| Novels that are dramatically different from the films
Posted: 10/25/2009 10:51:44 AM | I am an avid reader. I always read the novel before seeing the film. I find that the novels are always better and many times are drastically different from the films.
For example, the BOURNE novels by LUDLUM have no connection to the films except title and some character names. | |
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| Novels that are dramatically different from the films
Posted: 10/25/2009 11:06:07 AM | | Well this isn't an award winning masterful piece of work or anything, but About A Boy was very different from each other. The book was actually pretty funny in some parts and the movie took the funniest part right out. It also took other parts out and made up entirely new ones. | |
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| Novels that are dramatically different from the films
Posted: 10/25/2009 11:14:16 AM | | I will not usually watch film versions of novels I love, because they won't be the same: the characters don't look like they do in my head, and often the whole balance of the story is changed. Pride and Prejudice has been done so many times and they always get it wrong, it is not a prototype Mills & Boon, it is about the part money plays in middle class society of the time, among other things. But one exception for me is/are the Lord of the Rings trilog - I thought the films were vastly better than the books. | |
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| Novels that are dramatically different from the films
Posted: 10/25/2009 11:14:45 AM | | I will not usually watch film versions of novels I love, because they won't be the same: the characters don't look like they do in my head, and often the whole balance of the story is changed. Pride and Prejudice has been done so many times and they always get it wrong, it is not a prototype Mills & Boon, it is about the part money plays in middle class society of the time, among other things. But one exception for me is/are the Lord of the Rings trilogy - I thought the films were vastly better than the books. | |
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| Novels that are dramatically different from the films
Posted: 10/25/2009 11:33:47 AM | I get mad at Disney... not everthing is meant to have a happy ending. One of my favorites was the Little Mermaid. She turns into sea foam in the original - I cry everytime. And now they've apparently purchased the rights to Christopher Moore's Practical Demon Keeping - can't wait to see wait they do with that one.
And yeah, I agree about the Ludlum books - I loved his stuff and didn't mind the early one (Osterman Weekend) with Rutger Hauer (good weaponary), but Matt? C'mon.
A.J. Quinnell wrote Man on Fire - great book, got me hooked on him as an author, but that last movie version (2nd) of it with Denzel Washington, I didn't even bother to watch. The first was bad enough. | |
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| Novels that are dramatically different from the films
Posted: 10/25/2009 12:06:27 PM | I may be wrong, but I think Practical Demon Keeping got turned into Practical Magic with Nicole Kidman and Sandra Bullock. Needless to say, the movie and the book bear no relation to each other.
About A Boy was a good book; it was also a good movie. It's just that books are different than movies, so it was different - especially the ending. | |
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| Novels that are dramatically different from the films
Posted: 10/25/2009 12:42:42 PM |
About A Boy was a good book; it was also a good movie. It's just that books are different than movies, so it was different - especially the ending.
It was that part where he kills the duck i thought was so funny. I laughed out loud too which a book rarely makes me do. And the movie took it out unfortunately.
But i acctually saw the movie before reading the book which i don't normally do, but in this instance i found having those characters faces in my head enhanced my reading enjoyment. | |
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| Novels that are dramatically different from the films
Posted: 10/25/2009 12:53:50 PM |
I get mad at Disney... not everthing is meant to have a happy ending.
I totally agree. I saw an indie animated version of the Little Mermaid when I was kid and EVERYBODY DIED at the end.
Now a days you can't have that kind of ending cause corporations don't want their kiddie customers getting depressed when they order a happy meal. | |
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| Novels that are dramatically different from the films
Posted: 10/25/2009 12:56:33 PM |
Dean Koontz "Watchers "that was probably on of the worst movies ever the book was great though...
There has never been a decent movie made from any of the Koontz books. He is one of my favorite reads, and the movies made from his books are always just embarrassingly bad. | |
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| Novels that are dramatically different from the films
Posted: 10/25/2009 12:57:20 PM | I thought John Boyne's The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas worked pretty well as a film. I mean, considering the book was told from a child's perspective.
I know the film changed things a bit, but I loved how violence was inferred, not shown... it just made it so much more powerful for me.
LOTR was one of the few where I saw the films before I read the book  but I do like both. | |
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| Novels that are dramatically different from the films
Posted: 10/25/2009 2:25:01 PM | They kill the duck in the movie of About A Boy. But there was a lot less about the boy and more about the man.
The part that I thought was funniest in the book, which didn't make it into the movie, was when the man was looking for a child seat. In the book, when asked if he could use assistance said he just wanted the cheapest one.
My favourite change from book to movie is in Fight Club. In the book, Marla says, "I want to have your abortion." But they couldn't say that in the movie, so she says, "I haven't been fvcked like that since grade school." It's just so absurd, that it always tickles me. | |
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| Novels that are dramatically different from the films
Posted: 10/25/2009 4:05:43 PM | There are some aspects of a story that I think are quite understandable and acceptable when made into a movie. Perhaps they prevent the movie from being 3 hours long, or maybe the book is outdated and the movies technology needs to be updated a bit. I can certainly understand stuff like this.
But what I don't understand are the little changes that don't make any since whatsoever, like in Michael Crichton's "The Lost World". In the book, Ian had a daughter with a black friend. But in the movie, his daughter was black. What's up with that? It's a very small change, but I think that's what annoys me the most. There seems to be no apparent reason for it. | |
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| Novels that are dramatically different from the films
Posted: 10/25/2009 4:15:38 PM | | ^ It was probably a PC move to mainstream the idea of a mixed-race family...or maybe they couldn't find a white girl who had the aptitude for gymnastics as well as acting that the black girl did. Who knows. So many paths to take on this one. | |
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| Novels that are dramatically different from the films
Posted: 10/25/2009 4:44:27 PM | The infamous story from my own life:
I was reading "Jurassic Park", and the film version was about to be released. My sister saw me reading the book--I was on about page 100--and she said, "You know, Jeff Goldblum is playing the mathemician." FRIG!!!!!!!!! I had had a COMPLETELY different character in my head, and she pretty much RUINED the book until he got killed. lol
Books allow my imagination to run wild, I LOVE reading. Films are a waste of two hours, for me. | |
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| Novels that are dramatically different from the films
Posted: 10/25/2009 4:47:30 PM |
Stanley Kubrick's 2001 A Space Oddysey - a rarity in the book was written after the film.
Actually... Clarke himself writes about how the novel was written *at the same time* as the film was being made.
Regarding the OP, I've developed the habit of *never* reading the book before seeing the movie... because movies tend to gloss over important points in the book in favour of trivialities. Or worse...
When I learned that the Heinlein novel 'Starship Troopers' was being made into a movie, I could not WAIT to see what they would do with the work of one of my favourite authors. MAN - was I disappointed! The movie had almost *nothing* in common with the book - and I found out later that the producers of the movie had already shot most of the film before they came up with the idea that this novel would make a good title for them to go with.
(One of the stupidest crossover points was the 'Brain Bug' - in the novel, these were beings that coordinated and ran the Worker and Warrior contingents... but in the movie, they *sucked the brains* out of hapless human victims.  )
I *much* preferred the latest adaptations of the first three Dune novels - only because they were produced as a mini-series instead of a movie... they could stay closer to the original storyline. | |
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| Novels that are dramatically different from the films
Posted: 10/25/2009 4:54:23 PM | | Practical Magic. I saw the movie first and a few years later read the book. I didn't care for the book, it was so different from the movie. It was very hard to follow. But I did love the movie. | |
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| Novels that are dramatically different from the films
Posted: 10/25/2009 7:14:22 PM | Jurassic Park was dramatically different than the film and better.
1. Ian Malcolm "died".
2. There were 2 T-REXS.
3. John Hammond wasn't the kindly old man as in the film.
4. The Aviary.
5. Mamy juvenille dinosaurs.
6. More graphic. | |
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| Novels that are dramatically different from the films
Posted: 10/25/2009 9:03:30 PM | Hmmm where to begin?
Anne Rice-Queen of the Damned. Huh? What?
"The DaVinci Code"-Tom Hanks is sooooooooooo not who I saw in that part.
"Clockwork Orange" -vastly prefered the book.
Almost any Stephen King movie-just so not who I would have cast/envisioned it.
"Girl, Interrupted"-the movie actually made more sense than the book.
I have avoided some that I just couldn't bear to put myself thru too.
Surprisingly the Harry Potter weren't too bad. Same w/ "Gone with the Wind"(I understood the changes at least).
Dang I read too much. LOL | |
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| Novels that are dramatically different from the films
Posted: 10/25/2009 9:50:37 PM |
They kill the duck in the movie of About A Boy
was it? holy cows, where had my attention went?
i'll have to download it and watch again. i never get tired of looking at hugh grant anyway. | |
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| Novels that are dramatically different from the films
Posted: 10/25/2009 10:18:39 PM |
There has never been a decent movie made from any of the Koontz books. He is one of my favorite reads, and the movies made from his books are always just embarrassingly bad.
I use to like Dean Koontz when i was younger but seems formulatic to me now. I thought Intensity was a good movie and from what i remember, pretty accurate to the book.
Shawshank Redemption the movie is so much better than the Stephen King story. The same guy is making a movie for King's story The Long Walk, cannot wait for that movie.
I Am Legend, differs a fair bit from book to movie, though i think both are excellent. | |
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