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?