The Hobbit trailer has been making it’s rounds around the internet for a while now and like the Lord of The Rings it looks pretty interesting and entertaining.
But at the same time I can’t help but feel a bit bummed. When LOTR hit the big screen it was supposed to usher in a new era of movies based on fantasy fiction. To a degree this was true. But there was a glaring ‘flaw’ with books converted to movies after LOTR.
Namely they were all children’s stories. Harry Potter, Chronicles of Narnia, Golden Compass, Spiderwick Chronicles, and a bunch of others I’ve probably forgotten.
These aren’t bad movies, but if Hollywood is so insistend on not creating original stories and converting books why not grab a few gems that would do quite well as big budget adventure movies. So here’s a list of of fantasy stories that would probably do quite well in the cinemas if done well:
Dragonlance Chronicles
This has adventure written all over in heeps. With a lot of interesting and identifyable characters, this series of books would be quite awesome as a movie. Or three movies, since Hollywood likes milking.
For those of you that don’t know. The world of Krynn used to know Gods until they got a bit annoyed and decided to smash a big city with a meteor. Leaving the world without clerics or sane religion for about 300 years. Untill a barbarian woman shows up in an Inn (it starts in an inn like it should) with a bluecrystal staff, said to hold the power of the gods. What follows is an adventure involving undead, dragons, death knight, regular knights, gnomes, dwarves, elves, and one very adorable Kender. (look it up)
Magic Kingdom For Sale: Sold
This is a slightly lesser known book by Terry Brooks, but it’s all kinds of fun. A mildly depressed man (after the death of his wife) finds an ad for a Magic Kingdom. He decides to buy it and becomes it’s king. Assisted by a not so great wizard, a butler turned into a dog and a few other interesting characters he has to find out the secret of the Kingdom of Landover.
Face it, that premise alone makes it worthwhile. It even has that thing Hollywood prefers, a link to the real world in the form of the main protagonist. This movie would go a long way really.
Forgotten Realms
Admittedly I haven’t read a lot of these books, I tried reading one of the Dark Elf saga books but I was in a weird mood. However, there’s bound to be a wealth of stories that would make excellent material for movies.
Gotrek and Felix
These are two unlikely allies that have a multitude of adventures. Felix is a bard that once pledged that he would write a song about the heroic death of Gotrek. The result is that he now has to follow Gotrek everywhere in order to witness said heroic death. That premise alone is enough for a fun movie and there’s a lot of stories to draw from.
Artemis Fowl
Technically this stars a kid, however this kid doesn’t annoy me and is in fact a genius. The stories themselves lend to proper movies quite well. So hollywood ought to get on this one since the Harry Potter tree is empty now.
Basically a genius level IQ boy inherits the fortunes of his parents and manages to find that fairy creatures exist.
Wheel of Time
Okay so this behemoth would require the team of Game of Thrones to make anything wortwhile. At 11+ books and a season per book, that’s a lot of seasons to get through. Would be totally worth it though. This series has a lot going for it in terms of high fantasy, intrigue and many other cool stuff.
In closing Hollywood needs to get off their asses and either start making more original work, or draw from books that are in fact interesting and cool.
How about you? What books would you prefer to be made into movies since they don’t do original work?
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