Monday, June 11, 2012

Self-Help movies?

The Bible for mothers-to-be for over the past two decades (I used it for all three of my pregnancies), What to Expect When You're Expecting, was recently made into a "heartwarming" and critically-panned romantic comedy. It's not the first time that a comedy has been made from such material: Woody Allen's Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* *But Were Afraid To Ask was a much earlier and far superior effort in that vein.  But the mere existence of What to Expect... simply invites the question,* "What other non-fiction or self-help books** are amenable to being made into full-length feature films?"

How about...

The Interpretation of Dreams, by Sigmund Freud. Viggo Mortensen could reprise his role as Sigmund Freud from A Dangerous Method.  Maybe at the premier they could hand out Freud finger-puppets.***

On the Origin of Species, by Charles Darwin. That might be a bad idea, though: a scary number of people running around on the earth believe evolution was a figment of Darwin's imagination anyway.  On the Origin of Species: The Movie might just confuse them further.

The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen J. Covey, starring someone highly effective, such as John Cleese.

Our Bodies, Ourselves. This would be an animated feature by Pixar.  The potential for 3D here just staggers the imagination, doesn't it?

What Color is Your Parachute? by Richard Nelson Bolles. Great possibilities for audience participation. 

Who Moved My Cheese?: An Amazing Way to Deal with Change in Your Work and in Your Life by Spencer Johnson. Made by Aardman Studios, the good people behind Wallace & Gromit.

And finally...

The Ethical Slut, by Dossie Easton and Janet W. Hardy. The casting possibilities are rife: Charlie Sheen, Ashton Kutcher, Tiger Woods...

Oh, wait. Ethical. Back to the casting couch, then. None of those guys would be remotely believable.

*Not begs the question.  Sorry, I couldn't help myself, but the misuse of "begs the question" is a rant for another day.
**Self-help books are not always non-fiction, depending upon how deluded the author and/or purchasers are.
***A child psychologist I know has a set of these: they come with Sigmund, Anna, Jung, and ... a couch.

1 comment:

  1. Hee, that's funny :) I especially like the Viggo/Freud idea, naturally.

    - love, the resident shrink

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