Good books are being ruined. Options

[Novander]

Audrey Niffenegger's magnificent book The Time Traveler's Wife is a favourite of mine and of many people on these boards. Pretty much everyone in fact. Everyone except Cand, and we know she's wrong so we can just ignore her here I think.

Point is, they're turning it into a movie and that sucks. I'm not saying it can't be turned into a good film; The Lord of the Rings, Fight Club and every odd numbered Harry Potter film prove that films can be just as enjoyable as the work they're adapted from. I'm just saying there should be an extremely strict process for deciding who is allowed to work on these projects.

For example, Hayden Christiansen is no longer allowed to play angsty sci-fi antiheroes. Star Wars and Jumper proved that he is not a good choice for Case in Neuromancer. Equally, Eric Bana is not allowed to be in The Time Traveler's Wife. His name makes me think of Hulk (fail) and Troy (epic fail), films I'd rather forget.

See, I started out trying to make this a noble post about artistic purity against overwhelming commercialism but quickly realised I just wanted to rant about them not asking me before adapting a book I like and then I threw a Neuromancer reference in to get Mata on my side.

[Mata]

Hayden Christiansen has been removed from the IMDB page for Neuromancer. That was a happy day. It's still got the director of 'Torque' lined up for the job though, but I have a fire bombing campaign ready just in case it ever actually goes into production.

I'd like to think that the makers of the film read the IMDB page where every person on there was going 'what the hell were they thinking?' so maybe teh internets has done some good.

Odd numbered Harry Potter films are as good as the book they come from? Fair enough with 3 and 5, number 3 is actually a very well made film in its own right, but number 1?... Actually, the first book was awful too, so mabye you're right.

I've still resisted The TT's Wife, but it does get near universal praise so I suspect I will get around to reading that at some point so I too can join in with the disgust at the move adaptation. Then again, Doctor Who have already done it, so why do we need a film version?

[gothictheysay]

To add in on ranting... I hate it when you mention something and someone says "Oh, I saw the movie of that, it's awful" when the book could be entirely different. No judging books by movies! It's hard to say vice versa, though, because if the book came first I think it has more rights.

But anyway. Yeah. Teh suck.

[Mata]

I'm listening to the audio book versions of The Dresden Files at the moment. Not only do the books rock a lot more than the TV series, they're being read by James Masters, AKA Spike from Buffy! It turns out that he's a great reader.

This post may only bear a slight relation to the topic of discussion.

[Novander]

This is more of a conversation type thread. The topic is there as a point of origin, perhaps even a guideline, but not a rule.

I can't get on with audiobooks; I don't have the brain capacity to focus on more than one thing at any given time. If I'm focusing on the audiobook then I'd rather be reading, and if I'm focused on something else then I lose track of the story, and it's a lot easier to skip back to where you were in a book than it is on mp3.

Anyway, here's to The Hobbit. Between Peter Jackson's production and Guillermo Del Toro's direction, I have high hopes. Ian McKellen returning as Gandalf and James McAvoy rumoured as Bilbo. The only problem is Gollum. Sure, Andy Serkis did a wonderful job in the Lord of the Rings movies, but for The Hobbit he needs to be scarier and my-dad-when-i-was-five does the scariest Gollum voice, so they should hire him instead.

[Phyllis]

I've still resisted The TT's Wife, but it does get near universal praise so I suspect I will get around to reading that at some point so I too can join in with the disgust at the move adaptation.

I'm not alone in my hatred of it. It's ridiculously overhyped. I highly recommend that you read some of the 1-3 star reviews on Amazon before you waste that much time reading what is essentially a Harlequin romance with time travel (and a slight hint of pedophilia). I'm totally not wrong about it -- Nov and Becky have just been drinking the Kool Aid.

That being said, I wish they wouldn't make a film of it. Ordinarily I'd say "Well, it can only be an improvement," but there is absolutely no way that the scenes with Clare as a child are going to do anything other than make my skin crawl. I doubt I'll be seeing it.

[Industrial Kybos...]

This post may only bear a slight relation to the topic of discussion.

That may be a caveat most of us need in our sigs, rambling and off-topic as threads round here tend to get. It's all part of the fun, though, innit?

There are too many crap adaptations of good books to list, but what of good adaptations of OK, or even rubbish, books? I was a little underwhelmed by the original texts of both 'Ring' and 'Battle Royale' (though the Manga rocks arses, even if it is a little pervy), but the respective Japanese film adaptations are brilliant.

Currently I'm both looking forward to and fearing the Watchmen adaptation. It's a geniune piece of comic book art, and the stills I've seen from the movie look very good indeed (live action Rorschach? yes please!), and yet previous adaptations in a similar vein have left me cold. I'm staying open on this one for now - we shall see.

Whatever happened to the 'Good Omens' film? Great story, but without the right cast and director it would almost inevitably be shite.

[Mata]

I not, as yet, read Fight Club, but we all know that the movie utterly rocks.

Personally I really liked the film version of Constantine. Yes, Keanu Reaves looked nothing like Billy Idol, and he's not British, but if you get over that aspect of it I thought the personality was about right and the story was done well. Also, the casting for Gabriel and Satan was absolutely perfect: if ever ever meet either of them in real (after)life and they aren't actually whoojimmaflip and wosisname then I shall be gravely disappointed. [pun intended]

[Industrial Kybos...]

Tilda Swinton was bloody great in that film. That said, Tilda Swinton is just bloody great.

[Pikasyuu]

I personally prefer the Fight Club movie to Palahniuk's book. I like his writing and his creativity sometimes, but I feel like a lot of it is sort of in a vacuum and the movie did a wonderful job of adding visualizations and other aspects that he didn't write in the story.

Memoirs of a Geisha is, as well, an amazing film. The artistic direction, musical score, actors and actresses are all brilliant and it is easily one of my favorite movies of all time. That said, the book is..somehow, even more wonderful. I've read the book over twenty times (no kidding) and seen the movie about thirteen or fourteen. I do also find it strange that a woman's world was so well portrayed by men - the author was male, as was the director.

[Mata]

Wasn't that the one with a male, American director and Chinese lead actresses playing Japanese Geisha?

[Pixelgoth]

I'm listening to the audio book versions of The Dresden Files at the moment. Not only do the books rock a lot more than the TV series, they're being read by James Masters, AKA Spike from Buffy! It turns out that he's a great reader.

This post may only bear a slight relation to the topic of discussion.

Ooooo, drooooool! I actually really liked the TV series but it was absolute tosh :-D I just love watching absolute tosh sometimes. There's nothing wrong with it at all

Can you point me in the direction of these?!?

Wasn't that the one with a male, American director and Chinese lead actresses playing Japanese Geisha?

Yes it was and there was apparently a lot of controversy in China and Japan about that. Syuu is right though. The film is stunning but the book is better.

I was really disappointed with 'P.S. I Love You'. The book was magical (as with several of Celia Aherns books) and made me cry/laugh in lots of places and I felt really good after reading it but the film just made me feel really sad and I felt like bursting into tears on the way home. They'd changed some of the fundamental character interplays which changed the whole outcome of the book really