Do you ever wish your story could be turned into a screenplay?

[Magineer]

Many and often have been the times when I've thought how great it would be to have a story come alive as a visual treat.

Almost immediately though, the realisation of how dreadful this might turn out in reality, given the 'porn' label which would inevitably attach, makes itself felt. The idea of the porn industry, with its scant regard for interesting plot or characters, getting its hands on anything I've written tends to make me shudder... added to which, the brain-dead, toothy hunks and bimbos with their wooden 'acting' raises the Frisson Level to critical, given that I tend to write about everyday people and the plain Jane 'girl next door'.

Still, it's nice to dream, isn't it? Considering which known actors and actresses might take which roles, wondering what they might bring to their characters, pondering who could be a directorial possibility... you know the sort of thing...

 

[MsNatalie99]

Only if they took out the sex.

 

[BiscuitHammer]

All the time, with several of my stories. I'd love to see the Alexaverse, Time Rider, or The Great Khan as a series, movies or adult TV.

 

[gunhilltrain]

I tried to write a couple of screenplays a while ago. It was interesting, but I couldn't handle the time constraints of both the movie length and the length of the scenes. They were like Heaven's Gate or Berlin Alexanderplatz when it came to issues of running time. (Yeah, make them into mini-series!)

A bigger problem is one we've mentioned here before. Unless you're like Kubrick, perhaps, and have complete creative control, scriptwriters have a limited amount of power. Other people - the directors, cinemaphotographers, etc., are going to take the work you sold and slice and dice it into something else. The writer is likely not even going to be on the set during filming.

So it's nice as a fantasy. But in reality, if I write something set in New York in the 1970s, for cost reasons it may be filmed in Vancouver, British Columbia. And it may be set in the present for the same reason. Like in the film The Squid and the Whale - Noah Baumbach set it in 1986, but he couldn't afford to obtain the period cars needed, much less get them all parked on New York streets. So while Jeff Daniels drives a 1980s Volvo, all of the other cars are, well, just wrong. Baumbach must have thought, "Well, that's what I can do, so it's good enough."

 

[Blind_Justice]

Considering the usual level of "modification" Hollywood applies to even the most straight-forward source material, I actually dread the butchering my plots would receive. My sex scenes are (usually) tied heavily into the plot, so simply cutting them out probably won't work. Heh. It's a triple-death-knell. Too sexy, too ambitious and probably too expensive thanks to the heavy use of special effects, CGI and expensive location shots or sets which needed to be built. And as an extra shot in the back, my stories - despite heavily featuring diverse casts - are not woke enough. My lady folk are often the equal of the men, but they don't emasculate their male partners to the point of ridicule, so not fit for today's audience...

 

[Emilymcplugger]

Many and often have been the times when I've thought how great it would be to have a story come alive as a visual treat.

Almost immediately though, the realisation of how dreadful this might turn out in reality, given the 'porn' label which would inevitably attach, makes itself felt. The idea of the porn industry, with its scant regard for interesting plot or characters, getting its hands on anything I've written tends to make me shudder... added to which, the brain-dead, toothy hunks and bimbos with their wooden 'acting' raises the Frisson Level to critical, given that I tend to write about everyday people and the plain Jane 'girl next door'.

Still, it's nice to dream, isn't it? Considering which known actors and actresses might take which roles, wondering what they might bring to their characters, pondering who could be a directorial possibility... you know the sort of thing...

I do and I don’t.

I’ve only done one sex story here and while it is quite cinematic I probably prefer it in my head.

However there are sex stories on here that I’d love to see as films.

Anyone got any favourites from other authors that they’d love to see that way?

 

[MsNatalie99]

Anyone got any favourites from other authors that they’d love to see that way?

Yes, but it's not on here anymore.

 

[MsNatalie99]

Considering the usual level of "modification" Hollywood applies to even the most straight-forward source material, I actually dread the butchering my plots would receive. My sex scenes are (usually) tied heavily into the plot, so simply cutting them out probably won't work. Heh. It's a triple-death-knell. Too sexy, too ambitious and probably too expensive thanks to the heavy use of special effects, CGI and expensive location shots or sets which needed to be built. And as an extra shot in the back, my stories - despite heavily featuring diverse casts - are not woke enough. My lady folk are often the equal of the men, but they don't emasculate their male partners to the point of ridicule, so not fit for today's audience...

I'm almost through M&M 5. I'd own that blu ray box set.

 

[Emilymcplugger]

Yes, but it's not on here anymore.

On no. Who was it by?

I remember a story about a banker and his wife and that was ace but it’s no longer here and it was by a prolific author.

 

[MsNatalie99]

Anyone got any favourites from other authors that they’d love to see that way?

Actually, more comes to mind, so, yeah a few. Only question being if I kept them on the bookshelf with the rest of my movies, or in my nightstand... with um the rest of my movies.

 

[MsNatalie99]

On no. Who was it by?

I remember a story about a banker and his wife and that was ace but it’s no longer here and it was by a prolific author.

Broken Toys- MColton84. He's not here anymore.

 

[Wark2002]

Yes, I can imagine Hollywood getting hold of “Sliken Banners”:

“So, does the girl have to be black?”
“90s is big. What if we have it take place in the 90s? And we were thinking, maybe, Florida.”

https://www.literotica.com/my/#/works/stories/published

 

[stickygirl]

My Hannah stories ( Under .... ) could be serialised. I'm thinking UK Channel 4, location film unit including on board the yacht and Greenland. I think it'll be vital that the author is there to advise and offer help with the screenplay. I'm cheap, in case any one's reading

 

[shakna]

My Toofyverse would be well suited to it. However, the sheer effort of writing any screenplay dwarfs everything else. The number of amazing people required to taken even a perfect screenplay and turn it into something actually worth watching would dumbfound most people who haven't been on a set.

For those reasons... I'll be happy to stay the hell away from anything like that.

Yet another example of the golden rule we should all be a bit familiar with: Fantasy and reality are different, and never may the two meet.

 

[gunhilltrain]

My Hannah stories ( Under .... ) could be serialised. I'm thinking UK Channel 4, location film unit including on board the yacht and Greenland. I think it'll be vital that the author is there to advise and offer help with the screenplay. I'm cheap, in case any one's reading

Well, as the writer you are not going to have much power, so you might as well go for the money!

 

[lovecraft68]

I had one of erotic horror novels turned into a screenplay. I pitch it at horror cons to local indy directors. I left the sex scenes in there but tell them they can always be "glossed over" so far no real bites. Maybe someday I'll find some horror buff film student and I'll fund the damn thing myself

 

[SteelPoint]

OP, you've started a "parade/promote your stories" ego trip thread - probably unintentionally!

For sure, most of us imagine our stories in a visual sense - the "mind's eye", so to speak. To that extent, like you I also have a hankering - doomed for the reasons you mention - to actually see my ideas acted out. Somehow though I can't help but feel that the transition from text to the moving image would leave something valuable behind. In my humble opinion, very few books have been done justice by films that they have inspired.

 

[RetroFan]

Only if they took out the sex.

That would be the case with my story series 'Body Swap With Sister's Boyfriend' where a gamer nerd swaps bodies with his hot but bitchy twin sister's boyfriend, a dumb jock, and hilarity ensues. While the twin brother and sister do have sex while he is in the boyfriend's body in my story, if you took out the actual incest and have situations where the sister's amorous advances are curtailed in some way, you would have a pretty decent teen (18 & 19) fantasy comedy set in scenic Queensland, Australia. For example the boyfriend can drive but the brother doesn't have his licence yet resulting in amusing situations out on the roads, the brother in the body of the boyfriend attracts the ire of the boyfriend's family dog which sees him as an imposter and attacks him, and the brother attempts to play football in the boyfriend's stead but gets his ass kicked. The jock boyfriend in the body of the nerd brother annoys the twins' abrasive mother (she is a Karen), causes disruption at school where he laughs at Uranus in a science class full of all the serious Year 12s and teacher who don't find it amusing in the slightest, tells off-colour jokes out of touch with his normal personality confusing the brother's friends, seriously pisses off the twins' uncle (a stern and humourless judge) with numerous awkward situations involving the judge's pretty 18-year-old daughter and attractive wife (herself a lawyer) and also antagonizes the cat, which like the dog sees the body swapped young man as an imposter.

My bizarre and strange Erotic Horror story series 'Crazy Cornelius & the Magic Pills' would also make a great Australian movie if some of the sex scenes were removed or toned down, but this story about one of the most dysfunctional families you could imagine taking off on a road trip around New South Wales after ingesting a dangerous party drug (a prank by the son Cornelius) is extremely violent and full of shock humour and so politically incorrect that no film studio would touch it nowadays, even though it is set back in the 1990s.

 

[cranegurl]

so far no real bites.

is it a Vampire story?

 

[cranegurl]

is it a Vampire story?

Thank you, I’m here all week

 

[lovecraft68]

is it a Vampire story?

No, but a few people did tell me it sucks.

 

[lovecraft68]

Thank you, I’m here all week

 

[gunhilltrain]

OP, you've started a "parade/promote your stories" ego trip thread - probably unintentionally!

For sure, most of us imagine our stories in a visual sense - the "mind's eye", so to speak. To that extent, like you I also have a hankering - doomed for the reasons you mention - to actually see my ideas acted out. Somehow though I can't help but feel that the transition from text to the moving image would leave something valuable behind. In my humble opinion, very few books have been done justice by films that they have inspired.

I suppose that's why, even though it's a tempting fantasy, I never really wanted to be a filmmaker or even a screenwriter. I'd have trouble collaborating with all those other people, and the chances to actually make a film and have it distributed are few and far between. Of course, the chances of making any money as a "regular" writer aren't very good either, but at least I can do it whenever my "mind's eye" comes up with an idea. And several thousand people on Lit will likely at least view it, if not actually read the whole thing.

 

[MsNatalie99]

Anyone got any favourites from other authors that they’d love to see that way?

I like this question. It'd make for a nice thread. Lit Authors patting each other on the back and all.

 

[Bramblethorn]

I could see Red Scarf working as an art-house film. Wouldn't be too hard to cut down the number of sex scenes, but might take some creativity to deal with the parts that are currently handled by inner monologue.

Loss Function maybe as a short, though a lot of the exposition there would need to be translated into dialogue/visuals.

As long as I don't have to do any hard work, I'm open to being paid for adaptations ;-)