10 Books that became great sci-fi and fantasy films

Read this article this morning and thought it would be interesting to know which novels ATSers would put on this list or which novels they'd want to see on film...

According to Wired the list is as follows

1. 2001: A Space Odyssey

Arthur C. Clarke's short story "The Sentinel," which he expanded into the novel 2001: A Space Odyssey, which itself was written concurrently with Stanley Kubrick's film.

2. The Lord of the Rings

Tolkien's personal, political fantasy masterwork The Lord of the Rings, written over 12 world-war-torn years and still making millions as you read this. A sprawling novel split into three books, it eventually morphed into three fantasy blockbusters to rule them all, thanks to New Zealand horror director Peter Jackson and the arty digital geniuses at Weta Workshop.

3. Blade Runner

Literary cosmonaut Philip K. Dick's 1968 sci-fi novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Nominated for the Nebula, it lost to Alexei Panshin's moving Rite of Passage, which, unlike Electric Sheep, you probably haven't heard of, although you probably should.

4. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

The third book in J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter fantasy series, a set of books with a lasting impact that remains Tolkien's only serious commercial competition. As for artistic ambition, only time will tell if Rowling's novels can withstand the changing tastes.

5. Akira

Katsuhiro Otomo's cyberpunk manga series Akira, which he adapted with Izo Hashimoto into what is probably the most influential comic-based sci-fi film of all time.

6. Naked Lunch

Beat Generation satellite and postmodern fiction pioneer William S. Burroughs' 1959 hardboiled Naked Lunch, one of the most influential, and banned, novels ever written.

7. Watchmen

Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' epochal graphic novel, which was declared unfilmable by its controversial writer even after director Zach Snyder (mostly) faithfully used the book as a user-friendly storyboard for his controversial 2009 adaptation.

8. Starship Troopers

Robert Heinlein's Hugo-winning 1959 military sci-fi novel Starship Troopers, determinedly written during a pause from writing his less controversial religious fable Stranger in a Strange Land. Composed by a veteran during a time of political turbulence and subsequently beloved and incorporated into the curriculum of the U.S. military establishment, Starship Troopers has suffered continued charges of everything from overt fascism and racism to simply serving as a selfish platform for the narrow sociopolitical beliefs of Heinlein, who had become a civilian by the time World War II exploded.

9. Kiss Me Deadly

Mickey Spillane's bloodthirsty 1952 pulp mystery Kiss Me Deadly, whose seething antihero Mike Hammer could be a signifier for primal violence or the beginning of the end of hardboiled fiction, or both.

10. The Princess Bride

William Goldman's prankster metafiction The Princess Bride, whose subtitle "S. Morgenstern's Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure" neglects to mention outright that no such author or book actually exists. Spoiler alert!

Detailed List - Wired - Novel Approaches: 10 Books That Became Great Sci-Fi and Fantasy Films

It's older now, but when I was young I loved "The Never Ending Story"

Hellow! ! What about Carl Sagan's master piece, Contact?

Even though the entire last chapter wasn't put into the film (which made the book epic) the film was awesome. The book is far better, which is always the case - But the film was still a great sci-fi watch

I'm not alone on this am I

IMHO The Princess Bride should be number 1.

Cult classic.

"My Name is Inigo Montoya, you killed my father. Prepare to ......"

Some books should not be made into movies. Hollyweird just ruins them. Lord of the Rings is a good example of that. political correctness ran rampant in those movies. Another that they are filming now that they should just leave alone is "Ender's Game" by Orson Scott Card. One of my favorite books of all time, and they are just ruining it.

Originally posted by smyleegrl
It's older now, but when I was young I loved "The Never Ending Story"

I'm 33 and still love that movie, sometimes you can't kill a classic, unless Hollywood destroys it by remaking it

To the OP All the Narnia movies were good and the remakes with better effects was awesome.

Too bad Clarke's Childhood's End never made it into being a film. Perhaps the ending--the end of mankind as we know it--was too extreme for typical human sensibilities.

As for the list, I cut my teeth on sci-fi and could never equate fantasy as a companion even if also is outside the mainstream.

The fantasy genre, I must assume, is the outgrowth of the every expanding number of female readers not wanting "boring" stuff thick with science thrown at them on every page. Or you could call it "chick sci-fi" if you are so inclined to pervert the original.

Books into film can be a double-edged sword sometimes, making it into eye-candy with the latest CGI but completely wrecking the original theme.

I for one hope the day comes where they can turn "Calculating God" into a movie.

Originally posted by OccamAssassin
IMHO The Princess Bride should be number 1.

Cult classic.

"My Name is Inigo Montoya, you killed my father. Prepare to ......"

edit on 27/10/2012 by OccamAssassin because: (no reason given)

"You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means." Truly a favorite!

I'm currently writing a sci-fi novel and throughout the process, I can't help thinking that converting a novel to a film often omits so many layers of the backstory that it totally changes the author's original vision. A good case in point is "The Abyss." The novel said so much more about the aliens' intention and point of view. It was still a great flick, though.

I loved "Logan's Run" by William F Nolan, and read all of the books. I loved the movie, too, but nowadays it is hopelessly dated, I think mostly due to the lousy handling (crappy costume, crappy direction) of the character "Box". The effects were actually pretty good, at the time. There is supposed to be a remake some day, but directors keep picking up the project and then putting it on the back burner, while we all wait, the author included.