As industry line up their summer holiday reading, Screen asks… Which book needs to be made into a film and why?

Al-Yater (The Mast) definitely needs to be made into a film. It’s a novel by Hanna Mina about a 19th Century fisherman who commits a crime and becomes a fugitive in a desolate area. He lives alone and survives off of the fish he catches until he meets a shepherd who becomes his hope to connect him with his old world. It could be Cast Away meets In The Mood For Love.
Hany Abu-Assad, director

Jan-Philipp Sendker’s novel Herzenhören (The Art of Hearing Heartbeats) is a poignant and inspirational love story set in Burma, set between the 1950s and the present. It’s a big, universal love story with two unforgettable main characters and stunning locations. It touched me deeply when reading and I hope it will be made into a film very soon.
Julia Weber, head of theatrical sales and acquisitions, Global Screen

Maresi: Red Abbey Chronicles by Maria Turtschaninoff is the first part of the Red Abbey Chronicles about a remote island for women and girls. Vivid and gripping, the young fantasy, which was last year´s Junior Finlandia Prize winner, has already sold to a number of countries.
Petri Kemppinen, CEO, Nordisk Film & TV Fund

I would love to see The Crossing by Cormac McCarthy made into a film. It is full of hauntingly-drawn characters, terse dialogue and brutal action and I’d love to see the most riveting first 100 pages of any book I’ve ever read on the big screen.
Phil Clapp, CEO, UK Cinema Association

Battle Angel Alita, the manga series created by Yukito Kishiro, would be a stunning film. Set in a post-apocalyptic future, Alita is a cyborg who, having lost her memories, goes on a journey to rediscover her past. It has been in development for a few years now so here’s to hoping it will finally become a reality now that films like Lucy and The Hunger Games have proven the public’s appetite for these types of stories.
Savine Wong, manager, industry programming, Toronto International Film Festival

Two of the books most commonly cited by cinema-goers are two that are already in development: Looking for Alaska and The Girl on the Train. After that, many want to see a film version of The Catcher in the Rye.
Vincent Bruzzese, CEO, C4-R&D