Adaptations

A Filmmaker's Journal

I’ve written (or co-written) a total of 25 feature screenplays. 3 of them have been filmed. 4 more will (hopefully) be shot in the next couple of years, and the rest are… well, let’s say the rest are resting. Only one of the scripts has generated me any money (so far), albeit a modest amount. ALL have been original screenplays. Meaning, ideas I came up with, either by myself or with a writing partner, or, in the case of the Rick Roberts projects, ideas he came up with and which I was brought onto as a screenwriter.

Not all of them are good, I have to say, but I think the ones I’ve written (and co-written) in the last five years are a cut above the earlier ones. Judging by the reaction they’re getting, I think that might be the case, anyway.

However, what I’ve never tried is adapting someone else’s novel, novella, or short story. So, as I go forward, in order to stretch myself as a writer, I think that is something I should try.

So, as a bit of fun (and in the foolproof practice of putting ideas out into the universe and making them manifest), here’s a list of novels (some written by friends and acquaintances) that I’d love to adapt into either a film or a series.

There are ten novels in total, in no particular order, which I believe are screaming to be adapted into the visual medium:

1. TOADY by Mark Morris

This 1989 horror novel was given to me by my mother when I was in my late teens. It was a seminal read and was perhaps a big influence on my later writing - mainly The Electric and Dead Leaves. Set in the 80s in a wintry and bleak seaside town in the UK, Toady is about a group of horror film fans - calling themselves The Horror Club - who are led into doing a seance by their newest member, the unnerving and eponymous teenager, Toady. They unleash something very bad, and what follows is a King-esque horror tale of hell spilling out into our everyday world.

(My 1st edition hardback)

I love the setting of this novel - that of a rundown British seaside town during the winter season, and I strongly identify with its cast of characters. It touches on a lot of stuff I would go on to do in my own writing, but this has a far bigger scope than anything I’ve ever done. It’s one of those wonderful doorstop horrors that were big in the 80s - largely thanks to Mr King. I think it would make a great series. Sky would be a good home for it. Or even Apple.

And it’s far better than Stranger Things.

I don’t want to do your job for you, Producers of the UK, but this should be made. Just hire me to write it!

2. NOD by Adrian Barnes

I’ll give you the blurb for this one:

Dawn breaks over Vancouver and no one in the world has slept the night before. Or almost no one. A few people, perhaps one in ten thousand, can still sleep, and they’ve all shared the same mysterious dream. A handful of silent children can still sleep as well, but what they’re dreaming remains a mystery. Global panic ensues. A medical fact: after six days of absolute sleep deprivation, psychosis sets in. After four weeks, the body dies. In the interim, a bizarre new world arises and swallows the old one whole. A world called Nod.

Isn’t that fantastic? This is a post-apocalyptic tale with a difference. There are no zombies, no nuclear disasters, no Captain Trips, just an entire world unable to sleep. The handful of people who can sleep become the hunted and the hated as society collapses with rapid certainty.

This is the only novel by Blackpool-born Canadian Adrian Barnes, who sadly died of an aggressive brain tumour in 2018. This novel, first published in 2012, I believe, blew me away when I read it a few years ago. This one is a MOVIE, and man, I’d love to have a crack at it.

3. BLOOD CRAZY by Simon Clark

(Another of my 1st editions)

A seminal novel for me. First published in 1995. I read this back when I was working on the Five Ways building on Broad Street in Birmingham in 2001. My dad was a bricklayer by trade (retired now), and I’ve worked with him on various jobs over the years, mainly labouring for him and his gang. This was one of our many jobs together. I read Blood Crazy at break times and just devoured it. Dad was always telling me to put the book down and get back to work. It was exactly the novel I needed at that time of my life.

It’s a really fun and gory zombie novel and I’ve always thought it would make a great film. I’ve been lucky enough to get to know Simon since becoming a novelist myself and he’s always been kind and supportive of me. He even wrote a wonderful Introduction for the 10th anniversary edition of Dead Leaves. Plus, a few years back, I was lucky enough to read a screenplay for Blood Crazy written by Simon himself, reaffirming that this one really should be a film. I’d love to direct this one, really.

4. LAST NIGHT OF FREEDOM by Dan Howarth

One weekend. One hunt. One survivor.

This one was written by a good mate of mine. A thrilling and relentless survival horror about modern men, (toxic) masculinity, (toxic) friendships, ancient rituals, remote villages, and a stag party gone very, very wrong. It’s a parpulsive assault on the senses and I think it would make a great film. The structure is already there in Howarth’s novel.

The characters, their laddish dialogue, all ring true to me. I know these blokes. I’ve been out with them. I may have even been one at certain points in my life.

I think this one has A24 vibes. It should be made, although Dan would probably want to script it himself. The bastard.

5. DARK MATTER by Michelle Paver

One of the best ghost stories written in recent years. My friend - the celebrated author and screenwriter Stephen Volk - said that this would be a hard one to crack because, like most ghost stories, it is all interior. Meaning, it is a novel about someone’s thoughts and feelings, not necessarily their actions. He is right about that; it would be a difficult novel to adapt, but it’s so rich, and the setting - that of an Arctic expedition engulfed in months of darkness - is visually arresting. It’s a very unnerving novel. Translating it to a screenplay (and then a film) would be a hell of a challenge, but I’m just speculating and having fun with this list, so it’s going in.

6. THREE TO SEE THE KING by Magnus Mills

This one is a bit of a wild card because, well, I can’t see any studio or production company wanting to make this one any time soon. It is a deeply surreal, but wonderful novel. Like all of Mills’ books, this one is a deadpan, Pythonesque, Coen Brothers-style comedy of the bizarre. Set in a bleak and barren world whose inhabitants live solely in houses made of tin, it is in part a parable, a farce, a fantasy, a Messiah tale, and an examination of the reclusive and lonely. It’s genius. As is most of Magnus Mills’ work. It is also visually incredible.

In my dreamworld, I’d like to write this for Terry Gilliam to direct.

7. WHITE KNIGHT/BLACK SWAN by Ross Harding a.k.a David Gemmell

This one would make a great British gangland thriller, but one with a difference. The late great fantasy author David Gemmell released this book under a pen name in 1993 (1st editions are quite sought after), and it was subsequently released under his own name in 2017. It tells the story of ‘Bimbo’ Jardine, a low-level money collector for equally low-level criminals, who stops a homophobic attack and inadvertently sets himself on a collision course with his own boss. Bimbo is similar to Gemmell’s most famous creation, Druss, because underneath it all, beneath all the blood and violence, is a good guy, an honourable guy. There’s a lot of heart to this novel and I think it would make a wonderful film.

8. THE TRUTH OF THINGS by Anthony McGowan

This is a collection of four novellas: ‘Brock’, ‘Pike’, and ‘Rook’. The fourth book in the series, ‘Lark’, stands on its own and is a heartbreaking coda to the story of brothers Nicky and Kenny. These are adventure stories, but the adventures of two disadvantaged kids living on the bleak and beautiful Yorkshire moors. They share a love of the natural world and find humour in the most difficult of circumstances. These books are very funny and incredibly emotional. They have everything and are so brilliantly written.

There is a touch of Barry Hines to these books, which is a massive plus for me. They are authentically working class, not pretend working class, like a lot of books and films I come across (especially in film and TV, where I mostly find working class stories made by people who have never set foot in a working men’s club). The world, the dialogue, the lives they live, all ring true to me. Nicky and his brother Kenny, who has learning difficulties, are beautiful characters. Real characters. I suppose there is a touch of Of Mice and Men about it as well. Or even Tom Sawyer and Hunckleberry Finn. All good in my book.

These novellas would make an utterly brilliant and thought-provoking series for children and adults alike. Something families can watch together, which seems to be a rare thing these days.

9. MOCKINGBIRD by Walter Tevis

This one could be my big Sci-Fi film. Tevis is the author of The Hustler, The Man Who Fell to Earth, and The Queen’s Gambit, among others. I think I’ve read all his books and they’re all brilliant. He’s a great writer, and each book is so different from the last. Mockingbird is a bleak and brilliant Sci-Fi novel set in a future where a declining human population wanders, drugged and lulled by electronic bliss. It is a world without children, or art, or reading, or any kind of substance away from technology. Sound familiar?

This novel was written in 1980 and is about an android, who has no desire to live, and a man and woman who discover that humanity’s salvation rests with them. It’s quite something, this book.

I’ll write this one for Denis Villeneuve. Cheers.

10. VIDEOSYNCRATIC by Jon Spira

For years, I’ve wanted to write something set in a video shop. I outlined an idea a few years back. It would’ve made a cool little indie film. A hangout movie. Just people talking, laughing, being young, all set inside a video shop - the kind of 90s-style indie film they don’t really make anymore. My idea was very much like Kevin Smith’s Clerks. Probably too much like it. Anyway, it never went much beyond the outline stage. The interest in finding something to set inside a video shop has never left, however. I am the author of Dead Leaves, after all, and outside of turning that book into a film (which is my dream), I have always thought this non-fiction account of Jon Spira’s years owning and running a cool independent video shop in Oxford would make a great film.

Jon is a friend of mine and a very acclaimed documentary filmmaker. The Life and Deaths of Christopher Lee, Reel Britannia, Elstree 1976, and Hollywood Bulldogs are all his work. He is also a very good writer, as this memoir attests. I think there’s a funny, bittersweet, and nostalgic film to be made from this book. I don’t know what Jon thinks. I’ll have to ask him…

So, there you have it, my list of ten novels I believe should be adapted into either films or a TV series (and which I should be hired to script!). You may not agree with all these books, but I think we could probably agree that just by this list alone, it shows there are wonderful stories out there that can and should be adapted. Studios and production companies really should start digging deeper, stop relying so much on established IP, and quit making the same stories over and over again. There is so much more out there.

Just sayin.