this weekend's essay: books you actually want to see made into movies

granted, as a general rule, i cringe when i hear that someone has decided to make a film version of a book--especially one i love. yet every now and then, i'll read something and think, this would make a really interesting movie. so...assuming that you all (whoever you are) occasionally think the same thing, i've decided to ask: which book(s) would you like to see made into a film? if you like, you can include who you'd want to direct and/or star in the film version.

some of my picks are:

the phantom tollbooth: there was an animated version of norton juster's classic tale of a young boy bored with life done maybe 30 years ago. i remember watching it in 5th grade after reading the book for the umpteenth time (it's a favorite of mine), and being extremely disappointed (even more than when i saw the animated version of the hobbit). i think it'd be really interesting to do a non-animated version of this. wouldn't you want to see how they used technology to create the watchdog or those things that blend in with other objects when milo's in the doldrums? i wouldn't mind another burton-depp hook-up for this one.

invisible man: i just think this would be a really fascinating exercise. whenever i read im, i read it almost as if the story is one long point of view shot from the im's perspective, with a few other shots thrown in every now and again. though they'd have to cut out significant parts of the text--or the movie would be like 8 hours long--i'd really like to see what a really smart team of filmmakers could do with this text. i doubt it'd be a "successful" film. meaning, somebody just interested in the process of creating the project would prolly have to fund it, because i doubt it'd turn a profit at the box office. i also think that the movie wouldn't even be that good. still, i'd like to see someone try to film it. i've no idea who i'd like to see direct the movie. but neither john singleton nor spike lee are on the top of my list. (sorry, spike, i think ellison did a good enough job of creating "problematic" female figures on his own.) and though she'd prolly play a killer mary rambo, oprah should be banned from the set at all times.

song of solomon: if beloved is the second least film-friendly (paradise being number one) toni morrison text, i think song of solomon--along with tar baby and sula--is prolly one of the most film friendly.** i'd really like to see a film version of this because whenever i read it, i get this image of an extremely colorful world. not like willy wonka colorful. but more like...well, whenever i imagine milkman on the bus heading south through the rural areas, i get this image of really verdant green surrounding his bus. i imagine all of his ancestors in shalimar, virginia having really shiny (like been coated in vaseline and sweat) skin. and, i mean, don't you want to see circe surrounded by all those dogs? it'd be sort of frightening (i do get a bit scared whenever i read that part of the book, and can't imagine how milkman didn't lose all his shit), but i really wanna see it. again, i've no clue who'd be a good match for this. i just know i don't want to see oprah name on anything affiliated with this. not even a check.

(though i have issues with odd numbers--except for the number 11 i just don't like them, but that's a long story that would do nothing but further confirm my insanity--i'm going to stop at three.)

have a great saturday and sunday.


**some useless info: akosua busia--nettie from the color purple, and john singleton's baby mama--wrote the screenplay for beloved. her sister, abena busia, is a poet and professor of english at rutgers university. also, while we're on the topic of toni morrison books to film, suzan lori-parks, the woman that wrote getting mothers body (a rewriting of as i lay dying) and the teleplay for their eyes were watching god, is allegedly writing the screeplay for paradise. which is (the writing of a screen version, that is), in my reading of the novel, damn near impossible, and anti-thetical to the point of the book.