For myself: Dan Simmons’ Hyperion Cantos. I know that I will never be in a situation to do as the question above suggests (nor that I would have the knowledge or skills required), but I am currently re-reading the books (Hyperion, Fall of Hyperion, Endymion, Rise of Endymion), and I can’t stop thinking about a big screen adaptation.

Or rather, Simmons’ writing is so vivid, so vibrant that you can’t help but visualize it in a cinematic way before your inner eye anyways. The alien, but still somewhat familiar environments, the gargantuan forces of nature and expansive backgrounds just as much as the more intimate set pieces, cities, secret meeting rooms, and so on. “Every Frame a Painting” is something I’ve heard said about some movies, and these books are the textual equivalent: “Every page cannot be helped but be turned into a Painting”. The Hyperion Cantos isn’t even my favorite book or anything the like; it’s just something that screams for an adaptation IMO, and a beautiful one at that.

I also think that the story is exceptionally well suited for either a limited series (Hyperion & Fall of Hyperion) or a movie (Endymion, Rise of Endymion). In fact, I am convinced that if this had been made into a series back in the early/mid 2010s, it could have had a genre- and generation-defining impact akin to (the early seasons of…) Game of Thrones. Today… I’m not sure a studio would spend the required amount of money to make this good.

(Also yes I made this post simply because I had nowhere else to put this comment.)