They’re just so different! And in some ways being familiar with the book enhances the movie.
For example we never properly get the sense and importance of real animals in the movie. And there are a few scenes which are enhanced by this knowledge.
The snake anyone?
To someone just watching the movie this may pass unnoticed. Why is the snake a thing? But if you read the book it enhances everything there. Gives more depth to the world.
See also the sequel, with its origami sheep.
Absolutely. This is the best case for a filmmaker; you create a new thing that is in and of itself great, but without savaging the source material. Tricky stuff.
The case for Twilight is similar to Harry Potter. Mainstreaming and popularity from the movies directly led to a change in the outcome of the series.
I read the series because my youngish daughter wanted to read them. They are mostly terrible, but the end of the trilogy completed the story - no insane vampire baby arc was needed - and the frantic tone of the fourth book has almost zero relation to the rest of the series. It’s actually way more entertaining, but it was also a kitchen sink of fan service.
Honestly, any Atlas Shrugged movie is going to make the case for, because nobody but ardent Randians will ever want to make a movie of it. Same with Left Behind and that stripe of Christian.
I’ll grant you that, in a practical sense, this is true. However it was an easy to understand example. While it won’t actually get made, a non Randian deconstruction of Atlas Shrugged as a flawed premise is technically possible. And any movie would have to select one premise, or the other, by the nature of the work.
This is not true of all books, but for something like Heinlin I feel it absolutely is.
Me and my friends walked out of the Left Behind theater saying the Rapture won’t be all bad. All the really cool and interesting people will be the ones left behind. We thought it was interesting that the movie portrayed all the people that disappeared as boring cardboard cutout characters. I’m pretty sure they did that on purpose, but I could be wrong.
You really should watch The Rapture as a follow-up. Excellent film and a slightly different take on the whole event.
Here’s a couple Science Fiction Book to Film Questions/Ponderings:
I am always surprised no one ever tried to mine any of Sprague de Camp’s Viagens Interplanetarias stuff. I wonder why not?
And even more so, why that never happened with Asimov’s Galactic Empire and Foundation series (together or respectively)?
Apparently Apple now have exclusive rights to a series in production.
But I wouldn’t be surprised if it never materializes. Wouldn’t be the first aborted attempt.
Yeah, I have zero info to back this up, but i’d theorize that it is just too difficult to do Foundation without setting it up with Galactic Empire first. From a Film/TV standpoint.
[browses further down the thread]
I don’t think that means what you think it means. :-)
Seeing a bad movie made from good book is just a subset of seeing a bad movie, though I used to be more indignant on the matter.
I find it interesting that folks care enough about the books that they’ll throw math at the (perceived) problem.
LOL, busted!
I meant on the “math” part. :)