Haven’t I Read You Somewhere Before?



We’ve all been feeling the FOMO this week getting fire-hosed with updates out of San Diego Comic Con. Our team of geeks have been hungrily checking out the Marvel and DC panels and their seemingly never-ending supply of comic book characters springing onto a screen near you soon. In lieu of any written words from George RR Martin we’re trying to avoid Game of Thrones spoilers until Monday. We’re excited (and terrified) by how the pant-crappingly scary new version of IT is shaping up. Then there’s Spielberg’s adaptation of Ernest Cline’s love-letter to 80s pop culture Ready Player One:
We’re a scholarly bunch in Team Wilderness. To call us academics is a stretch. But we know our Harry Holes from our Hercule Poirots.
When we haven’t got our noses in a book we’re losing ourselves in TV shows and films. Lucky for us then it seems like hardly a week goes by without a new adaptation of a beloved bestseller being announced.
But what about the books that you can’t believe haven’t been made into a film yet? What about that incredible story that NEEDS to be seen to be believed? Careful what you wish for because what if they turned it into an incomprehensible mess? On the one hand it’s a thrill to see your favourite characters come vividly to life on the big or small screen. On the other it’s difficult to bear when you see your favourite literary legends being morphed beyond recognition on the big screen.
There’s no consensus in the Wilderness office but here are a few examples of the books crying out to be made into films, the stories too precious to be made a meal of and one film that made a bloody mess out of a thrilling tale.

Doctor Sleep — Stephen King
The underrated and lesser-known book to its predecessor The Shining is long due for an adaptation to the big screen. I only read it recently and Stephen King sure hasn’t lost his spark. The novel is riveting and haunting, telling the story of Jack Torrance’s son, Dan, as he’s battling his own demons following his father’s infamous legacy. Albeit not as bone-chilling as The Shining, Doctor Sleep has the opportunity to turn into an instant classic in the horror genre — considering it finds the right director and Stephen King’s heavy involvement in the project.
SK

Perdido Street Station — China Mieville
I don’t generally feel very strongly about book to film adaptations, however there’s few books I want brought to the big screen LESS than China Mieville’s Perdido Street Station. The novel is set in the fictional world of Bas-lag, in which humans coexist with fantastical creatures, there is magic and steampunk, and corruption is rife. The setting alone would make an incredible feast for the eyes — but it’s the complex and three dimensional characters inhabiting this world, the politics and tragedies that make Perdido Street Station the heart wrenching adventure it is. I would not trust the film industry in its current state to faithfully depict the intricacies of the characters relationships and falsifying the book’s message by pandering to an audience. As much as I would love to see the unbelievable world of Bas-lag come to life, it’s for that reason I hope this film never gets made.
JB
[EDITOR’S NOTE — I think that JB is totally spot on BUT it would make an utterly spectacular Netflix or Amazon series. Spend a bit of money, take some time over it and do a REALLY good job]

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay — Michael Chabon.
Chabon’s cult odyssey about two cousins in 1940s New York, who create a comic book called The Escapist, as a way of dealing with the horrors of the Second World War, has been mooted for a film adaptation since its publication in 2000 — but, to-date, no director has managed to bring the 700-page Pulitzer Prize winning novel to the big screen. However, with the emergence of the “Golden Age of TV” from the companies like HBO, AMC, Netflix and Amazon, Chabon’s masterpiece could be introduced to a whole new generation via a form that would better serve its brilliantly sprawling narrative.
JV

Poor adapt — The Ice Man
I’m a big fan of true crime, so naturally I was ecstatic when I found out they were making a film of my favourite sociopathic mafia hit man, Richard ‘The Ice Man’ Kuklinski. He operated from the 1960 to the 1990s, and by his own estimate killed over 200 men for various underworld bosses. The Ice Man is a blood-chilling insight into the mind of one of the world’s most prolific contract-killers. For me, what makes the story so interesting is the way the author, Philip Carlo, delves deep into Kuklinski’s psyche to show us how a man with such sadistic tendencies can operate in two worlds: the family man and the professional killer.
Unfortunately the book was just too complex for a 90min film, which is a shame because the cast was excellent on paper: Michael Shannon as the lead, along with Winona Ryder, Ray Liotta, James Franco and Chris Evans. It just didn’t show the main character’s complexities that were so compelling from the book, and I suppose it’s another example of Hollywood dumbing down source material to make a film more appealing to the mainstream. Overall, it was just so bland, easy to forget and… meh.
TM

The Nightingale
The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah was one of the most touching books I’ve read. A fictional book about two girls who lived in France during The Holocaust, who were then torn apart from it. One of them decided to stay in her hometown to look after her kid and helped hide Jewish children who were going to be taken captive by the Nazis. The other decided to help the Jews and travel around France delivering cryptic messages to the Nazis and trying to save as many soldiers as she could. I won’t spoil the ending for you, but it’s a truly extraordinary story that somewhat tells the of the real story of what happened during the Holocaust. I wouldn’t want anyone to make a film adaption of it because I’m not sure it can be adapted as beautifully as it as written.
