So, what's the best sci-fi film never made?

Deep ecological Sci-Fi

The success of Avatar by J. Cameron, shows that there is

a market for Deep Ecological/Traditionalist science fiction.

The novel "Ravage" (Ashes, Ashes) by René Barjavel, published

in 1943 in France about the fall of a technological society and

the return of the survivors to a traditional patriarchal and polygamist

society, where books and steam engines are banned

is a sure crowd pleaser. One simply has to move the setting

to the US and change François Deschamps in a Mormon fundie.

See:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ren%C3%A9_Barjavel

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ravage_%28novel%29

The Rat would be great ...

... and hilarious with a droll voiceover a-la Michael Weston in Burn Notice.

Some of the best stuff in the books is his internal musings on bureaucracy, the police, the ultimate good his scams do for society and the taxman.

A fire upon the deep.

A fire upon the deep, by Vernor Vinge. It would need cgi, but that's possible, and it's in space, also a good sign from a funding pov. The only issue might be utter perfectionism.

So many to choose from...

And so many could be awful in the wrong hands.

Vurt - Jeff Noon

Only Forward - Michael Marshall Smith. Spares almost got made by Spielberg with Cruise but instead we got Minority Report

Excession - Ian M Banks

Use of Weapons - Ian M Banks

Anything by Neal Stephenson, particularly Anathem. A huge budget serial of the baroque cycle culminating in a 3 parter of Cryptonomicon would also be nice.

Some suggestions

There are many options, and with rare exceptions those already made are pretty awful. The one exception to me is Blade Runner.

Jack Vance has a wealth of short stories and novels that could make great atmospheric movies. The Dying Earth, especially the first three stories, could make an excellent movie or set of movies. I don't think there are many directors one could trust to do it right though. The Durdane trilogy would also work well.

R A Lafferty's "Fourth Mansions", Zelazny's "Lord of Light" and maybe some of the Amber series ?. James Tiptree Jr (Racoona Sheldon) has a number of short stories that might work, often a little off the wall; Simak's "The Goblin Reservation"; Davidson's "Rork" maybe; Certainly Brin's Uplift series, but possibly they're too long for good movies. Of those the original Sundiver, Startide Rising, and Uplift War are (IMHO) the best suited. The later ones are less clear and less self contained. I wonder if Gene Wolfe's Torturer series might make a suitable movie series. Niven's early short stories, "Neutron Star" era.

And of course it would be nice if someone could make a decent version of LOTR that stuck a little closer to the original. Some of the individual stories out of the Silmarillion could also work, such as "The Lay of Lethian".

Anything by Larry Niven

Would be Awesome. Ditto for Heinlein. Larry Niven's books were kind of out there in a way that special effects might not have handled so well in the past, but are ripe for exploitation now. Ringworld, A Land out of Time, Neutron Star, etc..

I'd love to see someone do Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land or The Man who bought The Moon.

The Stainless Steel Rat series by Harry Harrison would be awesome as a series of movies too...

Well, bowb my buddy and call me Jim... or Warren.

[Emailed as well]

Any of the earlier Stainless Steel Rat series is well overdue for a look.

Norstrilia - or at least The Ballad Of Lost C'Mell - now that CGI athropomorphics are up to the task. (I'd love to see what could be done with The Game Of Rat And Dragon with the right director as well.)

And finally, what about Who Goes There? by Bob Shaw... it would make a great double-bill with The Stainless Steel Rat...

Men, Martians and Machines

by (I think) Frank Russell

Stephen Baxter - Titan

'Titan' could make a great film - it has a very tight premise, and focuses on interplay between characters, notably as the crew all go quite mad in their own separate ways.

You get some fairly scathing critique of where our 'enlightened' modern world is heading with political correctness, the rise of fundamentalism, focus on humanities rather than science (thinking of Paula Benaceraf's creepy housekeeper... ew....) and the loss of our ability to put people into space.

It has three 'acts' - Pre Launch, Voyage and Titan - which fit well into a feature film format. It has a smallish cast - 5 main crew, maybe 10 incidental characters. You could even film it in an old shuttle for added realism!

It might be the most depressing sci-fi ever made though, it doesn't exactly have a happy ending!

Snow crash!

enough said.

Heinlien would be a good start

I'd love to see the moon is a harsh mistress done. Fairly timely too given the theme.

Harry Harrison's Stainless steel rat series.

Retief by Keith Laumer could be excellent source material, though slightly dated in a way.

David Webber's Honor Harrington series as well as the Ring of Fire series.

And there are a lot of great books/stories out there that would sadly not translate well.

Hmm

Bill, The Galatic Hero.

that is all

Asimov

My vote goes for Asimov, starting with 'Foundation' then Forward Foundation, then Prelude and then 2nd Foudation etc.

It would have to be a multi billion dollar series and have the bestest greatest actors ever and IT CANNOT BE A LET DOWN! Actually, thinking about it, I'd rather they just didnt bother...

My votes

+1 Stainless Steel Rat series

+1 John Wyndham: The Outward Urge

+1 John Wyndham: The Kraken Wakes

+1 Banks Player of games

+50 Richard Morgan's Kovacs series (altered Carbon and sequels)

+100 Neal Asher, preferably all of them, done really, really well

Stainless Steel Rat

Just agreeing with posters above. Would make a brilliant movie. Not perhaps the greatest novel of ideas ever, but a brilliant basis for a film.

Also agree that much as I would pay money to watch a film of any of the Culture novels I find it hard to imagine any director being able to do them justice.

Simmons or Hamilton

The Hyperion books by Dan Simmons would be awesome and would be open for sequels with the Endymion books.

Peter F. Hamilton's Night's Dawn trilogy would be out of this world as long as Holywood could stick to the plot, no overdo the gory bits, but not sanitize it either... just present it as it should be.

Both are awesome Space Opera just screaming for a whole series of movies.

Something in the fantasy line, Elric.... somebody someday is going to make this into a movie, although they will probably start with Stormbringer which would be typically out of sequence.

Anything by Greg Egan

Terenesia would probably be the most filmable, but I'd love to see a version of Diaspora for sheer epicness.

Suggestions

Here are my suggestions (as emailed to LH):

"Eon" by Greg Bear

"A Deepness In The Sky" by Vernor Vinge

"A Fire Upon The Deep" by Vernor Vinge

Half-Life 2 - The Movie

"Jupiter" by Ben Bova

Could also add the Destroyermen series by Taylor Anderson...

movies

Niven - Ringworld series

Asimov - Foundation series

Harrison - Stainless Steel Rat series

Hinterlands

I'd love to see a movie version of Hinterlands by William Gibson. It's a haunting story, and it could probably be done on quite a small budget.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hinterlands_(short_story)

The Chrysalids

... why this hasn't been made into a decent film is a crime against good taste.

Larry Niven

any of them, really...

but the ones i think would work best as films:

Legacy of Heorot - think alien, but with science that works, and people that act like people. oh yes, and aliens that are actually a good deal more scary.

Protector - a book that asks the question "what if adult humans were just the 'breeder' form, that should metamorphosise into an armour plated killing machine if only we had the right food?"

a title

much as i'd like to see Iain M Banks's stuff, and the Revelation Space series, made into a more accesible medium, i dont think it'd really work - too much about them wouldnt come across properly in a film.

The Forever War, By Haldeman.

I've only read three pages but surely it should be up their!??!?!

It's bloody marvelous!!!!

Here's hoping this is a repost.

Iain M Banks - please no

I guess it's just me that doesn't get on with his stuff, then. I struggled through "Consider Phlebas" and thought that if everyone was raving about him, maybe that was just an off day. Then I started "Feersum Enjin" and realised it wasn't. That was about 10 years ago. Maybe it's time for a revisit, but honestly I doubt I'll change my mind.

On the pulp front, has anyone checked out those Warhammer 40,000 tie-ins by Dan Abnett? As an ex-WH40Ker, I picked up the Eisenhorn trilogy for some brain-resting reading during a flight, and was pleasantly surprised to find someone doing a decent job of it. (For non-WH40Kers, humanity stays afloat only by living in a totalitarian empire of semi-barbarian worlds, protected by an god-emperor who requires regular large-scale human sacrifice; all of which creates certain inevitable tensions for good people smart enough to see what's going on.)