9. His Dark Materials
The Book: Phillip Pullmans most adventurous books, His Dark Materials succeeded in getting the audience that were a little too old for Harry Potter. Initially set in a world where peoples souls accompany them in physical, animal form, its modern high fantasy at its best, keeping focus on protagonist Lyra (and later Will) to give us a low down view of grand events. Giving us an incredibly involved world (well, technically many worlds), it acted as a jumping point from child fiction to more mature works for many
Why It Shouldn't Have Been Adapted: After The Lord Of The Rings proved to be such a success, New Line were keen to jump on the Dark Materials. With countless creatures, a mature and epic story and plenty of room for famous actors, it seemed like the perfect franchise. Basically bankrupting the company, The Golden Compass (Northern Lights didn't have enough Lord Of The Rings connotations) only just broke even and was met with a resounding meh. The film did admittedly change many elements of the novel, but if thats what New Line, a company who messed with The Lord Of The Rings as little as possible, had to do to make it almost work, that should tell you something.