Have you ever read or watched a story that you felt you could do something amazing with. My pick is Charley and the Chocolate Factory. I have many thoughts on a re-imagining for this story and hey, it cant be any worse than Tim Burtons take on this work of fiction. I would attempt to dive deeply into the stories idea of decision and consequence and with that i believe it would be aimed at a slightly older audience.
If anyone ever let me get a shot in at Jocelyn Drake's Three Dark Days series they would be seriously improved. I love the ideas but her writing is...eh. I also want to rework Power Rangers. Get a more adult and very macabre version going.
If I had a shot at reimagining Twilight or Anne Rice's vampire novels, I would have Dracula appear, scold the characters for making people think they are beautiful creatures despite all they suffer, and then rip their heads off just on principle.
I would say Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH, but I must admit Don Bluth did a fantastic job re-imagining it, himself, and I honestly might prefer his film to the original novel. So, that said, I wouldn't mind doing my own take on E. Nesbit's "The Last of the Dragons". It's a great idea, but in such a short story, it wasn't explored as thoroughly as I'd have liked to see it. Also, Swanwick's The Iron Dragon's Daughter has been getting me thinking about a story similar to Nesbit's, so it would be pretty fun.
I like retellings in general. Robin McKinley retold a version of Robin Hood that was *almost* great. It's called the Outlaw of Sherwood. So, I'd want to re-tell her retelling, if that makes any sense.
Everyone reading my threads already knows mine... basically I took The Desert Song, an operetta by Sigmund Romberg, Otto Harbach, Oscar Hammerstein II and Frank Mandel that's likely to be unfamiliar to my target audience (I'm pretty much the only person my age who's heard of it, AFAIK), changed a lot of it, and have started work on a YA fantasy novel based on that idea. The white saviour elements of Romberg's operetta (one of the parts of the plot that seriously irked me, other than the ethnic stereotypes, racism, and just plain ridiculous portrayal of Islam) are gone (and so are the stereotypes), there's a focus on the impacts of colonialism, racism, and slavery, both subtle and non-subtle, and on issues like collaboration and much less on romance, and the central conflict is love vs honor. There's coming-of-age and leadership themes. It's much darker and edgier than its source. And I'm trying to figure out how to introduce these themes without getting too caught up in them and not spending enough time on things like character development.
