Novels meant to be filmed, and a fanfic rec

fannish5: Five books that could be great movies:


Child of the Morning by Pauline Gedge. My favourite novel about Hatshepsut, the most remarkable of Egypt's female rulers (yes, that includes Cleopatra). Could be adapted without falling into the traps of biopics (i.e. too many characters, events just name-checked), and offers several great roles.

Wilde West by Walter Sattherwaite. Which is many things at once - a mystery with young Oscar W. - during his tour through the American West - as one of the detectives, with your proverbial alcoholic sheriff being the other one - and a play with archetypes, Western and detective ones alike. Doc Holiday shows up as one of the suspects and is suitably enigmatic. I think the biggest stumbling block for the audience would be that Oscar Wilde has a love affair with a woman here, which will undoubtedly result in cries of "no way", but he did have several het affairs in his youth, and him figuring out he might be interested in other directions is a minor subplot of the novel. You have sparkling dialogues, suspense, great characters and a length that's easy to adapt.

American Gods by Neil Gaiman. A challenge to the scriptwriter because of the gigantic cast which would have to be trimmed, true, but at its heart a road movie, and I so want Ron Rifkin to play Mr. Wednesday, aka Odin. That is his role, I tell you. Born for it. Much as I'm not a fan of his celeb antics, Russell Crowe could be Shadow.

Bride of the Rat God by Barbara Hambly. Perfect tongue-in-cheek mystery thriller set in the 1920s, a deliberate homage to the old film serials and Universal horror movies, and has two great female roles in the form of the silent picture film star who gets a Manchu necklace that pledges her to the Rat God of the title from her evil producer, and her sensible English sister in law. The best thing is the way all the clichés are avoided: both women are sympathetic and allies - Christine embraces the shallow and loves her film star luxury, her booze and her boy toys, but she's not condemmed for it, and Nora, our point of view character and future script writer who is the intellectual quiet type, isn't transformed into a fashion queen by love but remains her geeky self.

The Beerkeeper's Daughter by Gillian Bradshaw. Byzantium at its peak, with a great take on Theodora who comes across as a captivating, three dimensional character, through the eyes of her illegitimate son Johannes. It has romance, politics and a limited time frame, and a director should be able to indulge in cinematic opulence. Also, given the universal domination of father-son relationships, mother-son should be a refreshing alternative...
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And a fanfic rec: Hell Is Where You Meet The Person You Could Have Been by stoney321 is described by her as "four bible stories with a Jossian twist - Angel, Wesley, Gunn, Connor" - short and incredibly powerful.