Best and Worst Adaptation(s) of Book(s) To Cinema and Television

Rodders said:
The Expanse has turned into a very good adaptation of James S. A. Corey's Leviathan Wakes.
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Agreed! The Expanse took a minute to get going but I think its a fantastic show and adaptation.

Best: DUNE ('84 film and '00 miniseries were both great!)
Worst: Ender's Game (an idiotic book and even more so as a film)
 
Dulahan said:
Agreed! The Expanse took a minute to get going but I think its a fantastic show and adaptation.

Best: DUNE ('84 film and '00 miniseries were both great!)
Worst: Ender's Game (an idiotic book and even more so as a film)
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I have not read the expanse , but Im very impressed with the tv series. it's the best show on the SyFy Channel. I plan to read the books at some point.:)

The 84 Dune film is a glorious failure, It looked fantastic , but you just can't do justice to the story in movie format. Both of The mini series were more successful in that regard. I wish they had done some more miniseries with the rest of the books. Better yet, a full Tv series. :)

I liked Enders Game but have never been about to get into anything else he's written . As the film I did like it and I think the film adaptation was decent. :)
 
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Temperance said:
Dexter.

Ignoring the last series, the TV show was excellent whilst the books...varied. Especially the rewrites on whether Dexter was possessed by a demon.
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I think that is taking the idea of his dark passenger a little too far.
 
I once watched Dune whilst recovering from a fever. Man, that was craaazy. It's not actually terrible, although there's some rather stylised acting, but it does have the flaw of the book in that the first half is much more interesting than the second.

Colin Wilson wrote an interesting - but strange - essay about writing The Space Vampires in J.N. Williamson's collection How to Writer Horror, Fantasy and Science Fiction, which is generally well worth a read (but probably out of print). I was surprised to find that it was the philosopher Colin Wilson who was described in the nigel molesworth books as "advanced, forthright, signifficant".
 
Stephen Palmer said:
Well, I still think David Lynch's film of Dune is massively under-rated. Given that it was never going to match the depth and scope of the novel, it makes a brilliant visual equivalent. One of very few films I bothered to buy on dvd…
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With the exception of a few points, I thought Lynch's Dune was visually nearly perfect. And you are very correct in saying that the film would never equal the book. Few films can.
 
Got to be battlefield earth for me, loved the film then, read the book the, film ends a quarter of the way into the book.

Also enders game, talk about a chop shop the film was just the synopsis of the books.
 
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Good adaptations:
The Magus (1968), based on John Fowles enigmatic 1965 novel.
The Spider's Stratagem (1970), Bernardo Bertolucci's interpretation of the wonderful Borges short story.
The Horse's Mouth (1958), starring Alec Guiness, an adaptation of the very funny 1944 Joyce Cary novel about an eccentric painter.
The Sterile Cuckoo (1969), starring an Oscar nominated Liza Minnelli, a heartbreaking adaptation of the 1965 novel by John Nichols.
In The Heat of the Night (1967), based on the 1965 John Ball novel with an Oscar winning script by Route 66 and Naked City (sixties TV series) Stirling Silliphant.
The Servant (1963), the Joseph Losey film starring Dirk Bogarde and James Fox, based on the 1948 novella by Robin Waugh (Evelyn's brother), with an script by future Nobel Prize winner dramatist Harold Pinter.
Mr. Roberts (1955), based on the 1946 sweet and sour war novel by Thomas Haggen, starring Henry Fonda and costarring Oscar winner Jack Lemmon.
 
The Hobbit from Peter Jackson. Loved the book. It was a kinda tale for children but was transformed in a Lord Of The Ring prequel stuff. All the "Fairy Tale" atmosphere was lost in the screen adaptation.
 
REF: Jorge Perez.
"In The Heat Of The Night" is an outstanding film.
A true classic!
Brilliant performances by Sidney Poitier & Rod Stieger.
The books not bad also!
 
Stephen Palmer said:
Well, I still think David Lynch's film of Dune is massively under-rated. Given that it was never going to match the depth and scope of the novel, it makes a brilliant visual equivalent. One of very few films I bothered to buy on dvd…
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I doubt that they will ever try a remake.
 
I enjoyed the recent BBC adaptation of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell - it was an ambitious project for TV but I thought the acting, art direction and effects were impressive.
 
monkeypooper said:
Got to be battlefield earth for me, loved the film then, read the book the, film ends a quarter of the way into the book.

Also enders game, talk about a chop shop the film was just the synopsis of the books.
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I liked the book Battlefield Earth, the film adaptation was godawful .
 
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