Updated: June 6, 2010
Novels to Enjoy for the...
Director in Search of a Movie
OK, somebody beat you to these ones, but there's always room for a remake.
1492 by Mary Johntson [1992, Directed by Ridley Scott; Starring Gerard Depardieu, Sigourney Weaver]A Passage to India by E.M. Forster [1984, Directed by David Lean; Starring Judy Davis, Peggy Ashcroft]
A Room With A View by E.M. Forster [1985, Directed by James Ivory; Starring Helena Bonham-Carter, Maggie Smith]
Alice Adams by Booth Tarkington [1935, Directed by George Stevens; Starring Katharine Hepburn, Fred MacMurray]
Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll [2010, Directed by Tim Burton; Starring Mia Wasikowska, Johnny Depp]
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy [1948, Directed by Julien Duvivier; Starring Vivien Leigh]
Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne [1989, Directed by Buzz Kulik; Starring Pierce Brosnan, Peter Ustinov]
Ben Hur by Lew Wallace [1959, Directed by William Wyler; Starring Charlton Heston]
Black Oxen by Gertrude Atherton [1923, Directed by Frank Lloyd; Starring Corinne Griffith]
Daisy Miller by Henry James [1974, Directed by Peter Bogdanovich; Starring Cybill Shepherd]
Daniel Deronda by George Eliot [2002, Directed by Tom Hooper; Starring Hugh Dancy, Romola Garai]
Dodsworth by Sinclair Lewis [1936, Directed by William Wyler; Starring Walter Huston, Ruth Chatterton]
Dracula by Bram Stoker [1992, Directed by Francis Ford Coppola; Starring Gary Oldman, Winona Ryder]
Dr. Doolittle by Hugh Lofting [1998, Directed by Betty Thomas; Starring Eddie Murphy]
Emma by Jane Austen [1996, Directed by Douglas McGrath; Starring Gwyneth Paltrow]
Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim [1992, Directed by Mike Newell; Starring Josie Lawrence, Polly Walker, Miranda Richardson]
Farewell to the Master by Harry Bates [1951, Released as The Day the Earth Stood Still; Directed by Robert Wise; Starring Michael Rennie, Patricia Neal]
Frankenstein by Mary Wollstonecroft Shelley [1994, Directed by Kenneth Branagh; Starring Robert De Niro, Helena Bonham Carter]
Gladiator by Philip Wylie [Considered to be the inspiration for Supeman]
Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift [1996, Directed by Charles Sturridge; Starring Ted Danson]
Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell [1939, Directed by Victor Fleming; Starring Vivien Leigh, Clark Gable]
Good-bye Mr. Chips by James Hilton [1969, Directed by Herbert Ross; Starring Peter O'Toole]
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens [1946, Directed by David Lean; Starring John Mills]
Howards End by E.M. Forster [1992, Directed by James Ivory; Starring Emma Thompson, Helena Bonham-Carter]
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte [1996, Directed by Franco Zeffirelli; Starring Charlotte Gainsbourg, William Hurt]
Les Miserables by Victor Hugo [1998, Directed by Bille August; Starring Liam Neeson, Uma Thurman]
Life With Father by Clarence Day Jr. [non-fiction narrative] [1947, Directed by Michael Curtiz; Starring William Powell, Irene Dunne, Elizabeth Taylor]
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott [1994, Directed by Gillian Armstrong; Starring Winona Ryder, Gabriel Byrne]
Mansfield Park by Jane Austen [1999, Directed by Patricia Rozema; Starring Frances O'Connor]
Metropolis by Thea von Harbou [1927, Directed by Fritz Lang; Starring Alfred Abel]
Moby Dick by Herman Melville [1956, Directed by John Huston; Starring Gregory Peck]
Mrs. Miniver by Jan Struther [1942, Directed by Willilam Wyler; Starring Greer Garson, Walter Pidgeon]
Mute Witness by Robert L. Fish [1968, Released as Bullit; Directed by Peter Yates; Starring Steve McQueen]
Persuasion by Jane Austen [1995, Directed by Roger Michell; Starring Ciaran Hinds, Amanda Root]
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen [2005, Directed by Joe Wright; Starring Keira Knightley]
Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw [1964, Released as My Fair Lady; Directed by George Cukor; Starring Rex Harrison, Audrey Hepburn]
Rob Roy by Sir Walter Scott [1995, Directed by Michael Caton-Jones; Starring Liam Neeson, Jessica Lange]
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen [1995, Directed by Ang Lee; Starring Emma Thompson, Kate Winslet]
Seven Little Australians by Ethel Sybil Turner [1973, Directed by Ron Way; Starring Barbara Llewellyn, Mark Clark]
Seven Pillars of Wisdom by T.E. Lawrence [non-fiction narrative] [1962, Released as Lawrence of Arabia, Directed by David Lean; Starring Peter O'Toole, Omar Sharif]
Smilla's Sense of Snow by Peter Hoeg [1997, Directed by Bille August; Starring Julia Ormond]
SWF Seeks Same by John Lutz [1992, Released as Single White Female; Directed by Barbet Schroeder; Starring Bridget Fonda, Jennifer Jason Leigh]
The 39 Steps by John Buchan [1935, Directed by Alfred Hitchcock; Starring Robert Donat]
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain [1993, Disney; Starring Elijah Wood, Courtney B. Vance]
The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton [1993, Directed by Martin Scorsese; Starring Daniel Day-Lewis, Michelle Pfeiffer]
The Four Feathers by A.E.W. Mason [2002, Directed by Shekhar Kapur; Starring Heath Ledger, Kate Hudson]
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald [1992, Directed by Francis Ford Coppola; Starring Robert Redford, Mia Farrow]
The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling [1967, Disney; Starring Bruce Reitherman]
The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Leo Tolstoy [1996, Disney animation; Starring Tom Hulce, Jason Alexander]
The Illiad by Homer [2004, Released as Troy; Directed by Wolfgang Petersen; Starring Brad Pitt, Eric Bana]
The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper [1992, Directed by Michael Mann; Starring Daniel Day-Lewis, Madeleine Stowe]
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving [1999, Released as Sleepy Hollow; Directed by Tim Burton; Starring Johnny Depp]
The Magnificent Ambersons by Booth Tarkington [2004, Directed by Alfonso Arau; Starring Madeleine Stowe, Bruce Greenwood]
The Penal Colony by Richard Herley [1994, Released as No Escape; Directed by Martin Campbell; Starring Ray Liotta]
The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux [2004, Directed by Joel Schumacher; Starring Gerard Butler, Emmy Rossum]
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde [2009, Released as Dorian Gray; Directed by Oliver Parker; Starring Ben Barnes, Colin Firth]
The Portrait of a Lady - Volume One by Henry James [1996, Directed by Jane Campion; Starring Nicole Kidman, John Malkovich]
The Portrait of a Lady - Volume Two by Henry James [1996, Directed by Jane Campion; Starring Nicole Kidman, John Malkovich]
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett [1993, Directed by Agnieszka Holland; Starring Kate Maberly, Maggie Smith]
The Sheik by Edith Hull [1921, Directed by George Melford; Starring Rudolph Valentino]
The Story of the Other Wise Man by Henry van Dyke [1985, Released as The Fourth Wise Man; Directed by Michael Ray Rhodes; Starring Martin Sheen, Alan Arkin]
The Wings of the Dove by Henry James [1997, Directed by Iain Softley; Starring Helena Bonham Carter]
The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum [1939, Directed by Victor Flemining; Starring Judy Garland]
Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackery [2004, Directed by Mira Nair; Starring Reese Witherspoon, Gabriel Byrne]
Voyage of the Space Beagle by A.E. Van Vogt [1979, Released as Alien; Directed by Ridley Scott; Starring Sigourney Weaver, Tom Skerritt]
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy [1972, BBC; Starring Anthony Hopkins, Morag Hood]
Where Angels Fear to Tread by E.M. Forster [1991, Directed by Charles Sturridge; Starring Helen Mirren, Helena Bonham-Carter]
Who Goes There? by John W. Campbell [1982, Released as The Thing; Directed by John Carpenter; Starring Kurt Russell]
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte [1939, Directed by William Wyler; Starring Laurence Olivier]