One of his prime examples was Gone with the Wind. Good movie/mediocre book.
See also, THE GODFATHER.
Heh, inevitable x-post.
She's not just a blob of energy, she's also a 14-year-old hormone bomb.
Spike ,'The Killer In Me'
Buffista Movies 3: Panned and Scanned
A place to talk about movies--Old and new, good and bad, high art and high cheese. It's the place to place your kittens on the award winners, gossip about upcoming fims and discuss DVD releases and extras. Spoiler policy: White font all plot-related discussion until a movie's been in wide release two weeks, and keep the major HSQ in white font until two weeks after the video/DVD release.
Frankenbuddha - Sep 29, 2004 6:53:05 am PDT #4218 of 10001
"We are the Goon Squad and we're coming to town...Beep! Beep!" - David Bowie, "Fashion"
Ginger - Sep 29, 2004 6:53:42 am PDT #4219 of 10001
"It didn't taste good. It tasted soooo horrible. It tasted like....a vodka martini." - Matilda
To Kill a Mockingbird. Great movie, great book.
Polter-Cow - Sep 29, 2004 6:54:09 am PDT #4220 of 10001
What else besides ramen can you scoop? YOU CAN SCOOP THIS WORLD FROM DARKNESS!
And yes. Princess Bride. Also Fight Club, though YGMV. I'm just naming film adaptations that match or surpass the book.
Nutty - Sep 29, 2004 6:56:56 am PDT #4221 of 10001
"Mister Spock is on his fanny, sir. Reports heavy damage."
I do have a pet theory that it's easier to make a good movie from a bad book. The Taking of Pelham One Two Three and The Manchurian Candidate (1963) being prime examples. For one thing, they're bad novels, so the screenwriters can chuck large elements of the source in favor of something better.
Then again, overall, I think it's a crapshoot and a matter of the right kind of people meeting the right kind of project. There have certainly been plenty of lifeless, annoying adaptations of good books, but there are also plenty of lifeless, annoying adaptations of bad books.
I mean, Broadway has got an Andrew Lloyd Webber musical based on The Woman in White. We are truly a culture of pathetic recycling.
JohnSweden - Sep 29, 2004 6:57:47 am PDT #4222 of 10001
I can't even.
Blade Runner, although the original is a short story and very different.
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep is a novel, and different, sure, but plenty of elements translate across.
As for the title:
The title comes from Alan E. Nourse, who wrote a story called "The Bladerunner". William S. Burroughs took the book and wrote "Bladerunner (A Movie)" in 1979. Rights to the title only ("in perpetuity") were sold to Ridley Scott. Similarities between Nourse's "The Bladerunner" and Scott's BR are in name only. Nourse's title refers to people who deliver medical instruments to outlaw doctors who can't obtain them legally. [Source: Locus, September 1992: p. 76.] Scott thought the title made a good codename for Deckard.
§ ita § - Sep 29, 2004 6:58:15 am PDT #4223 of 10001
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.
We are truly a culture of pathetic recycling.
Have we ever not been? How many King Arthurs or Brer Rabbit/Anansis are out there?
Anne W. - Sep 29, 2004 6:58:19 am PDT #4224 of 10001
The lost sheep grow teeth, forsake their lambs, and lie with the lions.
To Kill a Mockingbird is probably the best example in the world of great book--->great movie, Ginger.
Princess Bride was a wonderful adaptation of book to movie, especially in how they replaced the author's snarky commentary with the framing device of Peter Falk reading to his grandson. (Favorite Falk line? "Yes. You're very smart. Now shut up (or is it "be quiet?".")
Dana - Sep 29, 2004 7:00:03 am PDT #4225 of 10001
I'm terrifically busy with my ennui.
Be quiet.
I just wrote a paper about The Princess Bride, among other things.
Anne W. - Sep 29, 2004 7:00:57 am PDT #4226 of 10001
The lost sheep grow teeth, forsake their lambs, and lie with the lions.
Thanks, Dana!
Fred Pete - Sep 29, 2004 7:01:32 am PDT #4227 of 10001
Ann, that's a ferret.
You almost have to chuck elements from the book to make the movie. A book has too much in it. And cinematography can make up only so much of the descriptive passages.