Provided they did the books right and didn’t dumb it down or make too many major changes to the original source material, what books from your childhood would you like to see adapted to movies?

I always wanted to see a movie adaptation of Family Sabbatical (long out of print and I am sure obscure…not exactly a huge demand for this I am sure!) I LOVED this book when I was a kid and the characters just came alive to me…I always wanted to see a movie based on the book. And preferably set in the time frame the story takes place, which with kids movies you don’t see too often unless it’s an American Girls type movie. Just as long as they don’t Disneyfy it or make it set in the modern times with the latest Nickelodeon stars in the main roles. Then again, there’s probably not much of a market for movies like that…but who knows!

The Pigman. I re-read this recently and thought even more of the book and how it should be made into a movie. The story is timeless so it could take place today with minimal changes to the story. I am actually surprised this book hasn’t been made into a movie yet.

Watership Down. I know there’s an animated movie already and we have an animated TV series for those who want to seek it out, but this really needs a new version. With all the CGI animals used in abominations like Garfield, Marmaduke, and the Cats and Dogs franchise, let’s get a true adaptation of this movie and use CGI animals for something useful instead. Or even better Pixar take this project on and remain true to the source material. With Brad Bird directing!

A Cricket in Times Square. Again, I would like to see Pixar take this movie on. Leave it to Dreamworks or some studio like that and you’d get a cricket based on Will Smith or Justin Bieber or something completely lame. Maybe even Wes Anderson could do this as a follow up to The Fantastic Mr. Fox…now there’s an idea!

The Wrinkle in Time series. Forget the horrible made for TV movie a few years back. It doesn’t exist to me. With the success of Harry Potter and Narnia why hasn’t this been made in to a movie yet? With good direction and production values? This is long overdue. LONG overdue.

JD Fitzgerald's THE GREAT BRAIN series of books. Although I'll settle for a TV series.

Personally, I'd like to see either Graeme Base mystery picture book The Eleventh Hour or the series of books by Jon Scieszka that were re-interpretations of classic stories like "The True Story of the Three Little Pigs" or "The Stinky Cheese Man and other Stupid Fairy Tales." Shrek probably ruined the possibility for those.

For serious takes, I'd enjoy seeing Dandelion Wine, kept as a period piece.

Totally agree on this--I've expressed almost the exact same thoughts before in older threads. The book is one of my all-time favorites and I really like the existing animated movie (I own it on DVD), but would love to see a Pixar version of Watership Down--as long as they keep the serious tone of the book (like the previous animated version did) and don't try to sugarcoat it for the kiddies.

On a somewhat similar note, I'd like to see a Pixar-styled take on Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH. I liked the book a lot as a kid, but never cared that much for The Secret of NIMH film adaptation.

Oh, I'd also like to see a live action + CGI true adaptation of the Doctor Dolittle books, set in the 1800's. Those Eddie Murphy movies and their DTV sequels are crap.

I already got Where The Wild Things Are...I think that's complete unless somehow they can get Stallone to direct "The Little Engine That Could"

The fudge books. They did adapt them into a tv movie and tv series but i would actually like to see a big screen version.

and also they should make 'Are you there god it's me Margeret'

The fudge books? You mean Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing? And possibly Superfudge? I actually thought of those before I made my list but forgot to add them. Yeah, I'd like to see those too...but I never did see the TV movies and never knew they existed. I might have to seek that out, if we are talking about the same thing. (and I just learned there were new Fudge books released after I was well past the age of reading kids books. Now I have to get those!)

Ruth Chew did a series of books about kids who were witches that might be fun to see, but it's been a long time since I read those books so I am not sure how good they are or if they would make for good source material for live action movies.

Yup those are the ones. ABC made the tv movie. I think it was based on the book where they go to a vacation home. After the movie they had an abc saturday morning series that only ran for one season.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0111971/videogallery

The Shel Silverstein books, Where the Sidewalk Ends and A Light in the Attic. Each book consists of poems rather than a single narrative, so they would have to be anthology films, I suppose.

I don't know that I really want to see any childhood literary favorites adapted as films. My 2nd grade teacher, Mrs. Martin, turned me onto things like Ralph and the Motorcycle and Ramona Quimby, Age 8. I can't imagine they would mean the same to me at all were I to read them today; even more would be lost in the change of medium.

Of course, I read a ton of things as a kid and I don't even recall most of them. I'm sure if I could jog my memory enough, I could hit upon something suitable for an adaptation. As for the standard fare, I think Shelly Duvall's Faerie Tale Theatre was pretty definitive for my taste. Jeff Goldblum as the Big, Bad Wolf? Priceless. James Earl Jones as Aladdin's Genie? Criminally overlooked.

Ramona & Beezus is in theaters now. I'm surprised it took this long.

Completely disagree here. The animated film is nearly perfect, I doubt that even Pixar could improve it much. Watership Down is my favorite book fwiw.

For my choice I'll go with a live action LOTR-style version of The Hobbit please.

...I'm perfectly aware of this...

I once tracked down the rights for the Danny Dunn series. A more light version of Jonny Quest and thought it would make a nice set of movies for a younger crowd.

Even though it got a 30-minute animated short, I would like for Abel's Island to have another go at it.

I'm really surprised that John Christophers "Tripod trilogy" The White Mountains The City of Gold & Lead The Pool of Fire have never been adapted for either tv or movies, at least not here in the US. There were adaptations done of the first two books over in the UK. Abrams or Speilberg could do a bang up job on these.

The Three Investigators may not work as a movie but would make a decent tv show at least for a couple seasons, especially since we are now livign in the era of "Every fucking child is a fucking genius and super duper special", Jupiter Jones fits right in.

They said the author wanted to see her books get made into a movie while she's still alive.

wasn't The Giver supposed to be adapted into a movie? I'd think that would make a visually impressive film, especially if they do it right and make it mostly black and white (or at least, largely drained of color) for the first half (even if it winds up looking a bit like Plesantville)

I thought the book was cool as a kid, and even now think it's pretty interesting, even if it was ultimately just a kids version of Fahrenheit 451.

Edit: Oh, looks like David Yates is doing the movie version.

The Hardy Boys. And not that stupid Ben Stiller/Tom Cruise crap they were going to make a few years back.

There were 2 movies made actually in 2007 & 2009 in Germany. Filmed in English, they shot The Secret of Skeleton Island first and then The Secret of Terror Castle. There was supposed to be a third, The Mystery of the Silver Spider, but I don't think they are planning on doing it now. I thought the movies were pretty good actually, especially Terror Castle. Not 100% faithful (what movie is?), but I thought they kept in the spirit of the books. They have been playing semi-frequently on the DisneyXD channel. Check them out if you get a chance.

To keep updated with everything that goes on with The Three Investigators you can join my facebook page facebook.com/thethreeinvestigators

My choices were already mentioned. The Great Brain series & John Christophers "Tripod trilogy".

The Great Brain would be better as a TV series as most of the chapters are episodic. I would think each chapter could be a 1/2 hour episode. Each book is a season.

John Christophers "Tripod trilogy" would be a movie trilogy.

I remember seeing part of the Superfudge series on TV. It was the scene where Fudge goes to school & the teacher refuses to call him Fudge.

Rikki Tikki Tavi

A real adaptation of Susan Cooper's "The Dark is Rising" sequence, not that lousy, homogenized The Seeker crap dished out a few years ago.