Do you have a film/series that is perfection for you?

[TimRees]

Can anyone remember Northern Exposure? I really miss that series....

 

[Pamela Jo]

been lurking around this thread for a while, so i might as well just say that Gravity Falls, although technically a Disney cartoon for kids, had some of the most engaging storytelling, compelling characters, and emotional stories that my little 12-year-old brain could handle. and i still love it today! call me childish, but that show and its fandom was an experience i'll always think of very fondly :]

That was post Disney movie age from my sons. I'll have to check it out. The last Disney movie I went to was Voyage of the Dawn Treader, sequel to Lion, Witch etc. Loved Reepi Cheep.

But just remembered, Netflix's Queen's Gambit. Love, Love ,Love

 

[Sedayne]

But just remembered, Netflix's Queen's Gambit. Love, Love ,Love

I loved Queen's Gambit although not as much as the novel.

 

[Claire G]

The Lion King
Beauty and the Beast
Alien
Terminator
Game of Thrones would be except I was disappointed by the ending
The Office
3rd Rock from the Sun
24
Quantum Leap
What Lies Beneath
The Silence of the Lambs
Bridget Jones's Diary
Love Actually
Pretty Woman
You've Got Mail
Dances With Wolves
Dirty Dancing
Jurassic Park

I could go on forever!

 

[Barbara]

Frasier. Not the reboot.
X-Files. The reboot.

I was hooked on Lost but hated the ending. Lazy writers.

Desperate to see Breaking Bad.

There're loads I love and I don't even know where to continue.

I believe writers MUST watch TV. We can learn a lot about story telling.

And also analyse how to be economical in story telling. Just look at the movies based on books: they're often parred (is that the right word) down. Some scenes don't make it into the movie but the story still works. The Martian is a good example. The film (which I really like) feels like a synopsis compared to the book.

If the film/series is better than the book does it come down to the actors making the characters live in a way the author couldn't?

Yep. And the screen writer. And the DOP and the director ... all add to making the characters sparkle when it was bland on the page. When the book is good (emotive) it's easy for actors and everyone else. The emotions jump off the page and the vision is clear. We then add our own interpretation to it. With a bad book, life will come from the film makers because the author didn't do a good enough job, but film making can be a bit like editing: you see what's there and make it better. The way something is filmed can change characterisation. It can be as subtle as a camera angle.

I always think, if a book connects emotionally when reading, it will be a good film. A lot comes down to good characterisation and character interactions in the writing. If it's not there in a book, us actors have to create it. It's just a bit more work and everyone in the film has to make more creative decisions.

In Frasier, there's an episode where Niles has no lines. The script would have read as bland boring dead old stage directions but David H P makes them some of the most comical scenes in TV without saying a single word, purely with his acting. So yes actors can save a bad book.

Pop us was similar. Readers often lifted bad writing.

 

[Vagabond Heart]

Not my absolute favourite (that place belongs to Harvey, with James Stewart) but I’d like to mention one film that was equally as good as the book.
This is a rare thing. Descriptive books are always better than the film, and action films are always better than the book.
But this - with this I couldn’t choose between them.
And it’s The Book Thief.

 

[Pamela Jo]

Not my absolute favourite (that place belongs to Harvey, with James Stewart) but I’d like to mention one film that was equally as good as the book.
This is a rare thing. Descriptive books are always better than the film, and action films are always better than the book.
But this - with this I couldn’t choose between them.
And it’s The Book Thief.

Harvey is exceptional. I love so many of those black and white movies. But chef's kiss on Philidelphia Story for making being a grown up look so much fun!

 

[Pamela Jo]

OMG Forgot Firefly and Cowboy Bebop- the original Japanese anime version. The real life remake was OK-but not as good.

My only beef with Firefly was literal Westerns in space, but then Westworld solved that for me.

 

[Sedayne]

OMG Forgot Firefly and Cowboy Bebop- the original Japanese anime version. The real life remake was OK-but not as good.

My only beef with Firefly was literal Westerns in space, but then Westworld solved that for me.

I loved Firefly. A completely unrelated book that reminds me very much of Firefly is A Long Way to a Small Angry Planet. I always thought that it would make a great TV series. Someone must be thinking about making it, surely.

 

[Hannah F]

The Lion King
Beauty and the Beast
Alien
Terminator
Game of Thrones would be except I was disappointed by the ending
The Office
3rd Rock from the Sun
24
Quantum Leap
What Lies Beneath
The Silence of the Lambs
Bridget Jones's Diary
Love Actually
Pretty Woman
You've Got Mail
Dances With Wolves
Dirty Dancing
Jurassic Park

I could go on forever!

Great list!

 

[Pamela Jo]

I loved Firefly. A completely unrelated book that reminds me very much of Firefly is A Long Way to a Small Angry Planet. I always thought that it would make a great TV series. Someone must be thinking about making it, surely.

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet - Wikipedia. Interesting that she funded it thru Kickstarter at first. I did not know it, but now have it on my list. Will check Audible.

 

[RK Wallis]

Geez, just too many! Great mentions above, plus:

Pride and Prejudice (any)
Emma (the BBC version with Romola Garai)
Persuasion (2022 version - love how they've broken the fourth wall)
Anne of Green Gables (Megan Follows version)
The Martian
Rebecca
Pulp Fiction
The Gentlemen
Sherlock (the Bernard Cumberbach one)
Did we already mention The Godfather?
Gone with the Wind
Seven
Joker
A Time to Kill
One for the Money

the list is endless, lol

We should play a game - name the top 10 protags that influence your writing (or you'd like them too):

1. Sherlock Holmes
2. Scarlett O’Hara
3. Anne Shirley
4. Maximus, Gladiator
5. Emma
6. Sheldon Cooper
7. Sir Percy, The Scarlet Pimpernel (book)
8. Dexter
9. Scarlet, The Lunar Chronicles
10. Elizabeth Bennett

 

[Peyton Stafford]

Maybe someone could make this into a list, something like the Litopia list of books for writers?

Books about Books

I've been in Bristol this week, and there's a great bookshop on Park Street called The Last Bookshop – new books, but (presumably) remaindered stock because everything is £4. They have a sizable section labelled Books About Books where I found these two gems. I thought I had learned all there...

colony.litopia.com

 

[Sedayne]

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet - Wikipedia. Interesting that she funded it thru Kickstarter at first. I did not know it, but now have it on my list. Will check Audible.

That's really interesting. I didn't know it was Kickstarter funded either. It was the first of a very successful series of books. Sci-Fi isn't generally my thing for reading, although I like Star Trek and some other Sci-Fi TV, but Becky Chambers hooked me like a TV show.

 

[Pamela Jo]

That's really interesting. I didn't know it was Kickstarter funded either. It was the first of a very successful series of books. Sci-Fi isn't generally my thing for reading, although I like Star Trek and some other Sci-Fi TV, but Becky Chambers hooked me like a TV show.

It's my audible book this month. I'm finishing up Mr Mercedes, S King. Sort of Horror/Crime. I am still trying to pinpoint how King hooks me when I don't like his writing... or his stories that much.

 

[Sedayne]

It's my audible book this month.

You're in for a treat; Patricia Rodriguez is a fantastic narrator.

 

[Pamela Jo]

Looks like some good things to try out. If I'm brave enough I'll try 3 Body Problem, but I have trouble giving the GOT guys the opportunity to screw up the book for me. Let me guess- the aliens will have luscious boobs back AND front.

Renegade Nell to A Gentleman in Moscow: the seven best shows to stream this week

Sally Wainwright’s wildly enjoyable new period drama sees an ex-Derry Girl turn highway robber, while Ewan McGregor’s portrayal of a Russian aristocrat beautifully evokes the start of the 20th century

www.theguardian.com

 

[TimRees]

the aliens will have luscious boobs back AND front.

And what programme is this!I need to watch it

 

[Pamela Jo]

the aliens will have luscious boobs back AND front.

And what programme is this!I need to watch it

Game of Thrones in Space.....

I really liked the book Three Body Problem-about why we dont see aliens. But it was adapted and produced by the same guys who ruined GOT.

 

[Rich.]

What a wonderful thread full of wonderful things! Every time I come back to Litopia having been away for a bit, it's like snuggling down under a favourite duvet, and this thread is the epitome of that.

As for the question:

Do you have a film/series that is perfection for you?

I loved the Tomas Alfredson adaptation of John le Carré's Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. It preserves the tone of the book while cleverly modernizing bits and pieces to make it feel like hefty historical drama (as opposed to the near-contemporary drama of the book). And Gary Oldman's "Karla" scene is legendary among spy-fiction fans:




And picking up on this:

We should play a game - name the top 10 protags that influence your writing (or you'd like them too):

I enjoyed the BBC's 2016 adaptation of War & Peace. And the book is one of my all time favourites. The characters Natasha, Andrey and Pierre are a huge influence – or at least they're something to aim for – in my writing. I have a feeling that those three taken together represent all characters in every story. So aiming to write story-people like them is certainly aiming high (delusionally so, I'm sure)!

 

[Hannah F]

What a wonderful thread full of wonderful things! Every time I come back to Litopia having been away for a bit, it's like snuggling down under a favourite duvet, and this thread is the epitome of that.

As for the question:

I loved the Tomas Alfredson adaptation of John le Carré's Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. It preserves the tone of the book while cleverly modernizing bits and pieces to make it feel like hefty historical drama (as opposed to the near-contemporary drama of the book). And Gary Oldman's "Karla" scene is legendary among spy-fiction fans:




And picking up on this:

I enjoyed the BBC's 2016 adaptation of War & Peace. And the book is one of my all time favourites. The characters Natasha, Andrey and Pierre are a huge influence – or at least they're something to aim for – in my writing. I have a feeling that those three taken together represent all characters in every story. So aiming to write story-people like them is certainly aiming high (delusionally so, I'm sure)!

I really enjoyed that War & Peace adaptation too.

 

[RK Wallis]

BBC's 2016 adaptation of War & Peace.

Me three @Rich. and @Hannah F