The Pendragon Ten

After my last post, I was asked what other books I would want turned into movies. Of course this is a particularly hard question. Sometimes the story, shouldn't be turned into a book because usually when it is turned into a movie, it usually is a lot worse than the book. But if I was given complete directive license, the next movies I would make would be from the Pendragon series by D.J. Machale.

I'm not sure how many people really know about these books so i'll give a summary. In the series there are a total of 10 books, on the side their are some spinoffs about the origins of some of the characters found in the original series. The story starts with Bobby Pendragon, with his seemingly perfect life, and his friends Courtney and Mark in Stony Brook, Connecticut. His life is turned around when his Uncle Press tells him the certain people need help. While running into an evil that he will never forget, Bobby and Press find themselves in another world, in a different time, on the other side of the universe. In these books Bobby finds his calling as a Traveler while helping others during a turning point in their world's history that is being pushed to chaos by the evil from before, Saint Dane. With help from other Travelers, Bobby tries to save everyone and everything from that chaos. The books in order are: The Merchant of Death, The Lost City of Faar, The Never War, The Reality Bug, Black water, The Rivers of Zadaa, The Quillan Games, The Pilgrims of Rayne, Raven Rise, and The Soldiers of Halla. 

These books are great books for kids in middle school. And this could bring in plenty of revenue because it's not like any other story out there right now. The imagination that D.J. Machale has poured into these books is priceless and visionary. Deep-seated in the book lies important morals such as too much technology (Reality Bug) or animal rights (Black Water). These are great reads and they would make great movies  under my directorial genius. 

Movie: The Gone Series

If I could produce and direct any movie, I would want to showcase the Gone series. For those who haven't read it, you definitely should. The Gone series is written by author Michael Grant, and currently there are 5 books completed out of the 6 said to be released. In order these books are Gone, Hunger, Lies, Plague, and Fear. The covers are kind of stupid but they aren't what matter.

What matters is the story plot. In this story, kids in Perdido Beach are left behind in a freak phenomenon where everyone 15 and over, parents included, disappear. Without explanation. What's worse is a border is formed, enclosing a twenty mile radius, completely cutting the kids from the rest of the world. Immediately you'll see kids trying to restore order when other problems arise. What's even crazier, the kids of Perdido Beach immediately start changing in ways never expected. Life in this new world, the kids of Perdido Beach call the FAYZ, is essentially what happens when all hell breaks loose.

These books have promises of being great movies, because the storyline is pretty easy to follow, it has action guys can get into, some of that lovey-dovey drama that girls like, and a bit of mystery and suspense that will engage the audience. However, that's not all these books are about. These books depict the process of building a civilization from scratch. Who will be the leader? How will we find food? Who will protect us? Mind you, these aren't simple questions with not so simple answers. The FAYZ offers many obstacles that stand in the way of some of the main characters: Sam, Astrid, Cain, Diana, and Little Pete.

If no one ever made these books into movies, the books themselves are a great read. If the covers are too much for you, I'd suggest covering them or simply taking the cover off. But once you pick the book up, you will never want to put it down. Stephen King says:

"These are exciting, high-tension stories told in a driving, torrential narrative that never lets up. There are monsters, there are kids with mad-crazy super powers, there’s the mystery of where all the adults went. Most of all, there are children I can believe in and root for. This is great fiction."

Why it isn't a movie already, I'll never know, but what I do know is that who ever makes it would make a lot money.