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Hollywood has a dilemma. The dominant strategy for making successful films these days is to take a well-known brand and build a movie around it, whether or not it makes any sense. But when it comes to science fiction, many of the best-known brands of the past generation have already been remade, rebooted, and rehashed—to death. The studios face a similar problem with literary adaptations. Although we might try to shake extra novels out of the errata of Charles Dickens or Jane Austen, we just can’t get them to write a marketable trilogy.

But it’s in the works of Austen—specifically, her Pride and Prejudice—where studio execs have found the inspiration to overcome their problems. Elton John’s Rocket Films is developing Pride and Predator, in which the comedy of manners meets a slashing and ripping alien monster with a hunger for human flesh. Meanwhile, studios are rumored to be bidding for the rights to Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, the book in which Seth Grahame-Smith added to Austen’s original text what it was obviously lacking: the undead. Clearly, a new genre has been born. What other classic literature could benefit from a science-fiction crossover?

 

As I Lay Dune-ing

The Bundren family has gathered to bury their matriarch, Addie. But instead of fording a river, the Bundrens must avoid giant sand worms to reach their destination. Meanwhile, Addie’s children pursue their own agendas; Darl, rumored to be some sort of messiah, joins up with a group of desert tribesmen; Dewey Dell is preoccupied with obtaining enough spice to imbue her unborn child with mystical powers; and young Vardaman suspects his mother is a fish, when in fact she is a martyr in an intergenerational religious conspiracy to breed a superman and control the galaxy.

 

In Search of Lost Time Lords

As the last of his kind, Doctor Who is always seeking companions to join him in his police box-shaped TARDIS as he journeys through time and space. But the doctor had no idea what he was getting into . . . when he picked up Marcel Proust.

Instead of fighting aliens and enjoying witty repartee with historical figures, Proust spends all his time crafting careful descriptions of the Daleks’ eye stalks and speculating about the secret lovers of the Cybermen. Nevertheless, the pair get along, as the Doctor’s great age and superhuman intelligence make him one of the few people truly conversant with Proust’s work.

 

Star Trek: The Wrath of Ahab

Remember the Star Trek movie where they went back to 1984 to save the whales? In this version, Sulu’s calculations were a bit off, and the Enterprise has materialized above its naval predecessor the Pequod. Kirk and crew know that only the great white whale can communicate with the aliens who threaten Earth, but given the risks of wrecking havoc on the space-time continuum, the crew must keep their phasers set on “symbolism.” William Shatner reprises his role as Kirk; Patrick Stewart reprises his role as Ahab.

 

Little X-Men

There was something special about the March sisters. Was it their charming banter or their indomitable spirit in the face of adversity? No, it was probably their mutant powers. They were a formidable team: Meg, who through her powers over the weather could fly with the birds or smite her enemies with lightning; Beth, the seemingly shy one who could kill with a touch; Amy, the young beauty who could shoot plasma fireworks from her fingers. But none could match Jo—code name Narrator—whose mysterious psychic powers governed all.

 

2001: A Space Ulysses

The classic collaboration of Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke could be improved only by adding James Joyce to the mix: “Thus spake Zarathustra: Obey these black slabs, tie knots and hunt beasts and throw bones in the air to fall as a satellite watching the world and wooing him, Heywood Floyd, and a monolith deep in the Moon, its piercing screech echoing out to Jupiter that it must be a human error as he is reading their lips he sings he sings—my mind is going—I can feel it. Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer do I’m just crazy oh for the love of my God my God my God it’s full of stars.”

 

Planet of the Beats

Thanks to state-of-the-art digital technology, Charlton Heston returns to star in this new take on the classic Apes films. This time, Heston is transported to a world ruled by humanoid figures in tight black sweaters and sunglasses. The new master race is divided into three groups: the frighteningly hairy and aggressive Ginsburgians, the nomadic and inquisitive Kerouackians, and the introverted and philosophical Burroughsites. After a violent confrontation in one of the new planet’s ubiquitous coffee shops—“get your paws off me, you damn dirty beatnik!”—Heston’s character is forced out of the city. As he leaves, the camera pans out to show the Statue of Liberty exactly how it is in real life. Also watch out for the sequel, in which a mutant cult greets the end of the world chanting a Ginsburg poem: “Whom bomb? We bomb’d them! Whom bomb? We bomb’d them!”