Books to Movies

I loved Blood and Chocolate! It's one of my favorite books, I must have read it 3 times at least by now... I hope the movie's just as good.
As for books that go to hollywood, I think some of the movies turn out fantastic, while others just flop. One thing I dislike about books going to movies is when people watch the movie and don't read the book. Also, when a movie gives a bad name to an amazing book. (Eragon, for instance.)

I hope you don't mind my poking in here. But I'd like to offer up an old book worth reading and an old movie worth renting ... Sometimes a Great Notion. The book, and I believe the screenplay, is by Ken Kesey who also wrote the book and play for One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, another classic. Sometimes a Great Notion is a fantastic book that begins in a unique way -- you are introduced to the characters in the story you are about to read and you are introduced to them at different points in the story you don't yet know. It is much akin to meeting someone in a crowd -- say at the mall or a party -- and then you are re-introduced to them a few weeks later: On the second meeting you know something about them, have a sense of understanding of them even though you didn't really meet them for long on the first go round.
If you ready the book, and I highly recommend it -- high school level -- don't be discouraged by the confusion at the start, just plow through. The story and the writing is absolutely spellbinding.
The movie was equally well done. Started Paul Newman, Henry Fonda and Susan Sarandon. Forget the director. Extremely well-done.
Read the book. Rent the movie. See what you think.
cheers
geoff gevalt, ywp editor

P.S. Another that was good adaptations of movies: Lord of the Rings; several that weren't Lemony Snicketts (spelling?), most of the Harry Potters and Narnia. The latter was such a brilliant piece of writing, I felt it almost shouldn't be adapted; I thought the movie was rather flat. Thoughts?

Though I have never read the book Blood and Chocolate, I want to read it before I see the movie. I haven't even seen the Eragon Movie. Although my friends say that it's a great movie, I'm still unsure. Many other people have told me that it's a bad portrayal of the book. I wouldn't know, I have read the book, but have not seen the movie.
I did make the mistake one time of watching the movie "Holes" before I read the book. I ended up reading the book afterwards to find that the movie stayed as close to the book as possible. And it was very good too.
Though when reading the book before the movie, sometimes you get yourself worked up over what you expect. Such as Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban, I did not like it as much as I would have if it had stayed closer to the book than ..... other things.
My opinion, not yours.

Life's not all bad. Look into somebody's eyes, you'll see that they're a person just like you, they also have good and bad feelings, hopes and dreams.

-Aryka

This was a great book, and the movie not only was well-made but followed the plot quite nicely. It is movies like that that I truly enjoy. Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, and Chronicles of Narnia all did a relatively good job of following the books too.

I haven't seen Eragon yet, and though I plan to, I have heard things that make me less than excited. Not only do the characters not follow the book descriptions (Arya in the book has raven-black hair, whereas in the movie it is strawberry-blond, I believe) but I heard the plots aren't exactly similar. Still, I must see it for myself. Ella Enchanted was another amazing book that was not done justice when it came to the movie. It was a nice movie, yes, but the plot was entirely different. I was frustrated, as I usually am with such matters.

The only good book-to-movie transition I ever saw was Band of Brothers (even though that was a TV series...). It was friggin' amazing. It really hits a key note on the life of soldiers. Other good book-to-movie transitions were the James Bond movies(You know Ian Flemming wrote books about him first, right?), although Casino Royale was not done justice. At all. The book was much better.
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Fear the clone.

I don't believe anyone has mentioned To Kill A Mockingbird. Possibly the greatest book to movie trasition of all time. Especially Atticus's speach to the jury - it was powerful and took the movie to a whole new level.

sometimes, it's hard to watch a movie version of a favorite book. i try to just let go, and see the movie version as a new piece of art, a reinterpretation, rather than something which must follow a specific storyline.

that being said, it ticks me off when characters are changed or removed. fortinbras in oliver's hamlet. faramir's change in the lord of the rings.

some movies are better known than the literary version. i loved breakfast at tiffany's. in truman capote's story, audrey hepburn's character holly goes to argentina. there is no kiss at the end.

Well I am glad to finally find some people who thought that the The Lord of The Rings was a good adaptation. I have made several attempts to read throught the books and I just found his writing too detailed (I am going to try again thou I really want to read them). I thought that the film adaptation did a great job keeping the in-depth feeling created by Tolkien, while creating enough action to keep me interested (I watched the extended versions and if you haven't seen them yet I think you should, the commentaries are really interesting and the cast one is just plain funny!)
On another note i think that the Harry Potter films ruined the series for me. It ruined my vision of how everything was supposed to look/happen. In addition i started reading Harry Potter in 4th grade. Im a Junior in High School now and she has how many done? 6? With 4 movies in that time. I have just been told by a classmate that the 7th book is pending, as well as the 5th and 6th movies. THAT IS TOO SLOW! It's just too difficult to follow. I lost interest after about 8th grade. Oh well. maybe thats just me but the fact that she needed to try and do the movies while still finishing the series was dissapointing.

I have yet to see anyone comment on one of my top 10 series ever: The Golden Compass is going to be made into a film and I can't wait! I hope it stay true to the books, something like LoTR.

A book I really enjoyed is Anne of Green Gables. It is so good! I totally recommend it.

I read a book called "Hangman's Curse" and then saw the movie. I spent almost the whole time yelling at the charecters because they were so far off of what they were in the book. It was so messed up I didn't even know what would happen next in the plot.

Should i even dare bring up Harry Potter?

The books are all excellent pieces of literature. However, the movies, especially the 3rd and 4th ones, are completely dumb!

Hellooooooooooo,

is anybody even home?
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"if it's wierd, then i done it right."

I personally am a BIG fan of the Left Behind Series and even though the script may not follow the book word for word, it's still a good movie series as well. I think that, yeah, it might be irritating, but hey! Is a new twist really that bad? It keeps you on your toes and gives you something to compare the book to! Accept the surprises...

I want to read those books too. My friend has read them, and loves them. I like books that give twists on real-world things.
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"if it's wierd, then i done it right."

Ella Enchanted enchanted me. They both are very good books, very well written. And it would be a pity if you ignore this and never read them. I totally recommend them to everybody! A ring of endless light was very good. Wonderful. You should read them. You'll be surprised at what books can do to you. :)

I loved the book Ella Enchanted. It was awesome.
I can't comment on the Ring of Endless Light, 'cause I haven't read it. I will add it to my "Books to Read" list, which is about a hundred books long already. It's a joke, but it will keep be occupied, and ejicated!
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"if it's wierd, then i done it right."

if any of you have read this book. you know it was crafty, as well as smart. i didnt really like the movie because the book alowed you to have an imagation as the movie told you what was hapening. i also didnt like the movie because they ad to cut a lot of parts in the movie because of funding and lack of special effects

My spanish class recently watched the movie "Pan's Labyrinth". It was such a powerful and awesome movie. I really want to read the book. Unfortunately, the movie showed some nasty violence, and it got the "R" rating.
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"if it's wierd, then i done it right."

yesterday i went and saw nancy drew. i was a big nancy drew fan. the movie was good, just as a movie, but it was NOTHING like the books!!! they were all like 8 years younger and . . . i dont know. there were so many little things that bugged me. flipping disney channel people played bess and george, so that really ruined their characters. they weren't even in the movie for that long!! and hannah was not what i expected. carson was always really busy and he didnt have time for nancy and he wanted her to be a normal teenager. little things like that just really bug me!! if youre not a nancy drew fan, though, you'd probably like the movie a lot more. it was cute.

Gee Whiz, you guyz talk alot, I can't even keep up with any of it.
I can't wait to see Transformers, it looks really cool.
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"if it's wierd, then i done it right."

omg!! violence of the lambs looks so amazing.. like sweet little lambs and then they bite ur hand off! its gonna be soooo coool!!!

one movie i was suprised at was probably a wrinkle in time because it was so magical in the book i guess i was afraid that they would change that, but they did a pretty good job casting whoopi goldberg as mrs. who and the griffin scene... that was SOOOOOOO awesome

First off, a side note to those of you who are thinking about seeing Eragon: It's not worth your time. They cut out more than half the book, had horrible funding so ILM (Industrial Light and Magic) could do almost nothing with special effects...yeah.

So, the one book to movie adaption I'm looking forward to is Inkheart, coming out next September. Hopefully the don't screw it up. The do have a decent cast, although Brendan Fraser is Moe.
T_T

umm most of you have proabaly seen the movie harry potter... what is your take on these. I mean they left out great parts of the book... but movie magic can only go so far. I am wondering what the last movie will be like

I'll take the pessimist's viewpoint and say horrible. There's so many little plotlines and intricate details that make the book the best, there's no way you can capture that on film.