Kermode Uncut: The Greatest Novels Never Filmed

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  • Опубликовано: 23 янв 2025

Комментарии • 308

  • @jamesblames2
    @jamesblames2 9 лет назад +113

    Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy is amazing

    • @Toxodos
      @Toxodos 3 года назад +8

      I imagine it's a light hearted rom-com

  • @Oceanmachine27
    @Oceanmachine27 10 лет назад +32

    I can't believe this video didn't include "A Confederacy of Dunces". One of the most notoriously unfilmable yet popular novels I know of.

  • @JamesMc2051
    @JamesMc2051 3 года назад +5

    Two famous ones are Catcher In The Rye and A Confederacy Of Dunces. As far as I know anyway. That's the first two that spring to mind. Both have a history of various people trying to acquire rights, planning getting so far, then falling apart.
    I don't go along with the idea that every novel is suited to movie adaptation. I'm more in the Alan Moore camp that certain stories suit certain mediums.

  • @KevTheImpaler
    @KevTheImpaler 10 лет назад +18

    Funnily enough, I was thinking of Terry Gilliam to direct The Man Who Was Thursday by G.K. Chesterton.

  • @MrSwanley
    @MrSwanley 9 лет назад +27

    Ubik by Philip K. Dick. My favorite novel of his. There has been rumors for years of a movie happening, but it seems to be all smoke and no fire.

    • @allaboutdmagic
      @allaboutdmagic 8 лет назад

      You can read Dick's script for the film of Ubik. It's been published.

  • @danthemango
    @danthemango 9 лет назад +34

    Weaveworld by Clive Barker. The most cinematic book I've ever read.

  • @DainBramageStudios
    @DainBramageStudios 12 лет назад +16

    The Very Hungry Caterpiller

  • @jaybone23
    @jaybone23 8 лет назад +13

    No mention in the video of "A Confederacy of Dunces". The last time I heard anything about an attempt at a film version, Steven Soderbergh and George Clooney were mentioned. They had obtained an option or something.

    • @jackjackeroo6221
      @jackjackeroo6221 4 года назад

      You know, that's a story that really could be filmed. However, expecting the general public to catch the nuance of 1960s New Orleans is impossible. It COULD be done, but it won't be done well.

  • @bighuge1060
    @bighuge1060 6 лет назад +9

    I would have loved to see Kurt Vonnegut's 'Cat's Cradle'. It has a very clear narrative and I'm surprised it hasn't been adapted to the big or small screen.

  • @ProjectFlashlight612
    @ProjectFlashlight612 9 лет назад +26

    Please, there is one masterpiece novel that can be filmed, should be filmed, should be filmed by Del Toro, yet has not been filmed - "At The Mountains Of Madness" by HP Lovecraft. It MUST be done by GDT (or at a pinch John Carpenter), and to encompass the mind-blowing scale of the story's latter half it has to be in 48 fps 3D. If they can name a feature on Pluto after Cthulhu, they can surely film the most visually imaginative sci fi horror tale of the past century.

  • @TimeandMonotony
    @TimeandMonotony 4 года назад +9

    It's not unfilmable, but I would nominate C.S. Lewis' Till We Have Faces as the best novel never filmed. It probably could be filmed, it just hasn't, sadly.
    As for unfilmable, I'd have to go with Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun. Great books, but they're convoluted as hell, and I just can't see anyone translating the narrative to the screen.
    Also, as several other commenters have pointed out, A Confederacy of Dunces. And we're all still waiting for Guillermo del Toro's adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft's At the Mountains of Madness.

  • @JustMusic1685
    @JustMusic1685 9 лет назад +50

    Infinite Jest, anyone?

    • @connorveach5986
      @connorveach5986 8 лет назад +5

      +Johnny MacMillan impossible. i feel like you'd have to use narration straight out of the book, like they did in Inherent Vice

    • @joshg.4448
      @joshg.4448 7 лет назад +8

      ...maybe a mini series

  • @MJHaylett
    @MJHaylett 12 лет назад +5

    All of Iain M. Banks Culture Novels - luckily there is a new one coming at the end of the year :D I am looking forward to that more than any movie.

  • @williamcalvert6162
    @williamcalvert6162 8 лет назад +16

    Pale Fire and Blood Meridian

    • @クシルシ
      @クシルシ 8 лет назад

      ɷ I Havee Watchedddd Thissss Movie Leakedddd Version Here : - t.co/RlKbv1hghK

  • @YoungArgonaut
    @YoungArgonaut 12 лет назад +13

    House of Leaves is both begging for a film and impossible to adapt.

  • @hayleyannamathieson7261
    @hayleyannamathieson7261 3 года назад +4

    The Master and the Margarita.🌹

    • @matthewdarcy6859
      @matthewdarcy6859 3 года назад

      My favourite book. There have been adaptations, but not major or mainstream

  • @JAMAICADOCK
    @JAMAICADOCK 5 лет назад +4

    Foucault's Pendulum or anything by Eco. Strange there hasn't been more adaptations of his books, given the Name of the Rose was such a great success.

    • @steveconnolly8019
      @steveconnolly8019 3 года назад +1

      Apparently Eco disliked the adaptation of Name of the Rose enough to turn down Kubrick wanting to film FP

  • @brabbit3389
    @brabbit3389 2 года назад +1

    Is there a film based on zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance?

  • @tanyachou4474
    @tanyachou4474 3 года назад +1

    I miss this

  • @MagnitudeReviews
    @MagnitudeReviews 3 года назад +5

    “His Dark Materials Trilogy” well... actually it did. And it’s great.

  • @nickstoli
    @nickstoli 6 лет назад +4

    I know a couple of Murakami books have been made into films, but I get the feeling that novels like A Wild Sheep Chase, The Wind-up Bird Chronicle, and 1Q84, if they were made into movies, would either be masterpieces or, well, excrement.

  • @deadbeat1980
    @deadbeat1980 7 лет назад +2

    'The Dice Man'.......timeless....and full of potential.

  • @bobbobble6244
    @bobbobble6244 10 лет назад +16

    The Third Policeman by Flan O'Brien.

    • @johnspud174
      @johnspud174 10 лет назад

      I AGREE 1000%..... IT WOULD BE SOME CRAZY SHOW!!!

    • @p1mmolloybom
      @p1mmolloybom 10 лет назад +1

      I agree that TTP would make a great movie. When I was first reading it back in 1997, I thought it would be a perfect fit for ... Terry Gilliam.

    • @bobbobble6244
      @bobbobble6244 10 лет назад

      p1mmolloybom Yes. I wonder if he ever considered it?

  • @paulkielty3800
    @paulkielty3800 3 года назад +1

    Loved the Dan Brown comments at the end.

  • @gunner444441
    @gunner444441 3 года назад +7

    I know this video is old but for anybody watching that might be mounting a first attempt at Gravity's Rainbow it is imperative that you do NOT skip the first section of the book. If you're feeling lost there are plenty of guides, many of which are free (the Pynchon reading community on blogs, etc. is huge). Easily the least adaptable book I've ever read. And also the best!

    • @lifeofbob2896
      @lifeofbob2896 3 года назад +1

      It's not as if the rest of the book is some sort of breeze compared to that first section either. The first section is marginally more dense and esoteric, but that's about it. If you feel the need to skip it, you might as well skip the whole book, you weren't going to enjoy the rest of it much either.

    • @davidlean1060
      @davidlean1060 3 года назад

      Pynchon actually wants the novel to be seen in the mind's eye as if it were a film too. There are many scenes that actually have script notes like, 'medium shot' written as part of the text. Some of the set pieces are lifted from old black and white caper movies, like the chase through the tunnels containing the V 2 factories, the dog fight/pie fight in the sky and Slothrop on his mission to find the buried dope and they would make for fantastic cinema. The fact a book that pays so many references to the movies could never be filmed is Pynchon's joke.

  • @toddsmith3339
    @toddsmith3339 3 года назад +5

    DUNE, 3 versions, one one has come close to doing it justice.

  • @royw-g3120
    @royw-g3120 3 года назад +1

    Great the BBC resurrected His Dark Materials as a TV series.

  • @connorrobinson5758
    @connorrobinson5758 3 года назад +1

    I'm surprised to not see The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov in the comments. One of my all time favourites, blending dark satire with philosophy and an underlying critique of Stalinism. Polanski almost did an adaptation. Baz Luhrmann is apparently in the process of adapting it which makes me die inside. I don't think it could ever be properly adapted because of how unusual the novel is. Funnily enough given Mark's observations about Terry Gilliam being the answer to everything, he is probably the only director I would have faith in to make a good adaptation!

  • @AmbersKnight
    @AmbersKnight 11 лет назад +3

    The Last Battle hasn't been skipped over. So far we have had The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, Prince Caspian and The Voyage Of The Dawn Treader. Next would be The Silver Chair and then The Last Battle rounds things off. Yes The Magician's Nephew and Horse and The Boy haven't been touched but the five films they seem to be going for are the main narrative for Narnia.

  • @cooperarthur3
    @cooperarthur3 10 лет назад +6

    The Chronicles Of Ancient Darkness series by Michelle Paver.

  • @Maximillionaire666
    @Maximillionaire666 12 лет назад +1

    Carpenter's film is about a book that turns you insane, it's not based on a specific Lovecraft story but it takes Lovecraftian horror conventions and makes a new story. I also am aware of Stuart Gordon's films like Re-Animator (which is awesome) and From Beyond.

  • @mauricemattei
    @mauricemattei 7 лет назад +1

    The Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini would be a fabulous movie. It needs editing but it's a fantastic story - humorous, inspiring, melodramatic, sexual, violent, spiritual, classical yet very contemporary.

  • @theMAXILOPEZpsycho
    @theMAXILOPEZpsycho 12 лет назад +2

    Crime and punishment, voyage au bout de la nuit, notes from the underground, the diamond age, neoromancer, henry millars books

  • @fatback2
    @fatback2 3 года назад +1

    "A Confederacy of Dunces" is another famous "cursed " Hollywood novel adaptation that has had names like Belushi and Farrell attached to it at times, but has never gone into full production.

  • @RPumpkinQueen
    @RPumpkinQueen 6 лет назад

    Carlos Ruiz Zafon's The Shadow Of The Wind. A journey of wonders and eerie enchantment. When I get there I will buy the rights myself ;)

  • @SuperMatthew80
    @SuperMatthew80 12 лет назад +3

    If on a Winter's Night a Traveller by Italo Calvino.

  • @georgemorley1029
    @georgemorley1029 9 лет назад +4

    The fact that the BBC had to skip The Honourable Schoolboy by John le Carre (because they couldn't muster the budget to film it in Hong Kong) and instead went straight onto Smiley's People still makes me wonder what that could have been like. However, they did at least have the artistic integrity not to try to transpose the action too much, like they did with the Hong Kong scenes in Tinker Tailor being put in Portugal (which just about works). Therefore the novel is virgin filmic territory; somebody do it justice, please! And NO OLDMAN. Thank you.

  • @singIeservingfriend
    @singIeservingfriend 8 лет назад +29

    The Wasp Factory!

  • @Ryan_Ek2
    @Ryan_Ek2 7 лет назад +2

    I'd add DeLillo's Underworld on this list, although I do think it could make a decent miniseries.

  • @AdmiralBlake
    @AdmiralBlake 7 лет назад +1

    Fatherland by Rpbert Harris, the 1994 TV movie was decent, but its fully deserving of a big screen adaptation

  • @12schoolies
    @12schoolies 12 лет назад +3

    Joe Haldeman's "The Forever War", widely regarded as the best sci fi novel ever written. It would make a great Trilogy for say Ridley Scott?

  • @pinecone5089
    @pinecone5089 3 года назад +3

    Mike drop finish. I miss Kermode Uncut!

  • @nellgwenn
    @nellgwenn 11 лет назад +12

    Upton's Sinclaire's The Jungle. It would be too grotesque to be filmed.

    • @madahad9
      @madahad9 10 лет назад +7

      Grotesque, yes, but what incredible images. Men unable to stop less their blood-saturated overalls freeze solid. There was something very surreal about the book. I am not sure if you are familiar with Spanish director Luis Bunuel but he would have been able to make a film of the book.

    • @madahad9
      @madahad9 10 лет назад +4

      Bunuel is my second favorite director after Kubrick...but sometime Bunuel nudges him out. Yes, he'd be the only director who could possibly film this book, going beyond the grotesque surface to the surreal viscera. Bunuel is never shy to show social injustices and how people are degraded and debased---sometimes it is from an outer source and sometimes it is from the character's own shortsighted limitations. Bunuel had a couple projects that sadly were never realized. He wanted to film Johnny Got His Gun and Lord of the Flies. He liked when the social niceties were stripped away and the reality beneath the facade was reavealed as in his masterpiece The Exterminating Angel. As you might tell I am a huge fan of Bunuel. Sadly no one has really folowed in his footsteps and the word "surreal" is tossed around very casually to what is just munedanely weird or strange. L'age d'or is number on my list of all-time favorite films. It is still as potent as the scorpion's tail at the beginning of the film. Glad to encounter another fan. We are trapped in a Michael Bay world.

  • @myenemysenemy1043
    @myenemysenemy1043 9 лет назад +3

    Igby Goes Down is the closet thing we'll ever get to a movie based on Catcher in the Rye

  • @Amata19
    @Amata19 12 лет назад +1

    Any of Haruki Murakami's books really... although they could possibly do Sputnik Sweetheart, but I think the feel of "extraordinary in the ordinary" and all the interesting characters and concepts would be lost.

  • @allaboutdmagic
    @allaboutdmagic 12 лет назад

    Also, you can't skip the first section of Gravity's Rainbow. The first line ties up with the ending. And is a killer. Not to mention the fantastic scene setting and atmos building.

  • @arbocorp
    @arbocorp 9 лет назад +1

    What about The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant?

  • @sabatheus
    @sabatheus 7 лет назад +3

    Neuromancer - William Gibson

  • @cbak12sg
    @cbak12sg 12 лет назад +4

    The Chrysalids by John Wyndham

  • @Josep_Hernandez_Lujan
    @Josep_Hernandez_Lujan 3 года назад +1

    I would put that line about hating the movies in the trailer. It's like the book is challenging filmmakers to do it

  • @mrafamorais
    @mrafamorais 11 лет назад

    The Maias by Portuguese writer Eça de Queiroz. Some tv productions have been done, but a movie version would be very interesting to watch.

  • @Homunculas
    @Homunculas 6 лет назад +3

    Lord Valentines Castle by Robert Silverberg.

  • @johnnyfortpants1415
    @johnnyfortpants1415 3 года назад

    Dear Mark, was it you who said Alex Garland's The Coma was a film waiting to happen. I loved the eerie little novella and have been waiting for it to appear.

  • @Derm1991
    @Derm1991 12 лет назад +1

    On the Road. Because its more about how its said and the spirit that comes across from the stream of consciousness.

  • @avisfrost2959
    @avisfrost2959 8 лет назад +4

    Absolutely it's Snow Crash

  • @terrycharnley
    @terrycharnley 12 лет назад +1

    I'm with one of the responses in this blog. Not all books need to be filmed. Hey, books were invented long before the screen, try reading them!

  • @707username707
    @707username707 9 лет назад +1

    I'd like to see Christopher Nolan make The Man Who Was Thursday, by G. K. Chesterton. If anyone can pull off a plot twist that relies so heavily on it's reader misreading or forgetting a key word in the title and a climactic betrayal of imaginative and emotional investment from the audience, it'll be Nolan.

  • @JeansiByxan
    @JeansiByxan 7 лет назад

    Waverley: Sir Walter Scott, The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner: James Hogg. Not the most read novels, but both groundbreaking in their fields and deserving of adaptations.

  • @RenaissanceMan1993
    @RenaissanceMan1993 12 лет назад

    I would be delighted to see the story in Chapter 1 in The Good, The Bad and the Multiplex adapted into a short film.

  • @geekmajor7617
    @geekmajor7617 10 лет назад +1

    Not so much can't be filmed, but more amazed they haven't been yet. Asimov's massive Robot/Empire/Foundation saga (the Will Smith film doesn't count). In an age where we love interconnected multistranded franchises like the Marvel cinematic universe and obscene levels of world building as shown in the Middle Earth pictures, isn't it about time somebody attempted this 200andsomething book epic?

  • @AdjustableSquelch
    @AdjustableSquelch 8 лет назад +15

    A Confederacy of Dunces (and I'm a Brit, gifted a copy by an American friend)

    • @jaybone23
      @jaybone23 8 лет назад +1

      I wrote this before seeing your post:
      No mention in the video of "A Confederacy of Dunces". The last time I heard anything about an attempt at a film version, Steven Soderbergh and George Clooney were mentioned. They had obtained an option or something.

    • @postmodernrecycler
      @postmodernrecycler 7 лет назад +1

      This book is unbelievable, and I am a lifelong denizen of New Orleans. I need this movie in my life! I can only read the same book so many times (forever).

  • @OsofoGriot
    @OsofoGriot 12 лет назад

    My childhood will never recover from that. I hope you're happy...

  • @ecc84
    @ecc84 3 года назад +1

    Behold the Man by Michael Moorcock.....I would love to see anyone touch that.

  • @WAAAAAAAAAAAY
    @WAAAAAAAAAAAY 8 лет назад +1

    I'd like to see a film adaptation of Chuck Palahuik's Novel, Survivor. I think it's a really interesting book.....Could be directed by James Gunn or maybe Lynne Ramsey even.
    I also think Slaughterhouse 5 could be adapted again.....Might be a Terry Gilliam job, or Alfonso Cuaron or Darren Aronofsky.
    :)

  • @Hedge_witch
    @Hedge_witch 6 лет назад +1

    I'd super like to see Sandman by Gaiman turned into a series or films.

  • @BigBioshockFan
    @BigBioshockFan 12 лет назад +1

    'Death is a Lonely Business' - Ray Bradbury

  • @Daisy-ct3nh
    @Daisy-ct3nh 6 лет назад +2

    The Star of the Sea by Joseph O Connor. It would make a great film.

  • @dannycheesums
    @dannycheesums 5 лет назад +3

    The Mote in God’s Eye by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle

    • @stevegoodson9022
      @stevegoodson9022 3 года назад

      It really saddens me that there's so much great sci-fi literature out there but when sci-fi films are made they either adapt trash or take a plot from another genre and set it in SPAAAAAAAAAAACE... Would love to see some adaptations of Iain M Banks, Stephen Baxter, Neal Stephenson or Larry Niven.

  • @Nimai_HiFi
    @Nimai_HiFi 12 лет назад +4

    The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester, Possibly the best sci-fi book ever written, just wouldn't work on the big screen

  • @berendko7266
    @berendko7266 4 года назад +1

    The whole Bible in one movie

  • @irrationalgaz
    @irrationalgaz 12 лет назад +2

    Perdido Street Station by China Meiville

  • @Funeralapolis
    @Funeralapolis 9 лет назад +2

    Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison would be impossible, although it had been adapted for Broadway.

    • @zahzahzee
      @zahzahzee 3 года назад

      Did the recent Invisible Man film meet the mark?

  • @stevencampbell2018
    @stevencampbell2018 8 лет назад +19

    If American Psycho could be made into a movie. I think Catcher In The Rye could be.

    • @tatehildyard5332
      @tatehildyard5332 7 лет назад +5

      Steven Campbell Well there's that and the fact that J.D Salinger has stated in letters to his son he feels the same way about movies as Holden and asked his son to not sell the rights after his death. Don't believe me, google it.

    • @kenon6968
      @kenon6968 3 года назад

      That movie was inspired by the book, to put it generously.

  • @sam91004
    @sam91004 12 лет назад +1

    Kafkas metamorphis or the old man and the Sea and perhaps Slaughterhouse 5? :)

  • @johnspud174
    @johnspud174 10 лет назад +8

    THE WASP FACTORY!!!!

  • @TuanLeKreuk
    @TuanLeKreuk 10 лет назад +1

    adapting don delilo's novels would be a great challenge

  • @22smosh
    @22smosh 6 лет назад +1

    100 years of solitud would be heard to do

  • @BenCol
    @BenCol 5 лет назад

    I’m curious to see what a ‘The Good, The Bad, and The Multiplex’ film would’ve been like. I’m guessing something akin to ‘Adaptation’ mixed with the TV show ‘The Critic’. It would’ve either been terrific or total pants, no middle ground.

  • @peterobinson3678
    @peterobinson3678 5 лет назад +1

    No 'Confederacy of Dunces'.....
    Still waiting on that one...

  • @frenchkids
    @frenchkids 12 лет назад

    I thought the screenplay for Blood Meridien had been written.

  • @52BLUE
    @52BLUE 3 года назад +1

    I miss kermode uncut

  • @St4rdog
    @St4rdog 12 лет назад +1

    How about something on why no video games should ever be made into movies?

  • @williamoldham7601
    @williamoldham7601 6 лет назад +2

    At the Mountains of Madness by H.P. Lovecraft. I hope Guillermo del Toro gets to work on it.

  • @farshnuke
    @farshnuke 12 лет назад

    To be fair to hitchhiker's it was adapted faithfully, at least as faithfully as the books were to the radio plays anyway. What is unfilmable are the sequels because even if you could adapt the books plots to fit with the developments made in the film, the resultant works would be so obliquely faithful as to be unfaithful to his style, perhaps if Eoin Colfer wrote the screenplay?

  • @tomdeakin0
    @tomdeakin0 5 лет назад

    Would love to see Brave New World on the big screen

  • @Captain_Rhodes
    @Captain_Rhodes 9 лет назад +5

    they should make blood meridian properly on a low budget as an independant. even if a studio did take it on it would be a 15 at the most and would be rubbish. may aswel let someone make it properly on the horror/indie circuit and do a real job on it

  • @calbaker1775
    @calbaker1775 6 лет назад +1

    Pale fire??

  • @ReligionOfSacrifice
    @ReligionOfSacrifice 4 года назад

    "Another Fine Myth" by Robert Asprin. How I would love to see this made into a movie.

  • @curtisnixon5313
    @curtisnixon5313 3 года назад

    'The 13th Valley' by John Del Vecchio.

  • @livli00
    @livli00 12 лет назад +1

    The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay.

  • @skinwearingmaniac9856
    @skinwearingmaniac9856 10 лет назад +10

    The Ian M. Banks sci fi novels are unfilmable.

  • @Maximillionaire666
    @Maximillionaire666 12 лет назад

    Not seen any of those, nor have I seen Corman's The Haunted Palace, a Lovecraft adaptation disguised as a Poe adaptation.

  • @MC_1993
    @MC_1993 5 лет назад +2

    Foucaults Pendulum. Kubricks masterpiece he never made

  • @williamk3702
    @williamk3702 8 лет назад

    Say, just to digress a little - while we alighted on the subject of Thomas Pynchon, it jogged my memory - did I see a Trystero symbol in Dirty Harry? I think it's seen as graffiti on the subway wall when Scorpio is running Harry all over 'Frisco (also 'KYLE' displayed prominently - Kyle being Eastwood jr.). I haven't got the DVD so I can't confirm this. I may have dreamed it. I dreamed last night about Roy Orbison - he didn't want to sing 'Crying' anymore, but instead only a song about a bear ... The night before, Romesh Ranganathan doing an impersonation of Hugh Griffith ...

  • @KevTheImpaler
    @KevTheImpaler 3 года назад +1

    I don't think The Man Who Was Thursday has ever been filmed. That would be a rather weird film.

  • @EuphrasieF
    @EuphrasieF 12 лет назад +1

    I'm amazed that Don Quixote has never been filmed.

  • @rw221192
    @rw221192 12 лет назад

    I was DESPERATE to see Frank Schätzing's The Swarm on the big screen.

  • @UnusualTastes
    @UnusualTastes 12 лет назад

    An Arsonist's Guide to Writer's Homes in New England. It's not a particularly great or even good novel per se, but I can't help but see something in it that could be great; something that maybe the right director could really capture.

  • @richardfarrell2051
    @richardfarrell2051 5 лет назад

    The wild boys by William Burroughs. Luca Guadagnino directs! James Ellroy’s American tabloid and cold six thousand would make an incredible pair of mini series’!

  • @floppykid
    @floppykid 12 лет назад

    Nicolas Winding Refn might stand a chance of giving Blood Meridian a good sound out.