Movies that should be made
There are some great stories out there just waiting to be found by the right directors and turned into a movie. Some of these requires little to no effects at all, and can relatively easy be made. Others on the other hand, requires so much that it is impossible to make them without, and some of the older stories have never been able to take the step to the big screen before now.
A list of some titles that will contain massive amounts of visual and special effects if they ever get made:
At the Mountain of Madness
Tunnels, by Roderick Gordon and Brian Williams
Mortal Engines, by Philip Reeve (maybe also Larklight)
Halo
What these titles have in common is that they are all somewhere in pre-production or development hell. Before they actually go into production, I will not take it for granted that they will find their way to the theatres in the nearest futute.
I have no idea what Steven Spielberg's Interstallar will be about, but it sounds impressive, and should maybe be included on the list.
Maybe also a new version of Stanisław Lem's Solaris. Not the mos exciting story in the world, but a real portrait of the planet's ocean and all it weird shapes and structures could be interesting.
Other examples:
Arthur C. Clarkes Rendezvous with Rama, and John Varley's Titan, both of them books about giant artificial objects in out solar system. Seeing a realistic portray of these would be incredible.
The Integral Trees. Not on a planet or in space, but inside an oxygen filled giant cloud in another solar system. In there, there is no gravity, and everything can swim around as they please.
Perhaps also Ringworld by the same writer.
A movie or three about Mars. These days, John Carter is in production. I hope the movie does the pulp version of the planet justice. But Mars offer amazing panoramas and landscapes. Heinlein's Red Planet, Ian McDonald's Desolation Road and Ares Express, Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars Trilogy could all show us a different Mars with its own beauty.
The moon. I don't include the movie that was just made, with Sam Rockwell, because it was a low budget film with mostly a single character inside a base.
What I want is a futuristic lunar city, that show us the moon in all its glory. I love it when the ship travels above its surface in Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey. And of course it has to be scientific correct.
A huge and futuristic city on earth. Maybe something like Coppola's Megalopolis or Magnus Robotfighter. Sometimes, like in Blade Runner and in The Fifth Element, a city of the future has been shown. But I still feel that they have only scratched the surface about what has been possible here. Gigantic buildings and architecture never seen before has now become possible to create with the help of visual effects. This clip could be one of many inspirations:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6pUMlPBMQA
A movie talking place on a gas giant, inspired by book like Ian M. Banks' The Algebraist, or Robert L. Forward's Saturn Rukh.
Possibly also Doc Smith's Skylark series, even if it doesn't represent the same challenge as most of the other candidates on the list, it still requires some work, and could turn out very atmospheric and nostalgic.
Perhaps a large generation ship, such as Brian Aldiss' Non-Stop. But the biggest challenge here is the budget, not the effects.
And every story where a different gravity, size and speed is an ingredient. If we meet humanoids way smaller than us, but who lives with the same gravity, how will their anatomy be, how will they move and how fast (taking a step will be much quicker for them than us), what will they sound like and so on.
The same with humanoids much larger than us. It is not like movies based on Gulliver's Travels (which is a satire, and was never meant to be realistic), where it is impossible to tell if a character is a giant, a miniature human or a normal sized person unless we see them next to the main character.
And of course what movements in different gravity will be like. Both stronger and weaker. Especially should they try to make it scientific accurate if they decide to make a film that takes place on the moon or Mars. Becuase John Carter is more fantasy, I don't expect them to be too accurate here, but everything based on hard sci-fi should portray the weaker gravity and its consequenses on humans and objects correctly. Last year's Moon did not, but as mentioned, it was pretty much low budget.
Speed. How to portray characters that moves and runs many times faster than ordinary humans (or much slower, for that matter) in a realistic and credible way. Showing us some high speed camera trick looks ridiculous. I didn't buy the speed in The Flash TV-series either. James Cameron hopes to be able to make a movie about Battle Angel. She has a robotic body, which allows her to run as fast as a racing sports car, and she can also move and figh with an incredible speed when not running. How is it possible to show us how this would look like if it was something that actually happened in real life? That is the challenge, and personally, I think computers are able to show us. Maybe not now, but soon. Which is why these type of films has never been made before in a way that do their true sources justice. I hope that will change.
Once all this has been done and achieved, what will remain in the next few decades to come? I don't know, but I will be happy to see something revolutionary that has never been done before. Because once it has been done, it can only be repeated. When I grew up I saw stuff at the theatre my grandparents could only dream about. I wonder if my grandchildren will have any similar experiences.
Then there are technologies like holographic movies, but that is a different topic.