# Film adaptations that influenced the original source material
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/film-adaptations-that-influenced-the-original-source-material/617080
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [March 28, 2012, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/film-adaptations-that-influenced-the-original-source-material/617080 "2012-03-28T20:17:11Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Ashley\_Pomeroy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ashley_Pomeroy)
#### Post date: [March 28, 2012, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/film-adaptations-that-influenced-the-original-source-material/617080/1 "2012-03-28T20:17:11Z")
I was struck by a quote in one of the other threads, about the various adaptations of John Le Carré’s _Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy_. The television version starred Alec Guinness, who nailed the role of George Smiley, and…
QUOTE
\*Le Carré was so impressed by Guinness’s performance as Smiley that he based his characterisation of Smiley in subsequent novels on Guinness.
\*UNQUOTE
You can write é by pressing alt-gr and e, at least on my keyboard. That way you can type John Le Carré fluently, like a native. One of the few good uses for the alt-gr key there. It’s a shame that alt-gr plus o equals ó, and not ö, because it pleases me more to use the letter ö than the letter ó. In fact ó freaks me out. It looks like Tintin’s face, but _without any facial features_. Just a blank white space. And that’s sinister. But, yes, I’m fascinated to know if there are any other interesting cases where a film or television adaptation of a source text has influenced subsequent instalments or revisions of that text.
My first thought was the James Bond novels, but as far as I know Ian Fleming completely avoided cross-pollination with the Connery films. All but one of the novels he wrote post-1962 were radically different in tone and style from the film series - they were much darker and more turgid. The exception, _On Her Majesty’s Secret Service_, was adapted for the screen almost verbatim, which meant that the resulting film was out of sync with the movie milieu (seriously - _You Only Live Twice_ is a fun cartoon, _Diamonds Are Forever_ is absolutely effing _awful_ because _nothing happens_ and it looks like a _TV movie_, whereas _OHMSS_ is awesome). And even in the 1980s the new novel series was a lot more serious in tone than the Moore films. So James Bond, no. The first long-running film/novel series I can think of where both strands existed in parallel.
The oddest one-off I can think of is the case of _Dr Strangelove_. Peter George wrote the original novel, which was _Two Hours to Doom_ in the UK, _Red Alert_ in the US, and it was deadly serious. Stanley Kubrick decided to turn it into a film, and hired George to help write the screenplay, although it didn’t work out, and Kubrick eventually turned the film into a comedy. George the wrote the novelisation of Kubrick’s version of Strangelove (presumably as some kind of contractual obligation), which apparently stuck quite close to the Kubrick script, and has gone on to completely obliterate the memory of George’s original book.
(which was very different. The base captain is Brigadier General Quinten, not Ripper, and he’s not nearly as mad. He’s dying of a genuine terminal disease, presumably cancer. He hates the Russians, not because they’re perverting his bodily fluids, but because of their actions in Hungary and Eastern Europe. Buck Turgidson is called Franklin, and although the basic thrust of his character is still the same - he’s callously confident that his B52s will deal the Soviet Union a crippling blow - he’s played straight. The President knows already that the Russians have a doomsday device; he was apparently told by his predecessor, and when the Joint Chiefs recommend reinforcing the accidental attack against the Russians he uses his knowledge of the doomsday bomb to strike their plan down. The ending is slightly happier.)
No, hang on. _2010_. The book of _2001_ had the Discovery going off to Saturn, and _Japetus_. The film changed this to Jupiter, and Clarke ran with that for _2010_. Logically the film of Clarke’s book of _2010_ should have moved sunwards one planet _again_ and set everything around Mars. There was the “full of stars” line, too, which was in the film of _2010_ but not _2001_, although everybody pretended that it _was_ (brain explodes)
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### Author:  [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)
#### Post date: [March 28, 2012, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/film-adaptations-that-influenced-the-original-source-material/617080/2 "2012-03-28T20:31:19Z")
> [@Ashley\_Pomeroy](#):
>
> My first thought was the James Bond novels, but as far as I know Ian Fleming completely avoided cross-pollination with the Connery films.
[Fleming changed his mind after the successful Dr. No premiere; he was so impressed, he created a half-Scottish, half-Swiss heritage for the literary James Bond in the later novels.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sean_Connery)
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### Author:  [@Celidin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Celidin)
#### Post date: [March 28, 2012, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/film-adaptations-that-influenced-the-original-source-material/617080/3 "2012-03-28T20:44:16Z")
I think one of the most interesting examples is Jurassic Park. In the original novel, Ian Malcolm dies at the end.
The movie gets made - Malcolm survives.
Michael Crichton writes [The Lost World](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lost_World_(Crichton_novel)) and oh! Malcolm’s back through a little bit of fun retconing in the beginning of the novel - apparently he was only “pronounced dead a number of times”.
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### Author:  [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)
#### Post date: [March 28, 2012, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/film-adaptations-that-influenced-the-original-source-material/617080/4 "2012-03-28T21:08:05Z")
> [@Ashley\_Pomeroy](#):
>
> No, hang on. _2010_. The book of _2001_ had the Discovery going off to Saturn, and _Japetus_. The film changed this to Jupiter
Not true, as the film **was not** based on the book.
The film and the book were created simultaneously, with minimal communication between Clarke and Kubrick.
They were both based on a treatment Clarke and Kubrick wrote, itself based (relatively loosely) on Clarke’s earlier short story, The Sentinel\*, and the book was released later. (Not sure if that was deliberate, or if Clarke just worked more slowly than Kubrick.)
- I’m not sure where the treatment had it set - possibly the moon, as that was the setting for The Sentinel.
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### Author:  [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)
#### Post date: [March 28, 2012, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/film-adaptations-that-influenced-the-original-source-material/617080/5 "2012-03-28T21:16:37Z")
> [@Ashley\_Pomeroy](#):
>
> The ending is slightly happier.
Slightly?
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### Author:  [@jackdavinci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackdavinci)
#### Post date: [March 28, 2012, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/film-adaptations-that-influenced-the-original-source-material/617080/6 "2012-03-28T21:57:21Z")
I think J K Rowling mentioned being influenced by Daniel Radcliffe’s growth spurt (and Hermione’s actress attractiveness), but I find that odd because he’s fairly short even now.
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### Author:  [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)
#### Post date: [March 28, 2012, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/film-adaptations-that-influenced-the-original-source-material/617080/7 "2012-03-28T22:41:54Z")
> [@Tengu](#):
>
> Not true, as the film **was not** based on the book.
If what you’re calling “not true” here is that the film changed _Discovery_’s destination from what it was in the book, okay, as technically the two works just took different paths. But I think the original point (in the spirit of the OP) was that the book _2010: Odyssey Two_ simply ignored the fact that _Discovery_ went to Saturn in the original book. Clarke states outright in the introduction that he consciously made this change to match what Kubrick did in the film.
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### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [March 28, 2012, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/film-adaptations-that-influenced-the-original-source-material/617080/8 "2012-03-28T22:58:43Z")
> [@](#):
>
> My first thought was the James Bond novels, but as far as I know Ian Fleming completely avoided cross-pollination with the Connery films. All but one of the novels he wrote post-1962 were radically different in tone and style from the film series - they were much darker and more turgid. The exception, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, was adapted for the screen almost verbatim, which meant that the resulting film was out of sync with the movie milieu (seriously - You Only Live Twice is a fun cartoon, Diamonds Are Forever is absolutely effing awful because nothing happens and it looks like a TV movie, whereas OHMSS is awesome). And even in the 1980s the new novel series was a lot more serious in tone than the Moore films. So James Bond, no. The first long-running film/novel series I can think of where both strands existed in parallel.
Fleming mentions in _On Her Majesty’s Secret Service_ that Ursula Andress, who is skiing near Piz Gloria, looks as if she has a tan. This was right after they made the film _Dr. no_, in which she starred. It’s the only case I know of where Fleming acknowledged the films in his written work.
Actually, my friend, who is a Bond-o-phile, has suggested that the _television_ version of _Casino Royale_, which appeared on the US series _Climax!_ in 1954, influenced the character of Bond. Most critics ignore this show, or dismiss it, but there is something interesting about it – James Bond (“Jimmy Bond” in the show) makes wisecracks and tosses off witticisms in the face of danger. (“Are you the man who was shot?” “No, I’m the guy who was missed.”)
Bond didn’t do that in the book _Casino Royale_. Bond is a cold operative and killer. The _bon mots_ he is known for in the films did not appear in the early books. But after Climax!, he started to develop a sense of humor.
Craig Thomas, thriller writer, acknowledged the quality of Clint Eastwood’s _Firefox_, and clearly based his sequel, _Firefox Down_, in part on the visualization of the movie.
James Cameron stated that he hated the novelizations of his movies, especially _Aliens_. He swore that he wasn’t going to toss off another novelization to a hack writer\*. So when he was doing _The Abyss_ he brought in SF writer Orson Scott Card to write a novel of his movie, but he insists, in the foreword to the book, that it isn’t a “novelization”. He acknowledges that Card came up with better characterization and backstory on the characters, and gave copies of the book-in-progress to the actors, for them to use in defining their performances. Very clearly the film and the book influenced each other.
\*presumably Alan Dean Foster, the king of mvie novelizations.
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### Author:  [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)
#### Post date: [March 28, 2012, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/film-adaptations-that-influenced-the-original-source-material/617080/9 "2012-03-28T23:12:03Z")
> [@jackdavinci](#):
>
> I think J K Rowling mentioned being influenced by Daniel Radcliffe’s growth spurt (and Hermione’s actress attractiveness), but I find that odd because he’s fairly short even now.
Hermione’s buck teeth were fixed in a book that was published before the first film even began filming.
---
### Author:  [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)
#### Post date: [March 28, 2012, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/film-adaptations-that-influenced-the-original-source-material/617080/10 "2012-03-28T23:25:54Z")
> [@Ashley\_Pomeroy](#):
>
> I was struck by a quote in one of the other threads, about the various adaptations of John Le Carré’s _Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy_. The television version starred Alec Guinness, who nailed the role of George Smiley, and…
>
> QUOTE
> \*Le Carré was so impressed by Guinness’s performance as Smiley that he based his characterisation of Smiley in subsequent novels on Guinness.
> \*UNQUOTE
John Mortimer’s “Rumpole” stories were strongly influenced by the casting of Leo McKern as Rumpole. Mortimer wrote:
“He not only played the character Rumpole, he added to it, brightened it and brought it fully to life.”
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### Author:  [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)
#### Post date: [March 28, 2012, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/film-adaptations-that-influenced-the-original-source-material/617080/11 "2012-03-28T23:41:34Z")
> [@KneadToKnow](#):
>
> But I think the original point (in the spirit of the OP) was that the book _2010: Odyssey Two_ simply ignored the fact that _Discovery_ went to Saturn in the original book.
My point is that’s _not_ the spirit of the OP, since the book was not the source material - it’s closer to the truth that the change in 2010 brought the book side of the series _closer to_ the source material, since the whole project started with the movie, which was released first, even after the book was added.
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### Author:  [@Mr.Accident](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Accident)
#### Post date: [March 29, 2012, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/film-adaptations-that-influenced-the-original-source-material/617080/12 "2012-03-29T00:27:53Z")
Not exactly a film, but three characters from the Batman: The Animated Series ended up being introduced and used in the Batman comics. Harley Quinn, Lock-Up, and Detective Renee Montoya.
Harley even had her own comic series for awhile.
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### Author:  [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)
#### Post date: [March 29, 2012, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/film-adaptations-that-influenced-the-original-source-material/617080/13 "2012-03-29T00:36:41Z")
> [@Mr.Accident](#):
>
> Not exactly a film, but three characters from the Batman: The Animated Series ended up being introduced and used in the Batman comics. Harley Quinn, Lock-Up, and Detective Renee Montoya.
>
> Harley even had her own comic series for awhile.
Feedback between the comics and other media happens a lot - Kryptonite, Jimmy Olsen and Perry White came from the radio show and moved to the comic. More recently, Chloe Sullivan (created for “Smallville”) was introduced to the comics
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### Author:  [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)
#### Post date: [March 29, 2012, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/film-adaptations-that-influenced-the-original-source-material/617080/14 "2012-03-29T00:36:48Z")
> [@Mr.Accident](#):
>
> Not exactly a film, but three characters from the Batman: The Animated Series ended up being introduced and used in the Batman comics. Harley Quinn, Lock-Up, and Detective Renee Montoya.
Let’s not forget Roxy Rocket!
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### Author:  [@The\_Tooth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tooth)
#### Post date: [March 29, 2012, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/film-adaptations-that-influenced-the-original-source-material/617080/15 "2012-03-29T00:38:59Z")
I’ve noticed that the some of the covers of the Dune knockoffs feature Fremen wearing the stillsuits designed for David Lynch’s movie. Having read one of those, I figure the stillsuit design is the best part.
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### Author:  [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)
#### Post date: [March 29, 2012, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/film-adaptations-that-influenced-the-original-source-material/617080/16 "2012-03-29T00:47:15Z")
In **A Few Good Men** , the original play had Caffee pulling the actual flight logs out of his hat in the courtroom. For the movie, director Rob Reiner told writer Aaron Sorkin “I could win the case with this plot!” Sorkin rewrote the scene with the two bogus witnesses and a colossal bluff; then he went back and rewrote the ending of his play.
Many comic book movies make changes that the comics themselves go on to adapt, if only for a little while: **Spider-Man** ’s organic web shooters, the **X-Men** ’s leather uniforms, **Superman** ’s still-living foster parents, **Batman** ’s costume, **Iron Man** ’s plug-and-play heart and power source, **Captain America** ’s wartime costume. I hope _Thor_ embraces its film’s multi-ethnic Asgardians (It makes perfect sense for Odin to adopt survivors of pantheons that he has conquered) and the characterizations of the Warriors Three.
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### Author:  [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)
#### Post date: [March 29, 2012, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/film-adaptations-that-influenced-the-original-source-material/617080/17 "2012-03-29T01:37:23Z")
This is really obscure but after the film _ **Hunt for Red October** _ came out and they cast sonar-man Jonesy as black, in Clancy’s next Ryan novel (_Sum of All Fears_ I think) there’s an exchange between his former Sub capt and Ryan alluding to, “guys like him have a tough road to promotions…”
As an aside it sucked when Baldwin bailed after one film cause after that, when I read the next Ryan novels I couldn’t help but still imagine it being him while reading them! Plus he was better than Ford (I’ve never even bothered watching Affleck’s turn). Damn commie-liberal Baldwin…
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### Author:  [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)
#### Post date: [March 29, 2012, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/film-adaptations-that-influenced-the-original-source-material/617080/18 "2012-03-29T02:06:32Z")
Not a movie, but the book of _The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin_ was adapted (by its author) into a successful TV series, which continued into a second and third series. Each of those latter seasons had a subsequent book adaptation (the reverse of the former) and this time the dialogue was clearly modelled on the actors who were cast in the series, most obviously Leonard Rossiter and John Barron.
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### Author:  [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)
#### Post date: [March 29, 2012, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/film-adaptations-that-influenced-the-original-source-material/617080/19 "2012-03-29T02:08:32Z")
Richard Donner’s Superman movie, AIUI, established the look of Krypton as being composed of giant crystals, which carried over into a lot of the comics.
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### Author:  [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)
#### Post date: [March 29, 2012, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/film-adaptations-that-influenced-the-original-source-material/617080/20 "2012-03-29T03:16:13Z")
_Cabaret_, the film, influenced most subsequent productions of _Cabaret_, the musical.
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