Chitchat "Books should be turned into a series."

[Rosex]

There are many movies based on books. The only problem is, a lot of movies suck because it doesn't capture the story like the book does and a lot of it's because movies tend to be too short. My friend made a good point and said "they should just turn books into a TV series." The author would make more money if they did it that way. The only thing is, I don't think most author's don't have the patience for it and that's why it doesn't happen.

What do you think? Is there a book you wished had a live action series to it? Or is there a movie based on a book you wished was a TV series?

 

[Windsock]

Yes.

 

[Éclairé]

They did that with game of thrones and it turned out to be fucking beautiful. But then again, anybody attempting to turn a single SOIAF book into a two hour movie must be out of his mind. I'll still go with yes though.

 

[Scripted Away]

Good point there. Some of my favorite books suck as films, just because they're missing so much detail. I think a series would do that job better in some cases. 


There are some books who should stay books. Guardians of GaHoole. What did they do to that great series of books... I'm still cringing about it.


Ender's game. Okay the film is good. But the book is so much better as well. Buuut i don't think a series would have been able to capture everything in that case. There are just too many things that couldn't be done on a screen. All those thoughts and everything got lost, and that wouldn't have changed with a series either. 


Then again, there are the books from A.Lee Martinez. Gils All Fright Diner. I would die to see it being turned into a series or film.

 

[Cavil]

Every book is turning into a movie it seems... I think catching fire series was a flop imo.


 Can we talk about turning movies into TV series? What is up with that? 

 

[ApfelSeine]

I don't think that idea would necessarily work. It depends on the book, how long it is, and whether it works as a serialized form.


Some books are simply too long to fit into movies without sacrificing a lot of the story's events or even meaning. Some crazy people even try to turn whole book series into a single convoluted mess of a film (*glares at Disney's The Black Cauldron*).


I have seen single books turned into a short tv series, which works well enough. It needs to be in a place that treats the series as "how ever many episodes it takes" rather than "fit/stretch the story into X number of episodes of a specific length". So a steaming service like Netflix or Amazon could probably do it right.


Better yet would be to turn a series of books into a TV series. That way, they can draw from as much material as they'd like and it doesn't get padded to fill the season length.


Overall though, some stories work perfectly in serialized form. Others don't, since there won't be enough material to fill the season. It depends on how much action content there is, since some books are fairly static in location and rely heavily on dialogue to move things along. So it can't be chosen by page count, but instead by whether the content itself can fill a whole season. More often than not, a book has a little too much content to fit in a movie, but is also not quite long enough to fill out a tv series.

 

[Midnightchan123]

I want to see the dragon riders of pern be turned into a tv series, same with the 500 kingdoms... The tales of tortal would be great to see too!

 

[Abendrot]

I think, with the right direction and a big enough budget (looking at you HBO), a Dune series would be so lit.

 

[KhazTheGiraffe]

lol you are aware that this actually becoming incredibly popular right? Like Hulu, Netflix, HBO, AMC have done already done this multiple times and are continuing to introduce more and more shows like this right?

 

[Rosex]

lol you are aware that this actually becoming incredibly popular right? Like Hulu, Netflix, HBO, AMC have done already done this multiple times and are continuing to introduce more and more shows like this right?

Obviously, I didn't know that. Glad to hear it's becoming more popular. There's a lot of movies based on books that aren't as good as the book. That's usually the complaint I hear. I think it's because the movies rushed into things. 

 

[Rosex]

I don't think that idea would necessarily work. It depends on the book, how long it is, and whether it works as a serialized form.


Some books are simply too long to fit into movies without sacrificing a lot of the story's events or even meaning. Some crazy people even try to turn whole book series into a single convoluted mess of a film (*glares at Disney's The Black Cauldron*).

That's why a TV show would work better than turning a book into a movie. TV shows often leave you with interesting cliff hangers in order to continue to the next session. 

 

[Rosex]

Every book is turning into a movie it seems... I think catching fire series was a flop imo.


 Can we talk about turning movies into TV series? What is up with that? 

Really? I didn't know that. What ones are those? I wouldn't mind seeing an interesting TV series into a book. I wonder if it would be as good though...or better? 

 

[Cavil]

I want to see Blade Runner made into an HBO series. I think it'd be fire.


@Rosex 


Westworld, Frequency, Shooter, Uncle Buck, Limitless, 12 Monkeys, Damien, Ash vs. Evil Dead, Minority Report, Shadowhunters, Rush Hour, School of Rock, Van Helsing, A Series of Unfortunate Events, Limitless.... Etc. 


None of which are amazing in my opinion. I haven't seen Westworld yet because damn that pilot is a movie. 

 

[KhazTheGiraffe]

Obviously, I didn't know that. Glad to hear it's becoming more popular. There's a lot of movies based on books that aren't as good as the book. That's usually the complaint I hear. I think it's because the movies rushed into things. 

Well, there's been huge boom of it in the past couple years, but even prior to that it was a thing. If you're interested in watching some series that are done well here are a few just off the top of my head:


Obviously Game of Thrones based on A Song of Ice and Fire


Sherlock based on Sherlock Holmes


Black Sails based on Treasure Island


A Series of Unfortunate Events based on Lemony Snickets A Series of Unfortunate Events


Dexter based on Darkly Dreaming Dexter


All the Marvel/DC shows based on Marvel/DC comics


Orange is the New Black based on Orange is the New Black: My Year in Women's Prison


The Walking Dead based on The Walking Dead comics


Hannibal based on Red Dragon


Boardwalk Empire based on Boardwalk Empire: The Birth, The High-times and the Corruption of Atlantic City


The Musketeers based on The Three Musketeers


House of Cards based on House of Cards


House of Lies based on House of Lies: How Management Consultants Steal your Watch then Tell You the Time


True Blood based on The Southern Vampire Mystery Series


Under the Dome based on Under the Dome


The 100 based on The 100


Pretty Little Liars based on Pretty Little Liars


The Vampire Diaries based on the Vampire Diaries


Shadow Hunters based on The Mortal Instruments


There's waaaaaaaay more but those are just the ones I've watched and read or my friends have watched and read that are pretty good. 

 

[ApfelSeine]

That's why a TV show would work better than turning a book into a movie. TV shows often leave you with interesting cliff hangers in order to continue to the next session. 

I still disagree. TV shows work best when there's a formula that each episode follows (there needs to be a smaller story within the confines of the episode that factors into the larger story of the season). Some books follow a formula that's close enough and would be possible to translate into a series, and those would be fun to see turned into a TV series. Collections of short stories like Sherlock Holmes are pretty ideal for serialization, as are a lot of adventure stories.


Other books don't follow a formula that can work in episodic fashion though. I couldn't really see a story that has a very focused and linear narrative working well as a TV show. Or ones that just aren't long enough to have enough content. For instance, I couldn't see The Hobbit functioning as a TV show. It's just not long enough to fill a typical season length. Same with something like The Great Gatsby. And something like Of Mice and Men, I'm not sure how one would break that up into an episodic series. Things like that work better as movies of an adaptation is going to be made.

 

[Natealie]

I believe that if the proper time and care is taken to faithfully adapt something, and corners are not cut, that this can be a good way for more people to experience a story. If that is not the case though, then many things can be lost in translation of medium. As long as the adapters legitimately give the story the time frame and space that it needs to convey what it is trying to convey then it should, keyword should, turn out fine. At least, that is my opinion on the issue.

 

[Rosex]

Well, there's been huge boom of it in the past couple years, but even prior to that it was a thing. If you're interested in watching some series that are done well here are a few just off the top of my head:


Obviously Game of Thrones based on A Song of Ice and Fire


Sherlock based on Sherlock Holmes


Black Sails based on Treasure Island


A Series of Unfortunate Events based on Lemony Snickets A Series of Unfortunate Events


Dexter based on Darkly Dreaming Dexter


All the Marvel/DC shows based on Marvel/DC comics


Orange is the New Black based on Orange is the New Black: My Year in Women's Prison


The Walking Dead based on The Walking Dead comics


Hannibal based on Red Dragon


Boardwalk Empire based on Boardwalk Empire: The Birth, The High-times and the Corruption of Atlantic City


The Musketeers based on The Three Musketeers


House of Cards based on House of Cards


House of Lies based on House of Lies: How Management Consultants Steal your Watch then Tell You the Time


True Blood based on The Southern Vampire Mystery Series


Under the Dome based on Under the Dome


The 100 based on The 100


Pretty Little Liars based on Pretty Little Liars


The Vampire Diaries based on the Vampire Diaries


Shadow Hunters based on The Mortal Instruments


There's waaaaaaaay more but those are just the ones I've watched and read or my friends have watched and read that are pretty good. 

Some of those books are a series of books though. I think they should do that with some of the books out there that just have one book to it. 

 

[Abendrot]

Some of those books are a series of books though. I think they should do that with some of the books out there that just have one book to it. 

Miniseries. You're looking for a miniseries.


- Band of Brothers


- Pride and Prejudice


- the original House of Cards 


- John Adams


- Roots

 

[Rosex]

Miniseries. You're looking for a miniseries.


- Band of Brothers


- Pride and Prejudice


- the original House of Cards 


- John Adams


- Roots

I kind of hate miniseries because I usually want to see more. 

 

[Little sparrow]

I want to see the dictionary that would be on hell of a show

 

[TheRockInception]

I don't think books should be turned into movies or TV shows. Takes away the fun of imagining the whole plot in your head the way you want it vs. the way Peter Jackson wants it, which could turn off people who really liked the book and people who haven't read it. Besides, it's practically unlimited source material for Hollywood to be as lazy as humanely possible, and not make original films. I think the only exception to this is Persepolis and The Adventures of Tintin. I mean, the author of Persepolis was the director of the film and Persepolis is a graphic novel, along with The Adventures of Tintin (though I'd argue Tintin is a series of comic books versus a graphic novel.).

 

[bobgod]

They did that with game of thrones and it turned out to be fucking beautiful. But then again, anybody attempting to turn a single SOIAF book into a two hour movie must be out of his mind. I'll still go with yes though.

It was good in some aspects, and great in others. But now that there is no more book material the two directors are honestly fucking it all up.

 

[bobgod]

I want a new Dune miniseries, or movie series, Dune is my favorite book of all time, and the films, while great, do not do it justice enough.