[OCB]

This thought isn't exactly new for me - and I'm sure not new for many on here.

How many of us have read a book and thought "wow - that would make an amazing film".

Fiction or non fiction - no matter

I'm not much of a TV fan, but the missus devours pretty much everything that interests her on Netflix etc - and it appears that "money is no object" these days! So who knows

Up front I'll say a multi-series bio of Eric "Winkle" Brown is my first in line...

[JAFO]

I am contractually obliged to say: Above the Law.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Above-Law-Adrian-Bleese-ebook/dp/B095BFFR7M/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=bleese&qid=1643122866&sr=8-1

[Paultheparaglider]

@JAFO , if money is no object, could I please take on the role of pilot? I will need helicopter training ab initio, but I'm a quick learner.

PS Could I also keep the helicopter afterwards? As the film is bound to rake it in, the cost of the heli will be pretty insignificant, and a good tax write off.

[PeteSpencer]

This thought isn't exactly new for me - and I'm sure not new for many on here.

How many of us have read a book and thought "wow - that would make an amazing film".

Fiction or non fiction - no matter

I remember many years ago, on the late great Keef's recommendation, reading the newly published 'The Martian' by a then unknown author,.

I devoured it in two sittings and at the end remember saying to myself , "Jeeze, that would make an excellent fi.................."

[rf3flyer]

It's a good movie but the book is better.

[Bill McCarthy]

“Macbeth The King” by Nigel Tranter. To correct Shakespeare’s image of him.

[Rob P]

Under An English Heaven by Robert Radcliffe

An East Anglia, 'Friendly Invasion' novel of the 8th AirForce, but one that concentrates on the story on the ground, so doesn't require lots of unconvincing CGI and mock heroics.

One of the most entertaining books on the theme I have come across.

Tuesday's War, David Fiddimore, a non-too-serious Bomber Command novel could also make the grade

Rob P

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B004LX0DFE/ ... TF8&btkr=1
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Tuesdays-War-D ... C59&sr=1-1

[JAFO]

@JAFO , if money is no object, could I please take on the role of pilot? I will need helicopter training ab initio, but I'm a quick learner.

Of course, mate.

We're getting Brad Pitt to play me, just to keep it true to life.

[OCB]

@JAFO , if money is no object, could I please take on the role of pilot? I will need helicopter training ab initio, but I'm a quick learner.

Of course, mate.

We're getting Brad Pitt to play me, just to keep it true to life.

I have zero skin in this game - but a defining moment of my 90s life was a young lady I knew who’d “got it on”with Brad Pit.

When the film came to the local flea-pit, she’d invited a bunch of her mates to watch the film with her (remember- this was before he became famous).

Response of one of her mates - right in the middle of the screening…with a broad west Scots accent…”is THAT Brad Pit?!”

[Dave W]

…”is THAT Brad Pit?!”

It don't impress her much, then?

I've just finished bingeing John D MacDonald's 21 book 'Travis McGee' series. Sort of a proto-Reacher and extremely well-written and plotted. Written from the 60s to the 80s, they are often notably modern (in this instance, that's a good thing!) in outlook, and unusually the protagonist realistically ages and changes as the series progresses.

They'd make superb TV with a decent production team.

There have been attempts in the past, and each time they appear to have suffered from the common curse - a screenwriting committee who decide they know better than the original author.

A decent budget and a creative but respectful team could work wonders.

[TheKentishFledgling]

This thought isn't exactly new for me - and I'm sure not new for many on here.

How many of us have read a book and thought "wow - that would make an amazing film".

Fiction or non fiction - no matter

I remember many years ago, on the late great Keef's recommendation, reading the newly published 'The Martian' by a then unknown author,.

I devoured it in two sittings and at the end remember saying to myself , "Jeeze, that would make an excellent fi.................."

Slightly off topic, but have you read his latest, Project Hail Mary? I thought it just as good, if not better.

[Dave W]

Strongly agree. PHM is a wonderful book.

Avoid his second, Artemis, though. Even Weir himself seems to agree in interviews that that one's weak!

[PeteSpencer]

This thought isn't exactly new for me - and I'm sure not new for many on here.

How many of us have read a book and thought "wow - that would make an amazing film".

Fiction or non fiction - no matter

I remember many years ago, on the late great Keef's recommendation, reading the newly published 'The Martian' by a then unknown author,.

I devoured it in two sittings and at the end remember saying to myself , "Jeeze, that would make an excellent fi.................."

Slightly off topic, but have you read his latest, Project Hail Mary? I thought it just as good, if not better.

Yep I eventually bought it but held off for a while as Artemis was abject cr ap..............

It's in the queue after:
Painted Angel
The Dark Side of the Mind and
A Doctor's Aim.

[kanga]

The Research Department in 'The Cottage' at Bletchley Park under Dilly Knox (until his death) and with Mavis and Keith Batey: lots of undertold stories about the BP achievements apart from the now well-known but often mistold 'mainstream Wehrmacht/Luftwaffe and Kriegsmarine Enigma' achievements. A wholly true account would need only a small indoor set (could maybe get use of the original, in the grounds of the better known 'big house'), interspersed with newsreels of the time (which would, of course, not have mentioned the ULTRA stories behind them). There would be no need to exaggerate the truth, nor create wholly fictional extrapolation from it, as Enigma or The Imitation Game did, to make an amazing narrative. There is now more recently explicitly Released material in the recent Ferris book ('Behind the Enigma'; the Authorised History[a]):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dilly_Knox

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mavis_Batey

[and her own publications:

From Bletchley with Love. Bletchley Park Trust. ISBN 978-1-906723-04-0.
—— (2009). Dilly: The Man Who Broke Enigmas. Dialogue. ISBN 978-1-90644-701-4.
—— (2017). "Breaking machines with a pencil .". In Copeland, Jack; et al. (eds.). The Turing Guide. Oxford University Press. pp. 97–107. ISBN 978-0-19-874783-3. ]

[a] .. but it is noteworthy that even in the Ferris book, Knox gets several (merited) Indexed mentions, but Batey is mentioned only in the context of a retrospective comparative summary of the prospects for women in the UK and US relevant Agencies. She (and Joan Clarke) deserve to be ranked with Turing, Knox and Birch among the BP 'greats'. There is no need to get Ms Knightley to play her, as she did Clarke

Matapan, Alamein, Torch, Fortitude, the Abwehr and 'export' (K) Enigmas, the Italian Hagelins, other 'minor machines', diagnosis and exploitation of some of the toughest manual systems (which were always important), requirements of and service to DNI (including Paymaster Lt-Cdr Ian Fleming RNVR), ..

Unfortunately, few might believe it, and there were no US personalities involved ..

[JAFO]

Flight of Passage by Rinker Buck.

One of the few books that I can go back to time and time again. It is a wonderful book, the story of two brothers crossing the United States in a world that has now vanished. I think I might read it again, now.