We UK-based freaks at the end of 60's/early 70's were comparing what was supposed to essential reading matter: Tolkien's Lord Of The Rings (and perhaps throw in The Hobbit) and Mervyn Peakes' Gormenghast (aka Titus Groan) trilogy. Sting apparently has the copyright to the latter. There has been one attempt  at Gormenghast on radio (with Sting acting in the play - but I don't thing you can reduce any one book let along 3  to 90 minutes) and a 3 parter  on BBC TV (therefore just short of 3 hours). 

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/images/B00004D387/sr=1-1/qid=1255703555/ref=dp_image_0?ie=UTF8&n=573398&s=video&qid=1255703555&sr=1-1">

 

Comments are welcomed on whether Gormenghast, with its English gothic castle and characters quite central to the plot, could translate to film? I'm reminded of this trilogy taking my daughter up to Royal Holloway College a couple of weeks ago, with its red brick gothic Victorian buildings on Egham Hill  -

 

Mervyn Peake was sanctioned into the sister buildings in Virginia Water (about 4 miles away), which was a mental institution in the 50's and 60's. Peake btw was a British War Artist who was one of the first to enter,  see and have to record the horrors of a concentration camp, immediately after it was taken by allied troops in WW2.