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Good books, badly adapted for the screen.

24

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  • stonemuse said:

    Stardust ... awful version of Neil Gaiman’s great book.

    I like the film!
  • Already mentioned - The Beach

    Also The Firm - John Grisham.
    they completely changed the ending
  • p'tang yang kipperbang
  • Don’t think any Roald Dahl book has ever been done justice by its film version.

    Matilda?

    The Witches was not a good movie though sure
  • Chicken Run
  • The TV series of Shogun was poor.
    The book is very good.
  • p'tang yang kipperbang

    It was always a screenplay, wasn't it?
  • p'tang yang kipperbang

    It was always a screenplay, wasn't it?
    Fuck knows, we did it in English when I was at school
  • stonemuse said:

    Stardust ... awful version of Neil Gaiman’s great book.

    I like the film!
    The film isn’t bad but doesn’t compare to the book.
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  • Pretty much all of them I'd say.
  • iainment said:

    Catch 22 is about the only book and film I really see as on a par with each other.
    But as the OP said they are completely different arts and usually all you can say is the film is inspired by the book.

    Funnily enough, the film of Buffalo Soldiers (my favourite book) was actually a pretty good adaptation - and there are strong parallels between the two books. Weird.
  • edited March 2018
    There's been a couple of attempts at turning Frank Herberts' "Dune" into a movie / TV series. They failed dismally.
  • Not exactly a classic but The Girl on the Train is a brilliant book however the film is absolutely awful
  • There's a film version of a Flashman book with Sean Bean in it. It ain't great.
  • iainment said:

    Catch 22 is about the only book and film I really see as on a par with each other.
    But as the OP said they are completely different arts and usually all you can say is the film is inspired by the book.

    Funnily enough, the film of Buffalo Soldiers (my favourite book) was actually a pretty good adaptation - and there are strong parallels between the two books. Weird.
    The film Full Metal Jacket and the book The Part Timers are equally as good imho. A few changes to the plot, but that's inevitable.
  • The Girl on the train
  • Leuth said:

    Aw I really liked the High Rise movie! I'm aware I'm totally lonely in that regard

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  • I would like to call every other comment and cause them Dune by Frank Herbert. For me a very decent book about religion and drugs (albeit in a sci-fi context) totally annihilated by the tv series and then the terrible film
    by David Lynch
  • I never read the book but Cloud Atlas was the most ridiculously bad film I have seen in years.

    I thought the book of Cloud Atlas was terrific although I know people who couldn't get beyond the first chapter. Whoever took on the job of filming it was almost certain to fail. It was pretty much unfilmable in my opinion - and that's why I couldn't bring myself to see it. My own nomination for the worst film of a book is Captain Corelli's Mandolin. This book by Louis de Berniere was a tour de force, a masterpiece, which was at the top of everyone's reading list in 1998. People seemed to fall in love with it and it became a massive success. There was a documentary on TV about the Corelli phenomenon, in which somebody even said that they measured how far they liked people by how much they liked Captain Corelli's Mandolin. Then the Hollywood film was made - with Nicholas Cage utterly miscast in the title role and the story altered (including the controversial ending) - and the book's reputation never really recovered. Instead of the modern classic it looked certain to be, it is now largely forgotten, or at any rate it seems to be considered a book of its time, of that mad summer when everyone was reading it. People who have only seen the film would never think that behind the Hollywood trash was such a beautifully written and moving book.
  • I read one of the Bond books once. Not a patch on the film

    Yes - I read The Man With the Golden Gun when I was at school, about the only thing the book and the film had in common were the title and the character names.
    As a dedicated of the James Bond films, I'm only now getting around to reading the original books and to say I am underwhelmed is anbit of an understatement!

    They are all relatively short with little bits of action interspersed. But then they were written in the late 50s and early 60s and as such the audience exüectations were probably a bit different. Hard for me to say as I was born in 1962, the year Dr No came out.

    I do intend to read all the books including the recent ones and am especially looking forward to reading the William Boyd one (one of my favourite authors)!

  • Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe. Film was absolutely shocking.
  • Every Dan Brown adaptation.

    Has anyone seen Stephen Kings 11/22/63?
  • agim said:



    Has anyone seen Stephen Kings 11/22/63?

    I’ve toyed with the idea. Was it any good?

    I really liked the concept of the book.
  • Missed It said:

    stonemuse said:

    Stardust ... awful version of Neil Gaiman’s great book.

    I enjoyed Stardust. Having said that, I've never read the book and I'd quite happily watch Claire Danes read her shopping list out
    Until this point, I had thought we were talking about the 1974 David Essex film... :blush:
  • edited March 2018
    Riviera said:

    Pretty much all of them I'd say.

    Crumbs chief, how do you find time to post on here, run a successful pub, go to football, sleep, read every book that has ever been adapted for film and TV and then watch the movie/tele show of said book? You must be a hell of a guy... :lol:
  • agim said:

    Every Dan Brown adaptation.

    Has anyone seen Stephen Kings 11/22/63?

    Yes - it was ok, if forgettable.
  • McBobbin said:

    There's a film version of a Flashman book with Sean Bean in it. It ain't great.

    Are you sure? I've only heard of Royal Flash which was made in 1975 - had an all star cast (McDowell, Ollie Reed, Alistair Sim and Henry Cooper(!)) but I would have thought Sean Bean was too young for it. Not a great film but I remember quite enjoying it.

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