For decades, Hollywood and literature have had a symbiotic relationship. Hollywood has taken books both popular and obscure writers, and spun them into multi-million dollar franchises so often that it wouldn't be all that surprising if some writers are secretly hoping a producer buys the rights to their novel shortly after publishing. Who wouldn't want to be the next J.K Rowling, Stephen King or George R.R. Martin?
I can't imagine that many authors would say no to that level of recognition and financial windfall. With that in mind, here's a few authors who still have yet to break into the world of cinema, but totally should get their books adapted into movies as soon as possible.
Haruki Murakami
Haruki Murakami is one of Japan's most famous living writers, and he's gained a fair amount of international recognition as his books circulate in around 50 different languages. Murakami's writing has been likened to a very Western style, so there's definitely potential for any of his works to resonate with an American audience more so than some other foreign works.
Murakami's books can be very trippy, as evidenced by one of his more notable works, 1Q84. That story alone covers death, alternate dimensions and cultism in a really unique way that a director would have a field day with trying to adapt. It's definitely the type of work I'd see doing better with an indie film crowd over mainstream audiences, and one that could get some major recognition if someone took a chance on it.
Paul G. Tremblay
Studios looking for something horror, but don't necessarily want to pay for the likes of Stephen King have options. There's plenty of contemporary horror writers out in the world right now, with Paul G. Tremblay being one of the notable examples who still has yet to see his works made into a Hollywood movie. Some of Tremblay's works include A Head Full Of Ghosts, Disappearance At Devil's Rock and The Cabin At The End Of The World.
Two of those titles, A Head Full Of Ghosts and The Cabin At The End Of The World, actually stand a chance at one day becoming movies. A Head Full Of Ghosts, a disturbing story about a family involved in a possession reality show, was optioned by Focus Features in 2015, and Team Downey and Allegiance Theater have been involved in its development. The Cabin At The End Of The World, which follows a family who is tasked with a horrifying decision, had its rights acquired by FilmNation ahead of its actual release. Both could be horror classics should either ever actually get made!
Scott Reintgen
In a world where a young adult fantasy series can become a multi-million dollar franchise, Hollywood has to be on the lookout for quality works that could become the next Hunger Games or Divergent. To be honest, there's no shortage of talent like this out there, though one of particular recent acclaim is author Scott Reintgen, who is responsible for the Nyxia trilogy.
This series chronicles the adventure of a young Detroit boy by the name of Emmett Atwater, who is selected among a handful of others to participate in a unique space exploration program. The pay for the mission is enough to significantly change Atwater's life, though his experiences with the corporation funding the experiment and the substance the crew is in search of "Nyxia." The substance itself would make for some really cool CGI effects, and personally, I think it would be cool to switch up the protagonist archetype of the young adult fantasy movie genre with a young black male.
Erik Larson
Erik Larson's work has been circling Hollywood for a while, and while there's plenty of interest in adapting one of his major books The Devil In The White City, there have been no successful attempts at spinning his novels into a movie. It's especially a shame in regards to The Devil In The White City, though it's certainly worth considering adapting any of Larson's non-biographical works into a movie of some sort.
Erik Larson's has an uncanny ability to capture significant events in detail and bring them to life in a detailed way that audiences may have never thought before. Stories like Thunderstruck, which chronicles the life of the inventor of wireless and Britain's second most-prolific serial killer, is a similar type of tale worth looking into. Another particularly interesting topic is In The Garden Of Beasts, which chronicles the life of America's first ambassador to Nazi Germany, William E. Dodd. Those are just a couple of true stories painstakingly accounted by Larson that are just dying to get a movie adaptation. Let's get one rolling!
K.A. Applegate
It's rare that young adult authors this prolific don't get a movie deal eventually, yet K.A. Applegate still has yet to get hers. Granted, Animorphs did get a television series in the late '90s, though there's no reason there shouldn't be some form of movie reboot for the franchise in the works for 2020. There was word of a project happening back in 2015, though there have been no recent updates on what's happening with it.
If that's not a sexy enough idea for modern Hollywood, rest assured. K.A. Applegate has been hard at work since Animorphs. She has quite a few book series to pull from, such as Remnants and Everworld. In a world that craves nostalgia, surely there has to be a fair few of people that would rally behind any attempt to get Applegate's novels made into feature films.
Bill Waterson
One may consider Bill Waterson more of a cartoonist than an author, but one can argue that's mainly because he made his fame in the comic strips. Watterson, of course, is the famed man behind Calvin and Hobbes, which the world has been begging to see in theaters, television, and perhaps just about everywhere that isn't a bumper sticker. Why haven't we gotten a Calvin and Hobbes movie yet?
As many may know, a lot of that is thanks to Bill Waterson, though he has made it clear he's against licensing his characters out for merchandising or anything else that he feels would cheapen his original work. It doesn't seem like a Calvin and Hobbes movie will ever happen as long as Watterson is in control of the rights. People change though, so who knows, maybe there's a deal being negotiated for a movie happening at this very moment.
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Are there any authors whose books you think need a movie? Throw down all suggestions in the comments below and continue to stick with CinemaBlend for all the latest news in movies and television.
