Or anyone else out there looking for great stories to serialize. Feel free. Adapt away.
We're talking books to hard-core, no-holds barred, TV series. Not movies. Some stories are perfect for a one-time interpretation and conversion into a movie. We love them. At least when they get them right. But other stories need to be fleshed out.
But when they get them wrong - I'm looking at you AppleTV and your recent Presumed Innocent series - a great story becomes well, boring. Sculptors don't add to works of art. They chisel away to get to the core of the story.
No fillers.
If a story is lean and precise turn it into a movie. Don't take characters off onto tangents that don't move the story forward or add any significant depth to a character. We don't want padding.
We want the story to move. We're not asking these to be developed as long running, season after season shows. Just give us a tight 8 - 10 episodes. It's enough. If you can't tell the story in a maximum of 10 episodes you don't know the story well enough.
Here you go. 5 books that deserve a little love from the TV executives creating shows.
Adapt. Adapt. Adapt.
The Thief by Fuminori Nakamura - Nakamura is a rock star in Japan. His books are slowly meted out to us illiterates here in the US. And right from the beginning, you can tell that this book was not written by a Western Judeo-Christian writer. There isn't any hope, or American can-do, or purpose derived from a belief in God. The world is the world and we all must live in it.
The story is about choices and fate all smashed up against desires. Is there a place for a moral choice in this world? The thief, Nishimura, is a pickpocket, technically skilled, and very thoughtful about his craft. He takes pride in his skills and approach to a life of crime.
He is faced with a decision and makes a moral choice. He saves a young girl from a pedophile and helps a young boy and his mother. These acts of involvement pit Nishimura, and his mentor Ishikawa, against Kizaki, a crime lord. Nishimura and Ishikawa see crime, especially pickpocketing, as an art form. Kizaki see crime as an opportunity for control and manipulation.
Moral choice smashed against fate. It leads to a tragic end.
This story is dark but is also cinematic. The depictions of pickpocketing would be riveting. And the character play between the protagonists is surprising and perhaps inevitable. Might be great for someone familiar with darker material like David Fincher.
There are few female characters in this story so that would likely need to be addressed. And it is dark, so watch out for an Amercanized ending. But with a few tweaks the story is ready to roll.
Kung Fu High School. by Ryan Gattis - Any book dedicated to Bruce Lee makes my list of favorites. Had Holden Caulfield attended this school, he would have been pulverized before his first snide remark. It's ultra violent. It’s about survival. It's about choosing family.
This school is ruled by gangs or “families” built around their fighting techniques.
Think Warriors meets Kwai Chang Cain set in high school.
Jen, our narrator and a sophomore, and her brother Cue, are leaders of the Waves. The Waves kick all kinds of ass and are considered the best fighters. They go their own way. Ripley is a psychotic drug dealer and rules the school. He a littloe sick of the Waves.
Enter Jen's cousin Jimmy, a mystical martial artist, with a Quiet Man vow, who must quickly learn the ways of survival at MLK High. Protect his family. Survive.
Rules for survival: 1. Get kicked in; 2. Don’t complain; 3. Join a family; 4. Learn to sew; 5. Shut up; 6. Pick the right fight.
The world in this book is terrifying because you can almost believe it to be true. It's tinged with reality. It could be dystopian. It could be tucked away in a corner of LA. It's filled with memorable characters, corpses, fights, and buckets of blood. And a twist or two. It's Shakespearean in its scope.
The multiple fighting styles depicted in this novel are detailed with a master's eye. You will feel each torn tendon and lost tooth. You will feel each the snap of bone and the twist of a knife driven home. My nomination for director is Gareth Evans, writer and director of The Raid movies.
a personal note: Gattis is a great author. I highly recommend any of his books. My next favorite is The System.
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon - Christopher Boone is a 15-year old with Asperger's. Today, he would be slapped into the Autistic Syndrome category. Christopher is very specific in his choices. No yellow food. No brown food. Stick to the schedule.
The story starts with Christopher discovering a murder. It's the neighbor's dog. It has a kitchen fork stabbed through its chest and is smack-dab in the middle of the front lawn. Christopher decides to investigate and solve the murder. Once started, Christopher does not stop. He can't. He's driven.
Christopher seems all-too human in this story. He lives with his father. The choices of his father are both heart breaking and sometimes hilarious. He cares. But his life is not simple. Love may not be enough.
Great twisty, heart-breaking story. Greta Gerwig might be an excellent choice to handle the twists and flesh out the characters. It's a little different than her customary type of projects but she has shown to be capable of handling different types of genres and isn't afraid of creating unique visions. Plus, she hasn't missed yet. Likely to be a sure-fire hit with her at the helm.
Carter Beats the Devil by Glen David Gold - We're always looking for originality. It may be blasphemous to call a story about magic original but this is a unique and original read. It blends historical illusionists, such as Houdini and Thruston, with a fictional Charles Carter the Great, our story's hero. But the beauty of the book lies in its ability to create a world in which we believe in the possibility of magic and science.
Magicians were movie stars, rock stars, and sports stars all rolled into one. They were the most famous people on the planet. President Warren Harding joins Carter on stage, whispers a secret to Carter, and is soon dead of a mysterious illness. Carter searches for answers.
Carter begins to uncover a plot that is fiendishly clever, a little crude, and built upon layer after layer of misdirection. You will go where the magician, or author wants you to go. Gradually everything is revealed but not until you feel you've been guided through spectacular stage show.
The tricks described in the book are real illusions that were popular at the time. You'll see vanishing elephants, a lion turning into a man, and motorcycles vanishing in thin air.
I think a perfect director for this project would be Damien Chazelle. He'll get the visuals right and seems capable of handling big stories. And come on, Babylon wasn't that bad. It was original. And beautiful and ugly at the same time. Give him another chance.
Shibumi by Trevanian - Nicholai Hel is an assassin. He's part Russian, part German, and raised in Japan. He's also a master Go player, a spelunker, and knows how to end a fight.
He's in search of enlightenment. He wants 'Shibumi'. Shibumi is a state of understanding, expressive silence, concise articulation, authoritative presence without control, with spiritual calmness. It's 'being' without the anxiety of becoming, not something to attain, but to uncover by progressing through knowledge.
Or so says Hel.
Don't worry. This is fun.
Slammed full of adventure and action but with some historical background to keep you in reality. This was written in 1979 but feels relevant today. The story holds true and is filled with characters fully fleshed out and unique. The 'Mother Company' is an intelligence organization that controls the major spy groups of the world. They are not affiliated with any country but have their own twisted view of the world and are not above sacrificing their agents to achieve the goals.
It's not a world in search of 'Shibumi'.
Trevanian is a pen name for Rodney William Whitaker. He was an American film scholar and writer. He may be most famous for the Eiger Sanction and the Loo Sanction. Great stories also about complicated hitmen. I'd go with Ryan Coogler as a director. He'd have a modern touch with precise story telling and I believe the combination of philosophy with action would appeal.
This is one of my favorite books and recommended to all my friends looking for a little known action book to read.
There you go. Five books to turn into viewing gold.
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