"Did you have a good world when you died? Enough to base a movie on?" -- Jim Morrison

Fortunately Morrison did have enough to base a movie on (the inappropriately titled The Doors), but thousands of dead celebrities and historical figures would make horrible subjects for biopics. Just because they led famous lives doesn't mean they led dramatically entertaining lives. Of course, Hollywood is good at making up or manipulating events for dramatic purpose and therefore just about any person could be given the formulaic biopic treatment.

Some people are better served with made-for-TV movie, others with big-budget studio epics. The easiest subjects to imagine are those who would provide great soundtracks; the more difficult personalities are those without current relevance or some fitting resonance today. I picked seven dead people (and a bonus: one living dog) who don't already have films in development (as far as I know) whose lives we need to see on the big screen as soon as possible.

• Marcheline Bertrand (1950-2007) - Actress (pictured) who appears in Lookin' to Get Out and The Man Who Loved Women. She also was executive producer of Trudell. Her ex-husband is Jon Voight and her children are Angelina Jolie and James Haven. She died of cancer January 27, in Los Angeles. (AP)
• Sheila Brown (1935-2007) - Animator who worked on The Little Mermaid, Oliver & Company and Tom & Jerry: The Movie. She died of cancer January 17. (LA Times)
• Bob Carroll, Jr. (1918-2007) - Writer of the story for Yours, Mine and Ours. He passed away January 27, in Los Angeles. (Lucyfan.com)
  
• Caris Corfman (1955-2007) - Actress who appears in No Mercy, Funny Farm and Dreamchild. She died of a stroke January 13, in Rockville, Maryland. (Washington Post)
• Curt Dempster (1935-2006) - Actor, playwright and director who appears in Desperately Seeking Susan, The Manhattan Project and Last Ball. He died January 19, in New York. (Variety)
• Brian Eatwell (c.1939-2007) - Production designer for Nicolas Roeg's Walkabout and The Man Who Fell to Earth, Richard Lester's The Three Musketeers and Butch and Sundance: The Early Days, plus Madame Sin, The Onion Fields, Godspell and, more recently, The Watcher. He died January 20, in Los Angeles. (Variety)
• Tudor Gates (1930-2007) - British writer of Barbarella, Danger: Diabolik, The Optimists and Twins of Evil. He also produced and directed adult films under the name Teddy White, including 007 director Martin Campbell's The Sex Thief. He died January 14, in Kent, England. (BECTU)
• Becky Gonzalez (c.1955-2007) - Actress who appears in Young Doctors in Love and Night Shift. She passed away January 5. (NY Times)
• E. Howard Hunt (1918-2007) - CIA agent who figured prominently in the Watergate scandal. He was portrayed by Ed Harris in Nixon. He also apparently was a screenwriter for a short time in the 1940s. He died of pneumonia January 23, in Miami. (NY Times)