10. Maus
Art Spiegelman's beautiful, heart-breaking and powerful story about his father's experiences in World War II was the first comic to win the Pulitzer Prize. Following the excellent work of brining Persepolis the screen a faithful adaptation of this book would undoubtedly be one of the most moving cinema experiences in years. The book flits back and forth through time, as Art tries to coax his father into telling him about his experiences in Nazi occupied Poland and Auschwitz. Art's mother had commited suicide when Art was 20, and his father had burned all her accounts of Auschwitz, the story is a truly devastating tale of survival, love, friendship and an unthinking, ruthless evil that destroyed so many lives during and beyond the war. Art, in an Orwellian touch, but one that oddly brings you closer to the story than if the characters were human, depicts the Jews as mice, the Germans as cats, the Poles as pigs and such like.
How Close Is It To Being Made?: Art has spoken on record about the book being turned into a film, inevitably with all its success an adaptation has been suggested to him, but Art says: "I don't understand why everybody in this culture seems to believe it's not real until it's turned into a movie. I do understand all too well, actually. But to me Maus found its proper form and it took me 13 years to give it that form." However, he goes on to say, "I've had offers that I may pursue. People have come and said, 'Alright, so you don't want to make Maus as a movie, what kind of movie do you want to make?' And that I may pursue..." Whether he's thinking about a way of re-telling Maus or another project entirely remains to be seen.
Casting Choices: For the story to work it would rely on sensitive casting, not shoving in some names to score box-office, but I could imagine Michael Stuhlbarg as Art, Paul Giamatti or Richard Dreyfuss as his father, and someone like Eva Green as his mother.
Suggested by Owain