Worst book adaptation into movie

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Worst book adaptation into movie

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1lindawilkinson
Feb 28, 2011, 3:19 pm

What do you think are the worst book-to-screen adaptations? For me The Scarlett Letter and Memoirs of a Geisha

2leahbird
Feb 28, 2011, 5:13 pm

It's on my mind right now because I just saw that it was on HBO, but Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief is a HORRIBLE adaptation of a pretty ok children's book. I saw the movie with one of the kids I nanny and thought it was pretty mediocre. I had been thinking about picking up the books, but decided not to bother after seeing the movie.

A few months ago, a friend convinced me that I should read the first book, The Lightning Thief and promised that it was very, very different from the book and much better. She was right. I don't LOVE the series, but it's is so much better than the movie that it's hard to believe the people who made the movie had even read the book.

The main characters are 11 (or the mythological creature equivalent) in the book; in the movie they are significantly older, about 16-17. this seems to have been done so they could introduce some rather creepy sexual innuendos.

Whole characters are deleted for the movie. And not minor characters, but HUGELY important characters that actually shape the entire plot (for the whole series, too).

There are lots of other discrepancies but it all adds up to a pretty abysmal scenario, even (perhaps especially) for a kid's movie.

3Erick_Tubil
Editado: Mar 1, 2011, 1:45 am

The worst book-to-screen adaptation that I have seen is the 2006 adaptation by director Steven Zaillian of the Pulitzer Prize winning novel All the King's Men by author Robert Penn Warren

4lampbane
Mar 1, 2011, 2:26 pm

For me it might be a tie between the adaptation of Michael Crichton's Congo and Timeline. Or maybe Timeline is worse, because when I read that book, it felt like he designed to be a movie, and then they completely ignored all that.

5honeybemelissa
Mar 4, 2011, 2:52 pm

One of the worst I've seen in a long time is Eragon. The book series was pretty decent and could have made a great movie, but the adaptation was awful. They left out a lot of important background information and bled over to book 2, pretty much ruining any chance of making into a franchise.

6LintonRobinson
Mar 6, 2011, 10:49 am

I don't generally get into "worst" discussions, but have to give a nod to the latest "All The Kings Men". What were they thinking?
I mean Jude Law as a spawn of an old southern family????
SEAN PENN in the role made famous by Broderick Crawford?
Of course, Penn will do anything that allows him to chew the scenery and screw his face all up so people will keep thinking he's some great actor, but come on.

Oh, and wasn't there a thing or two about Adam in the book?

7jordantaylor
Jun 5, 2011, 8:52 pm

Ella Enchanted was one of my favorite books as a girl, but movie ruined it for me. :(

8mrs.digby
Jun 27, 2011, 4:10 pm

exit t o eden was probably the worst. the whole story was like a side note to the movie. it had the guy from strictly ballroom playing elliot. i mean elliot and lisa where the whole focus of the book and they were support charcter in some crazy story that all leads up to rosie o donnel in a leather costume

9Godlike
Editado: Jul 7, 2011, 7:31 am

the lovely bones, such a lovely book, terrible movie.
oh and mice and men
I thought 'one flew over the cuckoos nest' was well done.

10SteveSilkin
Ago 6, 2011, 8:30 pm

9 - sorry, for me the easiest answer was 'one flew over the cuckoo's nest.' i thought that it had very little impact without the chief's point of view. masterpiece of a book. weak movie.

11FutureMrsJoshGroban
Ago 28, 2011, 6:15 pm

I have seen three versions of "Mutiny on the Bounty", and NONE of them do justice to the original autobiography by Captain William Bligh.

Little Women, Sense and Sensibility, and The Man In the Iron Mask were very good adaptations in my mind-but my favorite book to film adaptation will ALWAYS be Gone With the Wind!!!

12Phocion
Ago 29, 2011, 3:47 pm

The 2008 adaptation of The Catcher in the Rye. here is a clip. Depending on how you look at it, this is either the worst adaptation ever made or the best adaptation ever made.

13lilithcat
Ago 29, 2011, 5:13 pm

Alice Hoffmann's Practical Magic. I had to turn it off after fifteen minutes or I'd have done serious damage to my television. And the Winona Ryder version of Little Women was truly annoying.

14lilithcat
Ago 29, 2011, 5:15 pm

> 8

I never went to see the movie version of Exit to Eden, because I was forewarned. I think someone realized that there was no way in the world they could make an honest film of it, so they just said, "We'll use the title and give the characters the same names, but have a completely different story line."

15apokoliptian
Nov 8, 2011, 5:05 pm

They are not exactly "books", but you can pick any graphic novel from Alan Moore (Ok, anyone but V for Vendetta).

16apokoliptian
Nov 9, 2011, 6:34 pm

17susiesharp
Ene 19, 2012, 4:20 pm

Snowflower and the Secret fan was one of the worst adaptations I have ever seen they added a present day story that completely took the heart out of this wonderful story!

18Jestak
Ene 19, 2012, 11:56 pm

The mid-1980's adaptation of King Solomon's Mines is absolutely horrible.

19somermoore
Ene 22, 2012, 7:44 pm

I agree with Jestak. That KSM remake was the first example that came to mind.

20GirlMisanthrope
Editado: Ene 22, 2012, 7:52 pm

I enjoyed all the layers and journeys in the book Possession by A.S.Byatt, but it was a HUGE book and, I think, not appropriate to be adapted into a film. Gwyneth Paltrow and Aaron Eckhart (whom I love) just were not well-cast. And since they had to chop the book up to make it fit into movie timing it was just awful. Such a disappointment. Sometimes they just shouldn't mess with it!!

(Jestak, wasn't KSM Sharon Stone's "big break"?? Ha!)

21Jestak
Ene 22, 2012, 9:16 pm

>20 GirlMisanthrope: I am amazed at how many truly dreadful movies Sharon Stone made, especially in the 1980s, without destroying her career.

Another disastrous book-to-film adaptation that comes to mind is the film version of The First Deadly Sin, by Lawrence Sanders, which captures exactly nothing of the qualities that made the novel memorable.

22AvocadoPenguin
Editado: Feb 21, 2012, 5:25 am

Oh, goodness, I agree with godlike on The Lovely Bones. The book wasn't perfect, but the film was just embarrassingly terrible. What was Peter Jackson thinking?

23therealdavidsmith
Feb 21, 2012, 5:33 am

i think that the worst film ever made into a book was the deerhunter by e m corder.

24techeditor
Feb 28, 2012, 10:40 am

The Good German

Joseph Kanon is a great author, but if you see this movie before reading his book, you'll never want to read him.

25fuzzi
Feb 28, 2012, 11:00 am

Slightly off topic, but...

...I usually find that the book is better than the movie, but there's one movie that comes to mind as being the opposite:

I loved the movie "The African Queen", and so picked up the CS Forester novel, expecting to enjoy it. I did not. I vastly prefer the movie in this case.

26lilithcat
Feb 28, 2012, 11:07 am

> 25

I thought the book was much more nuanced: http://www.librarything.com/work/117626/reviews/46243858

27charleseugenebongo2
Abr 11, 2012, 11:22 am

Richard Matheson's "I am Legend" has been filmed and suffered for it 3 times:

The Last Man on Earth ( with Vincent Price )
The Omega Man ( with Charlton Heston )
I am Legend ( with Will Smith )

Great book but will the movie torture never stop!!!!!!!!

28jordantaylor
Feb 20, 2013, 7:06 pm

I haven't seen The Hobbit, but I am have a feeling that it might be a worthy addition to this list. Am I right? Wrong?

29HarryMacDonald
Feb 20, 2013, 9:59 pm

New candidate: THE NIGHT LISTENER. Curiously, the script is credited to the same Armistead Maupin who wrote the somewhat flawed but still fascinating novel of the same name. I have a theory that the studio may have gotten a little legal pressure -- or threat thereof -- from the person strongly suspected of being the original cruel hoaxter, in this tale derived from a bizarre but true incident. Anybody interested in the background should find the NEW YORKER article "Virtual love", from (I believe) Novemmber 2001.

30jennybhatt
Mar 31, 2013, 5:44 pm

Rogue Trader. I haven't read the actual book, just a lot of articles about its infamous author, Nick Leeson. The other day, I watched the movie on Netflix - thought that Ewan McGregor would be able to make any movie easy to watch. I was wrong. This was really bad. I think McGregor gave it his best. It just had a very poor script and direction. Now, I realize that it's hard to show a lot of thrilling climactic moments in a story about insider trading where the field of action is a trading pit and the tools of trade involve computers and files. I'm no moviemaker, but I just think there was more possible here - especially with talent like McGregor.

31Jestak
Abr 4, 2013, 1:14 pm

>28 jordantaylor:

The Hobbit films are of course still work-in-progress, but based on my recent viewing of "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey," the first in the film trilogy-to-be, I would say it isn't a candidate for a worst adaptations list. It's not up to the standard of the LotR films, but it's not bad.

32jordantaylor
mayo 23, 2013, 1:31 pm

>31 Jestak:

I agree. I saw it since my post, and I liked that it shows more of Middle Earth, but that's about it.

33barney67
mayo 24, 2013, 1:52 pm

32 -- I only made it through half and hour of The Hobbit. Nothing happened.

34MrsLee
Ene 7, 2016, 9:55 am

I suppose I have different standards for movies and books. For instance. The Hobbit as a book annoyed me. I loved the world and the imagination, but the journey was tedious and the dwarves were insufferable. At the end I was glad some of them died. The movie, for its form of media was wonderful IMO. The writers expanded, included other aspects of the world I loved, and yes, had a bit of indulgent fun, but I love being in that world. There were aspects I missed from the book, there were others which were odd. Sexy dwarves were a bit hard to swallow, but once my mind encompassed it I went along. ;)

I liked the movie Percy Jackson and the Lightening Thief, then, when I read the book, I liked that too. I don't believe a movie should be exactly like a book. Our minds create the world in the book and it would be impossible for a movie to create that world exactly, however, a movie is a visual stimulus, and sometimes a mind-bender, therefore I have different standards. What bothers me most is when a movie changes the intent and heart of a book.

That being said, I know there are some movies which were a great disappointment to me, it's just too early in the morning for me to think of them!