Kermode Uncut: The Greatest Novels Never Filmed

last week I did a blog in which I asked you to suggest the greatest books never film this was off the back of a discussion of great gatsby by Baz Luhrmann is doing a 3d adaptation I said one of the greatest novels never filmed hundreds and hundreds of responses from you and I want to just go through some of them just a little smidgen of the responses that you've that you've sent in one theme that emerged from this is that many of you think that Terry Gilliam is the answer to all problems if a book hasn't been filmed well Terry Gilliam could have filmed it if a book hasn't been filmed maybe it's cause Terry Gilliam tried to film it I mean Don Quixote keeps coming up look at the problems Terry Gilliam had with that I agree I think in general Terry Gilliam is the answer to all problems but on from that of course the one that headed the list was this this from Chris cirrage Catcher in the Rye best novel never filmed no question impossible to film as the interest is entirely in Holden Caulfield's narration of his life although there is a movie called capturing the Rye made in 2008 by Nigel Tom I haven't seen it it consists of 75 minutes and six seconds of pure blue screen and I'm not counting that but I wonder whether Derek Jarman's lawyers have anything to say this from Howard Beale got mad I think the reason capture in their eyes never been filmed is very simple you'll find Holden saying it on page 2 quote if there's one thing I hate it's the movies don't even mention them to me and this from 6 o'clock man in my younger days I wrote in my younger and more vulnerable years Gatsby I wrote an ill-fated screenplay of Catcher in the Rye there are 4 reasons this and all other works by Salinger should be banned from the screen one taxi driver which is as impressive a first-person narrative as capture was to Mike Lee's naked which is a darker more hyper intelligent version of Salinger's novel 3 where's Anderson who was already adapted the Salinger universe into brilliant companies with Rushmore and The Royal Tenenbaums and 4 how about we leave people a few reasons to read now of course one of the things about this discussion is that many books haven't yet made it to the screen but have been in the process of trying to make it to the screen for years and this creates a lot of interesting dialogue between you from Lizzy s The Life of Pi by Yann Martel you couldn't film it without giving away the ending also I know that you didn't ask for impending our applications of favorite novels but I'm really uneasy about the forthcoming film of David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas will chadwick replies Life of Pi is being made by Angley which indeed it is best novel never filmed would have to be blood meridian by Cormac McCarthy and this came up time and time again it's been through plenty of filmmakers and Ridley Scott was one of them I think but it's never come into existence on screen because trying to capture the brutality of the novel as well as trying to find a narrative through line for a film is one hell of a task this from Van der Drake blood meridian by Cormac McCarthy his darkest work by far darker even in the road and that's a story about a post-apocalyptic world lots of discussion instantly about whether you can have a post-apocalyptic world or whether after the apocalypse you can't have post anything the amount of violence madness and depravity in it is perhaps too much for distributors to accept and this from space odds in my humble opinion Bob Meridian is the last great Western story and would redefine for a new generation of film goers the acid Western sub-genre which seemed to have reached its high point with Deadman here's another title which kept coming up Gavin MacLean writes Neuromancer by William Gibson is a good shout not film because the matrix got there first and ripped it off I'd imagine otherwise capturing the rise probably going to be the winner here from Cameron gravity's rainbow by Thomas Pynchon often cited as one of the hardest modern novels to read with suggestions that you just skip the first hundred and twenty two pages the plot has so many strands and he's extremely complex hence white will never make it to the big screen but Luke Smith points out William Gibson's Neuromancer is being made by Cuban splices director vincenzo natali thomas pynchon's latest novel inherent vice is being made by paul thomas anderson but gravity's rainbow will never be made into a film too long too complex and too postmodern to be made as a film although the crying of lot 49 could be done but will have to be simplified which really wouldn't do it justice here's a few more this one not necessarily my favorite suggestion but certainly my favorite handle this from my neighbor John Turturro for me it has to be the unconsolable cat Co issue guru it's easily my favourite book but its labyrinth in structure interweaving dreams and reality in a way that makes inception seem like play days is it unfilmable in any traditional sense by becky terry gilliam can ever go this from Tom Thornton 33 I think for me would have to be Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses Rushdie's language and imagination would lend itself brilliantly to be adapted by someone like Terry Gilliam or Guillermo del Toro the themes subtext and variations of time periods and location would allow an epoch that could be split across more than one film the huge controversy and of course death threats to Rushdie that followed the novel's release have obviously deterred anyone from putting this masterpiece on film here's an interesting one from Evan W V His Dark Materials trilogy they'll definitely never film the second or third one simply because the anti religious message couldn't be hidden and there's no way the film's would be able to make the money to justify the budgets they'd need and of course perhaps more importantly the Golden Compass died on its feet because it was a bit rubbish and so many hearts were broken and we saw that film and thought that's it they've sunk the trilogy forever which is a real shame because I did think at one point we were going to get all three movies and what an interesting trilogy it would have been there's been some similar discussion on the subject of the last battle which has been skipped over in the 90 allocations but this from James east books 2 to 5 of the hitch-hiker guide increasingly ill named trilogy they're unfilmable because they are all essentially a radio show where the visuals come from the listener they work as books but they could never work as a film because the viewer sees the visuals and thinks no that's not it at all and of course we all know that when Hitchhiker's Guide finally made it to the big screen directed by Gough Jennings who I liked very much it was pants in fact when I met Gough Jennings to talk to him about the fantastic son of Rambow I said you did make a complete holics of Hitchhiker's Guide he'd beg to differ and finally on a slightly more facetious note on the subject of greatest books never filmed this from a flock of Steven Seagal's the Oxford Dictionary Michael Bay schedule was too busy this from Silence of the lamp marks very own it's only a movie such genius can't be contained on screen I know you mean that facetiously interestingly enough somebody did offer an option on the good the bad and the multiplex it's like who wants to make a movie about a book about what's wrong with movies I just concluded they must be mad and never got back to them and this finally from Steve Zissou Dan Brown's hugely successful books are obviously unfilmable as Ron Howard and Tom Hanks proved you

Channel: kermodeandmayo

Views: 136,306

Keywords: Kermode Uncut, Blog, Mark Kermode, BBC Radio 5 Live, The Great Gatsby, Baz Luhrman, Terry Gilliam, Don Quixote, The Catcher In The Rye, Holden Caulfield, Derek Jarman, Taxi Driver, Wes Anderson, Naked, Mike Leigh, Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums, The Life Of Pi, Yann Martel, Cloud Atlas, David Mitchell, Ang Lee, Blood Meridian, Ridley Scott, Cormac McCarthy, The Road, Dead Man, Neuromancer, The Matrix, Paul Thomas Anderson

Id: gUdokoNGvRU

Length: 7min 0sec (420 seconds)

Published: Tue May 01 2012