What literary classic would you turn into a 10hour tv series?

[Ichneumon]

What a literary classic would you turn into a 10-hour tv-series?

My choice would be "The Island of Dr Moreau", a classic with lots of philosophical and moral themes and in my view the only reason most of the movie adaptations didn't succeed was because they had to do the entire book in 2 hours which means they had to introduce all the main villains and story elements on who and what these creatures are and that's not very good for pacing.

If you could increase the length by making it a 10 episode tv-series, or something like that, I feel it could work.

The first episode would deal with the main character and how his boat sank and how he survived and got rescued by the drunken sailor and Montgomery. The episode could introduce these characters at the same time it could introduce the first questions and mysteries: What is Montgomery hiding? What's wrong with that servant of his, M'ling? Maybe it could end with the main character getting thrown of the ship.

The second episode could contain him being saved again by Montgomery, being taken to the island, meeting Monreau, more allusions to what happens on the island, the crying of the puma in agony behind the locked door.

By the third episode the viewers would learn all there is to learn about what kind of experiments Monreau is doing. It could end with the protagonist running away and ending up with the creatures and the sayer of the law.

The next two episodes would focus on the lives of the creatures and how they try to live by the laws and rules. I think this would require 2 episodes, so the viewers can get enough emotional bonding to the creatures to identify with them, at the same time I could see some interesting philosophical discussions between the sayer of the law, the protagonist and Montgomery and Moreau. The fifth episode would end with monreau and montgomery taking the protagonist back to the house of pain.

Episode 6 would be about the protagonist living with Monreau and Montgomery, trying to live with all the things that are going on and him trying to help Moreau with his work. This could be the episode in which we learn about the killed rabbits, however the significance of this, only becomes really clear in episode 7.

Episode 7 could be in which they hunt down the creature who broke the law and the episode in which things escalate and where the animals turn against Moreau and the others.

Episode 8 could be the one in which Moreau dies and 9 and 10 could be about how Mongomery and the protagonist try to contain the situation and stay alive, with ten also being the episode in which the protagonist escapes, after Montgomery died, and him giving a philosophical reflection on what happened on the island.

[thubby]

*thinks* gilgamesh.
it's rather episodic already, and someone has to put such an epic to screen.

[Catch]

*thinks* gilgamesh.

Too late. It'll be a 2012 summer blockbuster, starring one of the Australians as Gilgamesh (Russel Crowe, Sam Worthington, Eric Bana - take your pick) and The Rock as Humbaba.

[The Rose Dragon]

Define literary classic.

Whatever I do, I would probably go with 20 half hour episodes instead of 10 full hour ones.

[RationalGoblin]

The Most Dangerous Game, of course. It's ending implies a possible sequel, while the fact that the hunter has killed many before implies prequels.

So why not combine the two into a TV series in which it details (a rebooted version of) why and how the main antagonist came to be, the protagonist's struggle, and possibly the protagonist turning into the antagonist for a new series?

[Knaight]

The Illiad could work fairly well, as quite a bit happens in it.
A Tale of Two Cities is fairly episodic, and could probably work well.

Really though, most literary classics would work better in a simple movie form. Watership Down, The Great Gatsby, Crime and Punishment (maybe), even something like The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

[Telonius]

Huckleberry Finn
Around the World in 80 Days
Ender's Game

[Scorpina]

I think I'd rather see The Odyssey than the Iliad.

That or Journey to the Centre of the Earth.

[JonestheSpy]

Jonathon Strange and Mr Norrel would be perfect for this. Huge scope of story, amazing visual potentials, great Late-Georgian setting.

[Sneak]

Moby ****.

EDIT: Stupid censors...

[Moff Chumley]

I'mma go with the Thrawn Trilogy... :smallbiggrin:

[Turcano]

I'd choose The Lord of the Rings and expand it to three seasons. That would probably at last do it justice.

Hey, they're doing it with A Song of Ice and Fire, and that isn't even finished yet.

[doliest]

Midsummer's Night Dream. But with nudity and explosions....more nudity and explosions.

[SlyGuyMcFly]

I'd choose The Lord of the Rings and expand it to three seasons. That would probably at last do it justice.


I was going to say that, but Jackson's movies already run about 10 hours in total. So you could say they already did it.

[Scorpina]

Moby ****.

EDIT: Stupid censors...

That would definately be fun, though it couldn't be a particularly faithful adaptation unless it had random bursts of documentary in each episode.

[Athaniar]

The Silmarillion. It's the ideal format for it.


I'mma go with the Thrawn Trilogy... :smallbiggrin:
Yeah, that'd be awesome.

[Derthric]

I would love to see a period appropriate adaption of War of the Worlds. Just because every adaption I can think of always modernizes it (to its period) and draws too much from Orson Welles' adaption than the original.

I want my commentary of the injustices of Imperialism Dang IT! And the Thunderchild sequence would be righteous.

[Eldan]

The Neverending Story. My favourite book as a kid. Haven't read it for a few years now, but I'd say it would still be somewhere up there among the best ones. And it deserves a good treatment. The first movie wasn't bad, granted, but the other two thirds of the book were in my opinion even better, and the first film left out a few of my favourite creatures (Ygramul).

[Lawless III]

In Dubious Battle, I've dreamed of doing just this for a long time.

[Platinum_Mongoose]

I would kill to see His Dark Materials done in this way. The movie was acceptable (To me, at least. There are other schools of thought. /Understatement.) but I want more.

[J.Gellert]

The Iliad and Odyssey are obvious choices, though I'd do all of Greek Mythology, starting with the creation of the world from Chaos :smallbiggrin:

Of course, I'd definitely watch a series based on The Most Dangerous Game.

[Rae Artemi]

I am genuinely surprised that no one has brought up Discworld. More specifically the City Watch storyline, though I would want a little more than 10 hours. There are 7 books in the series and I would want them to either be 3 half hour episodes or 2 full hour episodes per book.

[Brewdude]

The Black Company.

[Greyskull]

Despite their success on the big screen I've always felt that the Harry Potter series would have translated far better into a TV mini-series - each book could have had 3-4 episodes (latter books probably having a few more) with each episode an hour long.

[chiasaur11]

Doom: Repercussions of Evil.

Because sometimes, I like to watch people suffer.

[Ihouji]

I have always wanted to see the dark tower series turned into something (other than a comic book) and I personally would define it as a classic.

I don't really think movies would work unless they were done on a massive scale, but 10 hours could probably do it justice.

[Lifeson]

Hmmm...while Twilight would have the possibility of striking gold (By mining the ever-loving crap out of the fans), my dignity says I have to say no to that terrible idea.


...if Fight Club wasn't already a movie, I'd do that. Maybe Choke, Invisible Monsters, or Pygmy, all by the same author.

[The Rose Dragon]

Doom: Repercussions of Evil.

Because sometimes, I like to watch people suffer.

But that story is full of so many gripping twists! Like when John was a zombie! And the demons! At the same time!

[Salty]

I've been reading (and enjoying) Don Quixote recently, and that's the first thing that sprung to mind when I heard "literary classic" so...that.

[pam]

The Wachowskis are making my favourite novel, Cloud Atlas, into a movie with Tom Tykwer (Run, Lola, Run) directing. I am extremely wary as to how this is going to turn out. I think it would be much better served by a 12 part miniseries. First episode the first half of The Pacific Journal of Adam Ewing, episode 2 the first half of Letters from Gedelheim, third episode first half of Half Lives, episode 4 first half of The Ghastly Ordeal of Timothy Cavendish, episode 5 the first half of An Orison of Somni~451, episode 6 the first half of Sloosha's Crossin' an' Ev'rythin' After and then the remaining episodes the last half of each story in reverse order, just like the book. I really just don't know how they're going to fit all that into one movie, unless it's at least 4 hours long and even then a lot of stuff will be missing.

[Cyrano]

I'm trying to decide if The Book Of The New Sun is too much for 10 hours or too unsuited for television/film as a medium at all. Either way, in my deepest darkest dreams, it is done, and it is done exceptionally well, and I admit it would be done in more than ten episodes.

American Gods, that would probably be the biggest one I felt could be done in 10 hours. Would it work? Again, I can only dream. Noir-urban-fantasy-mystery thing, can't see anything that wouldn't work as long as just enough funding was provided. And I mean just enough - on those rare occasions when something unrealistic is necessary to depict, depict it extremely well, but for the love of god the key word is rare. If they turned American Gods into a special effects fest I would be sadly. Oh, and the coital consumption scene could probs be skipped.

[Lord Loss]

The Most Dangerous Game, of course. It's ending implies a possible sequel, while the fact that the hunter has killed many before implies prequels.

So why not combine the two into a TV series in which it details (a rebooted version of) why and how the main antagonist came to be, the protagonist's struggle, and possibly the protagonist turning into the antagonist for a new series?

I instantly thought of this when I read the title. Although even with prequels/sequels it may not be long enough...

[Starscream]

American Gods, that would probably be the biggest one I felt could be done in 10 hours.

I agree. I just read that one recently, and about halfway through I was thinking "This should be a miniseries".

And Jeff Bridges should play Wednesday. Of this there can be no doubt.

[Scorpina]

I agree. I just read that one recently, and about halfway through I was thinking "This should be a miniseries".

And Jeff Bridges should play Wednesday. Of this there can be no doubt.

I second that.

[The Demented One]

Pride and Prejudice. Pride and Prejudice. Pride and Prejudice.

But only because War and Peace would be too long.

[Axolotl]

Don Quixote could adapt well I think. Or maybe I'm just bitter I'll never see Terry Gilliam's version of it.

I'll certainly agree with the suggestion of American Gods. That needs an adaptation.

[Salty]

Don Quixote could adapt well I think. Or maybe I'm just bitter I'll never see Terry Gilliam's version of it.

Well, according to the internet, that might not be true.

Most recent update. (http://www.empireonline.com/news/story.asp?NID=27907)

[The Rose Dragon]

Well, if we count American Gods as a classic, I suggest Neverwhere.

That's right, the TV show of a novel of a TV show. It's recursive!

[Axolotl]

Well, according to the internet, that might not be true.

Most recent update. (http://www.empireonline.com/news/story.asp?NID=27907)Well I'm happy now. That's awesome, I thought the project was totally dead.

[Archonic Energy]

Issac Asimov's Foundation Series

could quite easily be split into 10 parts for a mini-series

The Trial & Exile /The Encyclopedists
The Mayors
The Traders /The merchant Princes
The General
The Mule
Search by The Mule
Search by The Foundation
The Gaia Conundrium (double length Finale)


it could even pave the way for a Galactic Empire series...

[WhiteHarness]

I was going to say The Silmarillion, but someone else already mentioned it, so I'll go with David Eddings' The Elenium.

Oh, wait...

Literary Classics?

Then I'd go for something like Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queen or one or more of the works of Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo, probably Las Sergas de Esplandián.

[Optimystik]

I wouldn't mind Robinson Crusoe, but it's a bit too existentialist at parts.


But that story is full of so many gripping twists! Like when John was a zombie! And the demons! At the same time!

Don't forget the edge-of-your seat suspenseful moments, such as when John plasmaed at the demons or the radio crackered at him.

[Satyr]

While I'm a bit shaky on the "classic" part with this one, I'd love to see a miniseries based on Bernard Cornwell's Warlord Trilogy. An uncensored one.

If we count autobiographic texts, I still think that the memories of Helmuth von Mücke. You know, because the whole "most successful pirate ship of its time" story combined with "small troop of survivors cross half the world (just to be send to the trenches)" is pretty awesome.

[Griever]

Frank Herbert's Dune

[Scorpina]

Ooh, I just had a thought: The Flashman Papers.

Though to do the whole lot it'd have to be way longer than 10 hours.

[Knaight]

Frank Herbert's Dune

I like it. And it should work much, much better than trying to condense it into a movie.

[hamishspence]

There was a Dune miniseries- but it wasn't very well received.

A new and better one might catch people's attention.

[NeoRetribution]

On Topic:
The Little Engine That Could.


Off Topic:
The mini-series Frank Herbert's Dune was much improved from the film released in the 1980s. That is my bias, but so is that I prefer the book to the mini-series. Dune is, it seems to me, a strange adaptation from novel to film.

[Archpaladin Zousha]

The Iliad and Odyssey are obvious choices, though I'd do all of Greek Mythology, starting with the creation of the world from Chaos :smallbiggrin:
So, Ovid's Metamorphoses then? The Odyssey's already been done. Hallmark. Armand Asante as Odysseus, Bernadette Peters as Circe, Vanessa Williams as Calypso, Isabella Rosellini as Athena and Christopher Lee as Tiresias.

[Avilan the Grey]

Well what is a literary classic?

Personally I would do "The Rise And Fall Of Rome", but then I am far more into documentaries than fiction.

Otherwise... How about "Batman, Year One" (the direct translation of Miller's graphical novel to the TV screen). To me, that is a classic :smallbiggrin: