ok what im abouttosay i should be forgiven for as i was only 16 when i read it lol
thornbirds. i read the book and loved it, saw the film a few years later and omg what a pile of cack.
since then i have always avoided ever watching a film of a book i have loved.
i do find it amusing at times to discuss a book with friends and discover if anyone else has imagined a charecter to be the same as in my head. often wish i was a good artist and could draw what i see in my minds eye.
xx fem xx
One book I did enjoy reading was 'Contact' by Carl Sagan. I'm not normally into science fiction but I thought it looked interesting and gave it a go. Wow! It's not what I expected at all, the two seemingly opposing themes in the book were maths and philosophy - two passions of mine - and I was blown away.
It was later made into a film starring Jodi Foster and Mathew Mconathingymajig :shock: and was definitely a 'dumbed' down screenplay, but still extremely enjoyable. I must have seen it 10 times!
Trainspotting is by far the best film from book I have seen. The characters, plot and sequence of events was absolutely spot on.
I'd really like to see the Time Traveller's Wife made into a GOOD film. It was a fantastic story.
I thought Trainspotting was a pretty good adaptation of the book, and personally I think Peter Jackson did a damn good job with the Lord of the Rings, certainly in the extended versions of the films, if not quite in the theatrical release.
I can think of at least two instances where book and film were both written in parallel, which I think works very well. The two I know of are 2001: A Space Odyssey, and The Abyss.
Possibly the worst example I can think of for an adaptation would be A View to a Kill - in it's original form a wonderful short story, when it came time to make the film they took the name and ditched everything else.
Incidentally, somebody mentioned that Catch 22 would betricky to do because of it's non-linear narrative and large battle scenes. Personally I can think of films that have been successful despite being non-linear (Pulp Fiction is the one that immediately springs to mind), and large aerial battles are something that CGI got it's collective head around five years ago (the scene in Band of Brothers where they drop into Normandy would be an excellent example of what could be achieved even back then).
I think mostStephen King's - except perhaps It, Christine and any i have yet to see - are reasonably good.
The better ones being the forementioned Shawshank and Green Mile, but I also put forward the Shining and Carrie.