Books transformed into movies

Hello, there.

Many great books were transformed into great movies...but some didn't.

I am curious about your thoughts what books could make a great movie and also which movies dissapointed you when you had seen them after reading the book.

I think the movie "Queen of the damned" was really poor and dissapointing compared to the book from Anne rice...so was "Hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy" (not the one from BBC :P).

I was suprised that "Le Parfume" is such an success and yet such a good movie. It's for sure very hard to make a movie about fragrancies.

BTW, they should make a movies about some terry pratchet books (I know they are working on animation movies :P).

I hope you want to share some of your thoughts here^^

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Philip K Dick's A Scanner Darkly is the best book-to-movie I've ever seen. Almost completely faithful.

The upcoming adaptation of Philip Pullman's "His Dark Materials" series, however, is going to fucking SUCK. They're removing all - ALL - references to religion, which means it's just going to be about a pair of kids running around with shapeshifting animals for a few hours. Gah.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by Khartiff

...so was "Hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy" (not the one from BBC :P).

Given its history of adaptations to media, that movie was great.

I think Artemis Fowl needs to be made into a movie or maybe movie franchise. There are five books, after all (one of which I need to read). The CGI opportunities are just too plentiful for this to not be considered. I once saw some mention of it becoming a movie, but have seen very little indication of this coming to fruition.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

The most faithful book-to movie adaption I've ever seen was The Call of The Wild, an old animated movie version of Jack London's novel. Unfortunately, I can't seem to find any information on it online, and I doubt there's a DVD of it. I saw it ages ago on video. That's sad, 'cause I'd love to see it again. It's also one of the very few versions that doesn't feature Buck as a German Shepherd Dog. In the novel, he's a St. Bernard mix, dammit!

Martin Rosen's adaptions of Richard Adams' Watership Down and [/i]the Plague Dogs[/i], while not entirely true to the novels, did very well in converting the more unsettling portions over to the movie format. Both movies also featured some very good music, of which I don't have any rips for : /

I don't think I can recall any movies I hated though. I guess I haven't seen much.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Originally Posted by Krelian

The upcoming adaptation of Philip Pullman's "His Dark Materials" series, however, is going to fucking SUCK. They're removing all - ALL - references to religion, which means it's just going to be about a pair of kids running around with shapeshifting animals for a few hours. Gah.

His Dark Materials with no religious references? That's like...if the Harry Potter movies had decided to drop every reference to magic. His Dark Materials is ALL about religion. Granted, the third book did a horrible, sloppy job with it, and it was one of the most disappointing, underwhelming series conclusions I've ever read. But still. The books are ABOUT religion. Period. For those who don't know, here's some key points of the series' plot. (Cut for huge SPOILERS.)

Spoiler:

- The main character, Lyra, is prophesied to be the next Eve. She'll face a major temptation and basically make or break all of humanity based on her decision when the time comes.

- Lyra's mom works for her universe's equivelant of the catholic chuch, complete with inquisitions and heavy-duty zealotry. Her job includes kidnapping children to a secret church-run research facility where their souls are severed from them in the name of researching Original Sin.

- Lyra's dad is gathering an army to kill God. (Well, more accurately, God's regent Metatron.) To Lyra's dad, God ("The Authority") is a tyrant who's been controlling mankind for way too long, and it's long past time for mankind to get rid of him and control its own destiny.

- One of the central things in the series is Dust, an invisible particle that gathers around adults but doesn't attach much to children until they reach adolescence. The Church thinks that Dust is evidence of Original Sin, and therefore wants to destroy it. Both Lyra and her father end up fighting in different ways to preserve Dust, which brings them into major conflict with the church. Turns out that the church is dead wrong; Dust is actually self-aware space dust that's responsible for bestowing consciousness and wisdom on sentient species, as well as generally keeping the universe running smoothly.

- Angels feature a lot in the second and third books. They're basically just more-conscious-than-usual Dust particles, as are the "Authority" (God) and Metatron. They're not divine, they just set themselves up in a cushy position manipulating mankind. Some rebel angels side with Lyra's dad to help overthrow the Authority and Metatron, and they help Lyra on her quest.

- Heavy religious criticism comes up over and over (says one of the characters in book 3, "The Christian religion is a very powerful and convincing mistake, that's all."). The gist of the main theme is that controlling, dogmatic religions are the worst offender in surpressing the human spirit and preventing humanity from reaching its full potential. So who needs 'em?

Most of that stuff is absolutely central to the plot. And it looks like it's all gone out the window now, because New Line Cinema doesn't want to step on any Christian toes.

Sadly, I called it. I was talking to a friend about this soon-to-be movie and mentioned that, knowing Hollywood, it was probably going to be stripped of all the religious references, violent deaths, and philosophical themes so it could be turned into "The Adventures of Lyra and her Wacky Shapeshifting Pet!" or something. And it looks like that's what's happened. If you're going to ditch all that pesky (sac)religious stuff that makes up THE ENTIRE BASIS OF THE PLOT...seriously, why even bother? Geez.

Originally Posted by Acro-nym

I think Artemis Fowl needs to be made into a movie or maybe movie franchise. There are five books, after all (one of which I need to read).

Seconded. Scheming, amoral genius protagonist FTW.

I was speaking idiomatically.

The best adaptions tend to deviate from the source material. Just look at 'The Shining', 'One flew over the Cuckoo's nest' and 'Blade Runner'. It also comes down to the quality of the source material, you can't polish a turd. However you can turn gold into crap, just look at 'V for Vendetta'.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Ella Enchanted was really really disappointing. I should not have gone to see it since I knew that I was going to be disappointed regardless because I am a huge fan of the book....but it was ridiculous. On a scale of 1 to 10, it ranked a - 50. I really wish they would remake that.

Also, I don't really like any of the Harry Potter movies. The fourth one I think has been the best so far because the acting was halfway decent...but the others, meh. Emma Watson moves her eyebrows way too much when she acts.

FELIPE NO