Confessions of a master jewel thief by bill mason.

It's a true story. Guy was a bored suburban dude who became a cat burglar on a whim and over many years, stole a lot from the rich and famous.

Years ago I heard someone bought the rights but I haven't heard anymore about it. would make a great movie.

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who's smarter than you're? i'm!

For many years, there was talk of Kurt Vonnegut's Sirens of Titan getting a film adaptation

Jerry Garcia owned the rights to it at one time [The Grateful Dead's publishing company is called "Ice Nine" from Cat's Cradle], and may have gotten as far as getting a screenplay done, but when he passed away in 1996, the project drifted into limbo

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"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

If you've ever seen "Eddie Would Go" bumper stickers, this is the story behind them. I thought I'd read that someone had picked up the rights soon after the book was published, but it's been years now and still no sign of a movie.

And I've been hoping for a "Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator" movie since I was a little kid.

"The Boys in the Boat" is apparently in development now so hopefully that'll see the light of day.

We are big fans of the Iron Druid series by Kevin Hearne. I would love to see those made into movies.

My kids can tell you about books that were made in to movies but shouldn't have because the movies were a far cry from the books. Eragon and Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief are two of them.

I was listening to the audio book for Ender's Game. At the end, the author spoke for about 45 minutes. He spent some of that talking about how many of the movie studios wanted to rewrite the book to appeal to the "date audience" by making the character 16 years old with a love interest.

D'Kid is the same way; she plowed through all the Percy Jackson books, and Riordan's other series as well

Harry Potter, I've read up to Goblet of Fire, and there is so much that could have been put in and stuff that could have been left out of every book

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"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

Water Music.

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Civilize the mind, but make savage the body.

- Chinese proverb

After seeing Chasing Mavericks, i don't think any surfer's bio pic could be done properly, other than as a documentary


I happened to think of that too, but I don't know why?

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"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

I've long wanted to see Confederacy of Dunces turned into a movie. I think there have been several unsuccessful attempts, and apparently, there's been a play with Nick Offerman as Ignatius.

Our dog is named Nico DeAngelo after one of the characters in those books. We often listen to the audio book versions when we're on road trips - they are entertaining.

I followed the story of the Selendang Ayu as it was happening, and I've always thought it would make a great movie.
https://officerofthewatch.com/...yu-grounding/[/font]

I haven't read the book, called "On the Edge of Survival": https://www.amazon.com/...laskan/dp/0312604599

Can you imagine being on the deck of the ship with a Jayhawk hovering overhead, only to watch a big wave take out the chopper and knock it into the sea? Could you imagine being on the deck waiting for a chopper when the ship broke in two?

Utmost respect to USCG rescue swimmers. Hats off to those men!

The screen version of "All the Pretty Horses" was awful, but I'd like to see a film version of the other Border Trilogy novels - "The Crossing" and "Cities of the Plain".

Or Mark Helprin's "A Solider of the Great War".

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Freedom just around the corner for you. But with the truth so far off, what good will it do?

I've always imagined a young Phillip Seymour Hoffman in that role.

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The devil made me do it the first time, second time I done it on my own - W

He would have fit the role. He has done comedy (Big Lebowski). But the role isn't necessarily a comedy role. It's a bit tragic, notwithstanding the somewhat "happy" ending. I'd hate to see it done as something slapstick.

Hoffman had crazy range, and could have pulled that off easily. I just read that a few notable overweight comedians had been cast for the role (Belushi, Candy, Farley) but died suddenly.

Maybe he was cast for the roll after all?

I just finished a Serial podcast spin-off called S-Town, and the main character had striking similarities to Reilly. Hadn't thought about the book in years until I came across it.

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The devil made me do it the first time, second time I done it on my own - W

The Mitch Rapp series by Vince Flynn, although I understand American Assassin may be in the process right now.

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_________________________________
I'll be what I am
A solitary man

Years ago I wanted the Dark Tower series to be made into a TV show by HBO.

Now they are doing a movie version which I'm afraid/pretty sure will be garbage.

I was disappointed when the Tom Clancy movie series faded, and then was poorly rebooted with The Sum of All Fears.

The Debt of Honor/Executive Orders storyline would have made a good 2-3 movie series.

It's unusual for movies made from good novels to also be good. I don't wish that on any book.

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Slowguy

(insert pithy phrase here...)

I would love to see a film version of Seveneves by Neal Stephenson and I guess I will be getting my wish.

Skydance has set the Apollo 13 team of writer Bill Broyles, director Ron Howard and producer Brian Grazer for an adaptation of bestselling author Neal Stephenson’s sci-fi novel Seveneves. Grazer and Howard’s Imagine Entertainment is producing the ambitious adaptation.

I'm curious how they are going to pull it off. The book is very long divided into two distinct parts. It would probably work best as two movies.

What about good movies from crappy books? I'm sure it's happened.

Seveneves had three parts, but I can see why you might want to leave off the third.

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Slowguy

(insert pithy phrase here...)

One of my recent favorite books is the circle by Dave Eggers.

Recently saw a trailer for the movie. Stars tom hanks and Emma Watson. Hopefully it doesn't suck.

The 4-Hour Workweek


If this book was ever made into a movie, nothing would ever get done (and that includes making the movie).

Thud Ridge and/or When Thunder Rolled.

Both books are non-fictional accounts of F-105 missions over N. Vietnam, 1966-1967. Some good info on what the Rolling Thunder air war was like, and it would be great to watch some good F-105 flying scenes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NLin7d_jRY

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"Human existence is based upon two pillars: Compassion and knowledge. Compassion without knowledge is ineffective; Knowledge without compassion is inhuman." Victor Weisskopf.

Good choice - one of my favorite books. Rasimus' (as well as Olds') jungle hat and some of his other things are in the Air Force Museum in Dayton next to the F105 display. Super cool.

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king of the road says you move too slow
KING OF THE ROAD SAYS YOU MOVE TOO SLOW

It has. The Lord of the Rings. Great movies. Terrible books.

Yeah, I said it.

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How does Danny Hart sit down with balls that big?

I'd argue just the opposite or at least I'd say the books were better than the movies. The movies were pretty much typical Hollywood action tripe that completely failed to capture the mood and tone of the books. Peter Jackson is a hack.

The movies should have looked something like the "The Name of the Rose" with the feel of dying world with all to play for, instead they looked like some gay D&D video game.

I should clarify. The books tell a good story. But the story teller is a shitty story teller. His writing is not good, I honestly don't understand why he was so popular. He really needed a buy a thesaurus. Go back and re-read them, he used the word presently in every other sentance.

"Presently Pippen is blowing Sauron"

"Presently Sauron is blowing his load"

"Presently there is a hot mess everywhere".

Something like that anyway...

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How does Danny Hart sit down with balls that big?

Think it tends to work best when the book is more of a concept or idea that inspires a movie, rather than an epic tome or series. E.g. there have been some good movies based on good Stephen King and Philip K Dick stories, but in most cases the material in question was more of a novella or short story. When there's 500+ pages to adapt to screen, then either you stay faithful to the source material and risk boring everybody to death, or else you cut scenes and characters and inevitably end up upsetting some hardcore fans. Lord of the Rings is the rare exception.

I thought the Golden Compass/Northern Lights series should never have been turned into a movie. Source material contained some pretty complex ideas that would be hard enough to show on the big screen anyway, and even more so when the lead protagonist is a child and the story features talking polar bears so the film is inevitably going to be aimed at a younger audience. They didn't do as bad a job as I was expecting on the first one, probably a blessing the sequels didn't get the green light as I have no idea how they'd have handled books 2 and 3. I'd hate to see any of Iain Banks sci-fi novels turned into movies, though some of his regular novels might work well, particularly the earlier ones.

I've not read them in a long time. Pretty sure he was trying in some respects to mimic the old English epic tales like Beowulf which might account for something like that or not.

x2 on Confederacy of Dunces

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Remember - It's important to be comfortable in your own skin... because it turns out society frowns on wearing other people's

Which is fine, but the writing is no less shitty.

Great world creator, great story creator, shitty writer.

That's my opinion on Tolkien.

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How does Danny Hart sit down with balls that big?

Might work better as an HBO series since there's so much in there and covers so much time. I occasionally re-read the first page of that book because it is so awesome. Drop City might be easier as a film. I just read The Harder they Come and it's the first of his books that I thought was just OK.

I don't know if I'd say shitty, but yeah it's not Pulitzer prize prose that's for sure. But I'd say that pretty much characterizes a whole lot of very popular writers.

Any story that involved flying a plane into a building (particularly one containing the entire Federal government), would introduce a lot of baggage that most producers would shy away from.

Norman Mailer's "The Naked and the Dead".
It was made into a movie in 1958 but such a great WW2 novel deserves a proper, modern, colourful rendition.

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Remember - It's important to be comfortable in your own skin... because it turns out society frowns on wearing other people's

I just read a collection of short stories by China Mieville ('Three Moments of an Explosion') and thought the story Sacken would make a great horror movie. I would love to see a good director make a movie out of 'The City and the City', it's such a neat concept but would be hard to do well.

Re: Iain Banks, 'Crow Road' was made into a mini series by BBC. I checked IMDB and 'Complicity' and 'Stonemouth' were also made into movies. I haven't seen any of them, I'd be interested in watching The Crow Road as I recently reread the novel.

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress - Heinlein
Snow Crash - Stephenson
The Diamond Age - Stephenson
Wool - Howey
Honor Harrington - Weber
Ghost/Kildar series - Ringo

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LLLEEEEEEEEEEEERRRROOOYYY JEEENNNNNKKKIIINNNNNS!!!

Supposedly in development.. with Ridley Scott producing.

Ahh, but when it works, it is worth all the bad adaptations. The Godfather, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, and my personal favorite, Lonesome Dove. Tommy Lee as Woodrow and Robert Duvall as Gus. Whackin a surly bartender ain't much of a crime.....

https://video.search.yahoo.com/...49c&action=click

The original story was called Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. They called it Willy Wonka ... for the musical to emphasize the Wonka brand for Quaker Oats, who financed the film's production = basically, it was a 90-minute long commercial

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"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

Endurance is a pretty unbelievable story, I guess the book is only a fwe years old and something might be in the works but it'd make for an incredible movie imo. I guess a documentary was made in 2000, but this has big-budget Hollywood written all over it, especially on the heels of stuff like Unbroken and The Revenant.

I read that one. It is an amazing story. Those were very hard men! Sometimes when I'm out riding and it's cold or maybe a little wet and I start feeling whiny I think about those guys and it puts me in my place.

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Kevin

http://kevinmetcalfe.dreamhosters.com
My Strava

The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher. It has has a terrible TV adaptation, but I think it would make a great HBO/Netflix series more than a set of movies.

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~Brad

True, but that didn't stop the producers of Designated Survivor from doing it with a terrorist bomb.

you are certainly entitle to your opinion. There are a whole lot of people who disagree with you on this particular matter. Now some folks who know a bit about writing and usage of the English language would specifically disagree with you on your particular criticism. Namely C.S. Lewis and the rest of the Inklings. Some of them certainly had issues with Tolkien's work but nothing along the simplistic criticisms you put forth.

Another English writer whose writing i love is Patrick O'Brian. Iv'e read his Aubrey/Maturin novels almost as much as Tolkien. The Russell Crowe movie was fair to middling and i certainly enjoyed the film adaptation/amalgamation of three of the books. I would love to see a HBO series on the novels. Of course we'd have folks like slowguy and others bitching that they fucked it up and it didn't faithfully follow the books--just as haters of Peter Jackson's interpretation of Tolkiens works.

not fair to the author nor the film maker imo. two different mediums and different challenges.

Once Christopher Tolkien passes perhaps the Tolkien estate will allow a adaptation of the Silmarillion--or portions thereof. i would hope for either a film series on Beren and Luthien; or Turin Turambar's tragic story. Either of the two would be doable. Although folks would leap to criticize the film adaptation no doubt.

/r

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Steve

Perfect. I've been looking for another book to read.

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king of the road says you move too slow
KING OF THE ROAD SAYS YOU MOVE TOO SLOW

You won't be disappointed. It's like Unbroken in that there are various 'adventures' within their one tale of survival that would be fascinating and inspiring in their own right, yet they made it through each of them in succession. Just a mind-numbing level of strength and determination in both cases to get to their finish line.

Great recommendation.
I will point out that the book was originally published in 1959 so Hollywood has had time.

I'll add "Into Thin Air" by John Krakauer. I think there was a TV movie made at some point, but a glossy hollywood version might by good (or terrible)

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Remember - It's important to be comfortable in your own skin... because it turns out society frowns on wearing other people's

Have there been any adaptations of Carl Hiassen's detective novels? None come to mind

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"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

The worst journey in the world - Aspley gerard

http://web.archive.org/...adventure_books.html

This list is worth reviewing. A life task of mine is to read them all. Some are amazing.

I was a voracious reader as a child. I read stuff like The Cancer Ward by Solzenhitsyn in grade 7 or 8. But couldn't read Lord of the Rings. I think I got to about ten pages and couldn't go any further. My brothers ate that stuff up. I think they read them several times. I still think Tolkien was genius though. C.S Lewis way more readable. Those guys were really cool. Used to hang out in the Pub together knocking back beer and discussing literature but if you are using the term Inklings you probably know.

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They constantly try to escape from the darkness outside and within
Dreaming of systems so perfect that no one will need to be good T.S. Eliot

The Eagle and Child (aka The Bird and Baby)--toast!

Tolkien was a philologist of the highest order which makes Blep's criticism so laughable. I can see saying something like 'this genre does nothing for me'. But to assert Tolkien didn't know how to use the English language in writing is just without merit

/r

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Steve

I couldn't get into Tolkien's work until well into my late 20's, despite attempts in high school and college.

Kind of related, in college I lived near Edgbaston Reservoir in Birmingham, which had a brick waterworks tower at one end of it. About half a mile or so away was another similar tower. I didn't know it at the time but Tolkien once lived on Stirling Road which was located between the two, and it's rumoured that they formed the inspiration for the two towers in the LOTR.

You can see one here:
https://www.google.com/...13312!8i6656!6m1!1e1

and if you rotate about 90* to the right you can see the other. If you rotate another 90*, that's the street Tolkien lived on.

awesome--thanks for posting this!

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Steve

IIRC, The Lord of the Rings started out as another kid's book like The Hobbit before he decided about half-way through the first one to make it into a more dark, adult story. Once I read that, it makes some of the flighty stuff early in the first book make sense.

I'll add "Into Thin Air" by John Krakauer. I think there was a TV movie made at some point, but a glossy hollywood version might by good (or terrible)

Everest w/Jake Gyllenhaal and Josh Brolin was made in 2015. I thought it was reasonably good.

ESPN Films did a 30 for 30 documentary on Eddie Aikau and it was great.

Wasn't "Striptease" one?