. World War Z by Max Brooks
Moviegoers can't be blamed for feeling a little zombie fatigue these days, but that's no reason Max Brooks' apocalyptic, politically astute, weirdly inspiring tale of humanity in the face of a world gone undead should remain unfilmed. The book is probably too episodic in its current form, but cherry-picking key sequences—the submarine episode, or (sniff) the tales of the anti-zombie canine corps—and presenting them as separate stories in a shared universe, Sin City style, could easily work.
20. The Moviegoer by Walker Percy
Rumor long had Terrence Malick eyeing this project, and it's hard to imagine anyone making Walker Percy's classic American existential novel without Malick's dreamy philosophizing and eye for finding the profound in the fabric of everyday life. Then again, the success of Mad Men, a TV show whose hero owes a lot to Percy's spiritually adrift protagonist, suggests that Malick's approach isn't the only one that could work.
21. The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien
To an outside observer, the idea of a Lord Of The Rings prequel directed by Peter Jackson is a no-brainer: His Rings trilogy cumulatively grossed more than a billion dollars in domestic theater run alone, drawing in casual fantasy fans, non-fans, and fanatics alike. They looked terrific and they even mostly respected the source material. They also spawned a renaissance in epic fantasy films, which has diluted the market somewhat. But surely audiences would flock back to theaters for a fourth Jackson/Tolkien pairing. Jackson wants to do the film, and fans desperately want to see it. Unfortunately, his lawsuit against New Line over accounting practices prompted studio head Bob Shaye to announce that New Line would never work with him again. Shaye has since softened that stance considerably—the prospect of another $500 million or so in profits has to be tempting, lawsuit or no—but the future of a Jackson Hobbit is still uncertain. News stories in April 2007 put Spider-Man director Sam Raimi in negotiations to hand Spider-Man 4 over to another director and take on The Hobbit, which seems like messing with success on two franchises at once. It's a pity; Hobbit, which was written for a younger audience, is accessible adventure with much of the sweep and epic sprawl of the Rings books—plus a big honkin' dragon, and who doesn't want to see Jackson's version of that?
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