# 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:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**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, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-based-on-multiple-unrelated-books/844056/21 "2019-11-27T16:48:11Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > xxx In case I wasn’t clear in my OP, I was asking for confirmation that Guin’s Earthsea series on the one hand, and Miyazaki’s manga on the other hand, do not take place in a shared universe. If you’re saying that the two works actually share a character, or that Guin and Miyazaki are actually the same person, then I’m happy to withdraw the nomination of _Tales from Earthsea_. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2019, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-based-on-multiple-unrelated-books/844056/22 "2019-11-27T16:54:29Z")
There’s the movie “Julie and Julia”, based on two memoirs “Julie and Julia” by Julie Powell, and “My Life in France” by Julia Child. Obviously the memoirs are somewhat related, but were written by two different people who never met. ---
**Author:** ![Lance\_Turbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lance_turbo/32/6156_2.png) [@Lance\_Turbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lance_Turbo)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2019, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-based-on-multiple-unrelated-books/844056/23 "2019-11-27T16:58:29Z")
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. It was based on a comic book series, but that comic book series drew characters from a pretty diverse set of sources. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2019, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-based-on-multiple-unrelated-books/844056/24 "2019-11-27T17:49:02Z")
> [@Lance\_Turbo](#): > > The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. > > It was based on a comic book series, but that comic book series drew characters from a pretty diverse set of sources. I don’t know if drawing characters from different sources counts, when there is no melding of plots. Otherwise you would have to count [**Dracula vs. Frankenstein**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dracula_vs._Frankenstein) or [Murder by Death](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_by_Death) (although the latter are parody versions). ---
**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, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-based-on-multiple-unrelated-books/844056/25 "2019-11-27T22:05:49Z")
I don’t know if this one counts but I think it is worth noting. The Robert Altman movie “Short Cuts” is based on a short story collection of the same name by Raymond Carver. I have heard that all the stories are unrelated but that Altman wove them all together for the movie. Eh. ---
**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2019, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-based-on-multiple-unrelated-books/844056/26 "2019-11-28T00:48:27Z")
There is a movie called _36 Hours_ that was unrelated, but similar, to a Roald Dahl short story, a fairly famous one. A part in the movie was offered to Patricia Neal, who was married to Dahl, and she found it very similar. So, while taking basically nothing from the short story, the producers acquired the rights to the story, I guess to keep Dahl from suing them. So on the IMDB page it looks like Dahl contributed. If you haven’t seen _36 Hours_, it’s a really good movie. Don’t read anything else about it including the Dahl short story until after you’ve seen it. Yes, I’m trying to spoiler a movie from 1965. ---
**Author:** ![Asuka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@Asuka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asuka)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2019, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-based-on-multiple-unrelated-books/844056/27 "2019-11-28T00:56:36Z")
> [@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. > 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. The 2010 HBO TV show **The Pacific** is primarily based on two books, _Helmet for My Pillow_ by Robert Leckie and _With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa_ by Eugene Sledge, along with a few other books for more info such as _Red Blood, Black Sand_ by Chuck Tatum, Alongside the show came a companion book also titled **The Pacific** by Hugh Ambrose which is a general history of the Pacific theater covering the battles Sledge and Leckie were in. So three books became a minseries that became one book. ---
**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 28, 2019, 9:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-based-on-multiple-unrelated-books/844056/28 "2019-11-28T09:07:48Z")
I think there’s a problem with trying to say what sources a film came from. I’ll give a couple of examples from what I consider to be great movies. The problem is first that often a film draws on sources that the screenwriter doesn’t even remember having seen or read. In some sense, any script is influenced by everything that has happened to the screenwriter or that they have read or that they have seen in their entire life. Also, sometimes the screenwriter is deliberately hiding their sources. The first example is the 1985 movie _After Hours_. In some sense, it’s influenced by all the “New York as everyday horror” movies from the 1960’s to the 1980’s, including those directed by Martin Scorsese. Since Scorsese directed _After Hours_, there’s no reason to acknowledge this in the credits. A big problem though is that much of the plot of the film comes from a radio monologue by a performer named Joe Frank. Apparently this was not known to anyone associated with the movie except for the screenwriter Joe Minion until after it was released. Minion complained and got paid something for being a partial source for the film. The second example is the 1984 film _The Terminator_. After it was released, Harlan Ellison complained that it was largely based on two episodes of _Outer Limits_ that he had written. He was then paid for being a partial source. In some sense, _The Terminator_ throws together ideas from a number of different science fiction movies, TV shows, novels, and short stories. > **[After Hours (film)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/After_Hours_(film))** > > After Hours is a 1985 American black comedy thriller film directed by Martin Scorsese and written by Joseph Minion. The film follows Paul Hackett, portrayed by Griffin Dunne, as he experiences a series of misadventures while making his way home from New York City's SoHo district during the night. > After Hours received positive reviews with praises for its black humor, and is considered to be a cult film. The film won the Independent Spirit Award for Best Feature. Scorsese won the Cannes Film Fest... > **[The Terminator](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Terminator)** > > The Terminator is a 1984 American science fiction action film directed by James Cameron. It stars Arnold Schwarzenegger as the Terminator, a cyborg assassin sent back in time from 2029 to 1984 to kill Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton), whose unborn son will one day save mankind from extinction by Skynet, a hostile artificial intelligence in a post-apocalyptic future. Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn) is a soldier sent back in time to protect Sarah. The screenplay is credited to Cameron and producer Gale... ---
**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 28, 2019, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-based-on-multiple-unrelated-books/844056/29 "2019-11-28T15:41:08Z")
The movie **A Christmas Story** has become a perennial favorite, largely because of its repetitive showing on cable TV. As I recognized when it first came out, it’s based on Jean Shepherd’s anecdotal short pieces that were based on his reminiscences (the stories were published in _Playboy_ and other places). These were collected into two books, **In God we Trust – All Others Pay Cash** and **Wanda Hickey’s Night of Golden Memories and Other Disasters** ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2019, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-based-on-multiple-unrelated-books/844056/30 "2019-11-28T17:01:59Z")
Those are certainly related books, though, being by the same author and about events in the same person’s (his own) life. The only reason one might not call one a “sequel” of the other is that the timespans of the two might overlap (I’m not certain if they do, but they might). ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2019, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-based-on-multiple-unrelated-books/844056/31 "2019-12-09T15:28:19Z")
Wuthering Heights in Semaphore. More seriously, the plot of _Yojimbo was [based on](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yojimbo#Writing)two novels by Dashiell Hammett. Unrelated, because they feature different characters. Also the two remakes of Yojimbo, A Fistful of Dollars_ and _Last Man Standing_. ---
**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:** [December 9, 2019, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-based-on-multiple-unrelated-books/844056/32 "2019-12-09T15:38:40Z")
> [@Peter\_Morris](#): > > Wuthering Heights in Semaphore. > More seriously, the plot of _Yojimbo was [based on](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yojimbo#Writing)two novels by Dashiell Hammett. Unrelated, because they feature different characters. Also the two remakes of Yojimbo, A Fistful of Dollars_ and _Last Man Standing_. Similarly, another film by Akira Kurasawa, **Rashomon** , is based on two unrelated short stories (not books – sorry) by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa. It gets its title and setting from his story “Rashomon”, but the bulk of the story from “In a Grove” (although Kurasawa actually added original material to the story). As with _Yojimbo_, it was remade as a Western in the US – the oddball film **The Outrage** , with an appropriately outrageous cast – Laurence Harvey, Claire Bloom, William Shatner (as a preacher), Howard da Silva (Ben Franklin! as a prospector), Edward G. Robinson, and Paul Newman (with a moustache, as a Mexican bandit!) And, of course, the film has been ripped off countless times by episodes of TV shows (although _The Simpsons_ gets high credit for this exchange: Marge: But you _loved_ Rashomon! Homer: That’s not the way _I_ remember it! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-based-on-multiple-unrelated-books/844056.md?page=1)