From Book to Box Office: 3 Classic Fictions Fit for Film

Since the dawn of Hollywood, books have been turned into film. Hundreds of books have made the journey from novel to screenplay, from book to film, yet many more hundreds sit on the shelf, waiting to be brought to the silver screen.

A wealth of classic American literature remains untapped by screen writers for use in film. Only the most popular works of the great American writers have been turned into films. Here are a few books from Pulitzer Prize winning writers that have been overlooked when it comes to turning books into films.

Each book has a contemporary appeal in addition to being given original voice by writers Ernest Hemingway, Robert Penn Warren, and Saul Bellow - three of the most renowned American novelists of the 20^th century.

Flood - Robert Penn Warren

As a town awaits its demise in the form of a planned flood, a screen writer and native son, Brad Tolliver, arrives on assignment. Tolliver is to help director Yasha Jones concoct a screenplay based on the last days of the town.

Tolliver soon finds himself sucked into a deeper tale, one of murder, intrigue, and a convicted criminal, days away from being put to death, who refuses to receive absolution from the church.

The convict sits on death row refusing to repent of his crime.

Poised on the brink of permanent destruction, the town's people cannot understand how a man in his position can deny salvation freely offered.

The people of the town see themselves in the convict, though they wish they didn't. He is a metaphor that stands for all of them. This is why they hate him.

This is why Brad Tolliver also is drawn to the man on death row and why the story is so compelling. Somehow, everyone is on death row and everyone wants to be forgiven, except the guy who is actually going to die.

Flood is a gripping read with many inter-connections and revelations of plot and, beyond that, revelations of the human spirit. Instead of acting as a screen writer, Tolliver becomes an investigator working to uncover the facts of what really happened to the convict so that he can understand the man sitting in the cell, turning away forgiveness.

As a film, Flood would be a cross-genre picture, combining elements of film noir and police suspense with the prison drama.

Johnny Depp would make a good fit for the reporter, as he was in his late 1990's films (Blowand Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas). The film needs an actor of depth who can be thoroughly interested in learning about others to better understand himself.

In the end, that is what the story of Flood is about - it's about realizing what we all have in common. One man's sin is another man's sin. And one man's strength is another man's strength. The suspense comes in discovering which it is that keeps the convict from accepting forgiveness.

Curtis Hanson directed L.A Confidential back in 1997. His contemporary noir style in that film would be well adapted here in Flood.

Robert Penn Warren books that have already been turned into films: All the King's Men; Band of Angels.

Henderson the Rain King - Saul Bellow

Saul Bellow's protagonists are often serious intellectuals who have made enough mistakes in life to stop taking themselves seriously. This is true of Henderson in Henderson the Rain King - or it becomes true of the man by the novel's end.

Henderson is a man past his prime, seeking adventure, rejuvenation, and a connection with the world that his domestic life has lost. He travels to Africa where he splits off from his travel group to hire a new guide and beat his away across the savanna.

Along the way, Henderson encounters a tribe whose cattle are dying of thirst because their watering pond is full of frogs. Henderson steps in to help and his help turns to disaster (I won't spoil the fun and tell you how he manages to bungle things.).

At another village, Henderson meets the village leader, a king who studied in Europe and who knows the ways of the west. The king invites Henderson to stay with him and be his confidant for a time. Henderson feels that he has made the connection he was seeking.

Of course, he is wrong.

Zany and disastrous things happen to Henderson and his guide before long in what is an entertaining and intellectually invigorating piece of fiction.

With its themes of midlife crisis, its bitter-dreamer protagonist, and its far-flung sense of humor, Bill Murray is a natural fit to play Henderson.

Where the book is a piece of "high literature" the film version would play like high adventure with a heavy dose of comedy. Self-deprecating Bill Murray would trundle across the open spaces of Africa, greeted and jailed by minor kings in a Cary Grant meets Indiana Jones fusion. Stephen Spielberg would be a director of choice for this kind of movie. He's so good at being on beat, he could probably be good off beat too.

Needless to say, it would be tons of fun.

Saul Bellow books that have been turned into films: Sieze the Day.

Garden of Eden - Ernest Hemingway

Garden of Eden is one of Ernest Hemingway's most unheralded novels. Posthumously released, it is actually one of his early works of fiction, if not the first Hemingway novel.

Today's audiences would really eat it up, especially if the book were turned into a movie. The story concerns a young writer who marries his true love. She is beautiful. He is beautiful. They are young and in love, travelling across Europe together.

The couple find a quaint villa to rent, their own Garden of Eden, and things are very nice...until...the young woman begins to crack up.

Much as the female character from A Farewell to Arms, the young wife asks her husband what it would be like if she were to cut her hair short, like a boys hair. He laughs it off until she does it.

Then, in a passage that is rather extremely understated, the couple switch roles during intercourse. The young writer is disturbed, but loves his wife very much.

At exactly the high point of his confusion, a wrench is thrown into the works. Another woman appears on the scene. She is dark haired and European, the opposite of the writer's wife.

She is beautiful too, of course.

All three young beautiful people become good friends right away. The writer tries to be true to his wife while his wife continues to slip toward a hysterical state. The new, dark haired woman gives the writer support in his work and encouragement, something he is deeply in need of. She is the perfect woman for him...but he is married to a crazy woman.

Naturally, drama ensues but not without real emotional generosity from each of the characters. Everyone wants the others to be happy, yet the situation is impossible. Something has got to give.

As a film, Garden of Eden would take the book's terse literary drama and turn it into an atmospheric, poetic film. The drama of the story is so natural that the director would have to focus on tone as much as story. There is no need to play up the situational drama. Gus Van Sant (Milk) and Ridley Scott (American Gangster) are directors that have proven themselves capable of subtlety and adept with tone.

A cast of Guy Pearce, Penelope Cruz (or the younger Charlotte Gainsburg), and the American Scarlett Johansson would capture the sophisticated and rugged beauty of these young people who discover a need to mature...before things explode.

Ernest Hemingway books that have already been turned into films: To Have and Have Not; The Killers (short story); A Farewell to Arms; The Old Man and the Sea; and more.

What do you think? What other books would make good films?
Send in your comments below.

References:

Imdb.com
Robertpennwarren.com