Hollywood is currently obsessed with IP. Intellectual Property. It’s the lifeblood of every major studio from Warner Bros. to A24. Yet, if you look at your bookshelf, you’ll see dozens of masterpieces gathering dust. It’s weird. We get a fourth reboot of Spider-Man before we get a single frame of some of the greatest literature ever written. Honestly, the list of books that should be movies is basically a roadmap of missed opportunities and "what-ifs."
You’ve probably sat there, finishing a final chapter, thinking, "This would look incredible on an IMAX screen." You aren't alone. Producers think it too. But the gap between "great book" and "greenlit movie" is a canyon filled with budget concerns, rights issues, and the terrifying realization that some stories are just "unfilmable." Or so they say.
The "Unfilmable" Myth and the Books That Should Be Movies
People used to say Dune was unfilmable. Then Denis Villeneuve showed up and proved that you just needed a massive budget and a very specific, moody vision. The same was said about Life of Pi.
Take Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy.
It is widely considered one of the greatest American novels. It’s also a nightmare to adapt. The violence is nihilistic. The Judge is a character so larger-than-life he borders on the supernatural. For years, names like Ridley Scott and James Franco were attached to it. Nothing happened. It’s the ultimate example of a book that should be a movie but scares the hell out of every executive in Los Angeles. Why? Because it’s expensive to make a Western where the protagonist is arguably the personification of evil, and there is no "happy ending" to sell to a summer audience.
Then there’s The Secret History by Donna Tartt.
This one is baffling. It’s got everything: murder, elite college aesthetics (Dark Academia, if you’re on TikTok), and messy interpersonal drama. It’s a cult classic. Yet, the film rights have bounced around for decades. Alan J. Pakula had them. Gwyneth Paltrow had them. Now? Silence. It’s a story that relies so heavily on internal monologue and atmosphere that translating it to a screenplay without losing the "soul" of the characters is a delicate surgery most studios aren't willing to perform.
Why does a book get stuck?
Sometimes it’s just bad timing. A studio buys the rights, the executive who loved the book gets fired, and the project becomes an "orphan." Other times, it's the "it's too much like X" problem. If a studio just released a sci-fi epic that flopped, they aren't going to look at your favorite space opera—no matter how many awards it won.
The High-Fantasy Hurdle
Fantasy is the hardest sell. You’re talking about massive world-building costs.
The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson is a frequent flyer on lists of books that should be movies. But honestly? It should probably be a high-budget series. The sheer scale of Roshar—the plants, the highstorms, the Shardplate—requires a budget that makes Game of Thrones look like an indie play. Sanderson himself has been transparent about this. He’s waiting for the right deal because he knows that a bad adaptation is worse than no adaptation. He has the leverage. Most authors don't.
Compare that to The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch. It’s Ocean’s Eleven in a fantasy Venice. It’s punchy. It’s cinematic. It’s got a clear structure. This is the kind of property that feels like a "safe" bet because it follows a heist formula audiences already love, yet it remains in development limbo. It’s frustrating.
The YA Burnout Effect
For a while, every Young Adult novel was getting a movie. Then Divergent died a slow death, and the industry pivoted. Now, even incredible books like Scythe by Neal Shusterman—which has a premise that is frankly better than The Hunger Games—struggle to get past the script phase. The industry gets scared of trends. When one "type" of book movie fails, they stop making all of them for five years.
The Genre-Benders That Hollywood Ignores
Some of the most interesting books that should be movies don't fit into a neat little box.
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke.
It’s a story about a man living in an infinite house of statues. It’s beautiful, surreal, and relatively contained. It wouldn't cost $200 million. It’s the kind of project a director like Guillermo del Toro would turn into a visual masterpiece. But because it isn't part of a 10-book "cinematic universe," it gets overlooked.The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton.
Groundhog Day meets Agatha Christie. It’s a brilliant, high-concept mystery. Netflix reportedly had a series in development, but then they scrapped it. This is a common heartbreak for readers. We see the announcement, we get excited, and then a tax write-off happens.A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole.
This is the "cursed" book. John Belushi was supposed to play Ignatius J. Reilly. Then Chris Farley. Then John Candy. It’s a comedy masterpiece that seems to lose its lead actors to tragedy or its productions to bad luck. At this point, Hollywood is almost afraid to touch it.💡 You might also like: Finding The King and I Full Movie: Why This 1956 Masterpiece Still Dominates Your Screen
What Actually Makes a Successful Adaptation?
It isn't about being 100% faithful. That’s a mistake. A book is a book; a movie is a movie.
Look at Jaws. The book has a weird subplot about the Mafia and an affair. The movie cut all that, focused on the shark, and changed cinema forever. The best books that should be movies are the ones where the core conceit is strong enough to survive being stripped down.
The Narrative Hook
If you can't describe the movie in one sentence, it’s going to be a hard sell.
- Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir: "A man wakes up on a spaceship with no memory and has to save humanity with science." (This one is actually happening, starring Ryan Gosling, because the hook is undeniable.)
- Dark Matter by Blake Crouch: "A man is kidnapped by a version of himself from an alternate reality." (Turned into a solid Apple TV+ show.)
The trend is moving toward prestige TV. Honestly, that’s where the "unfilmable" books are finding a home. Shōgun proved that you can take a massive, dense historical novel and turn it into a global phenomenon if you give it 10 hours instead of two.
The Reality of Rights and "Development Hell"
Rights are expensive. A studio might pay $50,000 just to "option" a book for 18 months. That doesn't mean they'll make it. It just means no one else can. They might just sit on it so a rival studio can't have it. It’s a cynical business.
Sometimes, the author is the roadblock. They want total creative control. Usually, that’s a disaster for the movie. Filmmaking is collaborative; if an author refuses to let a screenwriter cut a boring 50-page chapter about the history of a fictional chair, the movie will suck.
Moving Forward: How to Track Your Favorites
If you're waiting for your favorite book to hit the screen, don't just check IMDb. Check Deadline or The Hollywood Reporter. Look for "option" news.
The landscape is shifting. With the rise of international cinema (think Squid Game or Parasite), Hollywood is finally looking outside the US for books that should be movies. We might see an influx of brilliant Japanese or South Korean novels getting big-budget treatments soon.
Next Steps for the Savvy Reader:
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- Monitor Option Agreements: If a book you love is "optioned," it’s the first step. But remember, only about 5% of optioned books actually get produced.
- Support Mid-Budget Cinema: If you want books like The Secret History to be made, go see the R-rated dramas that do come out. Studios track what we spend money on.
- Look to Streaming: Apple TV+ and HBO are currently the gold standards for literary adaptations. They care about the "prestige" factor more than the pure box office numbers.
- Read the "Unfilmable": Read Blood Meridian or House of Leaves now. Even if they never become movies, the "movie in your head" is often better than whatever a studio would produce anyway.
The industry is slowly learning that audiences are tired of the same three stories. The demand for original, complex narratives is at an all-time high. Your favorite book might just be one "yes" away from a premiere.