Author: whatcathyreadnext

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme created by The Broke and the Bookish and now hosted by Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl.

The rules are simple:

Each Tuesday, Jana assigns a new topic. Create your own Top Ten list that fits that topic – putting your unique spin on it if you want. Everyone is welcome to join but please link back to That Artsy Reader Girl in your own Top Ten Tuesday post. Add your name to the Linky widget on that day’s post so that everyone can check out other bloggers’ lists. Or if you don’t have a blog, just post your answers as a comment.

This week’s topic is Books That Should Be Adapted Into Movies. I’ve picked ten books that I think would make great films or TV series, with one or two casting suggestions for good measure. Links from each title will take you to my review.

When I reviewed Old Baggage by Lissa Evans in 2018, I remember thinking it would make a great play or one-off drama and suggesting Dame Maggie Smith and Dame Judi Dench would perfect to play Mattie and Florrie.

These next two – The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry and The Music Shop – are a bit of a cheat because I learned from watching a recent online interview with Rachel Joyce that she is working on screenplays for both of them.

Because it’s set over the course of only a few days, I think Munich by Robert Harris would make a superb film or TV drama. Kenneth Branagh comes to mind, although I’m not quite sure for which part.

Next, three books by Jim Kelly – The Great Darkness, The Mathematical Bridge and The Night Raids – that are part of a historical crime series set in World War 2. Think TV’s Foyle’s War transported from Hastings to Cambridge.

Staying with historical thrillers set in World War 2, I’d love to see one or more of Rory Clements’ Tom Wilde series adapted for TV. Let’s go with the first one, Corpus.

Patrol by Fred Majdalany is one of the books in the Imperial War Museum’s Wartime Classics series. Set over one night in the North African desert in 1943, I think it would make a great film because of the near-real time narrative and the small group that make up its characters. There are a few flashbacks as well for a director to get creative with.

I can’t call myself a John Buchan fan without suggesting one of his books for the small or big screen treatment. I’d go with Mr. Standfast because it is set in some great locations, contains some terrific action scenes and includes (unusually for Buchan) a romantic storyline featuring a strong female character (so a director wouldn’t be forced to invent female characters as Alfred Hitchcock had to do for his film version of The Thirty-Nine Steps.) Mr. Standfast also has a very poignant ending and who doesn’t like a good weep as the credits roll?

What books do you think would make great movies? (P.S. Personally, I don’t believe we need any more versions of Rebecca, Jane Eyre or Pride and Prejudice.)