# Movies based on multiple, unrelated books **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 27, 2019, 8:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-based-on-multiple-unrelated-books/844056 "2019-11-27T08:33:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2019, 8:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-based-on-multiple-unrelated-books/844056/1 "2019-11-27T08:33:09Z")
It’s fairly routine for individual books to get adapted into their own movies and stage plays. Somewhat less common, though still far from unusual, is for a writer to take two or more books from a certain author, or from a certain book series, and adapt them into a single (screen)play. An example would be Disney’s _[The Black Cauldron](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088814/)_, which is adapted from the first two novels in Lloyd Alexander’s _[Chronicles of Prydain](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chronicles_of_Prydain)_ series. What is really rare, I think, is for a writer to take several completely unrelated books (i.e., not written by the same author, not part of the same series, and not set in the same fictional universe) and spin them into a movie or play with a single, coherent narrative. The only example of this that I’m aware of and that I’ve seen is _**[The Flight of Dragons](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083951/)**_, a 1982 Rankin–Bass film that somehow melds Gordon R. Dickson’s novel [_The Dragon and George_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dragon_and_the_George) with the speculative evolution book [_The Flight of Dragons_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Flight_of_Dragons_(book)) by Peter Dickinson. Some Googling leads me to believe that _**[Tales from Earthsea](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tales_from_Earthsea_(film))**_ may be another example, but I’m not sure as I haven’t seen it myself and am not familiar with the source material. According to Wikipedia, the movie “is based on a combination of plot and character elements from the first four books of Ursula K. Le Guin’s Earthsea series (A Wizard of Earthsea, The Tombs of Atuan, The Farthest Shore, and Tehanu), as well as the manga The Journey of Shuna by Hayao Miyazaki”. Can anyone verify that this is a genuine example of the sort of film I’m talking about? Can anyone name any other non-anthological films or plays, or other dramatic works, that adapt two or more completely independent books? ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2019, 11:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-based-on-multiple-unrelated-books/844056/2 "2019-11-27T11:18:42Z")
The most obvious example is the _Die Hard_ series. The first four films in the series each were rewritten versions of scripts that had been passing around Hollywood for years. None of those original scripts were related to any of the other scripts. The first film in the series was a rewritten version of a sequel to a film not in the _Die Hard_ series. Only the fifth movie in the series started as a script written especially for the series. Another example is the movie _The Wind Rises_. It’s based on two different things with no relationship between them. One is a novel. One is the life of someone whose life was nothing like the novel. Combining two novels from a series into a single movie is more common, like the Lloyd Alexander example you mention or the 1951 Disney movie _Alice in Wonderland_ which combines _Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland_ with _Through the Looking Glass_. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2019, 11:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-based-on-multiple-unrelated-books/844056/3 "2019-11-27T11:25:01Z")
[Gladiator](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gladiator_(2000_film)) officially was “inspired by” _Those About to Die_ by Daniel P. Mannix and the anonymous classic[Augustan History](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augustan_History). However, in my opinion, it owes more to the old movies [The Fall of the Roman Empire](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fall_of_the_Roman_Empire_(film)) and [Spartacus](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spartacus_(film)), the latter based on Howard Fast’s novel. Its nomination for a “best original screenplay” Oscar was a travesty. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2019, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-based-on-multiple-unrelated-books/844056/4 "2019-11-27T12:10:48Z")
[Alien](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alien_(film)) > [@](#): > > In writing the script, O’Bannon drew inspiration from many previous works of science fiction and horror. He later stated,“I didn’t steal Alien from anybody. I stole it from everybody!”[37] The Thing from Another World (1951) inspired the idea of professional men being pursued by a deadly alien creature through a claustrophobic environment.[37] Forbidden Planet (1956) gave O’Bannon the idea of a ship being warned not to land, and then the crew being killed one by one by a mysterious creature when they defy the warning.[37] Planet of the Vampires (1965) contains a scene in which the heroes discover a giant alien skeleton; this influenced the Nostromo crew’s discovery of the alien creature in the derelict spacecraft.[37] O’Bannon has also noted the influence of “Junkyard” (1953), a short story by Clifford D. Simak in which a crew lands on an asteroid and discovers a chamber full of eggs.[32] He has also cited as influences Strange Relations by Philip José Farmer (1960), which covers alien reproduction, and various EC Comics horror titles carrying stories in which monsters eat their way out of people.[32] > > With most of the plot in place, Shusett and O’Bannon presented their script to several studios,[31] pitching it as “Jaws in space.”[38] People have also noted similarities to the film [It! The Terror From Beyond Space](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It!_The_Terror_from_Beyond_Space), and A.E. van Vogt’s stories “Black Destroyer” and “Discord in Scarlet”. ---
**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:** [November 27, 2019, 12:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-based-on-multiple-unrelated-books/844056/5 "2019-11-27T12:21:30Z")
The obvious entry for this thread is the movie **The Towering Inferno** , based on Richard Martin Stern’s **The Tower** and Thomas N. Scortia and Frank M. Robinson’s \*\* The Glass Inferno\*\*. They even managed to combine both titles! ---
**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:** [November 27, 2019, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-based-on-multiple-unrelated-books/844056/6 "2019-11-27T12:28:00Z")
I’ve long held that the original **Total Recall** is based on \*three \* unrelated books – The nominal basis is Philip K. Dick’s short story (not a book, sorry) **We can Remember it for you Wholesale** , which is a clever little story deriving from a play on words. But they exhaust the material from that story in the first twenty minutes or so – they needed more material for the rest of the movie. I maintain that they lifted it mostly from Robert Sheckley’s **The Status Civilization** – you have the brain-wiped protagonist, the action taking place mostly on another non-earth planet, the assassins constantly chasing the protagonist, who assumes the identity of another, who hides out in the section of the city occupied by the body-distorted mutants, one of whom probes his mind to discover his secret past, and learning that the person responsible for him being there is himself. the very end, with the alien atmosphere-making machine being started up and creating air for Mars, is from Edgar Rice Burroughs’ **A Princess of Mars**. ---
**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:** [November 27, 2019, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-based-on-multiple-unrelated-books/844056/7 "2019-11-27T12:38:03Z")
There are lots of movies based on two or more _related_ books, especially war movies, for some reason. I don’t know if this violates your criteria. Franklin Shaffner’s movie **Patton** , starring George C. Scott is based on Ladislas Farago’s **Patton: Ordeal and Triumph** and Omar Bradley’s **a Soldier’s Story**. The 1970 movie about the attack on Pearl Harbor, **Tora! Tora! Tora!** is based on Gordon W. Prange’s **Tora! Tora! Tora!** \* and **The Broken Seal** by Ladislas Farago (again!!) \*It’s a weird thing, but , in the wake of the movie, they put out tie-in paperback editions. I found and read Farago’s book, but I couldn’t find Prange’s book anywhere. Instead, for some reason, they issued Walter Lord’s book on the topic, **Day of Infamy** , but with “Tora! Tora! Tora!” printed in big letters – bigger than the actuial title – on the cover. To this day, I haven’t read Prange’s book, which I’ve never seen a copy of. Years later, Prange put out another book on the topic, **at Dawn we Slept** , and contributed to other books on Pearl Harbor. Amazon lists his book **Tora! Tora! Tora! The Pearl Harbor Story** from 1963, but doesn’t even have a picture of the cover. ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2019, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-based-on-multiple-unrelated-books/844056/8 "2019-11-27T12:49:42Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > There are lots of movies based on two or more _related_ books, especially war movies, for some reason. I don’t know if this violates your criteria. Well, kinda sorta, yeah. “Unrelated” is, after all, given in the very title of the thread. But it’s not clear to me what sort of relationship you think the books in your post have to one another. They’re clearly by different authors, but are they part of the same series? If not—that is, if they’re just a pair of books that happen to deal with the same topic or event, or belong to the same genre—then I think they’re well within scope. ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2019, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-based-on-multiple-unrelated-books/844056/9 "2019-11-27T12:51:24Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > The obvious entry for this thread is the movie **The Towering Inferno** , based on Richard Martin Stern’s **The Tower** and Thomas N. Scortia and Frank M. Robinson’s \*\* The Glass Inferno\*\*. They even managed to combine both titles! Good one. I saw that film for the first time only a few months ago but I must not have been paying much attention to the story credits. ---
**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:** [November 27, 2019, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-based-on-multiple-unrelated-books/844056/10 "2019-11-27T12:58:07Z")
> [@mbh](#): > > [Alien](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alien_(film)) > > People have also noted similarities to the film [It! The Terror From Beyond Space](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It!_The_Terror_from_Beyond_Space), and A.E. van Vogt’s stories “Black Destroyer” and “Discord in Scarlet”. O’Bannon strikes me as more of a movie guy than a literary guy\*. I think he lifted things more from films than from books. There’s a very clear resemblance between **Alien** and **It! The Terror from Beyond Space** (Alien creature gets aboard a ship, picks off the crew one by one, navigating around the ship through the ventilation system, and is finally killed when they open the hatch to space.) Jerome Boxby, who scripted **It!** , must have known about and been inspired by van Vogt’s **Black Destroyer** or **The Voyage of the Space Beagle** (which it was eventually incorporated into), but the only resemblance between the two is that of the “Monster Loose on a Space Ship” plot (which, to be honest, van Vogt seems to have been the first to use). But the plots of the two stories are completely different. **Alien** also seems to lift from Mario Bava’s \*\*1965 movie **Planet of Vampires** , in which earth people set down on a fog-shrouded alien planet and find a derelict spaceship, with the oversized skeleton of one of the inhabitants inside. Only the ship isn’t _entirely_ deserted. I think that he lifted the idea of the Alien implanting larvae in people’s bodies from another movie, **Night of the Blood Beast** , a cheapo Roger Corman-produced movie that features an alien creature that gets aboard a space ship and implants its embryos inside one of the men. The same idea had been used by A.E. Van Vogt in his story **Discord in Scarlet** (which also ended up as part of **The Voyage of the Space Beagle** , but this was different creature than The Black Destroyer. Again, I suspect van Vogt was the first to use this idea in a science fiction story, although it’s now become commonplace. It doesn’t feature at all it Bixby’s **It! The Terror from Beyond Space**. Bannon _could_ have lifted it from van Vogt, but, as I say, I think he’s more a movie kind of guy, and got it from Corman’s film. \*Bannon has been a writer, director, special effects man (he contributed to the first _Star Wars_ movie), and actor ( **Dark Star** , which he also co-wrote). His inspiration really does seem, to be the movies. _Return of the Living Dead_ is definitely derived from Romero’s _Night of the Living Dead_, right down to the title. **Dark Star** also features the “Alien Loose Aboard a Spaceship” plot, although played for laughs (and with O’Bannon the only one interacting with the thing). These scenes were filmed later than the rest of **Dark Star** , and were added to pad out the film length. When I first saw trailers for the film, I thought they were playing the akien scenes straight, and that this was going to be the main story, but it wasn’t. In any event, the scenes feel like a comic version of It! rather than adaptations from Black Destroyer. ---
**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:** [November 27, 2019, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-based-on-multiple-unrelated-books/844056/11 "2019-11-27T13:04:47Z")
According to the opening credits, Cecil B. deMille’s 1956 version of **The Ten Commanments** is based on **Prince of Egypt** by Dorothy Clarke Wilson **Pillar of Fire** by J. H. Ingraham **On Eagle’s Wings** by A. E. Southon and “The Holy Scriptures” (The Book of Exodus, mainly, although it owes something to the Talmud and Targums (the film names the magicians who turn staffs into serpents “Jannes and Jambres”, which isn;'t in the Bible, but comes from the Targum of (pseudo) Jonathan.( [Jannes and Jambres - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jannes_and_Jambres) ) I haven’t read any of the three named books, although I’d like to sometime. ---
**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:** [November 27, 2019, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-based-on-multiple-unrelated-books/844056/12 "2019-11-27T13:12:20Z")
The movie **Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World** is based on two of Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey-Maturin novels, _Master and Commander_ and _The Far Side of the World_. Hey! They managed to combine both book titles into the movie title _again_! ---
**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:** [November 27, 2019, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-based-on-multiple-unrelated-books/844056/13 "2019-11-27T13:18:30Z")
I’ve often complained that the Conan movies don’t really _feel_ like Robert E. Howard’s hero. In part this is because they never base the movies on his stories. The best “Conan” movie, i’ve said (only partly tongue in cheek) was the 1982 cheap ripoff movie **The Sword and the Sorceror** , which combine elements from the Robert E. Howard Conan stories _A Witch Shall be Born_ and _The Hour of the Dragon_ (“Conan the Conqueror”). (It was rushed into theaters before the “official” John Milius “Conan” film in 1982) ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2019, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-based-on-multiple-unrelated-books/844056/14 "2019-11-27T13:19:25Z")
How about a movie whose source is based on multiple sources? [The 13th Warrior](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_13th_Warrior) is based on Michael Chrichton’s novel [Eaters of the Dead](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eaters_of_the_Dead). Chrichton’s novel was based on [Ahmad ibn Fadlan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmad_ibn_Fadlan)’s memoir, and on [Beowulf](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beowulf) ---
**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:** [November 27, 2019, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-based-on-multiple-unrelated-books/844056/15 "2019-11-27T13:22:07Z")
> [@psychonaut](#): > > Well, kinda sorta, yeah. “Unrelated” is, after all, given in the very title of the thread. But it’s not clear to me what sort of relationship you think the books in your post have to one another. They’re clearly by different authors, but are they part of the same series? If not—that is, if they’re just a pair of books that happen to deal with the same topic or event, or belong to the same genre—then I think they’re well within scope. I don’t know. Your examples come from series using the same character and by the sme author. I wouldn’t call them “unrelated” by any stretch. Some of my examples use books by different authors on the same topic, which is pretty clearly not “unrelated”, to my mind. The examples of **The Towering Inferno** and **Total Recall** , fit what I would consider “unrelated” – the source books are by different authors and aren’t addressing the same historical event, and had nothing to do with each other. ---
**Author:** ![infinitii](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e8c25b/32.png) [@infinitii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/infinitii)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2019, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-based-on-multiple-unrelated-books/844056/16 "2019-11-27T13:24:06Z")
Oliver Stone’s “Any Given Sunday” was a result of three or four different unrelated football scripts being developed at the time, as well as the nonfiction book “You’re OK It’s Just a Bruise” and likely the Pat Toomay novel “On Any Given Sunday”. What came out, although not everyone would agree with me, is a masterpiece examining every aspect of football. ---
**Author:** ![Terminus\_Est](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terminus_est/32/3087_2.png) [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2019, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-based-on-multiple-unrelated-books/844056/17 "2019-11-27T13:34:44Z")
Does _Blade Runner_ count? The title of a completely unrelated novel by Alan E. Nourse was grafted onto an adaptation of _Do Android Dream of Electric Sheep?_ by Philip K. Dick. ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2019, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-based-on-multiple-unrelated-books/844056/18 "2019-11-27T14:20:51Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > I don’t know. Your examples come from series using the same character and by the sme author. I wouldn’t call them “unrelated” by any stretch. Which examples? The only one I said I was sure about was _The Flight of Dragons_, which is based on two books by different authors and (as far as I know) sharing no characters. ---
**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:** [November 27, 2019, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-based-on-multiple-unrelated-books/844056/19 "2019-11-27T14:30:19Z")
> [@psychonaut](#): > > Which examples? The only one I said I was sure about was _The Flight of Dragons_, which is based on two books by different authors and (as far as I know) sharing no characters. xxx > [@](#): > > Some Googling leads me to believe that Tales from Earthsea may be another example, but I’m not sure as I haven’t seen it myself and am not familiar with the source material. According to Wikipedia, the movie “is based on a combination of plot and character elements from the first four books of Ursula K. Le Guin’s Earthsea series (A Wizard of Earthsea, The Tombs of Atuan, The Farthest Shore, and Tehanu), as well as the manga The Journey of Shuna by Hayao Miyazaki”. Can anyone verify that this is a genuine example of the sort of film I’m talking about? ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2019, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-based-on-multiple-unrelated-books/844056/20 "2019-11-27T14:50:03Z")
Will Smith’s _I, Robot_ took an original screenplay, tacked on Asimov’s title, and renamed a character “Susan Calvin.” [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-based-on-multiple-unrelated-books/844056.md?page=2)