#ScreenTime: The Love Story We Want to See on Screen

PHS columnist, Heidi Rice, talks about the series she's dying to see on the big and small screens...

So many love stories so little time… And not nearly enough of the ones I have loved reading on film/TV. The reasons for this, of course, are two fold. Firstly, it’s incredibly hard to translate a book to the big or small screen–particularly the big screen.

Time is limited (how do you translate the events of a 300 page book into two hours of screen time?!) and the internal journey of a novel is very different from the external journey in a screenplay (how do you translate thought onto the screen?!).

But romance novels have a triple whammy to contend with on that score, because so much of the story occurs in the characters’ heads.

A film/TV drama is very different from a book. They are two different media. What you read is not what you will see on screen. But with that in mind I have two candidates that I think would make great films/TV shows even when the romance triple whammy rule is applied.

On film, my choice would be Nora Roberts’ (aka JD Robb’s) In Death series. Naked In Death has an intriguing and exciting external plot as Roberts’ kick-ass futuristic NYPD detective Eve Dallas investigates the serial killing of prostitutes – starting with the murder of a high-class call girl who was the daughter of a senator. But when one of her suspects becomes reclusive Irish gazillionaire Roarke – then we have an edgy, high-stakes romance on our hands.

Both Eve and Roarke have tons of gritty back-story, their chemistry is off the charts and then there is the added tension that Roarke is a suspect in the crimes Eve is investigating… I envision this film as having all the futuristic elements of Blade Runner but with the cop/suspect romance of say Sea of Love. And I am constantly casting it in my head.

When I first read it back in the 90s I had Pierce Brosnan slated as Roarke with maybe Uma Thurman as Eve. These days I can totally see Jennifer Lawrence as Eve, although casting Roarke is more complex. Jamie Dornan has the swoonsville looks and Michael Fassbender the acting chops while only Cillian Murphy has Roarke’s dangerous charisma – can we have a combination of all three please?

But really, it would all depend on the chemistry between the two leads, so I’d be totally okay with them finding two complete unknowns who fit the bill as long as they can set off the essential physical and emotional fireworks together Eve and Roarke have in the books. So come on Hollywood folk, what are you waiting for?

On TV, I have a desperate hankering to see Kresley Cole’s off the charts sexy Immortals After Dark series get the Game of Thrones treatment – preferably from a cable channel which could do its adult content justice.

Seriously, this is going to be X-Rated stuff, but it has everything for viewers to sink their teeth into. Cole’s world-building makes Lord of the Rings look simplistic with her many different species of Immortals – Vampires, Lycans, Valkyries, Demons, Witches, oh my. And that brilliant essential conceit that there are creatures – several worlds of creatures – highly sexed and with super powers of one description or another – who live in the human and parallel dimensions. Aka The Lore.

This is basically True Blood gone mad, Lord of the Rings with the emphasis on sexy romance rather than rings and kings and hobbits and shite. It would take fantasy TV to a whole new realm, literally… And Cole has written like nineteen books…. We could keep this series going through many, many series, so those of us who like to binge watch could have something to replace the Orange Is the New Black hole in our lives.

And when it comes to casting, OMG we could have a field day – because every one of Cole’s heroes and heroines are charismatic, conflicted, fabulously flawed and mesmerizingly gorgeous larger than life creatures… From ruthless Vampire general Nickolai Wroth to Valkyrie assassin Kaderin the Cold-hearted, the possibilities are endless!! And Cole describes her worlds and settings with such vividness – from the olde world Valkyrie mansion in New Orleans to the dream realms of sky castles and nihilistic desert wastelands… Well, it would be a visual feast for the eyes too…

Move over Game of Thrones, The Lore is coming.

So those are just two of the love stories I am desperate to see on film and TV. Agree? Disagree? Do you have favorites of your own? Let me know in the comments and share your #ScreenTime reviews with us on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

Heidi's latest release, Tempting the Deputy, is out now. She also tutors an online course for writers called An Introduction to Writing Hot Romance - to share the love! For more information about her and her writing, check out her website and follow her on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest.