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TV/Movie adaptations that are so much worse than the source material.

T

tiggers

pfm Member
I am a fan of Peter James and especially his Roy Grace detective novels. I have avoided watching the ITV series Grace (based on his books) as I felt that only devoting just over an hour and a quarter to cover each book was going to make them incredibly rushed and lightweight despite the presence of John Simms as Grace. However, in the last couple of days my partner decided she would watch a couple of them (she is not as big a fan as I am of the books so less committed than I to any TV series doing them justice) and consequently I caved and decided to join her... my fears were spot on... too rushed with little character development (unlike the books) and consequently the plot jumps around a bit too much with reasons why things happen not entirely clear (due to the aforementioned rushing). The worst thing though is how stereotypical the different police characters are... sure the books feature some embellished characters in this regard (it's fiction after all), but it's done in a much subtler way with huge attention to detail around police procedure (a point made by my ex-CID pal in Manchester who is also a fan of the books). Such a shame as had these been made by the likes of the team that make Unforgotten, for instance, and extended out to 2 or even 3 hours each I think the excellent source material would have yielded a far more noteworthy adaptation.

Hugely disappointed as I expected to be.

I would also cite Dune (the original 80s movie) in this category. I loved the book and despite being a huge Lynch fan found the movie deeply disappointing. As a result, I haven't summoned up the courage to watch the latest adaptation as yet.

What are your book to TV/movie disappointments?
 
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The first Rebus, John Hannah, was a great disappointment.
Ken Scott made the character his own.
It will be interesting to see how Richard Rankin gets on in the upcoming BBC remake.

I was dubious of Stephen Tompkinson’s Inspector Banks character at first but got to like his portrayal eventually.

I haven’t seen a Dune movie yet that I didn’t think was badly flawed.
 
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The Hollywood adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut’s ‘Breakfast of Champions’ starring Bruce Willis and Albert Finney. An unbelievably poor rendition of one of my favourite books. The way Finney plays Kilgore Trout just doesn’t make any sense to me. He’s nothing like the character in the book. Unwatchable.

Lynch’s Dune was poor but had its moments (in a ‘Lynchian’ kind of way eg - Spice Navigator - Baron Harkonnen). The current 2 Dune films are good but far from perfect.
 
tiggers said:
I am a fan of Peter James and especially his Roy Grace detective novels. I have avoided watching the ITV series Grace (based on his books) as I felt that only devoting just over an hour and a quarter to cover each book was going to make them incredibly rushed and lightweight despite the presence of John Simms as Grace. However, in the last couple of days my partner decided she would watch a couple of them (she is not as big a fan as I am of the books so less committed than I to any TV series doing them justice) and consequently I caved and decided to join her... my fears were spot on... too rushed with little character development (unlike the books) and consequently the plot jumps around a bit too much with reasons why things happen not entirely clear (due to the aforementioned rushing). The worst thing though is how stereotypical the different police characters are... sure the books feature some embellished characters in this regard (it's fiction after all), but it's done in a much subtler way with huge attention to detail around police procedure (a point made by my ex-CID pal in Manchester who is also a fan of the books). Such a shame as had these been made by the likes of the team that make Unforgotten, for instance, and extended out to 2 or even 3 hours each I think the excellent source material would have yielded a far more noteworthy adaptation.

Hugely disappointed as I expected to be.

I would also cite Dune (the original 80s movie) in this category. I loved the book and despite being a huge Lynch fan found the movie deeply disappointing. As a result, I haven't summoned up the courage to watch the latest adaptation as yet.

What are your book to TV/movie disappointments?
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I quite like Grace on the TV, I’ll give anything with Hohn Simm a go. I’ve never read the books though. I’ll put them on my holiday reading list.

Cheers BB
 
Bob McC said:
The first Rebus, John Hannah was a great disappointment.
Ken Scott made the character his own.
It will be interesting to see how Richard Rankin gets on in the upcoming BBC remake.

I was dubious of Stephen Tompkinson’s Inspector Banks character at first but got to like his portrayal eventually.

I haven’t seen a Dune movie yet that I didn’t think was badly flawed.
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Whoever chose Hannah hadn’t read the books, he was nothing like Rebus. Ken Stott made him his own.

Big fan of DCI Banks but hadn’t read the books.

Cheers BB
 
95% of anything written by Stephen King. With the exception of Misery, Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile, plus to a far lesser extent The Shining, every other film made of any of his books that I've read have been at best mediocre and at worst dire (yes I'm looking at you Sleepwalkers).

NB: I've never read Cujo, Carrie or Christine but of the three only Carrie was a half way decent film in my view. The others, even at the time, were pretty pants and have only got worse with the passing of time.
 
The film adaptations of James Patterson's 'Alex Cross' novels.

Morgan Freeman is a superb actor, but he definitely wasn't anything like Alex Cross from the books.

And don't get me started on Tom Cruise as Jack Reacher...
 
tiggers said:
Hmmm, think I'd best stay away :D
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I wasn't particularly impressed by the book*, so the films don't bother me. Haven't seen the second modern film yet though.

*I never got any further than about a 1/4 of the way in to the second book before I gave up on it. So obviously didn't read any of the later ones.
 
Beobloke said:
The film adaptations of James Patterson's 'Alex Cross' novels.

Morgan Freeman is a superb actor, but he definitely wasn't anything like Alex Cross from the books.

And don't get me started on Tom Cruise as Jack Reacher...
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The problem (as I see it) is that there simply isn't any such thing as a truly versatile actor. Whilst they may be able to portray different personalities (to a greater or lesser degree), the way they speak and their physical mannerisms remain almost entirely unchanged from role to role. So when it comes to playing book adaptations those things will either fit with your interpretation/imaganing of the character from the book or they won't.

Morgan will always talk and move like Morgan in any film he appears in, same is true of Tom C, Bruce W, Keira K etc etc etc. Which is why we all have favorite and disliked actors, because we either like those aspects of the person or we don't (For example, I can't stand the way Kiera seems to be unable to play a part without pouting, drives me nuts).
 
gez said:
95% of anything written by Stephen King. With the exception of Misery, Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile, plus to a far lesser extent The Shining, every other film made of any of his books that I've read have been at best mediocre and at worst dire (yes I'm looking at you Sleepwalkers).

NB: I've never read Cujo, Carrie or Christine but of the three only Carrie was a half way decent film in my view. The others, even at the time, were pretty pants and have only got worse with the passing of time.
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The movie of The Shining was a very different take on the idea behind the book. Steven King was reported to have hated it.
 
Eoin said:
The movie of The Shining was a very different take on the idea behind the book. Steven King was reported to have hated it.
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True, the book was different and definitely better. But the film kept key aspects of the book intact and the acting was good so it didn't grate hugely, with me at least. That said, I think I may have seen the film before reading the book* so maybe I was more accepting of the film.

Same was true of Shawshank Redemption too IIRC.
 
pretty much every book I have read is better than its film rendition. Perhaps Eyes Wide Shut stood up to the challenge, and maybe Crash did as well.
 
The Dune film did a good job of telling the story, explaining the world in which the characters live, and making you care about them.

That's what a film does. A film can never be entirely like the book; all it can do is capture the same feeling that the book has.

You're better off to approach adaptations of books as their own, unique films, rather than a version of a book.

But, on the topic: Cloud Atlas, or specifically the parts of the film directed by The Wachowskis™ (who did the 19th century segment and the two future ones). Tom Tykwer, the other director on the project, delivered some great storytelling in his parts (and wrote the fantastic score), but it wasn't enough to compensate for the rest.
 
gez said:
95% of anything written by Stephen King. With the exception of Misery, Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile, plus to a far lesser extent The Shining, every other film made of any of his books that I've read have been at best mediocre and at worst dire (yes I'm looking at you Sleepwalkers).

NB: I've never read Cujo, Carrie or Christine but of the three only Carrie was a half way decent film in my view. The others, even at the time, were pretty pants and have only got worse with the passing of time.
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Surely Salem's Lot should be added to that list of exceptions....
 
KrisW said:
The Dune film did a good job of telling the story, explaining the world in which the characters live, and making you care about them.

That's what a film does. A film can never be entirely like the book; all it can do is capture the same feeling that the book has.
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True. The problem with most of the SK adaptations however is mostly down to pretty bad acting. So no amount of decent story telling is ever going to save them.
 
tiggers said:
I am a fan of Peter James and especially his Roy Grace detective novels. I have avoided watching the ITV series Grace (based on his books) as I felt that only devoting just over an hour and a quarter to cover each book was going to make them incredibly rushed and lightweight despite the presence of John Simms as Grace. However, in the last couple of days my partner decided she would watch a couple of them (she is not as big a fan as I am of the books so less committed than I to any TV series doing them justice) and consequently I caved and decided to join her... my fears were spot on... too rushed with little character development (unlike the books) and consequently the plot jumps around a bit too much with reasons why things happen not entirely clear (due to the aforementioned rushing). The worst thing though is how stereotypical the different police characters are... sure the books feature some embellished characters in this regard (it's fiction after all), but it's done in a much subtler way with huge attention to detail around police procedure (a point made by my ex-CID pal in Manchester who is also a fan of the books). Such a shame as had these been made by the likes of the team that make Unforgotten, for instance, and extended out to 2 or even 3 hours each I think the excellent source material would have yielded a far more noteworthy adaptation.

Hugely disappointed as I expected to be.

I would also cite Dune (the original 80s movie) in this category. I loved the book and despite being a huge Lynch fan found the movie deeply disappointing. As a result, I haven't summoned up the courage to watch the latest adaptation as yet.

What are your book to TV/movie disappointments?
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I wouldn't bother unless you fancy descending into depression, I found it far too long and tedious and once I realised I would need to sit through part 3 I almost wished I'd spent 3 hrs
in bed with a migraine.
There were some good bits but the worms locomotive prowess was ridiculous.

My son enjoyed it.
 
gintonic said:
pretty much every book I have read is better than its film rendition. Perhaps Eyes Wide Shut stood up to the challenge, and maybe Crash did as well.
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For the most part I’d agree, although I did find Alan Parker’s Angel Heart to be a great improvement over Hjortsberg’s novel.
 
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