I dunno. Jumping from therapy sessions to a WWII massacre, recounted in horrifying detail, to an afterlife that plays off of the wedding feast at Cana. Rape and terror porn, the horrors of the Holocaust as the vehicle for one person's enlightenment, Freudian RPF (actual Freudian, with Freud) and a hearty helping of woo.

Not that I hated it, because I didn't, but I can't think of any way to translate it into film that wouldn't turn any or all of the above into a whole lot of fail.

Wikipedia says that one of the attempts to film it was by David Lynch working with Isabella Rossellini, and I can kind of just barely see that, if I squint; but even so, it's a very "Yes, indeed, that failure would have been a less ghastly failure than the other failures" squint.

Catcher at least has a nice distinctive narrative voice and a ton of vivid episodes, and Catch-22 has some screamingly comic and horrifying dialogue that would be just fun to hear gifted actors doing. But The White Hotel? I... just... no. I might possibly see Lynch's version, or Guy Maddin's, if such a thing ever came to exist; but even so I'd do it out of obligation. Much good as there is in the novel, there's nothing in it that would make me want to see it as a film.

The Green Hornet is the rare stoner superhero movie that you can enjoy sober. It actually makes me interested in checking it out.

Wikipedia says that one of the attempts to film it was by David Lynch working with Isabella Rossellini, and I can kind of just barely see that, if I squint; but even so, it's a very "Yes, indeed, that failure would have been a less ghastly failure than the other failures" squint.

What? Catch-22, because [link]

Ah, I see you were talking about TWH.

However this does sound like something I would cringe at

There was also a brief television comedy series based upon Catch-22 made and televised in 1973, with Richard Dreyfuss in the starring role of Capt. Yossarian.

Larry Gelbart could have done it. But that's why he's a legend.

I'm sure they pitched it: M.A.S.H. meets Hogan's Heroes.

I'm with megan--The Alienist would make a great film, and it's too bad no one has managed it yet.

I totally agree. I listen to the audiobook (the abridgment read by Edward Hermann) a couple times a year. The images are so evocative, I feel as if I've already seen the movie!

I am Jack's Calvin & Hobbes.

I rented Vampires Suck to watch tonight, and once you put Matt Lanter in whiteface makeup, lipstick, and poufy hair it is surprising how reminiscent he is of Paul Rudd.