Today, while reading this, I was reminded of one of my favorite short stories—and one of my most despised movies of all time—Nightfall, by Isaac Asimov.
When I first read this as a young adult, the story fired my imagination, and actually inspired a painting that I started but never completed. That's why—some twenty-five years later, I was thrilled to hear that it had been made into a film. It was with great anticipation that I went to one of the first screenings, and never have I been so throughly and completely disgusted. Most of the audience had walked out long before the film finished, but I—and probably about a couple dozen others—lasted until the bitter end.
As we were walking out something happened that has never happened since: the theater manager actually offered to give us our money back without anyone asking.
It was that bad.
While there are many, many films that should never be touched because they are already perfect in their original incarnations (The Women immediately comes to mind), there are hundreds of others that beg for an update. So my question to you is this: what film would you remake if you could? Nightfall is definitely at the top of my list, but there are others. What piece of literature (of any genre) would you like to see on the silver screen that hasn't been put there yet?
Wow !
Nightfall is one of my favorite short stories as well – it is only a few months ago I read the novel version of it, an expansion of 'what happens' after Nightfall. It was a disappointment. I found myself finishing the book merely to finish it. It was a let down; I won't see the movie.
I vote for the continuation of the "Golden Compass" movies. I actually liked the first one. While I loved the book, "Nightfall" is to this day the most boring movie I have ever seen, followed closely by "Solaris".
I'd love to see a remake of Watchers by Dean Koontz. The 1988 film with Corey Haim was horrible.
How about "John Carter." But instead of letting Disney completely rewrite the story and destroy everything that made Edgar Rice Burrough's "Barsoom Novels" enduring classics for nearly 100 years, why don't we actually follow the books this time? And get actors who can actually act? And let's actually call the movie "A Princess of Mars" since that's what the tale is actually about?
And, like everybody else, I too feel it would be great to see Asimov's "Foundation Trilogy" brought to the big screen.
Over the course of my life I have tried to read Foundation more times than I can tell you, but I just can't get into it. I know I'm missing out on one of the great sagas of science fiction, but it just doesn't engage me. For that reason I would LOVE to see it on the big screen—if only to find out what I've been missing all these years.
One other film that begs for a reboot is The Golden Compass. The following two books of the trilogy also need to be made—extremely unlikely because of the religious uproar the mere mention of them being made brought about the first time.
And speaking of wish list books-to-movies, very near the top of my list would be Peter Hamilton's The Night's Dawn trilogy. The story arc is packed with enough action, heroism, gore, and thought-provoking ideas that it begs to be filmed.
If I could remake? Hmm… that's a hard one. Because there's a lot. The most recent one being "TRON: Legacy". Frackin' horrible movie. Ugh.
And one that hasn't been on the screen yet? I'd like to see Dan Simmons' Hyperion and The Fall of Hyperion in IMAX.