Movie Challenge - $300 Million USD = A new Epic franchise.

[Steel_Wind]

This talk of a new Dune movie, apparently being pitched in some quest to recapture the magic of Lord of the Rings, seems to me to be wholly misplaced. (If you think otherwise - post in the Dune thread).

Accepting for a moment that you have 300 million dollars as a production fund - what epic movie series do you pitch to the studios as the next Lord of the Rings?

Whether it's one movie, two movies or three. You have $300 million to spend to make it and you need to convince them your idea will make billions.

What movie series do you think best accomplishes that goal?

 

[craftyrat]

Eddings

The Belgariad/Malloreon would seem to be an obvious candidate. While you can argue about the quality, they were very popular. I just checked on amazon and they have a sales rank of under 10,000 - pretty good for books of that age and type.

craftyrat

 

[Hand of Evil]

John Carter of Mars - Sword fighting, naked hot women, strange aliens, airships! It screams big budget action flick. I would do it in two movies.

another choice would be

Pompeii - you show what life was like, work with in some great characters, throw in some young lovers, then blow it up! Titanic on a volcano!

 

[RangerWickett]

*shameless*

War of the Burning Sky

 

[Grymar]

My favorite wouldn't work...The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant. He's too much an antihero to make for a good popular movie.

Maybe the Riftwar saga by Raymond Feist?

 

[Mallus]

Dune.

(For me, Dune is the LotR of science fiction. I read them both around the same time, and they occupy the same lofty perch in my hierarchy of really good things.)

 

[Hand of Evil]

Others that come to mind...
Amber - just don't see that as a big draw but with CGI today, man that can be a kickass movie.
Foundation - Could be cool as a movie but lacks action that you see in todays movies.
Dante's Levels of Hell - just the trip, the levels, cult classic and stunning visuals like 300!

 

[Andre]

Ideally it would be somthing that would appeal to kids, but I'm not up on what the kids like (other than Harry Potter), so I'll skip that genre.

Battletech might work - William Keith's Grey Death Legion saga would be pretty good translated to the big screen.

Dream Park by Larry Niven might work. The second book was forgettable, but the first and third (California Voodoo Game) were very good. Might even make roleplaying mainstream...

Dragonriders of Pern by McCaffrey would also be an interesing choice and might work -
after all, it's got...DRAGONS.

 

[EricNoah]

Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell?

 

[Dog Moon]

I don't think it would be popular enough to be viable, but I've always liked the Assassin's Apprentice books by Robin Hobb.

GREAT characters