Hot on the back of my eragon thread. I was wondering if anyone knew of any good book to film conversions. I thought that Both the green mile and shawshank redemption were great films, but I have sadly never read either book. but I am really struggling to think of any others. Any ideas guys?

And lord of the rings.... but that almost goes without saying.

Wasn't the Sound of Music a book before it became musical/film/pimped?

High Fidelity: Great book, great film.

Good one, I read it before i saw it, I didn't like the fact that they transplante dit to america but other than that it was a good film.

You'd be surprised the number of movies based on books. "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?" was a book before a film. And I personally love it. "Thank You For Smoking" is brilliant, as is "Sin City" (if you want to count a graphic novel as a book.)

"Children of Man" is also based on a book of the same name. Haven't seen it, but I've heard good things.

I thought Narnia was a fairly good film adaptation of the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

I'm glad to hear at least a few films escaped what seems the Steven King curse. There are a number of bad film adaptations of his books. However Stand by Me which was based on his short story The Body was excellent.
Anyone see the latest Charolette's Web starring Dakota Fanning? Is that any good? The book is a fairly good kids book.

I also liked Lemony Snicket A Series of Unfortunate Events. Which shoved three books into one movie.

Its not that I'd be supprised how many films are books first, I'm constantly suprised at film companies ability to mess them up

Hmmm graphic novels, I am very much looking forward to Neil Gaimans Stardust, And am holding my breath in anticipation for an adaptation of The Watchmen which has been kicking around as a possible for years now and seems to have an updated release date on IMDB at the moment.



I always have issues of with any adaptation of The Lion, The witch and the wardrobe, I always want jadis to win... and she never does

Stand by me was one of my favourite films growing up. And I would really quite like to see charlottes web.

There's always the classic Jurassic Park 1 and 2 (don't bother with 3, it's rubbish)

And Silence of the Lambs (don't bother with Hannibal, it's -literally- bloody rubbish)

And the first three HP movies were decent, the third being the closest to the book.

One of the biggest differences between book and film must be I Robot. Other than a few background details and of course the three rules, the film having almost no content of Asimov`s stories.
Having said that, I did quite enjoy the film.

Nestor was taken almost exactly from a short story involving Dr. Susan Calvin troubleshooting when the robotic laws were modified slightly. The building robot was very much like the planetary governors of another short story. I have to disagree with you Alstan. I think the film was pretty good at capturing an Asimov style universe.
I agree that it wasn't I Robot. That book and this film have very little to do with one another. Also, Dr. Calvin was a lot more friendly and personable in the film than in the books.

"The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" wasn't bad, either. I thought Alan Rickman was a brilliant and inevitable choice to play Marvin and the rest of the cast performed decently. I wasn't a huge fan of Zaphod's character design, though.

The nice thing about HG2G is the liberties taken with the storyline not only fit in the universe in which it was happening, but also the book was only one way the story had been told by Adams: it changed with each medium it was voncerted in to (book, radio show, and video game.)

Heh, the Da Vinci Code should definatly be in here, right guys?

^ OH my, I've got issues with this. It's like, terrible book, TERRIBLE film. Haha.

I thought the book was actually rather good. Film sucked though.

HG2G was constantly changing And I loved the film.


I Couldn't disagree more, I kinda liked the film, I hated the book. I read angels and demons first, and found davinci code to be a carbon copy to the point where I had guessed the bad guy almost as soon as I had met him just because of the similarities to the first. Had I read the books the other way round I guess I would have liked Davinci code and not liked angels and demons.

I'll say what I always say about "The Da Vinci Code." It's s ummer blockbuster book. Entertaining for a few hours, but ultimately, it won't win any awards and shouldn't change any lives. It makes money, it entertains, but it lacks depth. I haven't yet seen the movie, but I don't really intend to.

Another movie that I hate that's been made from a book? "The Polar Express." The book was beautiful in its simplicity and lack of a major external conflict, but the movie just shat all over that premise.

A good one? "A Clockwork Orange." The book is fun, but a little hard to understand. The movie is trippy, megaviolent, and fun!

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, I've not seen the film but the book is awesome.
War of the Worlds, the new film is rubbish but what do you expect from Tom Cruise?

Technically, to be a summer blockbuster, the title must contain at least one greek letter. eg. The Alpha Conspiracy, The Delta Season etc.

/spammity spam spam

Don't Look Now! I forgot about this. It was a great short story and a great movie too.

Im probably going to get e-shouted at for this but I really love the David Lynch version of Dune, I thought that whilst it (understandably) missed a substantial amoount of the books bulk it did capture the very precise and alien way of living that was portrayed in the book...... and what a cast!

*takes out e-megafone and shouts:* Woteva!

I much prefer the Sci-Fi channel's three parter. Bit of history- I first saw the Sci-Fi version, then read the books (though not all), then saw the Lynch version. I did actually start writing a response to this at work, but then I was called away to, well, work. I found Lynch's version a bit too cliche- the scenery & interiors were too obvious. "Ohh, they live on a water planet, lets make their home look like the inside of a boat". And though I do have a soft spot for Patrick Stewart, I find Sci-Fi's Gurney much more suited to the character- rough and ready. After seeing Kyle MacLachlan's slightly wotless character in Sex in the City, I found it difficult to believe him as a messianic figure because he seemed quite the same. I have to confess, another reason for my preference (though this is a digression, and a superficial one) is that it's where James McAvoy first caught my eye . In saying all this, as you said, with most book to films is that it lost out on much of the details that aided me in understanding the universe they lived in. If anyone felt a bit unclued as to what was going on in either the mini series or the film, it might be worth reading flicking to the back of a Dune book to read the history and terminology and all that.

I've seen Sci fi's three parter (and the follow up of the sequel) and whilst I enjoyed them because of the inclusion, due to the extra length available in mini series format, of a lot of the extra material in the book, I thought the actor playing gurney was very wooden and vastly overshadowed by the awesome Patrick Stewart who captured the essence of a troubadour warrior much better.
Whilst I agree with most of what you say about David lynch's version, what I really like about it is the precision of language used, every syllable is enounced every word is very obviously chosen, which in a world where you can kill with a word or control someone with voice really apoke volumes to me about how mch the makers cared about the original source material. So whilst it wasn't as accurate in content it was far more accurate to ideals and tone (i Felt).

So peeps, Do you think it more important to include as much as you can from a book I (into a film conversion) or do you think it is better to convey a books theme/mood?

I believe that one must obviously cover the main plot points of the book to have any repectability in the first place, and I think that the talented director/writer team will find a way to put as much of the book into the movie as possible. Granted that's not always feasable - books like Lord of the Rings have so much mythology and family stories that it would not only make the movies even longer, but much more tedious - but it doesn't mean it can't be done.