And I could find 3 more people I know IRL that think it sucked.
Soon to be released bad movie ( well, almost certainly a bad adaptation at the very least ), based on a very entertaining book.
ETA: I would love, love, love to see Powers’ Declare done as an HBO or even BBC miniseries. Ah, well - instead I get Disney butchering.
As I understand it, it was more a case of the producers/studio deciding to pre-emptively shovel some cash at Powers to avoid any legal exposure for excessive similarity. At least it means OST will be in print.
I agree it was bad in parts, but it’s not an adaptation, it’s a sequel.
No, it’s not. That’s the conceit, but it’s even more of a failure on that count.
Firstly, it’s a sequel to no prior works. There is no text where Wonderland is actually called “Underland”, the Red Queen and the Queen of Hearts are the same character and the Jabberwock(y) acts at the behest of the Red Queen. Secondly, it lifts whole moments from the book, such as Alice in the hall trying to get into the garden, the Hatter’s tea party, etc. (If it is a sequel, it’s a very lazy one for being so derivative of the original.)
Finally, it’s called Alice in Wonderland, not Return to Wonderland or something similar. If anything, it’s an adaptation of Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, framing its elements as a pseudo-sequel to a non-existent work. But it’s still an adaptation.
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
Yeah it was bad in parts, from the part where the projector was turned on to the part where it said “The End.” This was one of the most painfully bad movies of all time.
That was my favorite book when i was a kid and i was quite skeptical about a movie made in a quite different era from when the book was written.
but i loved the movie. if was the same in its own way, so to speak
Day of the Triffids – the book is the perfect blueprint for a horror film, but they messed it up terribly (at least in the first movie version).
Fletch – the book was a film script (80% dialog). Why they turned a taut and intriguing thriller into a Chevy Chase comedy is beyond me.
Oh, how I’d love to see The Anubis Gates!
I give you Exit to Eden.
The movie revolves around two detectives (Rosie O’Donnell and Dan Aykroyd) who follow a jewel thief to what turns out to be an S & M island (complete with Rosie in leather! :eek:).
The book has no such plot! The book is Anne Rice in one of her erotica moods writing about the island itself. No cops. No jewel thieves.
What do I win?
Scott Spencer’s Endless Love, one of the “best books of the year” 1979 per the New York Times per Amazon, was a 1981 film directed by Franco Zeffirelli and starring Brooke Shields with Martin Hewitt.
The film was a box office success and also received 6 Golden Raspberry awards (outworsted by Mommie Dearest per Wikipedia.
I assume that Scott Spencer and HarperCollins appreciate at least the publicity, because Endless Love is still in print unlike, apparently, Mommie Dearest. Christina may have gotten more up front than Scott, though, for the film rights.
Oh no, no, no, I win this one! I give you:
Striptease, which was a very good book by Carl Hiaasen.
The Seeker: The Dark Is Rising, based on The Dark Is Rising, a nearly unrecognizable adaptation of a great young adult book by one of my favorite authors, Susan Cooper.
And, last, but definitely not least, Even Cowgirls Get The Blues, the sad, sad, sad, awful movie version of one of Tom Robbins’ delightfully goofy novels. Bah!
The “Bad movies From Even Worse Books” thread is two doors down.
Wait, what “good book” did this ruin? Never read Doyle’s novel, but based on this description it is no better than any of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ pulp-yarns.
When are they going to do Finnegan’s Wake?
Somebody has to write the screenplay, you can’t just issue the cast copies of the book and go, “Action!”
All true. But I actually give that horrible movie points for (1) being more exciting than the book (not difficult) and (2) being the only film portrayal I have ever seen of King Philip’s War, even as a subplot. It was quite an important war – if we count the English settlers as “Americans,” then it killed a higher percentage of the American population than any war since, even if Indian casualties are discounted.
An enjoyable book. An important book. Not a good book.
Writing a screenplay is fine.
But why would they mess with her mystery plot, change characters around, move key scenes elsewhere, etc.? If your screenwriter can do a better mystery plot than Agatha Christie, then he should be writing his own books!