Books on the Nightstand discussion
11 Authors Who Hated the Movie Versions of Their Books
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interesting article and surprising choices. i love clockwork orange and the shining as films, but it's interesting the points the authors make for not liking the films.
Elizabeth wrote: "interesting article and surprising choices. i love clockwork orange and the shining as films, but it's interesting the points the authors make for not liking the films."I was surprised that Steven King didn't like the Shining, I thought it was one of the better movies made from his books.
I hated Kubricks's version of The Shining - but thought the later TV movie version much better. Its my favourite SK book.
I agree with A Clockwork Orange being a very bad adaptation. Of course, the main problem was the director used the American version of the novel which dropped the entire last chapter of the book with its rather unusual dénouement; it changes the whole way to interpret the story.
Although he is not an author Steven Sondheim hated the film versions of " A Funny Thing Happened on the way to the forum " and " Gypsy". Just a thought. Ger
This is going back to the 1920s/30s, but Willa Cather disliked the movie versions (there were two, 1925 and 1934) of her novel A Lost Lady so much that she never allowed another adaptation of her work and even put a prohibition against further adaptations in her will. Her editor, Knopf, once received a six figure offer for one of her stories and he replied that he'd rather jump out of the window than mention the offer to Cather. He was on the 35th floor when he said that. I love the novel, but haven't seen either movie. The critics disliked the movies as well.
Shelly wrote: "http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/arch...This would make an interesting book club discussion. Read the book, watch the movie, and decide if the authors complaints were valid."
This would be great fun! I didn't know about the ABC version of The Shining. Will have to try to find that. I recently reread the novel and it was hard not to have images from Kubrick's movie in my mind.
What a fun article!Disney's Mary Poppins movie was one of my all-time childhood favorites (and I still loved watching it with my own kids). I DID read the original novel as a child also.
And The Shining was still a good movie, even if it didn't quite follow the book - how can you not like Jack Nicholson in that role? Yes, he made the character seem crazy, but he does crazy so well!
I would like to add the recent One for the Money by Janet Evanovich to this list! My husband and I love the Stephanie Plum novels and felt the casting was just all wrong in the movie version. They went with big-name stars instead of looking for the right actors to fit the characters in the books. Katherine Heigl as Stephanie? That was just wrong. Same with Joe Morelli (though I reluctantly admitted that the actor who played Joe did a pretty good job). You can see that I took this personally! LOL
Sue
Book By Book
Oh, and my husband had the same reaction as Anne when he heard (on your podcast!) that they have chosen Tom Cruise to play Jack Reacher in the Lee Child novel adaptation!!
One author that hated the movie made from her book - and I agree with - is Maria Von Trapp and The Story of the Von Trapp Family Singers which was made into The Sound of Music. Having read the book (thank you Scholastic Reading Club books!), I left the movie theater very disappointed! The book was full of great stories. For the movie the children were changed (sex and names; there was no Brigitta), Uncle Max was invented, plot lines including how they left were changed... The book is richer and very entertaining. That said, there are a number of songs from the movie I love.
If we don't mind this discussion getting a little graphic, Alan Moore hates everything that has ever been done with any of his graphic novels - ever. Paradoxically he claims to hate, but never to have seen the film versions of The Watchmen, From Hell, V for Vendetta, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, and so on. To be fair, it would be best if no one ever saw The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, but those other three movies were reasonably entertaining and well-crafted.On a general note, I feel about film adaptations sort of the same way I feel about copyright and the public domain; once you've made your creation, it belongs to the popular imagination. Sometimes the popular imagination just dreams about your characters or writes fanfic, but often it makes demands on the entertainment marketplace, and that results in good, bad, or mediocre film adaptations. When you write, you contribute to the culture, and the culture takes on the memes you present. If you don't want that to happen -- you you just want to play in your own sandbox by yourself -- then don't publish.
Sue wrote: "Oh, and my husband had the same reaction as Anne when he heard (on your podcast!) that they have chosen Tom Cruise to play Jack Reacher in the Lee Child novel adaptation!!"Tom Cruise as Jack Reacher? No way this casting works for me, and Lee Child just sort of shrugged the question off at BEA.
Tetaknits wrote: "One author that hated the movie made from her book - and I agree with - is Maria Von Trapp and The Story of the Von Trapp Family Singers which was made into The Sound of Music. Having read the book..."interesting. i have always loved this movie, but now i should read the book to get to know the real story.
Sue wrote: "What a fun article!Disney's Mary Poppins movie was one of my all-time childhood favorites (and I still loved watching it with my own kids). I DID read the original novel as a child also.
And ..."
I agree with One for the Money. My biggest issue with that movie was Grandma Mazur! If they wanted to go big name, then there were still plenty of people who could have done a much better job such as Ellen Albertini Dow or even Betty White!
Thanks for posting the article, I was a fan of the Shining and One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest, both the books and the films, but I can see how an author would be upset. I think of all the adaptations I disliked because they changed the story or the casting was not right and I imagine it would be so much more upsetting if I was the author. They invested so much more into the book, it is their creation and more than likely they made countless adjustments to get it just right and then someone comes along to make a movie and discards parts of the story or characters and adds others, I do think that would be crushing.
Sue wrote: "What a fun article!Disney's Mary Poppins movie was one of my all-time childhood favorites (and I still loved watching it with my own kids). I DID read the original novel as a child also.
And ..."
I agree I love those books but I didn't think the movie was nearly as lol funny as the books
Sunniemom wrote: "I've listened to some Dean Koontz interviews where he bemoans the movie adaptations of his books- and there have been quite a few made into movies. I think the only one he even remotely liked was P..."It will be interesting to see how the Odd Thomas
movie works. it seams to be getting more publicity.
This would make an interesting book club discussion. Read the book, watch the movie, and decide if the authors complaints were valid.