# Cover songs, remake movies... Re-write books? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 12, 2006, 8:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cover-songs-remake-movies-re-write-books/339638 "2006-01-12T08:47:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Stonebow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Stonebow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stonebow)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2006, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cover-songs-remake-movies-re-write-books/339638/21 "2006-01-12T18:39:35Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Mary _Reilly_, I think you mean. Easy to trip. Thanks for the save. Exactly what I meant. And **Zebra** - if you like that, try _My Own Private Idaho_, a remake of Henry IV/ V starring Keannu Reeve. Highlights include a narcoleptic gay prostitute and his friend/lover the ‘I’ll go gay for $$$’ rich kid. ---
**Author:** ![Ensign\_Edison](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7ab992/32.png) [@Ensign\_Edison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ensign_Edison)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2006, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cover-songs-remake-movies-re-write-books/339638/22 "2006-01-12T18:47:10Z")
> [@Zebra](#): > > What about a book like **Wicked**? That is a pre-quel to The Wizard of Oz series. It takes established characters and uses them for a story. (or is that just fan fiction?) Nobody gets paid to write fan fiction. 🙂 Nick Mamatas’ [Move Under Ground](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1892389916/qid=1137091465/sr=8-1/ref=pd_bbs_1/104-9827101-3967953?n=507846&s=books&v=glance) takes characters, creatures and themes from Kerouac and Lovecraft both. The word you want is ‘pastiche’, I think. ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2006, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cover-songs-remake-movies-re-write-books/339638/23 "2006-01-12T20:43:19Z")
> [@Zebra](#): > > A Thousand Acres is King Lear in Iowa. And **Ran** is “King Lear” in medieval Japan. ---
**Author:** ![Miss\_Purl\_McKnittington](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9a140/32.png) [@Miss\_Purl\_McKnittington](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Purl_McKnittington)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2006, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cover-songs-remake-movies-re-write-books/339638/24 "2006-01-12T21:09:50Z")
> [@Zebra](#): > > A Thousand Acres is King Lear in Iowa. And _Lear_ is just a re-telling of the [“love like salt”](http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/salt.html) folk tale! That Shakespeare. Such a hack, huh? ---
**Author:** ![Boulter\_s\_Canary](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e79b87/32.png) [@Boulter\_s\_Canary](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boulter_s_Canary)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2006, 11:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cover-songs-remake-movies-re-write-books/339638/25 "2006-01-13T11:22:21Z")
The ‘Honor Harrington’ series of SF novels is very much based on C S Forrester’s ‘Hornblower’ books. **’Blade Runner’** was so unlike it’s original novel (Philip K Dick’s **‘Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?’** ) that the film company commissioned a novelisation. (And royally awful it was too). ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2006, 11:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cover-songs-remake-movies-re-write-books/339638/26 "2006-01-13T11:58:57Z")
> [@](#): > > ‘Blade Runner’ was so unlike it’s original novel (Philip K Dick’s ‘Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?’) that the film company commissioned a novelisation. (And royally awful it was too). I think you’re mistaken here – they simply reprinted Dick’s novel with the poster from the mopvie on the cover. They didn’t change a thing, even though it’s vastly different from the movie. In fact, it’s still in print that way. I picked up a copy and read it a couple of years ago. You may be thnking of another movie based on a Philip K. Dick novel – **Total Recall** , which was based on a Dick short story.(As I note above) They got Piers Anthony to write a full-length novelization that resembled the film. It is, indeed, awful. If you want a better time, dig up (if you can) **The Status Civilization** by the recently deceased Robert Sheckley. I swear they lifted more of that movie from Sheckley’s novel than from the Dick short story. ---
**Author:** ![Boulter\_s\_Canary](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e79b87/32.png) [@Boulter\_s\_Canary](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boulter_s_Canary)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2006, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cover-songs-remake-movies-re-write-books/339638/27 "2006-01-13T17:08:21Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > I think you’re mistaken here – they simply reprinted Dick’s novel with the poster from the mopvie on the cover. They didn’t change a thing, even though it’s vastly different from the movie. In fact, it’s still in print that way. I picked up a copy and read it a couple of years ago. > > You may be thnking of another movie based on a Philip K. Dick novel – **Total Recall** , which was based on a Dick short story.(As I note above) They got Piers Anthony to write a full-length novelization that resembled the film. It is, indeed, awful. If you want a better time, dig up (if you can) **The Status Civilization** by the recently deceased Robert Sheckley. I swear they lifted more of that movie from Sheckley’s novel than from the Dick short story. I stand corrected - it _was_ \*\*Total Recall \*\* I was thinking of. I knew Piers Anthony was involved somewhere (It’s usually him or Alan Dean Foster). :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2006, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cover-songs-remake-movies-re-write-books/339638/28 "2006-01-13T17:39:32Z")
_Gone With The Wind_ was retold from a slave’s POV, as _The Wind Done Gone._ There was a lawsuit, which the remake won. The _Lord Of The Rings_ trilogy was retold as a parody, _Bored Of The Rings._ _Romeo and Juliet_ became _West Side Story,_ among other things, including a robot romance whose name escapes me. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2006, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cover-songs-remake-movies-re-write-books/339638/29 "2006-01-13T18:14:29Z")
> [@bubastis](#): > > Ever happened? Why not? Take an older book and re-write it for modern times. Or is it a case that the literary world has’nt run out of ideas yet and doesnt have to resort to such tactics? I seem to recall that Piers Anthony wrote the novelization for the movie _Total Recall_, itself adapted from a Philip K. Dick story. The plot of many of Shakespeare’s plays were taken from older works. ---
**Author:** ![Lissa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lissa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissa)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2006, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cover-songs-remake-movies-re-write-books/339638/30 "2006-01-13T18:32:48Z")
When I was in school, we did a production of _The Merchant of Venice_ which had been re-written to exclude the anti-Semitism. Hey, and let’s not forget\* Cillf’s Notes.\* 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Lissa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lissa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissa)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2006, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cover-songs-remake-movies-re-write-books/339638/31 "2006-01-13T18:35:16Z")
> [@Lissa](#): > > Hey, and let’s not forget\* Cillf’s Notes.\* 😃 Uhhh . . . that should be _Cliff’s Notes._ :smack: [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cover-songs-remake-movies-re-write-books/339638.md?page=1)