Great books that became good/bad film adaptions...probably already been done...

[WeaponXProject]

Recently I have noticed the butchering of many books by becoming films. Although, I am most excited to see a book become a film I am usually very disappointed. Now, to the great books to become bad/good films. List and reason your favorites or the ones you hate.

Great
1. Shawshank Redemption
-The powerful performances by Morgan Freeman and Tim Robbins make this one of the few great films by books.
2. Jurassic Park
-With the theme being the ideas of future genetic engineering and "playing God" idea of man not knowing what we get ourselves into, I thought the movie translated brilliantly with the action and drama tie in.
3. Interview with A Vampire
-One of my favorite adaptions with a fantastic cast and humanizing of what it is to be a vampire.

Bad/Horrible
1. I Am Legend
-One of the farthest from adaptions of a book. Frankly, the title and Robert Neville is all we got. The New York theme and the terrible "Mummy" looking animation ruined this movie. Not to forget, the far from the book ending.

That's all I got for now, hope to hear back from you guys.

 

[Fanticon]

Anything Dean Koontz

 

[Carmine Falcone]

Jack's Return Home by Ted Lewis - Get Carter by Mike Hodges.
This somewhat trashy, badly written crimebook was turned into the essential British crime flick aswell as the essential Caine flick.

Wiseguy by Nicholas Pileggi - Goodfellas by Martin Scorsese.
A very interesting non-fiction book that contains all what can make a great feature film is turned into one of the best movies ever made by a master director, eclipsing the book.

 

[WeaponXProject]

Alright here's my big list, still left some out:
Good to Great:
1. Blade Runner-"Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep
2. LOTR (all three)
3. The Shinning
4. 2001: A Space Odyssey, probably my favorite
5. A Clockwork Orange
6. Fight Club
7. There Will Be Blood-"Oil!"
8. Forrest Gump
9. Bram Stoker's Dracula

Bad to Terrible
1. I Am Legend
2. Queen of the Damned
3. The Mist - based off the short story
4. Wolfen
5. Dune, F****** Sting is in this movie!
6. The Beach
7. The Da Vinci Code

 

[venom62]

Alright here's my big list, still left some out:
Good to Great:
1. Blade Runner-"Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep
2. LOTR (all three)
3. The Shinning
4. 2001: A Space Odyssey, probably my favorite
5. A Clockwork Orange
6. Fight Club
7. There Will Be Blood-"Oil!"
8. Forrest Gump
9. Bram Stoker's Dracula

Bad to Terrible
1. I Am Legend
2. Queen of the Damned
3. The Mist - based off the short story
4. Wolfen
5. Dune, F****** Sting is in this movie!
6. The Beach
7. The Da Vinci Code

Great lists. Fight Club is my #1 all time fav book and movie. Both were done to perfection and can be seen with or without the other.

 

[cerealkiller182]

Forrest Gump is awful book. The movie is million times better

Does 2001 count? I thought it was one project spearheaded by 2 people one being Kubrick and the other being the author making both at the same time.

Bubba Ho-tep was based on a short story but I never read it.

 

[Nirvana]

Great:

1. Interview with the Vampire
2. Lord of the Rings
3. American Psycho


Terrible:

1. Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
2. The Da Vinci Code
3. War of the Worlds

 

[chaseter]

Harry Potter and Jurassic Park are great books turned movies.

 

[Obi-Ron]

Terrible:

1. Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

A-freaking-MEN!

 

[Rain Dog]

Great:
Terrible:

1. Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

That one was really disappointing...so much potential

 

[Victarion]

IT: Great book, really bad adaption. The human characters in the book were very interesting, and Henry Bowers and Patrick Hockstetter were so much more scary than the actual Prim-born creature. Plus they forgot the Turtle.

Harry Potter: This has been really lucky as far as adaptions go. There have been changes, but they've been enjoyable.

The Lost World: Interesting book, bad adaption. Where are my Carnotarusi?! That sounded like a really cool dinosaur.

 

[adhokk7]

Great:

1. The Great Gatsby
2. Terms Of Endearment
3. The Rules Of Attraction

Bad:
1. American Psycho
2. Less Than Zero
3. It

 

[adhokk7]

IT: Great book, really bad adaption. The human characters in the book were very interesting, and Henry Bowers and Patrick Hockstetter were so much more scary than the actual Prim-born creature. Plus they forgot the Turtle.

 

[SodaPop]

Outsiders-Great Book, bad adaptation. As i've said before its long over due for a remake.
StormBreaker-Good Book, horrible adaptation.

 

[CashforStash]

Recently I have noticed the butchering of many books by becoming films. Although, I am most excited to see a book become a film I am usually very disappointed. Now, to the great books to become bad/good films. List and reason your favorites or the ones you hate.

Great
1. Shawshank Redemption
-The powerful performances by Morgan Freeman and Tim Robbins make this one of the few great films by books.
2. Jurassic Park
-With the theme being the ideas of future genetic engineering and "playing God" idea of man not knowing what we get ourselves into, I thought the movie translated brilliantly with the action and drama tie in.
3. Interview with A Vampire
-One of my favorite adaptions with a fantastic cast and humanizing of what it is to be a vampire.

Bad/Horrible
1. I Am Legend
-One of the farthest from adaptions of a book. Frankly, the title and Robert Neville is all we got. The New York theme and the terrible "Mummy" looking animation ruined this movie. Not to forget, the far from the book ending.

That's all I got for now, hope to hear back from you guys.

Uh?
You put Jurrasic Park but not Jaws?!!!!

 

[Sam Fisher]

 

[Nirvana]

A-freaking-MEN!

That one was really disappointing...so much potential

When I left the theater after Hitchhiker's was done I wanted to cry because of how horrible it was. One of my favorite books that could have been gold, ruined.

Outsiders-Great Book, bad adaptation. As i've said before its long over due for a remake.
StormBreaker-Good Book, horrible adaptation.

I agree. The Outsiders could have been a really dark and dramatic book...but they really did mess it up.

 

[WeaponXProject]

Uh?
You put Jurrasic Park but not Jaws?!!!!

I never read Jaws, didn't even know there was a book. I liked Jurassic Park more. I like the movie Jaws but I like JP more.

 

[WeaponXProject]

Forrest Gump is awful book. The movie is million times better

Does 2001 count? I thought it was one project spearheaded by 2 people one being Kubrick and the other being the author making both at the same time.

Bubba Ho-tep was based on a short story but I never read it.

An awful best seller?

2001 was helped by Clarke but 2001 was written first.

 

[cerealkiller182]

Yup! Forrest Gump was a god awful book! It is written in Gumps Southern drawl so nothing is spelled correctly. That alone is so excrutiatingly annoying

 

[WeaponXProject]

Yup! Forrest Gump was a god awful book! It is written in Gumps Southern drawl so nothing is spelled correctly. That alone is so excrutiatingly annoying

I don't know I thought it was funny. I can understand if you say you didn't like it but the situations in it are very funny.

The movie was done well with a more serious and sad theme, that ends up being uplifting. You may be the only person I know that didn't like it but then again I did read it when I was 14 so I would say that it was written for a younger audience...

Still...awful is something most people don't say so extremely about a best seller.

 

[cerealkiller182]

Still...awful is something most people don't say so extremely about a best seller.

Im not sugar coating my opinion because it was successful

 

[That-Guy]

Good Book/Good Movie:

LOTR
American Psycho
A Clockwork Orange
Some of the Harry Potter Films
The Rules of Attraction
The Great Gatsby
The Count of Monte Cristo
1984

Good Book/Bad Movie:

Jurassic Park (sorry, but compared to the book, the movie was watered down crap)
The Da Vinci Code (I'm sure Angels and Demons will blow too)
Most Dracula and Frankenstein adaptations

Bad Book/Good Movie:

Fight Club (again, sorry, but Fincher vastly improved on this story... the book was okay at best)
Girl, Interrupted

 

[Nightwatcher11]

I actually HATED the ending to I am Legend, the novel. I thought it was trash! I understand how it relates to the title and the deeper meaning of him becoming the "new" terror rather than the vampires themselves but honestly... what a bull**** ending. And during the movei I feared I was going to witness it on film! As soon as that girl came to help him I found myself thinking: if it follows the same path as the novel, I'm walking out. but thank god it didn't! I love the movie though. And I'm glad they did kill Neville in a more heroic way. Than taking pills to his death.


Another Flick worth mentioning: The Warriors. This film is an instant classic. But the novel form of the film, is sickly dumb. The gang is pretty much the opposite to the film's form of the warriors. I LOVE the movie to death and I'm glad they changed the approach to the movie.

 

[SoulManX]

No love for TS Garp