If nicknames count, the play turned (almost too grainy to watch in the only copies I’ve seen) movie The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade was marketed by its nickname of Marat/Sade. That title appears on the DVD in fact (with the full name in small print further down).
Anna and the King of Siam became Anna and the King.
Book/magazine serial title:
The Memoirs of Barry Lyndon, Esq. of the Kingdom of Ireland Containing an Account of His Extraordinary Adventures; Misfortunes; His Sufferings in the Service of His Late Prussian Majesty; His Visits to Many of the Courts of Europe; His Marriage and Splendid Establishments in England and Ireland; and the Many Cruel Persecutions, Conspiracies, and Slanders of Which He Has Been a Victim
(a.k.a The Memoirs of Barry Lyndon, Esq. of the Kingdom of Ireland, a.k.a. The Luck of Barry Lyndon: A Romance of the Last Century)
Movie title:
Barry Lyndon
Old Possom’s Book of Practical Cats became
CATS
The James Bond book and short story From a View to a Kill became A View to a Kill.
The Haunting of Hill House --> The Haunting
Oliver Twist --> Twist
The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby --> Nicholas Nickleby
Simon Birch is shorter than the book’s title of A Prayer For Owen Meany, and much shorter than the true title of The Hack who Wrote “Grumpy Old Men” Takes a Big Dump on the Work of One of America’s Greatest Novelists and then Rubs it All Over the Screen.
[QUOTE=Eve]
You do N RC, the short book (which makes the movie look like a two-reel comedy!) was also called Double Indemnity.
I have seen the book referred to, in reviews and on the title page of the screenplay, as Double Indemnity, Or Three of A Kind. Was it perhaps the lead story in a collection?
Sir Rhosis
and then became “The King & I”
The Book of Daniel by E.L. Doctorow was filmed as Daniel.
Goodbye, Picadilly; Hello, Leicaster Squre became Hitchcock’s FRENZY. (I may have the book name reversed, I’m going from memory.)
A Cry in the Dark was the movie; the book was Evil Angels.
None of these fit the premise. None of them are shortened versions of the source material’s title; they’re all just re-namings.
…but Simon Birch would have been called Owen Meany if John Irving wasn’t so disgusted with Mark Johnson’s screenplay.
Does [October Sky count? Probably not. It was an anagram of Rocket Boys, the book it was based on.