Fantasy Film League

One of the things I sometimes to when idly daydreaming is think up how I would adapt books/stories/TV programmes for the big screen. Seriously, I had pretty much modernised Doctor Who in my head long before Russell T. Davies got his hands on it. Ok, he did a better job than me, but that is not the point...

Which led me today to think of what great books/stories/programmes need to be put on the big screen. And, as always, I came up with a Top 5. So, in no particular order, I give you:

The Day of the Triffids: Ok, it has been made into an average TV series, a terrible B-movie and this film is little more of a rewrite of it, with the infected in the place of the Triffids. But the book itself deserves a truly faithful adaptation, as it is a grimly realistic and often compelling look at a society that has fallen apart and those trying to live in the remains of it. Furthermore, the concept of the Triffids, in this day of genetically modified crops, is more topical than ever.

A decent Alan Moore movie. The adaptations of his works have ranged from the terrible to the barely average. My preference would be for a decent version of Watchmen but that is really unlikely. Not that someone adapts Watchmen, but rather that the end result would be any good. But one interesting idea might be Christopher Nolan adapting The Killing Joke as the sequel to the excellent Batman Begins.

In these days of trilogies (Star Wars, The Lord of the Rings, The Matrix etc) there is one natural trilogy that checks all of the necessary boxes of being sci-fi/fantasy based, suitable for kids but interesting enough for adults and only really possible to produce using modern special effects - namely The Tripod Trilogy by John Christopher. Hell, it even has a prequel...

An adaptation of the poetic and tragic The Lovely Bones would be worth seeing. Ok, one is planned, but given it is being directed by Peter Jackson, who gave us this and this, I am not quite convinced.

Finally, what about The Wasp Factory? A demented, funny, shocking, warped book. It could go either way and become a classic or a travesty, but with someone like David Cronenberg or David Lynch at the helm, it would certainly be worth seeing.

Anyway, that would be my choices of films to see at the cinema. And if any major movie producer reads this post and thinks "yeah, I would like to make that film", then I am available to help with the scripts. At a very reasonable rate.