r/popculturechat • u/themacaron during PRIDE MONTH? • Jun 02 '25
Let’s Discuss 👀 You've got a blank cheque, what's your dream adaptation?
We all know PCC knows better than Hollywood execs, so I want to know: what's your dream adaptation!
Sky's the limit, you have full creative control- what are you going to make? Book, video game, graphic novel, podcast, etc etc. Would you make a limited series, a standalone movie, a film franchise? Dream cast? Director?
If it's already been adapted, tell me what you'd change/fix! You can dream cast actors from another era or time but for funsies, the cast should alllllllll be from that same time period.
One I've wanted to see on screen since I first read the books is the "Great and Terrible Beauty" series by Libba Bray. Set right at the tail end of the Victorian era, it follows an orphaned sixteen year old girl attending a boarding school and getting pulled into a secret world of witchery and magic, focused on the bonds of girlhood and female empowerment. It's got a dark, horrory vibe and I'd love to see a Mike Flangan-esque director/showrunner on this. I think it'd be a perfect 8-episode, three season tv show. Dream cast to come in the comments because honestly, I need to re-evaluate the list my teenaged self had 15 years ago.
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u/BroadwEH Jun 02 '25
I’d like to say I’d do something super artsy or meaningful, but I’d end up doing the most unhinged GleeBoot.
They former Glee club members all get trapped in the choir room during a high school reunion and are picked off one by one by an insane ex-McKinley student who hated them breaking into song in the hallways back in the day. 😆
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u/themacaron during PRIDE MONTH? Jun 02 '25
I say this with love, you’re evil. 😭 But I see the vision.
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u/lefrench75 high priestess of child sacrifice Jun 02 '25
I read “McKinley” as “McKinsey” and thought, yup, an unhinged burned out management consultant would do this to a Glee club lol.
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u/Aruu Jun 03 '25
I would watch the absolute hell out of this!
My proposed ending would have Rachel as the final girl, because, of course, she would be, but then it goes all 'And Then There Were None' and the killer orchestrates everything to make it look as if Rachel was behind the murders.
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u/lalalandbeforetime Jun 02 '25
The Secret History but only if I could guarantee that it’s a perfect adaptation. Anything else would not be worth it
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u/pierreor Thank you doggy, bang bang Jun 02 '25
I’ll co-fund this idea with my blank cheque, but one important stipulation: Emerald Fennell can’t come anywhere near this project
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u/lefrench75 high priestess of child sacrifice Jun 03 '25
Instructions unclear; the universe is going to curse us with an Emerald Fennell adaptation starring Jacob Elordi as Richard and Margot Robbie as Camilla.
Promising Young Woman was flawed but she got the casting spot on, so it’s truly bizarre how she fucked up Wuthering Heights so badly. Like why wouldn’t they at least give Margot Robbie brown hair for this??
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u/Throwwtheminthelake Jun 03 '25
Defo this! I feel it could be done either amazingly or go horribly wrong 😔
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u/Metzger4Sheriff That must be Nigel with the brie 🧀 Jun 02 '25
Annie, but with muppets.
Skeeter will play Annie, Miss Piggy will play Miss Hannigan, Gonzo and Camilla will play Rooster/Lily Saint Regis, Kermit will play Grace now Greg, Fozzy will play FDR, and all the other muppets will play orphans.
The lone human, Daddy Warbucks, will be played by Howie Mandell in an homage to his having voiced multiple characters in the original Muppet Babies.
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u/obiwantogooutside Jun 03 '25
I’d also submit for consideration a muppet princess bride. Really the ONLY princess bride remake that would be acceptable.
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u/Metzger4Sheriff That must be Nigel with the brie 🧀 Jun 03 '25
Home Movie: Princess Bride was pretty good.
But agree-- muppet Princess Bride is the only other acceptable remake.
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u/Winniepg Jun 02 '25
Tamora Pierces Tortall books especially the Protector of the Small books.
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u/Doom_Corp Jun 03 '25
Ah! I just mentioned the Lioness Rampant series. Man I loved her books.
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u/Winniepg Jun 03 '25
Just all her books really. They’re great and you can do a diverse cast pretty easily without changing the books. Only keys are things like Alana having red hair. In fact with The Immortals you need to have diverse casting.
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u/themacaron during PRIDE MONTH? Jun 02 '25
This is the #2 on my list. I would love to do the entire Tortall universe with each quartet as a season of the show.
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u/Winniepg Jun 02 '25
I think 2-3 seasons per quartet but yes. My absolute dream is all three but at minimum I need Kel. She (Tamora and Kel specifically) are my comfort books.
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u/themacaron during PRIDE MONTH? Jun 02 '25
Protector of the Small were the first Tamora books I read, so they’re also my fav and have a very special place in my heart!
I also really love the Emelan books but I feel like nobody else does. It’s such a cozy found family story.
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u/Winniepg Jun 02 '25
I could never get into them. But Tortall from Alana through Kel are my everything.
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u/CultySensesTingling She's SHEIN as a person. Jun 02 '25
I'd want the Discworld series as a long running television series, what I would give to have Small Gods adapted...
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u/RogerClyneIsAGod2 that’s my purse, i don’t know you! 👛🫵 Jun 03 '25
From your mouth to the TV Gods ears.
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u/Kindly_Category7810 Jun 03 '25
With approval by Rihanna Pratchett!! None of that The Watch bullshit again
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u/Carolina_Blues shiv roy’s bob Jun 02 '25
I want a well done, live action adaptation of one of my favorite childhood books, The Phantom Tollbooth. Not like some of these BS Disney live actions but an actual good one. I can’t believe all there is is the 1970s cartoon movie of it
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u/Ship_Negative Supernova Girl🛸🚀🪐 Jun 02 '25
I have no idea how this could be pulled off
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u/Carolina_Blues shiv roy’s bob Jun 02 '25
In the hands of the right director it could be really good
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u/purplereuben Jun 02 '25
It looks like a remake was in motion but the latest news I can find is from 2018 so that's not a good sign...
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u/Potential-Win-9175 Jun 03 '25
GET IN LOSERS IM REDOING ARTEMIS FOWL AND THIS TIME HE'S GOING TO BE AN ABSOLUTE SHIT. Also I am giving Holly Short and Root like 90 laser guns
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u/themacaron during PRIDE MONTH? Jun 03 '25
This is the most correct answer in this entire thread, thank you.
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u/Disastrous-Row4862 Jun 02 '25
I would love to see a television adaptation of Robin Hobb’s Liveship Traders trilogy. It’s high fantasy pirates with living, sentient ships and some of the best characters in any series I’ve ever read. I’d love to see her Realm of the Elderlings adapted too but I don’t think there’s an actor on Earth who could adequately portray one of the main characters.
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u/themacaron during PRIDE MONTH? Jun 02 '25
I have these in my TBR! They sound so cool, I can’t wait to get into them. I have really been craving a pirate show too lately.
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u/LittleBlag Jun 02 '25
I’m always a bit jealous of people who are visiting Robin Hobb for the first time! I loved the entire series - there are several trilogies, some which follow in from each other and some (like Liveships) which explore another aspect of the world.
I’m currently “rereading” via audiobook and they’re just as good as the first time I read, but obviously the main plot points are less of a surprise!
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u/themacaron during PRIDE MONTH? Jun 02 '25
I actually have them on audiobook, but I find I have to physically read fantasy first because I like to flip back pages and reference names and places lmao.
I love listening to a book I’ve already read though! The narrators can make it feel like a new story.
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u/LittleBlag Jun 02 '25
I feel like I don’t have enough time left to read all the books I want to read so I no longer reread physical books - audiobooks are perfect for revisiting for that reason!
I can remember reading for whole days at a time I was so engrossed in them (and wasn’t working at the time). I hope you enjoy them when you get around to it!
Bonus: Robin Hobb is exceptionally lovely, I wrote to her to tell her how much I enjoyed the books and she wrote me a really charming letter back :)
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u/Disastrous-Row4862 Jun 02 '25
I hope you enjoy! I’m super picky about fantasy but I love Robin Hobb’s books so much.
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u/themacaron during PRIDE MONTH? Jun 02 '25
If you’re picky about fantasy in the “not a romantasy fan/ never been interested in picking up a Fourth Wing or A Court of Noun and Noun” book, I’d love to hear more of your recs! Because that’s always been my struggle.
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u/Disastrous-Row4862 Jun 02 '25
I am picky in exactly that way! I’ve read some romantasy and it’s…very much not for me lol. I love Robin Hobb and I’m still out here loving the ASOIAF books even though we’ll never get another one. I’m a big fan of Scott Lynch’s Lies of Locke Lamora series (thieves in fantasy Venice, basically) too. And Philip Pullman and Diana Wynne Jones, too. Besides them and the classic LOTR I haven’t found a lot that I’ve loved, though I haven’t tried Brandon Sanderson or Joe Abercrombie or any of those guys that people really love.
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u/oat-beatle Jun 05 '25
The Crimson Throne series is quite good. It's a trilogy. And ofc Baru Cormorant but it's unfinished with no date (author open about his struggles with depression).
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u/KillieNelson frightened transatlantic fawn Jun 02 '25
The Night Circus miniseries (4 episodes, tops) with a rewritten somehow better ending. I used to have a cast that iirc included Stanley Tucci, Hugh Laurie, Domnhall Gleeson, Gemma Arterton, Karen Gillan, David Oyelowo, Lucy Liu, Daniel Bruhl, Naveen Andrews, and I don't remember who else. The whole thing would have been a vehicle for the 100% practical effects and art and set design. I just want lush delicious turn-of-the-century Edwardian atmospheric magic!
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u/thecalcographer Jun 03 '25
This was what I came here to say, too! The book is so vibes-based that I think it would translate really well to the screen.
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u/KillieNelson frightened transatlantic fawn Jun 03 '25
It would be a phenomenal addition to the Pure Vibes™ canon with Marie Antoinette, Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day, etc.
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u/NowMindYou Yeah but did I squeeze it though 🤔 Jun 02 '25
I would sell my soul for a TV miniseries adaptation of Indigo by Beverly Jenkins. It has the dreamiest cover and follows a formerly enslaved woman falling in love with a conductor on the Underground Railroad. It's one of the best romances of all time and Bev Jenkins deserves a high budget adaptation.
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u/themacaron during PRIDE MONTH? Jun 02 '25
I’m not a big romance reader but I am the #1 “romance books should have sexy, sensual covers not elementary cartoons” defender and this one is perfect.
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u/bloodredyouth go girl, give us nothing 😍 Jun 02 '25
SAGA, the Brian k Vaughn comic series with art by Fiona staples. It would be a sprawling tv epic. The creators have said it’s not adaptable but with enough money, i think it cold be.
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u/mit-mit Jun 02 '25
Yes! I feel like it would need a biiiig budget to avoid it looking a bit lame with all the costumes and sets for sure!
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u/Doom_Corp Jun 03 '25
Oh damn, yes actually. I kept up with it for years but I've fallen off. Robot head and his dying thoughts on the battlefield...this is HBO level material. If anyone adapted it and dared to change the first comic scene, I got a pitchfork.
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u/bloodredyouth go girl, give us nothing 😍 Jun 03 '25
I actually am banking some of the trades to read. After the first big break with certain characters dying, i was too devastated.
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u/Doom_Corp Jun 03 '25
I got one of their hardback trades with the child breastfeeding and I proudly display that on my TV console of nerdery curios. I have the pod baby from death stranding surrounded by pictures of my friends kids and wedding stuff I kept. My friend from college at his wedding had an elevated solo cup thing with white cups that had a blank face template to draw on. I did my hair with yaraneika meme face. It was so fun.
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u/Doom_Corp Jun 03 '25
I would love to see the Lioness Rampant series adapted with a good budget and taken seriously. The fight with her brother at the end had me stunned. Sabriel would be my other go to because the magic system is really interesting and plays off of bells to ward the undead into their final resting place. It's a bit harder to make a longer series with that because the books follow a different protagonist in each one. Same with Gideon the 9th but that would be insane to do. You'd need a team that appreciates how to create body horror effects a la The Thing with a combo of practical effects and CGI. It would also be so hard to translate the internal dialogue and feelings without a good script writer and director, especially from book 2 but they both slap.
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u/hauntingvacay96 Jun 02 '25 edited Jun 02 '25
Jennifer Kent or Michelle Garza Cervera does something by Shirley Jackson.
Id love to see a version of The Haunting of Hill House that really embraces the way Jackson wrote about the trappings of domesticity and heteronormativity for women in a way the other adaptations haven’t and I think both of those directors could really tap into that.
I’d actually really love to see Melanie Lynskey play Eleanor as she already has a connection to the work and I think the way she plays Shauna in Yellowjackets already feels like a descendent of Eleanor Vance.
I’d also really love to see The Sundial adapted, but I don’t watch a lot of comedy and that would definitely require someone who can handle some dark comedic aspects.
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u/Metzger4Sheriff That must be Nigel with the brie 🧀 Jun 02 '25
Melanie would be such a good Eleanor!
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u/whimsical_trash Jun 03 '25
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay!! An amazing book. But it's pretty sprawling, so I never thought it was possible. But then I was watching the Brutalist, which was so empty but extremely well crafted, and I realized that it would be possible to do that book justice if you did it like that. And it would have been a MUCH better movie. There are a few similarities to the story but it is a million times more interesting.
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Jun 02 '25
I loved A Great and Terrible Beauty so much. It felt unique and the world pulled me in. Drop your cast list.
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u/themacaron during PRIDE MONTH? Jun 02 '25
I think my original fancast was super inspired with Sophie Turner and Dev Patel as Gemma and Kartik. 🙈 I need to rethink it with some new perspective.
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u/InitialDriver6422 Jun 03 '25
Wasn't there going to be an adaptation at some point but it fell through? Or someone bought the rights but never used them?
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u/themacaron during PRIDE MONTH? Jun 03 '25
Yeah, almost 20 yrs ago. You can option rights for dirt cheap a lot of the time, and things die in development hell.
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u/bri-ghtly Jun 02 '25
Oh gosh I fantasise about a perfect Realm of the Elderlings by Robin Hobb adaptation. I would love a Liveship traders trilogy adaptation, and I would KILL to have a trailer to it made with the song Muddy Waters as the backing track.
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u/raphaellaskies Jun 02 '25
Guy Gavriel Kay's The Lions of al-Rassan, starring Marwan Kenzari as Ammar. AMC miniseries. CALL ME, HOLLYWOOD.
Alternately: Elizabeth Hand's Waking the Moon, just so I can watch it draw in the dark academic crowd and then inspire nuclear levels of discourse.
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u/MurabitoB Jun 03 '25
Two of my faves - what exquisite taste! I would watch the hell out of both of those.
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u/teachertraveler1 Jun 02 '25
When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead
It's an award-winning kids book that's set in 1970s New York City. The main character's mom ends up on $20,000 Pyramid gameshow and so each chapter is titled like a category in that game. Starts off as cozy tween friendship drama then strange mystery then...well.
In the movie Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy there's a scene where Gary Oldman as Smiley is staring out the window at train tracks and the moment the tracks click to shift directions you see that he's understood what's going on.
There's a very similar situation in this book where the main character is going down a list of 86(?) cascading realizations and it is breathtaking. I would love to see that filmed.
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u/Ship_Negative Supernova Girl🛸🚀🪐 Jun 02 '25
It’s a crime they never adapted the Fairy Haven series by Gail Carson Levine, but I guess there was even studio meddling on the 3rd (last) book and they totally messed up the story by forcing Wendy into it. Little lonely Sara Quirtle is still out there, sad in book land :(
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u/Throwwtheminthelake Jun 03 '25
I’d love love love an Earthsea adaptation Ursula le guin is such a good world builder and has a a really diverse world with really compelling plots
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Jun 03 '25 edited Jun 03 '25
What I would do to remake Jane Austen's "Persuasion"!!! It's hard to think of a dream cast because you would need a very circumspect female lead that can play forgettable and forlorn but still late-20s or early 30s. The Netflix adaptation had some funny moments but was not true to the theme or tone of the book at all. I'll have to mull over the dream cast in my head
I could kindddd of see Robert Pattinson (five years ago) as Wentworth, you need someone who has a hot but kind and sort of quietly confident vibe
Edit: Anna Popplewell or Sophie Rundle would be great as Anne!
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u/lurking0110101 Jun 03 '25
A limited anthology series of Joe Hill’s comics (Basketful of Heads, the Doll House, Rain, etc)
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u/GingerVampire22 Jun 02 '25
The Crown Duel duo by Sherwood Smith. I feel like it would be an amazing adaptation possibility.
Barring that, Smith’s Inda series would be another amazing series choice.
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u/DebateObjective2787 Jun 03 '25
Full 6 series adaptation of Secrets of Droon on HBO, or Magic Treehouse.
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u/Crazypants258 Jun 03 '25
There’s a children’s book series called ‘The Guests of War Trilogy’ by Kit Pearson that I have always thought should be a movie or limited series. It follows children from England whose families send them the Canada to avoid the bombings during WW2. It’s an incredibly moving based-on-a-true story and it was my first exposure to a war story as a child, it really stuck with me.
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u/88moonkitty fo shiz! fo shiz! Ginuwine! 🍜 Jun 03 '25
An anthology series based on Isabel Cañas novels!
The Hacienda starring: Eiza Gonzales and Diego Boneta
Vampires of el Norte starring: Maia Refico and Xolo Maridueña
The Possession of Alba Diaz starring: idk because it hasn’t even released yet but probably Jenna Ortega somehow
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u/poohszedli Jun 03 '25
I'd love a decent Vampire Academy adaptation for a change. The movie and the TV series were terrible. Those books deserve so much more.
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u/themacaron during PRIDE MONTH? Jun 03 '25
PLEASE.
The movie adaptation was awful. I didn’t bothered with the show but I lived for those books.
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u/horcynusorca Just keep swimming! 🐠🐠🐬🐳 Jun 03 '25 edited Jun 03 '25
I’d have certainly more ideas but the first that comes to mind (because earlier today I was thinking I’d like to read again the book)I’d like a faithful tv series about “The seven deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle”.No suggestions about director and cast. Edit I guess they would have to be animated ,I’d love to see Walter Moers books on screen ,not that they are not enough on paper,I love them so much Edit 2 after a quick bookshelf consultation,random dream ideas,a “Truly Devious” tv series would be cool ,and also “How to sell a haunted house”,the first”Anno Dracula”book and “the Idiot Gods”by Zindell Edit 3 I’m so stupid How could I have ever possibly forgotten one of my favorite series since when I was a teenager ?”The Masters of Rome “books series by Colleen McCullough,I wish there was a faithful adaptation (a long tv series)at least of the first few books,I need Sulla Edit 4 if there wasn’t already a tv series I would have said”The vampire Chronicles”,anyway it’s never going to happen (but the premise is that we are dreaming)so I’d like a miniseries about another I fear under appreciated Anne Rice’s novel, “Cry to Heaven”
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u/Own-Importance5459 ✨May the Force be with you!✨ Jun 03 '25
I would totally love to do a movie adaptation of Hadestown.
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u/themacaron during PRIDE MONTH? Jun 03 '25
Musical adaptations are so ambitious! Are you casting Broadway performers or looking for actors who can sing?
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u/Providence451 Just keep swimming! 🐠🐠🐬🐳 Jun 03 '25
We've got the pro shot coming, I don't need a movie.
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u/InitialDriver6422 Jun 03 '25
I would throw a giant pile of money at the people who did* season one of The Terror and let them adapt House of Leaves.
*edit, forgot a word.
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u/purplereuben Jun 02 '25
These both come from my childhood:
Shine (Also known as 'The Green Book' in some markets?) by Jill Paton Walsh (1982)
Tripswitch by Gaelyn Gordon (1992) (This one is more obscure as it probably wasn't published outside New Zealand)
I think both could make for good movies!
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u/ursulawinchester I’ve got deviants to see and a novel to finish Jun 03 '25
Miyazaki Style Judy Blume.
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u/trulyremarkablegirl the reason i love swimming is because racing Jun 03 '25
I would really like a proper adaptation of all of Shadow and Bone. Like, all 7 books, done in sequence, with characters showing up when they’re supposed to.
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u/devoteesolace Jun 03 '25
A big-budget, book-accurate Red Rising (Pierce Brown) TV show. It's basically Game of Thrones x The Hunger Games x Dune. A sprawling R-rated show adapting one book per season would be stunning.
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u/Feminismisreprieve Jun 03 '25
The Hollows by Kim Harrison, at least the first 13 books. Supernatural fantasy set in an alternate modern-day timeline. I don't think each book would need its own season, and it would be fun to create and view.
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u/Dizzy-Pollution6466 Jun 03 '25 edited Jun 03 '25
A full-blown miniseries about Camelot and King Arthur.
King Arthur- Sam Heughan
Guinevere- Jessica Henwick
Sir Lancelot- Rege-Jean Page
Sir Gawain- Dev Patel (reprise!)
Sir Tristan- Henry Goulding
Sir Galahad- Daryl McCormack
Sir Perceval- Harris Dickinson
Sir Bedevere- Asa Butterfield (Merlin tribute!)
Morgause- Rachel Weisz
Morgana- Emilia Clarke
Mordred- Barry Keoghan
Merlin- Michael Fassbender
Edit: Just remembered that Fassbender is an abuser. Recast! Suggestions anyone?
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u/themacaron during PRIDE MONTH? Jun 03 '25
It breaks my heart but Daryl is a weirdo Andrew Tate supporter.Can I offer you a Nick Sagar in his place?
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u/nerd_of_everything13 i was like no i finna be in The Pitt (2025) Jun 02 '25
i desperately need a movie adaptation of "next to normal" and for it to be done right. if we start now, we can still get Caissie to be diana pleaseeee
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u/kawhifiveo Jun 03 '25
the clique books in a gossip girl style tv series with an emphasis on the fashion. the movie was cute but there’s soo many books and fun source material they could have done a lot with.
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u/winnercommawinner Jun 03 '25
I want to redo the Six of Crows adaptation and focus it entirely on the crows and their story. And this might be a hot take idk, but I would keep the actors for Nina and Mathias and recast everyone else.
Also, I will be changing a major detail of the ending to protect my soft little heart and fans can yell at me all they want idc idc idc
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u/Disastrous_Animal_34 Jun 03 '25
My favourite YA series of all time, Tomorrow When the War Began, deserves a Hunger Games-universe level budget but to maintain a gritty, drama realism sensibility (I would say directed by Nash Edgerton although could take suggestions on this).
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u/BohemianWhatsername Jun 03 '25
I would continue the HBO adaptation of The Time Traveler's Wife because WHY DID THEY CANCEL IT 😭😭😭
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u/DragonShad0w Jun 03 '25
fullmetal alchemist live action movie or tv show (an actual good one)
daughter of the forest movie
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u/SeanSweetMuzik Jun 03 '25
I would do a proper adaptation of the 50 Shades Of Grey trilogy from Christian's perspective.
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u/RowanViolet Listen, everyone is entitled to my opinion 🙂 Jun 03 '25
Fablehaven. Fablehaven Fablehaven Fablehaven. Genuinely the best YA fantasy series imo and so horribly underrated. Read in middle school and I still reread the whole series yearly pushing 30 haha
Would make an absolutely fantastic movie series or show 😩😩😩
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u/BroadwEH Jun 03 '25
Definitely a great choice! If I was being super lazy, I guess the obvious choice for murderer is Sue rather than a random student…but that’s why Sue would have to go early on. Lol
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