Books that really, really, really should be made into movies.

Have you ever had that moment when you're reading an awesome book and you can just see the scenes and characters play out in your head, sometimes complete with epic soundtrack? Yup. These are some of the books that do that to me, and that I seriously cannot believe haven't been snatched up for movie production.

Sabriel by Garth Nix.
When I was I think eleven years old, one of the librarians misplaced this book in the children's section and thus began my love affair with fantasy. It's a great book and a fairly easy read and I would love to see a movie version...provided it's done well. It has zombies and a courageous heroine in a fantasy world with crossovers to a version of the early 20th century... and aren't those sort of blockbuster keywords at the moment? There's a small amount of phenomenal fanart of the book [and it's two sequels] out there, including an almost steampunkesque rendition by this artist, but personally I've always found the work of Laura Tolton to be true to what I see when I read this book.

Sabriel in the river of Death, by Laura Tolton.

Elemental Masters by Mercedes Lackey.
Okay, okay, so this is a series and not an individual book. Shoot me. But as well as the resurgence in fantasy, there seems to be a rise in period pieces and a growing interest in fairytale retellings. So how is modified versions of fairytales set in Victorian and Edwardian London [and one in San Francisco] where Elemental Magic exists in both good and evil forms not a major win? I adore this book series, they are all fun, light reads that are always less predictable than you think they are gong to be. And I really think they'd make for equally fun movies.

The Tortall Books by Tamora Pierce.
Yes, stop glaring at me, I know it's another series. In fact, it's a series of series's because I couldn't pick which one would be the best to adapt to the screen. And speaking of which, these books would probably be best suited to being made into a televisions series like with Game of Thrones, perhaps a twelve episode series for a quartet of books, rather than a movie. These are young adult fantasy books, and as I've already said, fantasy is the in thing at the moment and seeing any Tamora Pierce works adapted for the teenage audience would be a refreshing change from all the paranormal bullshit that's floating around. These are good, solid fantasies that are really simple in the best sense of the word - there's a lot of depth and likeable characters, but no necessary complication for the sake of complication. Even though I'm older than the intended age bracket, I would watch with enthusiasm anything made from Tamora Pierce's works, and probably buy the matching t-shirt.

Other books I can think of that I think would make rad movies [or tv shows] include A Confusion of Princes [Garth Nix again, sensing a theme yet?], The Thirteen and a Half Lives of Captain Bluebear by Walter Moers [it would have to be a tv series though, a very surreal tv series] and The Wind on Fire series by William Nicholoson, which were some of my favourites books as a kid... they always seemed colourful, somehow.

Is there anything you'd love to see in cinematic form?