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The sci-fi genre is undeservedly neglected by Hollywood. Perhaps those that make the decisions simply do not understand sci-fi, but when there is a fan base as large and fanatical as sci-fi enjoys it is hard to understand why film studios do not give them what they crave.

Being the nice chap that I am, rather than chastising the film studios, I'm going to take pity on them and give them the helping hand they sorely need. There's huge demand out there for good sci-fi and precious little in the way of supply. It's time to redress the balance and give the fans what they want. This is my list of 10 sci-fi movies I believe deserve to see the light of day.

1) Serenity II

Serenity, the movie written and directed by Joss Whedon, continued the story told by his television series Firefly, and was described by many as the film that Star Wars Episodes I-III should have been.

Serenity is a swash-buckling tale that follows the adventures of a Han-Solo-type mercenary character, who found himself on the losing side of an interstellar war. Witty, intelligent and great fun, there are a million more stories to be told in the Serenity/Firefly universe, any number of which would be suitable for the big screen.

2) Alien³ (as originally imagined)

The original script for Alien³ had what many fans wanted (and still want) to see: Aliens on Earth. Not Aliens on present-day Earth (as in the terrible Aliens versus Predator), but Aliens on Ripley's Earth, with both high-tech gun-toting marines and Aliens a-plenty coming to blows with the poor old general population caught in the middle.

A teaser trailer to this effect was released prior to filming began on Alien³, but the inevitable budget cutbacks and meddling on Sigourney Weaver's part resulted in the diluted mess we ended up with.

For my money, nothing could be better than Aliens set loose on a futuristic Earth, with motion-tracker carrying marines hunting them down. Can we finally get to this in Alien 5? Please?

3) Halo

A hugely popular computer game, Halo is the story of a group of marines who crash-land on a giant ring-shaped world. In this universe humanity is at war with a race of intergalactic thugs, called the Covenant, who also happen to be on this ring-shaped world in search of an artifact. Cue pulse-quickening action of epic proportions.

In a quite amazing twist of irony, film executives blamed the release of Halo 3 on the Xbox for a 27% drop in ticket sales, when only a few months earlier the Peter Jackson helmed Halo movie was shelved. Even if you buy into the lunacy that a computer game was responsible for a drop in ticket sales (it can't possibly be the poor choice of movies to watch, can it?) surely the sensible film exec would put two and two together and realise the public like Halo, and that producing a Halo movie would probably be a good idea?

Thankfully Fox have picked up the rights to Halo, which means we're likely to see the story of Master Chief and his band of marines on the big screen at some point in the future.

4) Star Wars - The Sequels

Ah, where to begin with Star Wars. Let's get one thing straight - the prequels were turkeys. All of them. They gradually became more bearable, Revenge of the Sith being the best of the bunch, but they are so woefully short of what was expected it is depressing.

For me, there are two fundamental problems with the prequels;

• Lucas ruined the history of Star Wars. Odds are most people already had preconceived ideas of what transpired before episode IV, and Lucas spelling it out for us in such comical fashion merely served to alienate and annoy his audience. In my mind, Darth Vader was never a whiny brat, he certainly didn't hand-build C-3P0 and Midichlorians weren't used to explain away the Force.
• It left nowhere for the story to go. Star Wars is a universe with many tales to tell. In going backwards, Lucas not only gave the story a definite ending, but an ending the entire audience was fully aware of before they got into their theatre seat.

Star Wars should have moved forwards. New stories, new characters and a new lease of life. Is it ever going to happen? Well, Lucas is the man pulling all the strings and I don't imagine him letting that happen any time soon. But we shall see.

5) Wing Commander (done properly)

The Wing Commander movie suffered from many ailments, not least of which were sub-par acting and a terrible script that was far too narrow in scope.

The vast and rich Wing Commander universe brought to life in the computer games of the same name is ripe for a movie (or movies) on a grand scale. It is the story of two colossal empires duking it out on the galactic stage with vast fleets of warships, told from the perspective of one pilot (the character played by the gamer in the original computer games).

The Wing Commander series still enjoys a large and loyal fan base. All this needs is the right script and a studio brave enough to take it on. I won't hold my breathe.

6) Doom (done properly)

You know something is amiss when the budget for a computer game (Doom 3) is greater than the budget for a film based on the series. Doom the movie was a complete car crash. One Digg commenter noted that all they needed to do with Doom was cross Event Horizon with Aliens. They didn't. How they got it so wrong I'll never know.

Doom doesn't need great dialogue, nor characters we particularly care about. It is a splatter movie, pure and simple. Get Paul Verhoeven, or a director of his ilk at the helm and let rip with a scary-as-hell no-holds-barred frag-fest. Satisfaction guaranteed. Oh, and please don't cast the Rock as male lead.

7) Matrix - The Prequel

This is the Matrix movie I would much rather have seen over the two sub-par sequels (sorry, installments 2 and 3 in the trilogy). The war between humanity and the machines, and the subsequent subjugation of the human race.

This story can draw parallels with the war between humanity and the machines in Terminator (which I won't mention here since Terminator 4 is in production), even so far as knowing that the machines ultimately triumph in both. The main difference is that it is humanity that starts the war in the Matrix, not the machines.

Unfortunately, telling this story would mean ditching the cast of the original Matrix, something that the studio would surely never agree to. Still, it is a great tale that deserves more than a 10 minute cursory glance in the Animatrix.

8) StarCraft

Another computer game that is crying out for a good script and a studio brave enough to take it on. StarCraft is a three-way struggle between the remnants of humanity, the hive-like Zerg and the psionic Protoss.

Rumours of a StarCraft movie periodically circulate discussion boards and fan sites, but there is nothing concrete to suggest a movie will ever materialise.

Any StarCraft movie would have to be fairly epic in scope. An expensive gamble perhaps, but the material is there for the taking, not to mention an eager audience.

9) Warhammer 40k

Warhammer 40k is an interesting one. Personally I'm not interested in the turn-based table-top game but I am interested in the universe in which it is set. There are countless books and numerous computer games set in this dystopian future, where genetically-engineered super-soldiers, the Space Marines, desperately defend humanity from the onslaught of various intergalactic foes.

There's material aplenty here from which you could pick out a good screenplay. I always imagined a futuristic version of Lord of the Rings, with battles on an equally epic scale. Unfortunately I can't imagine any studio being bold enough to take this one on.

10) Elite

I'll admit, I'm probably alone in wanting to see Elite up on the big screen. I have many a fond memory of climbing into my wireframe Cobra Mk III and trading my way across the galaxy. Docking at space stations to the sound of Blue Danube (right out of a Space Odyssey) was merely the icing on the cake.

Turning Elite into a movie is not as straightforward a task as many of the other titles mentioned here, but hell, I'll have a stab at writing a screenplay if no one else fancies it?

Edit

Apologies all. Comments have been closed due to a handful of abusive idiots who are unable to post their opinion in a civilised manner.

It seems I should have written various lists categorised into novels that should be made into movies, computer games that should be made into movies and prequels, sequels and remakes. Even then the idea of computer games being made into movies is heresy for some - an affront to real sci-fi apparently.

Oh well. You can't please everyone, eh?