Film adaptions of novels or stories.

What novel would you like to see be adapted to film?

What novels do you think were successfully or terribly translated to film?




The obernewtyn chronicles I am reading now I would like to see translated to film, preferably by my own hands :P

I've been disappointed by numerous film adaptations of stories and novels ranging from Alice in Wonderland to the superheroes franchises (though I have a soft spot for the dark knight and the more recent Batman films). I really enjoyed the lord of the rings adaption (as I think they stood as fairly decent works in their own right, though I must say i preferred TFOTR better than the other 2 films), and I thought fight club was pretty well done too. What say you?

Picnic at Hanging Rock is one of the absolute best film versions of a book, I think it's probably better than the book seriously, and I also think cinematic version of The Virgin Suicides was an epic win.

I've never seen a version of Wuthering Heights that I've been entirely satisfied with, because most directors focus too much on the romance and leave out the black comedy, absurdity, and social reasoning behind Heathcliff and Cathy's behavior, though the 2009 Masterpiece Theater version at least touched on the latter, even if it left out several main characters and completely ignored all absurdity and humor.

Bram Stoker's Dracula is also a very, very good book-to-film, probably another case of the film being better than the book. In the novel the character of Mina is annoyingly prim and there are also irritating fundamentalist religious overtones.

I don't think anyone has ever done Frankenstein correctly, though, have they?

I want to see Onegin, but I already know it won't be like the book, it will be overly romanticized and leave out all the black comedy and wit like most versions of those period pieces based on classic literature do. WHY? WHY? It destroys the literary integrity of the book. Part of what makes those books timeless is the mixture of absurdity and comedy with romance and tragedy.

The Importance of Being Earnest with Reese Witherspoon is excellent, but that's a play, anyhow, not a novel.

Hmm... I can only think of a couple of film adaptations that I thought were very well done.

I absolutely love the book Marley and Me by John Grogan. I also throughly enjoyed the film. It wouldn't have been my choice of casting, but it was great. I was surprised at how well it stuck to the story, not so much in details but in essence.

Another of my favourite books is My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult. The film was very moving and enjoyable. I would have loved it to be longer and more detailed, though of course that's true of any film adaptation. Small thing, but I didn't like Alec Baldwin as Campbell. *SPOILER ALERT* And the ending... I can't really understand why they would change it so dramatically... I guess they thought it was unrealistic for Kate to survive, but still, that's a pretty crucial part of the story.

And okay so it's not a film, but the musical Wicked adapted from the Gregory Maguire novel - pure brilliance!

And I feel I should talk about Harry Potter. But. Hmmm, I have so many mixed emotions, don't get me started. :D

I've seen a lot of negativity around the movie Perfume, but I actually preferred it to the book. In the movie the character was ambiguous and there wasn't the same sense of the fate of the boy being decided in the circumstances of his birth. In that way I actually found the movie a lot more chilling because it was about choice rather than predestination.

It's not a movie, but I think the Megan Follows Anne of Green Gables is a fantastic adaptation (if we ignore the horror of the third series they made which totally ignored perfectly good books in favour of their own storyline). The second series deviates a bit from the books as well but it still covers the main points and captures the essence of the story and the characters.

I personally love the Harry Potter movies but they are patchy and up and down as adaptations - and even as movies when you look at the first two which are basically walking books and thus very flat. I also suspect I probably love the ones people hate the most (this has tended to be the case among my online friends anyway). Still, overall, and given what we could have had *shudders at the memory of Seeker, The Dark is Rising* I think the franchise as a whole is a solid adaptation. It's just not brilliant if that makes any sense.

Ooh, I also really liked The Innocents - an adaptation of The Turn of the Screw by Henry James. So creepy, but it also managed to keep the wonderful ambiguity of the novel.

I thought Never Let Me Go made a really lovely film. And I preferred the film versions of Bridge to Terabithia and Speak much more than the books.

Oh, and as far as bad adaptations go... Ella Enchanted. What a mess.

A Song of Ice and Fire series. Oh wait, it is getting adapted, booyah.

I wouldn't mind seeing a good Dune adaptation.

I enjoyed the Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nihm adaptation.

I generally do not support the practice of adapting works to other mediums, as the story and the subtleties of the original often get lost or muddled in any kind of adaptation. I would also like it if the movie industry actually tried coming up with something original rather than just rehashing old books or "rebooting" old movies or shows and whatnot.

What novel would you like to see be adapted to film?
I, Claudius

I have a feeling anything I'd say I wanted to become a film is probably already a film that I just haven't seen. I'm terrible with movies.

I read The Curious Case of Benjamin Button in like an hour and a half or so at a friend's house when I was bored. ( I know, who has reading parties when you're hanging out?)

Reading the book took a lot less time than watching the movie, which I happened to fall asleep during. The book was short and the edition I had had whimsical looking illustrations. The story was light, more like a fairytale than the movie version, which was surprisingly depressing and over-emotional. I might be the only person that disliked that movie, but it didn't do the book justice at all. It tried too hard to be more than the simple book, which ruined it for me.

I think Fight Club is one of the few movies, which is better than the novel.

As soon as I finished Red Harvest by Dashiell Hammett I knew that it would be perfect for film. Hammett's writing style is very SP, which would translate great into film, especially the shoot out scenes, and the character dialogue is very snappy and concise for the big screen. Not to mention it is very fast-paced with no 1st person perspective so there won't be any lagging parts in a movie. It would make for a good mystery/mob film.