Books that need to have their own film adaptation

As we have well commented on some occasion, the world of letters and cinema is intimately linked thanks to those great film adaptations of famous books made in recent years. (And also others that not so much)

However, many of us are still waiting for the film version of that literary classic with real potential to repeat its same success through the cinema screen. Classics like these books that need their own film adaptation NOW.

The Odyssey, by Homer

Despite Brad Pitt showing off muscle in Troy and an Emmy-winning 90s television adaptation, the world needs an epic blockbuster of what is one of the most universal plays ever. The potential of seeing Odysseus sailing through the Aegean, visiting the island of the Cyclops, fighting with the sirens of infernal songs or the taste of Greek tragedy that exudes romance with his long-awaited Penelope are just some of the ingredients of that adaptation that is resists, despite having announced a possible version starring Hugh Jackman.

One Hundred Years of Solitude, by Gabriel García Márquez

The fact that Gabo never agreed to sell the rights to his work magna to the great film studios has been the main reason for this adaptation of One Hundred Years of Solitude that we have been waiting for almost 50 years. A dream that, nevertheless, would require quite a peculiar treatment, especially because of the duration of harboring the misadventures of the seven generations of the Buendía family and a magical realism whose transition to the big screen could dance on the fine line between the grotesque and the sublime. (Or how not to repeat all the mistakes they made of the adaptation of Love in the Times of Cholera too forgettable movie).

Nostromo, by Joseph Conrad

Director David Lean died shortly before starting the film adaptation of one of Conrad's great works, which would have had Marlon Brando as the protagonist. The story, set in the fictional port of Sulaco, represents the tensions between South America at the end of the XNUMXth century and the economic interests of the United States in countries like Colombia. Its protagonists, Mr. Gould and the greedy Nostromo cry out for actors of the charisma of Javier Bardem, Robert Downey Jr. or Tom Hardy. Although perhaps it would be better to rethink this adaptation once the Trump effect has passed.

Don Quixote de la Mancha, by Miguel de Cervantes

One the great works of our letters (not to say the most) had a forgettable adaptation in 1947 that hardly the world remembers. After several attempts by director Terry Gilliam (Twelve Monkeys) to carry out an adaptation with Johnny Depp as the hidalgo from La Mancha (and that's when we realize that Jack Sparrow might not be that far from the character), the project was forgotten in the Hollywood archives. I would bet on one disney version, clearly.

Ubik by Phillip K. Dick

Despite being a difficult work to adapt (script problems were the trigger for the suspense of a film planned four years ago), Ubik is a peculiar matrioska of realities and universes, telepaths, space travel and dream scenarios whose perfect treatment could lead to in an ambitious movie, especially at a time when films like Gravity o Interstellar They have once again unleashed the fever for the space thriller.

The Catcher in the Rye, by JD Salinger

Although JD Salinger was never in favor of his most famous work, published in 1951, having a film adaptation, the media have highlighted on more than one occasion the influence of the famous Holden caulfield in American cinema in recent years, with examples like The Ice Storm or, especially, American Beauty. Independent-Sundance-GusvanSant tape meat, this work narrated in the first person by a Caulfield immersed in the decadence and nihilism of the United States of his time could be good material for a good adaptation.

Between these great books that deserve their film adaptation should have included The Dark Tower. But luckily, and after many years of supposed failed projects, it seems that the long-awaited film version will finally arrive in 2017 with Matthew McConaughey and Idris Elba as protagonists. Or so they say.

What book would you have liked to see made into a movie?