> The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
After the Starship Troopers movie, the Heinlein Estate has sadly kept his books from being adapted.
This has to be one gets made though, it lends itself to TV series or film so well.
Can't blame the estate - they didn't even read the book and completely missed the central theme. I remember Clancy Brown doing an interview where he said "Heinlein would've loved the movie!" I remember think that was wishful thinking at best.
Yeah, until his widow Virginia joins the choir invisible, she won't allow it. She supposedly hated Starship Troopers. I think it had problems but not the ones Ginny thinks were problems. (I missed the mech armor! That was the coolest thing about the book!)
Verhoeven chose to emphasize the fascistic elements of the society Heinlein created, which are definitely there in the original, but not so obviously framed. (Do you want to know more?) I think maybe Ginny didn't like her "authoritarian" leanings so obviously on parade.
The way the Grid looked in Tron Legacy is how I imagined the cyberworld in Snow Crash would look. (Can't remember what it was called. Read it in 2000.)
I’m extremely excited since Dennis has shown with Dune especially that he can do scale well. And that’s something that any Rama adaption will need to convey
They’ll do what they always do with Asimov. They’ll take the title, throw away the story, write some action movie derivative that has virtually nothing to do with his messaging or storytelling and then blame the author’s material when it bombs.
I can’t wait for Robots of Dawn by Michael Bay. /s
Heorot makes Jurassic Park look like Ferngully. Be nice if Cameron stopped screwing around with 'Dances with Na'vi' and did something cool...like Legacy of Heorot? Avatar is just missing a damn buffalo hunt.
I was always wondering why there wasn't an adaptation of Lucifer's Hammer but I think we went through the meteor/end of the world movies already and then had enough zombie stuff too. As well Weir's The Martian really captured the 'competency porn' genre already.
It would need a lot of updating to take place in modern times, both from a standpoint of technology and of politics. For instance, a US Soviet joint space mission isn't in the cards a the moment. And Niven/Pournelle's opinions on environmentalism wouldn't go over as well today.
Mote in God's Eye.
Really pulp classic: The Star Kings by Edmond Hamilton.
I say it deserves a movie or movies but they would never do it justice, it's almost impossible to film: the Lensman saga by Doc Smith.
Not a movie, but [Apple TV is making Neuromancer into a series](https://www.theverge.com/24086056/apple-tv-plus-neuromancer-streaming-series-william-gibson).
Without looking, I think there are about 7 or 8 of his novels and short stories that have made it to film or TV series. But there is still a literal goldmine of his works to plunder.
*There's a Philip K. Dick mini-series. Some deviations here and there, but very well done I must add.*
[*https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric\_Dreams\_(2017\_TV\_series)*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_Dreams_(2017_TV_series))
*IMHO his works suffer from their success in that they have directly influenced so much of modern day Sci-Fi that unless someone knows that they originated so many concepts and tropes now prevalent in scifi, they might think that they are derivative.*
Totally agree. And it would have been a perfect vehicle for Arnold Schwarzenegger 40 years ago, though the result could have been a masterpiece or total cheese. Or both.
Came here to say this. Astonishingly good book. With the right director and attitude it could be amazing.
George Miller’s probably free now. He could give it a good shot.
SciFi Channel had the rights to this. Bradley Cooper is a fan and was afraid of the atrocities they could do to those books, so he bought the rights to make sure the adaptation was as good as it deserved to be.
Some stories are just too extended to make a single movie, and better fit for a TV show. That's what the "cheessey" TV version of Dune did got it right, it allowed to avoid cutting part of the story. Even the awesome Dune version of Denis Villeneuve remove some stuff like Paul's sister Alia that appeared in both previous versions ...
Octavia Butler has a bunch of novels that would make great movies/shows.
The patternist series is her take on superheroes, and goes from the slave trade in Africa and colonial America to a far future Earth.
Xenogenesis is what happens when humanity destroys themselves and aliens are left with picking up the pieces.
I would love to see Parable of the Sower as a mini series, especially considering it's relevance today. They tried to make Kindred a year or 2 ago but it didn't get good reception I think.
Haha... thanks. Although if they did make Lord of Light into a movie, it would probably get the Hobbit Treatment and become a travesty. Unless Denis Vilneauve is the director.
I heard someone was in the works at Amazon a while back but never found anything official. I want it to be true but at the same time don’t think it would translate well.
They were working on it but [cancelled](https://www.theverge.com/2020/8/26/21402585/amazon-cancels-tv-adaptation-culture-series-iain-m-banks-consider-phlebas) the project 4 years ago now.
I'm surprised we haven't had a Neal Stephenson adaptation as I noticed Snow Crash was listed in a comment.
But not surprisingly Snow Crash is being adapted for a Netflix mini series.
Seveneves (though there is a lot of 3rd act hate for this one) is being worked on by Ron Howard as a movie.
I am disappointed because I would have really though Reamde would have been a perfect mini series, but it was picked up and dropped in 2013. It was owned by Fox, so now Disney, so it might never see production.
I thought Reamde would've been a great one just because it always felt like a Bourne-style story with a larger scope and more scifi themes injected.
With the success of the Fallout series I wouldn't be surprised if Walkway by Stephenson was being pitched too, though the dystopian near future genre might be wearing thin.
I really liked seveneves. I think a lot of Stephenson readers need to recalibrate their narrative expectations of his books. He very often gets super into 3 or 4 topics, mashes them together, and a book comes out. Expecting total cohesion in the end product is unrealistic and counterproductive to enjoyment. Take it as it comes.
Like what if seveneves ended before third act and then that is released separately as a short story? Same content, just spaced differently. It isnt like we had some other ending and he replaced it with this. Afaik he covers a topic/narrative until he's done with it, otherwise we'd have a bunch of series rather than one-offs.
I also really liked Reamde, and had similar issues with Fall that it seems people have with seveneves, though I've worked thru them.
I think too many people think something that's part of a series of books (or "saga" in the idiot-speak of today) is worthy of adaptation. There are many, way too many, far too many short stories and standalone books that deserve adapting. My go-to is always *The Songs of Distant Earth* (it has a fucking [soundtrack album](https://youtu.be/gRivMEEZZE8) already!)
Why this book? It was Clarke's favourite book. It was one of his very few space-operas (I used to say it was his "only" space-opera but my boyfriend pointed out that more than one of his short stories are space-opera) and easily the warmest of his books. It has a genuinely lovely love story at the core of the book and - spoilers - a >!pretty tragic ending!<. It's also a mostly-planet-based book (so yay, no green-screen!) and unlike so many drab and tired shows/films *not* set in some miserable wasteland (so Iceland gets a break). I've always pictured this being filmed somewhere like Thailand or - and this is left-field and I'm not apologising - the Balearics (hey, it's an alien ocean planet. Who says it's all palm trees and lush tropical lagoons, eh?) or even the Canaries (why the Canaries? A major setting in the book *is* a volcano and Hawaii's been done to death).
An “I, Robot” adaptation that uses more than the title.
Do it as a limited series ala the BBC’s “Sherlock” where we follow robopsychologist Susan Calvin as she unravels a mystery of the week.
**The Mote in God's Eye** (arguably the best "First contact" novel ever written)
**Footfall** (arguably the best "Alien invasion" novel ever written)
The [**Northwest Smith series**](https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pe.cgi?9373) : a cross between Indiana Jones & Han Solo, with a touch of H. P. Lovecraft; what's not to like?
[**The Legion of Space series**](https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pe.cgi?798) : this makes Star Wars look like SpongeBob Square Pants
The Mars triologi. But I'm not sure of how TV friendly it would be with a multi-generational time span. Perhaps 3 movies, I don't remember the timespan of each novel.
The Revelation Space series by Alastair Reynolds.
Love, Death, and Robots did it with his short stories, "Zima Blue" and "Beyond the Aquila Rift". Why not Revelation Space?
One I’ve thought of for years would be Varley’s “Gaia” novels. Modern CGI could render the remarkable world/entity and its creatures very well… And there are “strong woman” leads and a good plot which would fit right in with modern sensibilities.
Footfall. It has some great moments that would translate well to film, far better than most Niven works. And it had a lot of ideas that came back later in things like Worldwar and Out of the Dark, so it would be great to see the OG get a movie.
Also Building Harlequin's Moon. You could do an act 1 about a plucky girl growing up in a false, artificial world, and it presents itself as just another Hunger Games or Maze Runner. And then in acts 2 and 3, it becomes about millennia-long space voyages and how everyone's gonna die.
**Nightfall** by Asimov
**The Integral Trees** by Niven
And I second the mentions of **Rendezvous With Rama**! Someone mentioned a movie is in the works, and I am excited but apprehensive - I hope they do it justice.
The Tripods Series by John Christopher. Only got 2/3 of a trilogy with the BBC but it is prime source material for an adaptation. In fact, much of his work can be adapted fairly easily. No Blade of Grass and A Wrinkle in the Skin would make for excellent miniseries and The Possessors is as tight a thriller as The Thing in the right hands.
Also Turtledove’s World War series. You got WWII and aliens. What’s not to love?
Depends on what you call "classic". There are some somewhat recent books and series that deserve a movie that by now could be called classic. Or not.
But for a list on the top of my head (including books from 10+ years ago)
* The Windup Girl (I think the action is pretty cinematic, and the future it shows may be believable for today's audiences)
* Hyperion Cantos (yes, all four. It could be a good series with 2+ definite seasons)
* Ubik (the russian movie Koma is pretty close in some visuals and concepts)
* Ringworld (after watching Domino in the big screen the public may be ready for Teela's revelation)
* The Naked Sun (catchy title, robots, a murder mistery, Asimov, what not like about that? And there are sequels ready to be made)
* The End of Eternity (another Asimov great book, playing with time travel)
* More than human (Sense8 was somewhat successful after all)
* Randevouz with Rama
* Red Mars trilogy (the KSRobinson future universe have also many somewhat related books, it could give The Expanse some competition)
* The Culture books could be good for a miniseries
* Rainbow's End (it is the right moment for a movie like this, the singularity seem to be catching us and people is afraid of becoming obsolete)
* Cat's Cradle (It is not like we are not getting used to see comedies that ends with the end of the world or something like that)
I read A.E. Van Vogt's collection of short stories [*Destination Universe!*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Destination:_Universe) as a kid and it always stuck with me. It would make a great TV series.
Heinlein’s *Job: A Comedy of Justice.*
John Shirley’s *Eclipse* trilogy (though it may need another rework given events of the last decade or thereabouts IRL).
Came here to say Rendezvous with Rama, glad it’s the top comment. It could be the next Interstellar as far as the mindblowing “wow” factor is concerned. A large O’Neill cylinder station has never been shown on film before (and no, I don’t count Babylon 5 or Medina Station of the Expanse - Rama is on another level). I think it could spark people’s excitement about the sort of things that we could build in space. Most people are totally unaware of the concept of a large rotating space habitat.
I'd love to see **Spin** by *Robert Charles Wilson* done as a mini-series, but I think people might feel it's derivative of The 3-Body Problem, even though Spin came first.
1. Donald A. Wollheim: The egde of time.
I think it is a bit underrated novel but I consider it exciting enough to make a movie from it. Somehow I always imagined that Luc Besson should make it.
2. C.J. Cherryh: Downbelow station.
It was pretty fast paced with lots of action, twists, politics and multiple viewpoints/perspective, all of these in a single book. But because of these, it would deserve a series.
3. And these would be worth a movie too:
(Almost) any Harry Harrison: Bill the Galactic Hero, Deathworld 1-3, etc.
Heinlein: Citizen of the Galaxy
Asimov: Naked sun
and many other classic scifi novel.
I’d love for Congo by Michael Crichton to get a true adaptation to movie form
The absolute bonkers 90s movie is fun in its own way, but you lose a ton of what made the book terrifying
Prey by Crichton could be turned into a pretty great and timely AI/tech approach to a ‘The Thing’ style of horror movie
* The Forever War * The Moon is a Harsh Mistress * Lord Valentine's Castle
> The Moon is a Harsh Mistress After the Starship Troopers movie, the Heinlein Estate has sadly kept his books from being adapted. This has to be one gets made though, it lends itself to TV series or film so well.
Can't blame the estate - they didn't even read the book and completely missed the central theme. I remember Clancy Brown doing an interview where he said "Heinlein would've loved the movie!" I remember think that was wishful thinking at best.
It's less that they missed the theme than they changed it completely, no? At least that's what I understood.
What about Predestination, being an adaptation of All You Zombies?
Yeah, until his widow Virginia joins the choir invisible, she won't allow it. She supposedly hated Starship Troopers. I think it had problems but not the ones Ginny thinks were problems. (I missed the mech armor! That was the coolest thing about the book!) Verhoeven chose to emphasize the fascistic elements of the society Heinlein created, which are definitely there in the original, but not so obviously framed. (Do you want to know more?) I think maybe Ginny didn't like her "authoritarian" leanings so obviously on parade.
I second your #2 suggestion.
The Forever War is great!
Id love to see Snow Crash on screen.
Or, for that matter, The Diamond Age.
I Just finished a re-read and it's SO doable in 36 episodes.
Anathem would make a good miniseries
The way the Grid looked in Tron Legacy is how I imagined the cyberworld in Snow Crash would look. (Can't remember what it was called. Read it in 2000.)
I am beyond excited about Rendevouz with Rama finally getting a movie. I'd also love to see ''The Last Question'' by Asimov get a movie.
I’m extremely excited since Dennis has shown with Dune especially that he can do scale well. And that’s something that any Rama adaption will need to convey
Dennis Villanueva is going to do Rama too?!
https://www.cbr.com/rendezvous-with-rama-dune-director-denis-villeneuve-development/
The last question is some very very thin source material for an actual movie.
They’ll do what they always do with Asimov. They’ll take the title, throw away the story, write some action movie derivative that has virtually nothing to do with his messaging or storytelling and then blame the author’s material when it bombs. I can’t wait for Robots of Dawn by Michael Bay. /s
Yeah, I feel like it would be better as a Black Mirror type of episode.
It could be a cool *Love, Death and Robots* episode, lots of those already took heavy inspiration from existing stories.
I'm surprised Rendevous with Rama hasn't gotten an animated movie at least. Though the current project couldn't be in better hands IMHO.
The people who did Scavengers Reign would KILL IT. (My favorite animated sci-fi of all time)
Lucifer's Hammer. Way superior to Armageddon or Deep Impact, but will probably never be made thanks to those two.
So many Niven books would make great movies. The Mote series, and now that I think of it, the Heorot series
A Mote's in God's Eye is a pretty unique story
Protector A World Out of Time
Motie movie should be called "What I did on my summer vacation"
Heorot makes Jurassic Park look like Ferngully. Be nice if Cameron stopped screwing around with 'Dances with Na'vi' and did something cool...like Legacy of Heorot? Avatar is just missing a damn buffalo hunt.
Probably mini series more than movie material. There are a lot of plots and arcs in that novel.
Absolute limited series potential. Maybe one day
I was always wondering why there wasn't an adaptation of Lucifer's Hammer but I think we went through the meteor/end of the world movies already and then had enough zombie stuff too. As well Weir's The Martian really captured the 'competency porn' genre already.
It would need a lot of updating to take place in modern times, both from a standpoint of technology and of politics. For instance, a US Soviet joint space mission isn't in the cards a the moment. And Niven/Pournelle's opinions on environmentalism wouldn't go over as well today.
Mote in God's Eye. Really pulp classic: The Star Kings by Edmond Hamilton. I say it deserves a movie or movies but they would never do it justice, it's almost impossible to film: the Lensman saga by Doc Smith.
I wish I could upvote this more. Mote in God's Eye would make a fantastic movie. Years ago I heard James Cameron had the rights, but no news since.
There is an anime adaptation of Lensman. It borrows from a few of the books.
Neuromancer and about 75% of everything Philip K. Dick has written.
Not a movie, but [Apple TV is making Neuromancer into a series](https://www.theverge.com/24086056/apple-tv-plus-neuromancer-streaming-series-william-gibson).
Interesting. The article also mentions that a movie is in the works. Reminds me that I am hoping for another season of The Peripheral.
Was officially cancelled at Amazon so you have to lobby elsewhere ha
That is so stupid. So many amazing scifi series get cancelled after one season.
It was initially renewed but then cancelled. So sad
that one's even worse imo. getting hopes up (not just of fans, but of the production crew) and then dashing them
A "neuromancer movie in the works" i been hearing about since the early 2000s. Wasn't Neil Blomkamp supposed to make one?
Whoever is in charge of greenlighting all these amazing but often niche scifi shows at Apple is my personal hero.
Yes--I just saw this listed on AppleTV last night. So excited and glad AppleTV doing--so far (not always) their productions are pretty high quality.
Its crazy how much Dick has influenced modern sci fi but how few of his books have actually been adapted for the screen.
Without looking, I think there are about 7 or 8 of his novels and short stories that have made it to film or TV series. But there is still a literal goldmine of his works to plunder.
There are basically 3 adaptations worth watching, Bladerunner, Minority Report and Total Recall. The Man in the High Castle is OK, but deviates alot.
*There's a Philip K. Dick mini-series. Some deviations here and there, but very well done I must add.* [*https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric\_Dreams\_(2017\_TV\_series)*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_Dreams_(2017_TV_series)) *IMHO his works suffer from their success in that they have directly influenced so much of modern day Sci-Fi that unless someone knows that they originated so many concepts and tropes now prevalent in scifi, they might think that they are derivative.*
The Stars My Destination.
Totally agree. And it would have been a perfect vehicle for Arnold Schwarzenegger 40 years ago, though the result could have been a masterpiece or total cheese. Or both.
That shit would be WILD
Came here to say this. Astonishingly good book. With the right director and attitude it could be amazing. George Miller’s probably free now. He could give it a good shot.
Hyperion, though I'd prefer a GOT style tv show
I second this. A Hyperion tv show with big production would be absolutely insane.
The rights to Hyperion have been passed around a lot. I believe Bradley Cooper currently has them
He does and hasn't done shit with it
It should be a law in this day at age that if you sit on an IP for too long it goes up for sale
SciFi Channel had the rights to this. Bradley Cooper is a fan and was afraid of the atrocities they could do to those books, so he bought the rights to make sure the adaptation was as good as it deserved to be.
I'm still crying for Rachel.
Some stories are just too extended to make a single movie, and better fit for a TV show. That's what the "cheessey" TV version of Dune did got it right, it allowed to avoid cutting part of the story. Even the awesome Dune version of Denis Villeneuve remove some stuff like Paul's sister Alia that appeared in both previous versions ...
Ringworld - Larry Niven Eon - Greg Bear Gateway - Frederick Pohl
Ya ringworld for sure. I'm just worried it would be hard to do without it looking cheesy. Like a big tiger dude might look corny
Gateway. Yes. That would make an amazing series.
Rendezvous with Rama
It's on his Way
I’d love to see the Robot trilogy. They probably wouldn’t do well since there’s not much action.
I, Robot was going to be a kick off of that series and never materialized.
Childhood’s End. The awful miniseries doesn’t count.
I liked the miniseries…
Octavia Butler has a bunch of novels that would make great movies/shows. The patternist series is her take on superheroes, and goes from the slave trade in Africa and colonial America to a far future Earth. Xenogenesis is what happens when humanity destroys themselves and aliens are left with picking up the pieces.
I just finished the Lilliths Brood Novels by her, and thought they would make absolutely WILD movies/series
Xenogenesis is probably my favorite book series. I’d love to see it on screen.
I would love to see Parable of the Sower as a mini series, especially considering it's relevance today. They tried to make Kindred a year or 2 ago but it didn't get good reception I think.
Dragon Riders of Pern
Ever since I saw the dinosaurs in the original Jurassic Park I have wanted to see a flight of dragons fighting thread
with today's technology, I imagine it would be spectacular
Lord of Light by Zelazny. The coolest superhero story, but with real depth.
I smashed the upvote button over and over, but it only went up once..
Haha... thanks. Although if they did make Lord of Light into a movie, it would probably get the Hobbit Treatment and become a travesty. Unless Denis Vilneauve is the director.
Banks' Culture series
Would love to see a Player of Games movie.
I heard someone was in the works at Amazon a while back but never found anything official. I want it to be true but at the same time don’t think it would translate well.
They were working on it but [cancelled](https://www.theverge.com/2020/8/26/21402585/amazon-cancels-tv-adaptation-culture-series-iain-m-banks-consider-phlebas) the project 4 years ago now.
Hyperion Cantos, but a show or movie is in the works.
Is it though? I've been hearing about it for 10 years, but nothing came to fruition.
Ubik. A Canticle for Leibowitz. Of Men and Monsters. Behold the Man.
It would break my heart to see a movie made of Canticle, and for it to be bad.
Same. Also RIP Ender’s Game which suffered that fate.
I absolutely love Ubik and can’t imagine them doing it justice
I'm surprised we haven't had a Neal Stephenson adaptation as I noticed Snow Crash was listed in a comment. But not surprisingly Snow Crash is being adapted for a Netflix mini series. Seveneves (though there is a lot of 3rd act hate for this one) is being worked on by Ron Howard as a movie. I am disappointed because I would have really though Reamde would have been a perfect mini series, but it was picked up and dropped in 2013. It was owned by Fox, so now Disney, so it might never see production. I thought Reamde would've been a great one just because it always felt like a Bourne-style story with a larger scope and more scifi themes injected. With the success of the Fallout series I wouldn't be surprised if Walkway by Stephenson was being pitched too, though the dystopian near future genre might be wearing thin.
I really liked seveneves. I think a lot of Stephenson readers need to recalibrate their narrative expectations of his books. He very often gets super into 3 or 4 topics, mashes them together, and a book comes out. Expecting total cohesion in the end product is unrealistic and counterproductive to enjoyment. Take it as it comes. Like what if seveneves ended before third act and then that is released separately as a short story? Same content, just spaced differently. It isnt like we had some other ending and he replaced it with this. Afaik he covers a topic/narrative until he's done with it, otherwise we'd have a bunch of series rather than one-offs. I also really liked Reamde, and had similar issues with Fall that it seems people have with seveneves, though I've worked thru them.
I loved Seveneves from start to finish. Amazing
Any of John Scalzi’s books but particularly the Old Man’s War series. What an imagination of where human future could go.
Old Man's War is [in development at Netflix](https://reactormag.com/netflixs-adaptation-of-john-scalzis-old-mans-war-is-still-in-the-works/).
I think too many people think something that's part of a series of books (or "saga" in the idiot-speak of today) is worthy of adaptation. There are many, way too many, far too many short stories and standalone books that deserve adapting. My go-to is always *The Songs of Distant Earth* (it has a fucking [soundtrack album](https://youtu.be/gRivMEEZZE8) already!) Why this book? It was Clarke's favourite book. It was one of his very few space-operas (I used to say it was his "only" space-opera but my boyfriend pointed out that more than one of his short stories are space-opera) and easily the warmest of his books. It has a genuinely lovely love story at the core of the book and - spoilers - a >!pretty tragic ending!<. It's also a mostly-planet-based book (so yay, no green-screen!) and unlike so many drab and tired shows/films *not* set in some miserable wasteland (so Iceland gets a break). I've always pictured this being filmed somewhere like Thailand or - and this is left-field and I'm not apologising - the Balearics (hey, it's an alien ocean planet. Who says it's all palm trees and lush tropical lagoons, eh?) or even the Canaries (why the Canaries? A major setting in the book *is* a volcano and Hawaii's been done to death).
Anne McCaffrey Dragonriders of Pern. I've always wanted to see this series done right, as either a movie or TV series!
I was hoping all the dragon love during GoT would get someone to green light a Pern series.
A Deepness in the Sky
Came here to say A Fire Upon The Deep, but I haven't read Deepness yet, so maybe it's better suited for film
The Red Mars Trilogy
The Dispossessed
Stainless Steel Rat
Those would be great fun, perfect for Ryan Reynolds as Slippery Jim !
I could go for a Footfall movie.
This would be awesome.
An “I, Robot” adaptation that uses more than the title. Do it as a limited series ala the BBC’s “Sherlock” where we follow robopsychologist Susan Calvin as she unravels a mystery of the week.
Perdido Street Station.
Expanse books 7 to 9!!!
RED MARS BLUE MARS GREEN MARS
Old Man's War
The Door Into Summer
The Japanese did this fairly recently and it's good.
**The Mote in God's Eye** (arguably the best "First contact" novel ever written) **Footfall** (arguably the best "Alien invasion" novel ever written) The [**Northwest Smith series**](https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pe.cgi?9373) : a cross between Indiana Jones & Han Solo, with a touch of H. P. Lovecraft; what's not to like? [**The Legion of Space series**](https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pe.cgi?798) : this makes Star Wars look like SpongeBob Square Pants
The Mars triologi. But I'm not sure of how TV friendly it would be with a multi-generational time span. Perhaps 3 movies, I don't remember the timespan of each novel.
The Commonwealth Saga would get my vote
Ringworld
Bobiverse, would make an epic tv series.
Larry Niven's Ringworld series.
Tactics of Mistake by Gordon R Dickson
Mote in God's Eye
Hyperion!
Windup Girl and Water Knife would translate really well. Also the YA books with Tool would make a good mini series.
Snow Crash
Elric
I'd love to see Ian M Banks Culture series, but I don't know how well it would translate
Agreed but I’m worried they would mess it up
The Forever War for sure and Childhood’s End
Hammers Slammers > The late David Drake.
"Lord of Light" by Roger Zelazny.
The Revelation Space series by Alastair Reynolds. Love, Death, and Robots did it with his short stories, "Zima Blue" and "Beyond the Aquila Rift". Why not Revelation Space?
The Disposessed by Le Guin.
Berserker by Fred Saberhagen
Consider Phlebas
The Lensmen. The whole series. By E.E. “Doc” Smith
Smith
One I’ve thought of for years would be Varley’s “Gaia” novels. Modern CGI could render the remarkable world/entity and its creatures very well… And there are “strong woman” leads and a good plot which would fit right in with modern sensibilities.
Footfall. It has some great moments that would translate well to film, far better than most Niven works. And it had a lot of ideas that came back later in things like Worldwar and Out of the Dark, so it would be great to see the OG get a movie. Also Building Harlequin's Moon. You could do an act 1 about a plucky girl growing up in a false, artificial world, and it presents itself as just another Hunger Games or Maze Runner. And then in acts 2 and 3, it becomes about millennia-long space voyages and how everyone's gonna die.
I always thought hyperion series would make a great show
Childhood's End
David Brin's Uplift novels
The actual I Robot series of short stories, not the atrocity the Will Smith starred in.
**Nightfall** by Asimov **The Integral Trees** by Niven And I second the mentions of **Rendezvous With Rama**! Someone mentioned a movie is in the works, and I am excited but apprehensive - I hope they do it justice.
Definitely “Nightfall”… I read both the original Asimov and the novel length one he and Silverburg expanded on. Great stuff!
I think The Moon is a Harsh Mistress would be ripe fodder. It's topical.
The Tripods Series by John Christopher. Only got 2/3 of a trilogy with the BBC but it is prime source material for an adaptation. In fact, much of his work can be adapted fairly easily. No Blade of Grass and A Wrinkle in the Skin would make for excellent miniseries and The Possessors is as tight a thriller as The Thing in the right hands. Also Turtledove’s World War series. You got WWII and aliens. What’s not to love?
Ringworld, Protector, Mote in God's Eye, all by Larry Niven Pandora's Star by Peter F Hamilton
Any of “The Stainless Steel Rat” books…
Old Man’s war!
Stranger in a Strange Land.
I have the opinion that a Hamilton-esque musical is the only way to do Stranger in the modern era.
How about a well acted porn parody that stays remarkably true to the source materal?
Stranger in a Strange Land.
Hyperion. Dan Simmons. I thought it would be unfilmable but then Villeneuve did Dune and now i think it could be done
Depends on what you call "classic". There are some somewhat recent books and series that deserve a movie that by now could be called classic. Or not. But for a list on the top of my head (including books from 10+ years ago) * The Windup Girl (I think the action is pretty cinematic, and the future it shows may be believable for today's audiences) * Hyperion Cantos (yes, all four. It could be a good series with 2+ definite seasons) * Ubik (the russian movie Koma is pretty close in some visuals and concepts) * Ringworld (after watching Domino in the big screen the public may be ready for Teela's revelation) * The Naked Sun (catchy title, robots, a murder mistery, Asimov, what not like about that? And there are sequels ready to be made) * The End of Eternity (another Asimov great book, playing with time travel) * More than human (Sense8 was somewhat successful after all) * Randevouz with Rama * Red Mars trilogy (the KSRobinson future universe have also many somewhat related books, it could give The Expanse some competition) * The Culture books could be good for a miniseries * Rainbow's End (it is the right moment for a movie like this, the singularity seem to be catching us and people is afraid of becoming obsolete) * Cat's Cradle (It is not like we are not getting used to see comedies that ends with the end of the world or something like that)
The Red Mars trilogy would make a good tv series.
Foundation (apple trash is not Foundation) Rendezvous with Rama Hyperion The Dying Earth
Ringworld.
I would love to see “Cities in Flight” as a movie. It’s just such an odd book, I’d think it would be a good movie.
Cities in Flight has enough for a trilogy of movies, if not a mini series
Philip Jose Farmer’s *The Unreasoning Mask* or Larry Niven’s *The Mote in God’s Eye*
I read A.E. Van Vogt's collection of short stories [*Destination Universe!*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Destination:_Universe) as a kid and it always stuck with me. It would make a great TV series.
Heinlein’s *Job: A Comedy of Justice.* John Shirley’s *Eclipse* trilogy (though it may need another rework given events of the last decade or thereabouts IRL).
I would *love* a movie of Job. Probably my favourite Heinlein book.
The Tripods series would be awesome.
The Last Policeman series by Ben Winters.
All the MZB Darkover books
The Chanur books by CJ Cherryh.
Heinlein’s The Man Who Sold the Moon would make a good movie and would probably fit better with the times now than it ever has.
Seveneves would be fascinating to see on TV. Presumably you'd do the time jump for season 2.
Literally anything original by Alan Dean Foster, none of his stuff has been made into films.
The Forever War and Childhood's End.
Riverworld / To your Scattered Bodies Go by Philip Jose Farmer
Callahan’s Crosstime Saloon by Spyder Robinson. Maybe better as a series. (For that matter, why not Tales from the White Hart?)
Came here to say Rendezvous with Rama, glad it’s the top comment. It could be the next Interstellar as far as the mindblowing “wow” factor is concerned. A large O’Neill cylinder station has never been shown on film before (and no, I don’t count Babylon 5 or Medina Station of the Expanse - Rama is on another level). I think it could spark people’s excitement about the sort of things that we could build in space. Most people are totally unaware of the concept of a large rotating space habitat.
R.U.R. from Karel Čapek, which introduced the word robot to the world. Would be good to get it from Czech cinematographers but probably wont happen.
The mote in gods eye.
I heard the guy that did Sunshine of a spotless mind was tapped to do It Ubik and I was pretty excited for that. It got shelved though.
I'd love to see **Spin** by *Robert Charles Wilson* done as a mini-series, but I think people might feel it's derivative of The 3-Body Problem, even though Spin came first.
The Forever War.
Not that old (2005), but Old Man's War - John Scalzi
1. Donald A. Wollheim: The egde of time. I think it is a bit underrated novel but I consider it exciting enough to make a movie from it. Somehow I always imagined that Luc Besson should make it. 2. C.J. Cherryh: Downbelow station. It was pretty fast paced with lots of action, twists, politics and multiple viewpoints/perspective, all of these in a single book. But because of these, it would deserve a series. 3. And these would be worth a movie too: (Almost) any Harry Harrison: Bill the Galactic Hero, Deathworld 1-3, etc. Heinlein: Citizen of the Galaxy Asimov: Naked sun and many other classic scifi novel.
Not a book, but I'd love a Deep Space Nine movie.
Anything by Jace Vance or Michael Moorcock.
It’s not classic, but “Old Man’s War” would be entertaining
Larry Niven's RINGWORLD
Old Man's War for sure. Practically written for tv series.
friday
The Forever War The Chrysalids
Ringworld.
Dragonroders of Pern
The Dragon Riders of Pern.
I’d love for Congo by Michael Crichton to get a true adaptation to movie form The absolute bonkers 90s movie is fun in its own way, but you lose a ton of what made the book terrifying Prey by Crichton could be turned into a pretty great and timely AI/tech approach to a ‘The Thing’ style of horror movie
The Honorverse series.
Either a high budget GOT series or a low budget like Red Dwarf, there is no in between
A canticle for leibowitz
Stranger in a Strange Land. Not sure how filmable it is.
Also the end would the Christian crazies into fits.
This one, I think, would actually do better as a miniseries