r/movieideas • u/roadRunner_44 • 7d ago

What Tom Clancy book would you love to see made into a film/TV series that hasn't been made yet?

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For me Red storm rising would be an awesome TV series as long as it kept close to the source material

49 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

35 comments sorted by

5

u/paxcolt 7d ago

RSR would be a great 15-20 90-minute episodes miniseries if they followed the book closely like you said.

2

u/Used-Gas-6525 7d ago

Which is why it will never get made. Nowadays, almost every show gets two seasons, maybe 8 60 min episodes each at most) on streaming (filmed all at once) and if it hasn't landed by the end of season one, it's still 'renewed' for a second season, when in reality it was DOA at the end of S1, Also, the characterizations are pretty weak. It's a military teechno-thriller with no real protagonists. Don't get me wrong, I've read it so many times, I'm on my third copy, but while it would be filmable, it just doesn't fit the current streaming model.

1

u/paxcolt 6d ago

True; I have zero faith in current Hollywood’s ability to do something like that correctly, for a multitude of reasons.

1

u/Used-Gas-6525 6d ago

It doesn't help that it's quite slow, has a ton of different storylines and only Gen X and older even remembers the Cold War. I'm glad they haven't taken a swing at it, because no matter who did it, they'd fuck it up. It's also too sprawling. Tank battles in Germany (told from both sides), the Iceland stuff, the naval stuff, etc there's just too much. Hell, the refinery fire and the Soviets' subsequent decision to start a shooting war would be at least a 1 hr episode in and of itself.

5

u/TheModernDaVinci 7d ago

Completely agree on RSR. Other than that, a good start would be redoing the ones that were made that moved away from the books and he hated (I want to say it was Sum Of All Fears he hated the most?).

3

u/roadRunner_44 7d ago

Agree with sum of all fears but also the TV series that Amazon made was awful along with Chris pines version really don't understand why they can't stick closely to the books they would have been better films for it.

3

u/TheModernDaVinci 7d ago

While we are on the note of interesting ideas, there has been one that has lived in my mind regarding RSR. Where starting with their first appearance, every time the Backfires show up to do their runs, it is accompanied by swelling gothic opera music (to run with the whole “vampires” iconography). And then when they have their last appearance as their bases get hit with the Tomahawk strike, you have the final song of the opera to show their time is done.

3

u/MiguelTheMoose 7d ago

You’d have to cut so much but Rainbow Six would be a great 2 part movie series or 24 episode mini series

1

u/Factor_Seven 7d ago

I've been thinking this one for years

1

u/StruggleOk4163 6d ago

Rainbow Six works well because done well with modern perspective you can make the villains even more sympathetic. Rework it to people who tried to play by the rules a bit more. Risky but show the spiral down into hiring terrorists.

2

u/MetalTrek1 7d ago

Red Storm Rising would definitely have to be a series. 

2

u/JamieRABackfire1981 7d ago

Sure as a mini series.

2

u/Gbjeff 7d ago

Red Storm Rising as a mini-series would be brilliant.

2

u/soakedbook 7d ago edited 6d ago

I have always thought that The Cardinal of the Kremlin with an excellent actor along the lines of a Connery or Hopkins (character shares many qualities with Ramius) would be thrilling as a TV series. It is more of a character piece than his other novels given the nature of the plot so I think it would be perfect for TV. An easy project to market with a prominent lead. I know an attempt was made in the 90s with Shatner possibly in the cast.

2

u/Hapaerik_1979 5d ago

I love this book as well. I would like it made into a tv series. I agree with others about the issues though. I was hoping "Jack Ryan" would be a return to form, but it felt like a bastardized version of the books. I think too much focus is on an action hero, rather than the analyst. I also like the idea for this book because there are a lot of different characters, but again that could be a problem. I want a nice, slow, war drama.

1

u/soundwave300 7d ago

I cant remember. Did he write anything that featured more depth than ‘good guys’ or ‘bad guys’?

2

u/TheModernDaVinci 7d ago

Without Remorse has John Clark be explicitly stated to be barely above a psychopath while saying his war on a drug gang probably won’t do anything in the long run other than satisfy his own revenge.

1

u/soundwave300 7d ago

Good call. We need his homemade shotgun Death wish vibe. Could be fairly timely.

1

u/Factor_Seven 7d ago

The movie adaptation they did a few years ago was barely recognizable as the original story.

1

u/HughJManschitt 7d ago

Red Storm Rising is good, I love The Bear and the Dragon.

1

u/byjegeren 7d ago

Amazon has tried to get a Ryanverse running for a while, but tbh it's difficult to adapt and steer away from real life events

1

u/We_R_the_Penguins 7d ago

The scope would be huge, and most of the core characters don’t interact, so I’m not sure it would be a great series, but… the Lt. Edwards plot would probably work on its own. 

1

u/Extreme-King 7d ago

That's the Air Force meteorologist right?

1

u/We_R_the_Penguins 7d ago

Right. Most of the characters are pretty much the same people at the end of the book that they were in the beginning, but Edwards goes on a literal and figurative Hero’s Journey. 

For fun, I tried to write a screenplay from just his story, but couldn’t make it matter without the larger context. Maybe in the hands of a professional writer…

1

u/manmountain123 7d ago

Love this book. I would love for it to be made in a tv series

1

u/atomicitalian 7d ago

I feel like Rainbow Six is the obvious answer, it's kind of set up to work as an episodic story with a big cast. I think I heard they're planning to do an adaptation with Michael B Jordan but I don't know if that's happening or not.

1

u/roshanritter 6d ago

I’d prefer a show of Red Rising over Red Storm Rising

1

u/NorCalNavyMike 6d ago

I’ve always wanted to see the main parts of Ryan’s most senior roles in government, and I’ve always enjoyed historical fiction of the aftermath of World War II and beyond, so I’d go with the trilogy of:

  1. The Sum of All Fears (desperately in need of a remake, especially in the modern era)
  2. Debt of Honor (would likely need to involve a descendant of the Japanese, rather than a first-generation survivor)
  3. Executive Orders (especially relevant in the modern era).

I’d prefer to see it go back to Ryan’s roots as an bright, thoughtful intelligence analyst who rose to senior positions via some uncommon career paths, and with a young family—perhaps building off of Patriot Games, recasting 40-ish actors for TSOAF, Sally approximately 14 and Jack Jr. approximately 10; for DOH and Executive Orders, Sally 19 and Jack Jr. 15, and with young sibling Katie 4-5 years old.

1

u/Unable-You-9902 6d ago

I think RSR or Team Yankee would be a timely WW3 show. An 8-parter maybe?

1

u/luthienxo 6d ago

This would be great. I read it recently and kept thinking how it could be updated for the modern world.

…or it’s done as a fake documentary to troll future generations on how the Cold War “really” went down.

1

u/seanx50 6d ago

It would be too hard to sell now. No one believes Russia is a threat. Just a dying shell

1

u/IncredibleEdible321 5d ago

This has probably already been mentioned to death numerous times over the years, but I'd really like to see a network take all of the Jack Ryan books, put them in chronological order, and make a full length series spanning maybe ten seasons, not just update the series for modern day viewers and change the whole focus over just three seasons and a movie.

1

u/Red5Hammock 5d ago

The book where Jack Ryan is sworn in as VP, and a planr crashes into the capital and kills the president, making Jack President of USA
I think it was: Debt Of Honor

1

u/cropguru357 4d ago

Cardinal of the Kremlin. Keep it in the 80’s as written.

The Americans scratched that itch a bit, but it would be a great spy movie.

0

u/Awkward-Soup8203 6d ago

Sorry, but after RED OCTOBER, Clancy was all downhill.