Novelization of a movie that was based on a book

[Daddypants]

Many, many movies are based on published novels. When the movie comes out, the novel is often re-released with a new cover; usually with the lead actor or the movie poster. But it's the same book that was originally published, no matter how the movie changes it (which is a good thing). But what if someone wanted to read a novelized version of Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings, or Matt Damon's Bourne movies. Are novels like that ever published?

[joebuck20]

I think that's what happened with Total Recall. The movie was based on a short story by Phillip K. Dick, but the novelization of the film was written by Piers Anthony.

[Andy L]

Originally Posted by joebuck20

I think that's what happened with Total Recall. The movie was based on a short story by Phillip K. Dick, but the novelization of the film was written by Piers Anthony.

Yeah, back when that happened I read a letter to the editor of an online magazine which was very irate that the reviewer of the movie had credited the idea to Phil Dick, when Anthony had written the book - the editor was very gentle in reply

Back when Asimov wrote the novelization for Fantastic Voyage, he wrote it so fast that the novelization came out before the movie, leading people to believe that the movie was based on the book, and not vice versa.

[The Man In Black]

I know what you mean. I would love to read a novelization of the movie Let Me In. Almost everything I have read about the book it is based on is a turn off for me.

[Dr. Righteous]

Originally Posted by The Man In Black

I know what you mean. I would love to read a novelization of the movie Let Me In. Almost everything I have read about the book it is based on is a turn off for me.

Huh. Now I feel like seeing the movie - I read the book and I wonder what the differences are. Does anyone know?

Did you see the Swedish movie or the Hollywood one? I'd bet there are more differences in from the book in the Hollywood movie.

[The Man In Black]

Originally Posted by Dr. Righteous

Huh. Now I feel like seeing the movie - I read the book and I wonder what the differences are. Does anyone know?

Did you see the Swedish movie or the Hollywood one? I'd bet there are more differences in from the book in the Hollywood movie.

I saw "Let Me In", which is the Hammer one. Hammer is from the UK, so I don;t see the Hollywood connection.

Differences I am aware of:

SPOILER:

In "Let Me In" the character Eli is changed to Abby, and is a girl.

Her guardian is a man currently in his 50's. She met him when he was a child. They fell in love and as he grew up, he did her killings for her. They are growing apart because even though Abby is around 200 years old, she still has the mind of a child, and he is an adult. Plus he is getting tired of killing and being on the run.

Owen is the boy she meets and falls in love with. I gather his story is pretty much the same.

There are most definitely many more differences. But these are the ones I know about that I can think of off the top of my head.

[Dr. Righteous]

Originally Posted by The Man In Black

I saw "Let Me In", which is the Hammer one. Hammer is from the UK, so I don;t see the Hollywood connection.

I was thinking of this, made by Matt Reeves (who did Cloverfield). Had no idea they made this into so many different movies! Why do we need 2 different English language versions?

[Justin_Bailey]

Originally Posted by Dr. Righteous

I was thinking of this, made by Matt Reeves (who did Cloverfield). Had no idea they made this into so many different movies! Why do we need 2 different English language versions?

We don't and there isn't. There's only the one English language version, directed by Reeves and produced by Hammer.

[Justin_Bailey]

Originally Posted by The Man In Black

I know what you mean. I would love to read a novelization of the movie Let Me In. Almost everything I have read about the book it is based on is a turn off for me.

I would definitely skip the book.

SPOILER:

Besides the whole "Eli/Abby is a dude!" thing there's the fact that The Man isn't someone who loves Abby, but a pedophile who has rationalized than it's not wrong to want to stick his dick in her because she's really 200 years old.

It's fucked up and I couldn't finish it.

[AClockworkMelon]

Originally Posted by Justin_Bailey

I would definitely skip the book.

SPOILER:

Besides the whole "Eli/Abby is a dude!" thing there's the fact that The Man isn't someone who loves Abby, but a pedophile who has rationalized than it's not wrong to want to stick his dick in her because she's really 200 years old.

It's fucked up and I couldn't finish it.

Did you get to the part where he

SPOILER:

receives a blowjob from a toothless boy prostitute in a stall of a public bathroom? Classy stuff.

[Justin_Bailey]

Originally Posted by AClockworkMelon

Did you get to the part where he

SPOILER:

receives a blowjob from a toothless boy prostitute in a stall of a public bathroom? Classy stuff.

Unfortunately, yes.

SPOILER:

But if I remember right, he doesn't actually go through with it. Which then leads to the revelation that that's why he's with Eli. Squick.

It also made me wonder what the fuck is up with Sweden. Between this and the Stieg Larsson trilogy, it seems like there's pedophiles/rapists/sexual deviants everywhere. "The Man" in the Let Me In novel just looks a little shifty and all of a sudden a pimp is offering him not just a boy but asking him "how old?" Double fucking squick, man.

[psychonaut]

Originally Posted by Daddypants

Many, many movies are based on published novels. When the movie comes out, the novel is often re-released with a new cover; usually with the lead actor or the movie poster. But it's the same book that was originally published, no matter how the movie changes it (which is a good thing). But what if someone wanted to read a novelized version of Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings, or Matt Damon's Bourne movies. Are novels like that ever published?

Absolutely. In fact, there was a novelization of a Lord of the Rings movie -- not the Jackson one, but the Bakshi one. I received a copy as a child. It was geared towards younger readers and was illustrated with film stills, but was still pretty text-heavy.

[Dung Beetle]

Originally Posted by psychonaut

Absolutely. In fact, there was a novelization of a Lord of the Rings movie -- not the Jackson one, but the Bakshi one. I received a copy as a child. It was geared towards younger readers and was illustrated with film stills, but was still pretty text-heavy.

I had a similar item, based on The Wizard of Oz.

[psychonaut]

Originally Posted by Dung Beetle

I had a similar item, based on The Wizard of Oz.

Some novelizations of Oz movies were written by L. Frank Baum himself. Quoth Wikipedia:

L. Frank Baum's Tik-Tok of Oz (1914) and The Scarecrow of Oz (1915) might be deemed novelizations, as they are based on the musical play The Tik-Tok Man of Oz (1913) and the feature film, His Majesty, the Scarecrow of Oz (1915), respectively, which were adaptations of earlier Oz books, Ozma of Oz (1907) and The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900), respectively.

[Damfino]

Originally Posted by psychonaut

Absolutely. In fact, there was a novelization of a Lord of the Rings movie -- not the Jackson one, but the Bakshi one. I received a copy as a child. It was geared towards younger readers and was illustrated with film stills, but was still pretty text-heavy.

You may be talking about the Photonovel/Fotonovel of Bakshi's Lord of the Rings which I have. It was entirely illustrated with film stills and most of the dialogue was incorporated within.

The James Bond Movies The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker were both rewritten as novelisations by Christopher Wood since their plots differed so much from the original

[psychonaut]

Originally Posted by Damfino

You may be talking about the Photonovel/Fotonovel of Bakshi's Lord of the Rings which I have. It was entirely illustrated with film stills and most of the dialogue was incorporated within.

This is the book I received. I see that bookseller is flogging his copy for nearly $230; if that's anywhere near market value then perhaps I should see if I still have my copy and sell it.

[Damfino]

Originally Posted by psychonaut

This is the book I received. I see that bookseller is flogging his copy for nearly $230; if that's anywhere near market value then perhaps I should see if I still have my copy and sell it.

Mine was entirely film stills, with no additional text.The format was more like a comic book. So, I guess not worth $230.

[Tapioca Dextrin]

I thought the poster child for this was Arthur C Clarke and The Sentinel/2001

[Damfino]

Originally Posted by Tapioca Dextrin

I thought the poster child for this was Arthur C Clarke and The Sentinel/2001

I think this may be a unique example in which the screenplay and novel were developed simultaneously. (See The Lost Worlds of 2001) In fact, Arthur C. Clarke jokingly remarked that 2001 should have been " A film by Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke based on the novel by Arthur C. Clarke and Stanley Kubrick."

[PSXer]

There is a children's novel of Jurassic Park that came out after the movie

[Satchmo]

I believe there was a movie novelization of "Mary Shelly's Frankenstein" which I always found a bit funny. There were even people that maintained that this version stayed closer to the original novel, but apparently, not close enough.

[Arnold Winkelried]

Had anyone made a movie using as source material the novelization of a movie that was based on a book?

[Krokodil]

Originally Posted by Arnold Winkelried

Had anyone made a movie using as source material the novelization of a movie that was based on a book?

Rambo started as a novel by David Morrell, which inspired two movies, which inspired Morrell to write a novelization of Rambo: First Blood Part 2 (where Rambo is inexplicably alive, having died at the end of the first novel), and anyway two more Rambo movies came out long afterward. This might be the closest to what you describe.

The Shadow and the Cisco Kid come close to the pattern you describe, but not quite. Also, these both involve comic book/strip treatments as well.

[Smapti]

If I recall correctly, the 2001 Planet of the Apes got a novelization, and so did the 2004 I, Robot.

[Justin_Bailey]

Originally Posted by Smapti

If I recall correctly, the 2001 Planet of the Apes got a novelization, and so did the 2004 I, Robot.

There have been separate novelizations, but I remember seeing both in the library as "movie poster cover" versions of the original novels.

[CalMeacham]

Originally Posted by Smapti

If I recall correctly, the 2001 Planet of the Apes got a novelization, and so did the 2004 I, Robot.

The editions of I, Robot with the movie cover that I saw were simply Asimov's book. If there was a different novelization based on the screenplay, I never saw it.

[Andy L]

Originally Posted by CalMeacham

The editions of I, Robot with the movie cover that I saw were simply Asimov's book. If there was a different novelization based on the screenplay, I never saw it.

Me, neither. Likewise the movie tie-in book for "The Last Mimzy" was simply a retitled edition of "The Best of Henry Kuttner" (containing "All Mimsy were the Borogoves")

[tanstaafl]

Originally Posted by Krokodil

Rambo started as a novel by David Morrell, which inspired two movies, which inspired Morrell to write a novelization of Rambo: First Blood Part 2 (where Rambo is inexplicably alive, having died at the end of the first novel), and anyway two more Rambo movies came out long afterward. This might be the closest to what you describe.

Somewhat similar, when Michael Crichton wrote The Lost World he wrote it as a sequel to the movie version, not the novel version of Jurassic Park.

IIRC, the novel of 2010 also follows from the movie version of 2001, not the novel.

[psychonaut]

Originally Posted by Arnold Winkelried

Had anyone made a movie using as source material the novelization of a movie that was based on a book?

Substitute "theatrical adaptation" for "novelization" and there are at least a couple works that fit the bill: The Producers and Hairspray were originally movies, then got adapted into stage musicals, which in turn got adapted back into movies (that is, the second pair of movies were based on the stage musicals; they weren't simply reworkings of the original movies).

[Chronos]

Back when Asimov wrote the novelization for Fantastic Voyage, he wrote it so fast that the novelization came out before the movie, leading people to believe that the movie was based on the book, and not vice versa.

And then Asimov went on to re-write it (published as Fantastic Voyage II, though it's not really a sequel), with the same basic plot but as his own story, to address some of the issues he saw with the original.

[Andy L]

Originally Posted by Chronos

And then Asimov went on to re-write it (published as Fantastic Voyage II, though it's not really a sequel), with the same basic plot but as his own story, to address some of the issues he saw with the original.

Yeah, not a bad book for late Asimov.

[CalMeacham]

Such novelizations are published all the time:

The Island of Doctor Moreau, to coincide with the 1976 movie, even though H.G. Wells' book was available.

The Thing (by Alan Dean Foster, King of Movie Novelizations), even though they had Joh Campbell's Who Goes There? (and to those who object that iyt's a short story, let me remind them that they've often released collections containing the story as tie-ins, as when the re-released The Best of Henry Kuttner, retitled The Last Mimzy, when that movie came out. They could've re-released The Best of John Campbell, which included the story)


Similarly, Total Recall by Piers Anthony, despite Philip K. Dick's We Can Remember it for you Wholesale being available (and, in fact, they did re-release Dick collections with that title prominent)


The first few James Bond movies had plots sufficiemntly similar to the books so that Fleming's books could be re-released with movie poster covers on them, but eventually you got to the point where there was a big gap between movie and film, so that the book Diamonds are Forever had nothing in common with the film -- although they released the book with the movie poster as a cover. When The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker came out, both with screenplays by the abysmal Christopher Wood, they decided not to re-release Fleming's novels, but to have Wood write brand new ones that matched the films. (To be accurate, the title of the latter's book was James Bond and Moonraker, but who noticed?) To give him his due, Wood's novels are better than his screenplay. On the other hand, you could argue that it wouldn't be that hard to do. Wood went on to make the laughably awful Remo Williams -- the Adventure Begins , based on Murphy and Sapir;'s The Destroyer series. AFAIK, Wood wrote no accompanying book. The later Destroyer novels made fun of the movie.)



There have been other cases of "novelizations" of movies for which perfectly sefviceably novels already exist.

[The Man In Black]

Originally Posted by CalMeacham

There have been other cases of "novelizations" of movies for which perfectly sefviceably novels already exist.

I hate to keep going on about one movie (but it is my favorite movie), but I hope they to that for Let Me In. I would love to read more details of the events in the movie.

[FriarTed]

Originally Posted by CalMeacham

Such novelizations are published all the time:

The Island of Doctor Moreau, to coincide with the 1976 movie, even though H.G. Wells' book was available...

I got that at a library sale a few years ago. It's HB & actually has both the novelization AND the Wells novel.

I also have the Branaugh/Coppola MARY SHELLEY'S FRANKENSTEIN mentioned above as well as the Coppola BRAM STOKER'S DRACULA novelization.

[CalMeacham]

Originally Posted by FriarTed

I got that at a library sale a few years ago. It's HB & actually has both the novelization AND the Wells novel.

I also have the Branaugh/Coppola MARY SHELLEY'S FRANKENSTEIN mentioned above as well as the Coppola BRAM STOKER'S DRACULA novelization.

I've never seen a hardcover copy. The paperback edition, IIRC, only had the "modern" novelization.

[Freudian Slit]

I wish I could read one of the Witches of Eastwick. I read the book after getting into the movie and it was so incredibly different.

[audit1]

For the 1962 film FIVE WEEKS IN A BALLOON Gardner Fox did the novelization of the film based on the novel by Jules Verne.

[Krokodil]

There was a novelization of the Winona Ryder film of Little Women. That puzzled me...

[psychonaut]

There Will Be Blood would be a good candidate for "renovelization". The film was based on Oil! by Upton Sinclair, but apparently the screenwriter read only the first 150 pages, and so the rest of the movie is quite a radical departure. In fact, even in the remaining elements of the adaptation, the movie focusses on the oil tycoon, whereas the book is supposedly more about the child.

[Double Foolscap]

There was a novelization of Jumanji, which was based on a very short story, I think.

[Arnold Winkelried]

Originally Posted by Double Foolscap

There was a novelization of Jumanji, which was based on a very short story, I think.

Jumanji was based on an illustrated children's book by Chris van Allsburg.

[Koxinga]

For re-novelizations of Mary Shelley, HG Wells, Jules Verne et al., would the movie people make more money insofar as the new story is under copyright while the old one is in the public domain?