1. 100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Why it's so hard to adapt: The plot concerns seven generations of the Buendia family, which is a lot of terrain to cover. Character names are repeated over and over again. Some readers consult a family tree, but that would be tougher to reference while watching the film in a theater.
Has anyone tried: Not really. Garcia Marquez has not sold the rights to his book, perhaps realizing no one could do it justice. The 1984 Japanese film Farewell to the Ark is a very loose (and not officially sanctioned) adaptation.
2. House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski
Why it's so hard to adapt: Footnotes within footnotes. The experience of reading the complicated novel is intentionally confusing and claustrophobic to mirror the subject matter. There are also multiple unreliable narrators, which make reading the book a fun challenge -- but watching a film version unbearable.
Has anyone tried: Nope. Danielewski won't sell the rights, thankfully.
3. _Griffin & Sabine: An Extraordinary Correspondence_by Nick Bantock
Why it's so hard to adapt: It's an epistolary novel -- and not only that, it's one in which the letters and postcards are largely removable. Reading it is an interactive and tactile experience, with the memorable artwork often doing as much work as the text.
Has anyone tried: It's happening! Renegade Films has bought the rights and will be bringing Bantock's story to screen. In a press release, the author said, "This is the first time I've felt comfortable that the essence of the story is understood. Transitioning this tale from a novel to a movie will test the bounds of dreams and creativity, providing an opportunity to create something intelligent, entertaining and visually extraordinary."
4. Ulysses by James Joyce
Why it's so hard to adapt: The so-called best English-language novel of the 20th century takes place on a single day with a stream of consciousness style that has confounded readers since its publication in 1922. It's a modern retelling of The Odyssey where nothing really happens -- or does it? (I don't know.)
Has anyone tried: Yes, twice. The 1967 film Ulysses is very faithful to the novel and even won an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. More recently, the 2003 film Bloom attempted to recapture the stream of consciousness technique visually.
5. Paradise Lost by John Milton
Why it's so hard to adapt: Well, the characters include God, Satan, Adam, and Eve, and those are big shoes to fill. It's not that people haven't attempted Biblical adaptations before -- it's that Paradise Lost is more about Milton's poetry than the story, which everyone already knows.
Has anyone tried: Yes, attempts have been made. But for every story about a proposed Paradise Lost adaptation, there's another about how the film has beencanceled.
6. The Dark Tower series by Stephen King
Why it's so hard to adapt: Stephen King's epic fantasy series takes place in different worlds -- some very close to our own (with minor differences) and others completely foreign to us. It has characters from other Stephen King novels, and even -- spoiler alert -- Stephen King himself. Yes, things get very, very meta.
Has anyone tried: Yes, but to no avail so far. First it was J.J. Abrams, then it was Ron Howard. The project has bounced around from Universal to HBO to Warner Bros., and as it stands, nothing has actually been filmed.
7. Woodcutters by Thomas Bernhard
Why it's so hard to adapt: The entire novel takes place from the narrator's perspective as he attends an elegant dinner party and passes judgment on everyone there. For the most part, he is sitting by himself in a chair with a glass of champagne, thinking. Not exactly thrilling to watch.
Has anyone tried: Nope.
8. As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
Why it's so hard to adapt: There are 15 different narrators, some of whom have a much harder time expressing themselves than others. It's a fairly straightforward story of one family trying to bury their mother, but it's incredibly difficult to follow, with every chapter shifting perspective.
Has anyone tried: James Franco just did it. He co-wrote the film adaptation and stars as Darl Bundren. As for whether it's a successful adaptation, that's up to the viewer. But reviews thus far have been largely negative.
9. To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
Why it's so hard to adapt: There isn't much of a plot, because the novel is mostly about the characters' interior thoughts. Any substantial dialogue would have to be invented by the adaptation's screenwriter, as there is very little in the book.
Has anyone tried: Yes, there was a made-for-TV movie in 1983.
10. The Mezzanine by Nicholson Baker
Why it's so hard to adapt: It's a satire on what students learn in high school English classes, and while that's very funny, it works best on the page. For example, Handler labels all foreshadowing as foreshadowing. There are also study questions and standardized testing exams. That just wouldn't play as well onscreen.
Has anyone tried: It was rumored to have been optioned, but there's nothing currently in the works.
12. At the Mountains of Madness by H.P. Lovecraft
Why it's so hard to adapt: Ask Guillermo del Toro. It's not your typical horror novella -- just the plot description will have most readers confused. The concepts, while very familiar to Lovecraft fans, require a great deal of explanation -- not to mention some pretty incredible special effects, should the Elder Things be realized onscreen.
Has anyone tried: Guillermo del Toro's struggles with the Lovecraft story have beenwell documented. Despite numerous attempts, he has not been able to get the project off the ground, whether due to studio intervention, budgetary concerns, or the fact that Prometheus covered very similar ground.
13. The Sandman series by Neil Gaiman
Why it's so hard to adapt: It's a 75-issue comic book series, which doesn't translate easily to film. The characters and themes are complex, with endless references to other mythologies. And the story shifts over time, eventually becoming a fantasy series with a tragic hero at its center.
Has anyone tried: Oh, sure. But as Neil Gaiman put it in 2007, "I'd rather see no_Sandman_ movie made than a bad Sandman movie." Past attempts through the '90s have been weak, according to those who read the scripts. In 2010, there was a_Sandman_ series in development, but that has since been scrapped.
14. Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
Why it's so hard to adapt: While ostensibly a novel, this is really Ayn Rand's allegorical treatise on objectivism. The story serves the larger goal of the message she's trying to convey. It's also really long, including a 70-page speech that wouldn't play so well onscreen.
Has anyone tried: Remarkably, yes. The book was split up into three parts by filmmakers. The first two films bombed, and now Kickstarter is funding the third. So much for objectivism.
15. Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace
Why it's so hard to adapt: It's over 1,000 pages long. The plot is freewheeling, with countless characters. And oh, yes, there are endnotes: 388 of them in total, and some of those endnotes have footnotes of their own.
Has anyone tried: No, although the book was heavily referenced on an episode of_Parks and Recreation_. So there's that.
16. Alphabetical Africa by Walter Abish
Why it's so hard to adapt: It's not a novel so much as a "constrained writing experiment." Each chapter presents a new letter, in alphabetical order, and Abish can only start words with letters that have been introduced in previous chapters. That means the first chapter is only words beginning with "A," and the second chapter has "A" and "B" words. Crazy, right?
Has anyone tried: No one has had the gall.
17. Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov
Why it's so hard to adapt: The novel is a 999-line poem by fictional poet John Shade, with notes and commentary by fictional editor Charles Kinbote. Readers can decide to read the poem straight and then read the notes, or to read them both concurrently, as the notes reveal the plot piece by piece. It's dense either way.
Has anyone tried: No.
18. The Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan
Why it's so hard to adapt: The epic fantasy series was originally planned to be six books long -- and then it got expanded to 14. Length aside, there's just a lot going on, including references to numerous different mythologies. Readers often consult the official companion book for assistance.
Has anyone tried: Yes, but with no success. NBC was going to do a miniseries based on The Eye of the World, but that fell through. And while Universal allegedly optioned the rights to the series in 2008, nothing has been made.
19. Maus by Art Spiegelman
Why it's so hard to adapt: Holocaust stories are frequently translated to film -- they're hard to watch, not necessarily to make. But Maus is an interesting case, because the graphic novel uses animals as stand-ins for humans. Any film would have to be animated, and animated mice and cats don't really have the right connotation for such heavy subject matter.
Has anyone tried: Not really, though there's been talk. Art Spiegelman has said that despite offers, he's reluctant to turn his work into a film, as there would be too many people involved with the production.
20. The Road by Cormac McCarthy
Why it's so hard to adapt: The post-apocalyptic novel has sparse dialogue, instead focusing on the lyrical narration. There is little information about what caused the end of the world, and the characters aren't even given names, which makes the story more of a modern fable than anything else.
Has anyone tried: Yep. The film adaptation of The Road was released in 2009, starring Viggo Mortensen and Kodi Smit-McPhee. It actually got pretty good reviews.
几乎无法改编的20本书
1. 《百年孤独》 加布里尔·加西亚·马尔克斯著
它为什么难以改编：小说情节涵盖了布恩迪亚家族七代人，可谓波澜壮阔。相同的人物名字周而复始地出现。有些读者会参考族谱，但这一做法在影院观影时较难实现。
是否已有尝试：严格来说，没有。加西亚·马尔克斯并未出售其改编权，或许是因为他觉得没有人能够胜任。1984年上映的日本影片《再见箱舟》是一次非常宽泛意义上的改编，而且它并没有得到官方授权。
2. 《书页之屋》 马克·Z·丹尼利斯基著
它为什么难以改编：脚注下面还有脚注。为了反映主题，这部复杂小说刻意营造出令人迷惑、具有幽闭恐惧意味的阅读体验。书中还有多位不可靠的叙述者，使得阅读本书成为了一场有趣的挑战——但它的电影版本却会令人难以忍受。
是否已有尝试：没有。谢天谢地，丹尼利斯基不愿意出售改版权。
3. 《葛瑞夫与莎宾娜：寄给我相同的灵魂》 尼克·班托克著
它为什么难以改编：这是一部书信体小说——而且并不止于此——书中的信件和明信片大部分都是活页装订。阅读它是一场可触碰的互动体验，令人难忘的插图往往和文字一样有力。
是否已有尝试：正在计划中！Renegade Films已经买下版权，计划将班托克的小说搬上大荧屏。作者在新闻稿中表示：“这是我第一次真心觉得有人理解了小说精髓。把小说中的故事变成电影需要无尽的梦想和创造力，可以创造出一部智慧、有趣、视觉出众的作品。”
4. 《尤利西斯》 詹姆斯·乔伊斯著
它为什么难以改编：这是一部有着“二十世纪最佳英文小说”之称的著作，以意识流手法描述了一个昼夜，自1922年出版以来就令读者感到困惑。它是一部现代《奥德赛》，书中其实什么也没发生——或者是发生了？（我也不知道。）
是否已有尝试：是的，而且有两次。1967年上映的《尤利西斯》十分忠于原著，甚至摘得奥斯卡最佳改编剧本奖。更近一次是2003年上映的《布鲁姆》，它试图以画面来重现意识流手法。
5. 《失乐园》 约翰·弥尔顿著
它为什么难以改编：呃，书中角色包括上帝、撒旦、亚当与夏娃，塑造难度很大。人们以前并不是没有尝试过改编《圣经》，但《失乐园》的精髓在于弥尔顿的诗歌，而非大家耳熟能详的故事情节。
是否已有尝试：是的，已经有人做过尝试。但是每一次传出要改编《失乐园》的消息，最终都以流产告终。
6. 《黑暗之塔》 斯蒂芬·金著
它为什么难以改编：斯蒂芬·金的奇幻史诗系列发生在其它世界——有些和我们自己的世界十分接近（只有少许不同），有些则是完全陌生的。有些人物来自斯蒂芬·金的其它小说，甚至还有——剧透一下——斯蒂芬·金本人。是的，书中情节是非常非常具有自我指涉性的。
是否已有尝试：是的，但是到目前为止还没有结果。先是J·J·艾布拉姆斯，接着是朗·霍德华。改编计划辗转于环球、HBO和华纳兄弟之间，结果实际上还完全未开拍。
7. 《伐木》 托马斯·伯恩哈德著
它为什么难以改编：整本小说都是从叙述者角度出发，记述了他在一次优雅晚宴上对在场所有人的评价。在大部分时间里，他都独自坐在椅子上，手拿一杯香槟思考。如果拍成电影实在无趣。
是否已有尝试：没有。
8. 《我弥留之际》 威廉·福克纳著
它为什么难以改编：书中有15位不同的叙述者，而且他们的表达能力参差不齐。故事本身颇为简单(一家人想要埋葬他们的母亲），但却极难理顺，因为每一章都在变换角度。
是否已有尝试：詹姆斯·弗兰科刚试过。他联合创作了改编电影剧本并出演了达尔·本德伦一角。至于改编成不成功要由观众来决定。不过到目前为止影评多为负面。
9. 《到灯塔去》 弗吉尼亚·伍尔夫著
它为什么难以改编：这部小说情节很少，因为大部分篇幅都是角色的内心活动。任何实质性的对话都要由改编剧作家来创造，因为书中几乎没有。
是否已有尝试：是的，1983年有一部改编的电视电影。
10. 《夹层楼》 尼科尔森·贝克著
它为什么难以改编：整本小说都发生在手扶电梯上。在手扶电梯上！所有文字都是关于叙述者的内心想法，这对文学作品来说是一个有趣的概念，但改编成电影就毫无意义了。此外，书中还有大量脚注，包括对脚注本身作出的一个长篇最终脚注。
是否已有尝试：谢天谢地，没有。
11. 《八人帮》 丹尼尔·汉德勒著
它为什么难以改编：小说主旨在于讽刺高中英文课对学生的教授内容，尽管这非常有趣，但效果在纸上最佳。例如，汉德勒将所有暗示标记为暗示。此外还有学习问题和标准测验考试。这些都不太适合大银幕。
是否已有尝试：有传闻说它已经被计划改编，但目前还没有任何动作。
12. 《疯狂之山》 H·P·洛夫克拉夫特
它为什么难以改编：问问吉尔摩·德尔·托罗就知道了。它并不是你常见的那一类短篇恐怖小说——光是它的情节简介就将让大部分读者感到迷惑。书中的概念是洛夫克拉夫特迷们十分熟悉的，但却需要大量的解释——更别提那些颇为惊人的特效了（如果要在大银幕上重现远古者的话）。
是否已有尝试：大量报道见证了吉尔摩·德尔·托罗对洛夫克拉夫特这一作品的艰难改编。在几次尝试之后，他仍然无法启动改编计划，原因可能是电影公司的干涉或预算问题，也有可能是因为与《普罗米修斯》的题材过于相似。
13. 《睡魔》系列 尼尔·盖曼著
它为什么难以改编：《睡魔》漫画系列共75期，要改编成电影并不容易。角色和主题都很复杂，而且频繁引用了其它神话。故事随着时间推移不断变化，最终成为了一个以悲剧英雄为主人公的奇幻系列。
是否已有尝试：噢，当然有。但正如尼尔·盖曼2007年所说：“比起糟糕的《睡魔》电影，我更情愿它不被改编。”读过剧本的人声称上世纪九十年代的改编尝试都差强人意。2010年曾有计划拍摄《睡魔》系列，但最终被取消。
14. 《阿特拉斯耸耸肩》 安·兰德著
它为什么难以改编：尽管表面上是一部小说，这部著作实际上是安·兰德对客观主义的寓意式论述。书中故事的更重要目的是为了她想传达要表述的信息。书的篇幅也很长，包括一段并不适合大银幕的长达70页的演讲。
是否已有尝试：居然有。全书被电影制作人分成了三部分。头两部电影是失败之作，现在Kickstarter正在筹集拍摄第三部的资金。客观主义不过如此。
15. 《无尽的玩笑》 大卫·福斯特·华莱士著
它为什么难以改编：全书共有1000多页。情节天马行空，角色无穷无尽。噢，对了，它还有尾注：总共388条，其中有些尾注还自带脚注。
是否已有尝试：没有，尽管《公园与游憩》某一集大量引用了这本书。就是这样。
16. 《字母表非洲》 沃尔特·阿比希著
它为什么难以改编：比起小说，它更像是一场“克制的写作体验”。每一章都代表着一个新字母（按字母表排序），而阿比希使用的所有单词开头字母必须在前面章节中出现过。这意味着第一章只能用以A开头的词，而第二章自能用以A和B开头的词。真疯狂，对吗？
是否已有尝试：还没人有那个胆气。
17. 《微暗的火》 弗拉基米尔·纳博科夫著
它为什么难以改编：这部小说是虚构诗人约翰·谢德创作的一首999行诗，由虚构编辑查尔斯·金波特进行注解和评论。随着注解一步步地揭示故事情节，读者可以自行决定是先读诗再读注解，还是两者同时阅读。不管用哪种方式，它都晦涩难懂。
是否已有尝试：没有。
18. 《时光之轮》系列 罗伯特·乔丹著
它为什么难以改编：这一史诗般的奇幻系列原计划出六本书——但最后扩充为14本。撇开篇幅不谈，书中内容也极其丰富，包括对若干不同神话的引用。读者往往需要查询官方附上的书才能理解。
是否已有尝试：有但却不成功。NBC曾计划拍摄根据《世界之眼》改编的迷你剧集，但未能成事。环球影业公司据称在2008年收购了此系列的改编权，但未有任何动作。
19. 《鼠族》 阿特·斯皮格曼著
它为什么难以改编：关于大屠杀的故事经常被搬上银幕——观看它们是残酷的，但却并不一定难拍。可是《鼠族》是个有意思的特例，因为这部绘本小说用动物来充当人类的替身。如果改编电影必须是动画，而动画版鼠和猫并不适合如此沉重的题材。
是否已有尝试：实际上没有，尽管有一些传言。阿特·斯皮格曼曾经说过，即使有人提议他也不愿意将其改编成电影，因为制作过程会牵涉到太多人。
10. 《路》 科马克·麦卡锡著
它为什么难以改编：这部后启示录小说对白很少，重点在于抒情叙事。书中几乎没有谈到世界末日的缘由，角色甚至没有名字，这使得它成为了一个现代寓言。
是否已有尝试：是的。2009年发行了《路》的改编电影，由维戈·莫特森和柯蒂·斯密特-麦菲主演。影评其实还不错。
