http://www.iidb.org/vbb/showthread.php?t=206941
The thread linked to above is on the Internet Infidels forum (I lurk there but have never joined; same with the Straight Dope). The OP on that thread listed a number of historical people and events, and by extension novels (which ended up taking over the thread), that s/he thinks would make good movies. The thread runs to 6 pages, and if I could break down the suggestions by genre my impression was that it was something like this:
Sci-fi / cyberpunk / graphic novels: 95%
War: 3%
Literary fiction: 1.5%
History other than war: .5%
Other genre fiction: negligible unless it sneaks in under the cyberpunk heading
Chick lit: duh, what's chick lit? For that matter, what's chicks?
Let me put the same question to a forum made up mostly of women: What would you like to see made into a movie? I have a few suggestions here I could start with:
From real life, I'd like to see a biopic of Helen Keller's adult life, and in particular with her progressive activism which locked horns with the anti-Communist witch-hunters of the mid-20th century. Her story did not end with the
Miracle Worker "wah-wah" scene at the pump!
And here are three novels I'd like to see filmed:
1.
Green Darkness by Anya Seton: reincarnation, and a perfect karmic storm brewing at an elegant British country-house party
2.
Dreams of Gold by Maynard F. Thomson: forget about
One in a Million, Ice Castles, The Cutting Edge, Ice Princess, Blades of Glory and all the sappy made-for-cable family flicks and biopics about Nancy/Tonya, Tai Babilonia, Oksana Baiul etc etc: with the right cast (real skaters please, not actors and skating body doubles) and director this could be the
Raging Bull of figure skating movies
3.
Thinner than Thou by Kit Reed, that is if anyone doesn't think obesity and anorexia are legitimate weapons in the war against body-image mania