Returning to one of my favorite topics, I was thinking about recent movies where "the movie wasn't as good as the book". There seem to be quite a few of them. For example, the film version of Water for Elephants received reviews so bad I didn't bother to see it at the theaters, even though I really enjoyed the book. Then there was I Am Number Four, a young adult sci-fi-oriented adventure story. The film wasn't terrible, but was pretty ordinary. And people will probably disagree with me on this one, but I finally saw the film version of Precious, and I have to say that I thought the book was actually better despite the fact that the movie was extremely well made and acted and deservedly nominated for several academy awards last year. The film just didn't capture the writing style of the book to my mind. And turning to mindless romantic comedy, Something Borrowed was a cute enough book but again I was talked out of seeing the film by others who told me how bad it was.
There's some forthcoming film adaptations of books that will be interesting to check out in terms of comparisons with the source work. For example, the final installment of the Harry Potter franchise. I must admit that Deathy Hallows Part I rivaled the book for me, although it obviously cut out significant parts of the lengthy plot of the book. And there's the much talked-about and not yet fully cast Hunger Games movies to look forward to. Then there's the American versions of the Dragon Tattoo books coming up. Will they be as good as the Swedish versions, which were pretty faithful to the books and probably as good a job at translating those books to the screen as I can imagine.
What books are you looking forward to seeing translated onto the silver screen over the next year or so? What books do you hope they don't turn into movies? And if they do turn them into movies, would you prefer that they not be in 3D??
As I noted on my prawfs post, I am looking forward to the movie version of "Moneyball" which will star Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill.
Posted by: Jeff Yates | June 19, 2011 at 12:55 PM
Not entirely responsive to what you asked, but as a kid I loved the book "Mr. Poppers' Penguins." I have a kid of my own now, but based on coming attractions, I'm avoiding that like the plauge.
Posted by: Joseph Slater | June 20, 2011 at 03:30 PM