Do you think 2030 would make a good film? Would you want to go see it? Who would you cast?

This is the perfect kind of movie to turn into a book. Most of it is plot-driven, much of the futuristic predictions could be shown on screen easier than they are described. Great special effects opportunities with the earthquake and the hijacking. And maybe the characters would come off better on screen as real people.

Albert Brooks would be Brad, of course! Daniel Dae Kim could be Shen Li. Maybe Tim Robbins could play President Bernstein? Ineffectual but well-meaning. Or maybe Mr. Brooks should be president. He's not really old enough to be Brad (though he's supposed to look decades younger than he is).

Yes I think this book is practically a screenplay. The character development doesn't seem to be particularly in depth. You never really get to understand the characters very well, especially Susanna, who the author tells us is very smart, but she doesn't ever seem to do anything very smart...

I think this would probably be a better movie than it was book. I loved the ideas that the book explored, however the characters were not especially well drawn out. I think seeing it on screen would help with that. I think the ending would need be rewritten - it felt like it just kind of stopped - not really ending the story.

I have always been a fan of Albert Brooks and I do agree that the book would play out much better as a movie. I like Tim Robbins as President Bernstein as well. Any Albert Brokks movie always has great casting.

I think this would be a great movie. Of course, I would cast Albert Brooks. There is so much you could do with a movie with all of the parallel story lines.

I think that is a great question for this book because I think it would, in fact, make a better movie than book. Since I am so ill-informed about current movie actors I do not feel particularly good about trying to cast it. But the ease of introducing characters in movies as opposed to books would probably make it move a little faster as I found the beginning of the book sort of hard going. Once it become clear that all of these diverse characters were interconnected by the realities of life in 2030 I found the book pretty engaging.

I think it would make the kind of movie where the preview is outstanding and the actual movie leaves you saying, "Hmm, I just wasted two hours of my life on that?"

I agree with sarahh. And I realize it was written by Brooks and that is why it has so many flaws. It is a screenplay in book form.

Unless they narrow it down to one plot line, it would make a better cable miniseries.

I think this book should definitely be turned into a screenplay and I would imagine that is Mr. Brooks' intent. The message would reach more people in movie form and definitely stir some thinking about the concepts brought forth in the book. I would not venture any guesses for the casting. I would like to see more layers developed in the characters if it does become a movie.

I guess it would make a decent movie. God knows, Hollywood has done worse. But I agree that most of the characters are underdeveloped and a little flat. Susanna could be Helen Mirren, but that's all I can come up with right now. It might get confusing though, jumping from character to character and scene to scene.

I think it would make a good movie but might be too depressing for box office success. People often want escapism when they go to a movie. I felt depressed reading the book because I thought at times, "this could really happen." If it became a movie, many of the characters would have to be fleshed out.

It's funny that you ask this question, because the whole time I was reading the book, I felt like the author's purpose was really to write the background for a screenplay. The writing was very descriptive, and I had strong visuals as I was reading and the fact that this book was plot-driven would also make it fairly easy to film. I agree with the others who commented that most of the characters were rather flat if not stereotypical good guys or bad guys, but that is also more forgivable in a film than in a book where you hope to see some character development. I also think the social climate is right for a movie of this type given the increase of sci-fi and fantasy type films such as The Hunger Games.

I think it could be a good film with a little more cohesion and fleshed out human roles.

2030 would make a great film, probably better than the book. I hope this book catches on and is widely read. There are a lot of issues that we need to face.