This week’s weekly geeks: With the release of Harry Potter and The Half Blood Prince this past week, I thought it would be good to turn once again to movie adaptations. In March, with the release of Watchmen (using that as a jumping off point for discussion), I brought up the subject of worst movie adaptations. This time, I’d like to bring up best movie adaptations (not saying if the recent Harry Potter movie is or isn’t faithful to the book since I’ll be honest I haven’t read the book, but using the subject as a jumping off point for discussion).
So what are some of your favorite movie adaptations of books? Include trailers or scenes from Youtube if you’d like.
Also along with that question, or instead of that question, what book or series would you like to see be made into a movie or movies? Tell us why you think it or they would work as a movie. If the book already has a book trailer, include that, to help make your point.

In general I’m no fan of movie adaptations. I absolutely loved “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy as a movie, in fact I loved it much more than the books. But to talk about LOTR would probably carry me away…So, instead, I decided to talk about a book that we all know, most of us love and whose hero every woman swoons over. 

There are a number of adaptations of Pride and Prejudice, but none is as perfect as the BBC mini series from 1995. Of course, the story is always the same, but in a mini series there is much more time to go into details, whereas a 90 minute movie just can’t cover everything.

The cast is absolutely perfect. I can’t think of a single actor who didn’t fit the part. We don’t need to talk about Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy. I have yet to meet someone who complains about him. He IS Mr. Darcy. Jennifer Ehle as Elizabeth might be a bit old, admittedly, but I just love her looks and her composed air.

All the supporting characters are cast perfectly as well. Mrs. Bennett and her husband – a wonderful couple. Mr. Wickham, slightly dubious from the beginning. Charlotte Lucas – practical and reasonable to the extreme. And probably the best supporting character, Mr. Collins. That was the first time I saw David Bamber and I just adored him. Mr. Collins was a great bootlicking sycophant. Oh so brilliant. My opinion of David Bamber was confirmed years later when I saw him again as Cicero in “Rome”. Wonderful again. And, of course, the condescending Miss Bingley. I loved her, too. I can’t say enough good about the cast.

So, if you haven’t seen P&P as a movie yet and wonder which one to watch, choose this mini series. You can’t go wrong.

This here is one of my favourite scenes of the whole film, just look at Mr. Darcy! And he doesn’t say a single word…

As to the second part of this week’s assignment, I always wondered why nobody ever made a series from the Darkover books by Marion Zimmer Bradley – or at least I never heard of one. I think they would make a fantastic series with lots of interesting characters. The books are not all related and were not written in chronological order, so one could pick and choose to some extent. I for one would love to see them made into movies.