# Sequel changed because of the movie
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sequel-changed-because-of-the-movie/471783
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [November 8, 2008, 7:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sequel-changed-because-of-the-movie/471783 "2008-11-08T07:19:29Z")
**Posts on this page:** 18
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)
#### Post date: [November 8, 2008, 7:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sequel-changed-because-of-the-movie/471783/1 "2008-11-08T07:19:29Z")
Reading the thread about Michael Creighton’s death made me think about his books that I read. In Jurrasic Park the character later played by Jeff Goldblum was killed. In the movie he wasn’t. In the next book he magically got better because the movie rights to the next book was already sold. (I think it was briefly explained that he was mistakenly reported as dead but was just injured. Nope. In the book he was dead)
Are there any other examples of where the book sequel was changed because of a movie?
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### Author:  [@Ponderoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponderoid)
#### Post date: [November 8, 2008, 7:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sequel-changed-because-of-the-movie/471783/2 "2008-11-08T07:43:37Z")
In the book version of _2001 A Space Odyssey_, the second monolith was found on Iapetus, a moon of Saturn. It was changed to orbiting Jupiter for the movie. Clarke just went along with the movie version when he wrote _2010 Odyssey Two_.
\*\*\* Ponder
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### Author:  [@Sr\_Siete](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sr_Siete)
#### Post date: [November 8, 2008, 8:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sequel-changed-because-of-the-movie/471783/3 "2008-11-08T08:04:18Z")
I strongly suspect that Thomas Harris wouldn’t have based his last two novels around Hannibal Lecter if it wasn’t for the popularity of Anthony Hopkin’s portrayal in the movie.
In both ‘Silence of the lambs’ and ‘Red Dragon’ books, Lecter is a sort of two-dimensional, malevolent figure that gets his jollies by playing with the main character’s heads. He became more complex and almost sympathetic later on.
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### Author:  [@Red\_Barchetta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Red_Barchetta)
#### Post date: [November 8, 2008, 8:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sequel-changed-because-of-the-movie/471783/4 "2008-11-08T08:46:18Z")
> [@Ponderoid](#):
>
> In the book version of _2001 A Space Odyssey_, the second monolith was found on Iapetus, a moon of Saturn. It was changed to orbiting Jupiter for the movie. Clarke just went along with the movie version when he wrote _2010 Odyssey Two_.
>
> \*\*\* Ponder
Though oddly, the movie 2010 takes some elements from the book 2001.
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### Author:  [@Harvey\_The\_Heavy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harvey_The_Heavy)
#### Post date: [November 8, 2008, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sequel-changed-because-of-the-movie/471783/5 "2008-11-08T12:28:39Z")
In _First Blood_, Rambo…
…is shot by Trautman and killed
This was obviously retconned for the sequels.
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### Author:  [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)
#### Post date: [November 8, 2008, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sequel-changed-because-of-the-movie/471783/6 "2008-11-08T13:38:45Z")
> [@Ponderoid](#):
>
> In the book version of _2001 A Space Odyssey_, the second monolith was found on Iapetus, a moon of Saturn. It was changed to orbiting Jupiter for the movie. Clarke just went along with the movie version when he wrote _2010 Odyssey Two_.
Also, the Monoliths in the original _2001_ novel were crystalline and transparent. The ones in the movie were made black, and so were the one’s in Clarke’s book sequels.
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### Author:  [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)
#### Post date: [November 8, 2008, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sequel-changed-because-of-the-movie/471783/7 "2008-11-08T13:58:12Z")
In Winston Groom’s novel “Forrest Gump,” Jenny doesn’t die. Neither does Forrest’s mother.
But since few people read the book, and millions saw the movie, Groom’s 1995 “Gump & Company” sequel used the movie as the starting point, rather than his own book.
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### Author:  [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)
#### Post date: [November 8, 2008, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sequel-changed-because-of-the-movie/471783/8 "2008-11-08T14:02:30Z")
And if we include TV shows as well as movies…
I’ve heard P.D. James say that she was so impressed by Roy Marsden’s performance as Adam Dalgliesh in the BBC productions of her books, she started giving Dalgliesh a number of Marsden’s characteristics and mannerisms in later mysteries.
John Le Carre supposedly said something similar about Alec Guinness’ portrayal of George Smiley.
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### Author:  [@Kal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kal)
#### Post date: [November 8, 2008, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sequel-changed-because-of-the-movie/471783/9 "2008-11-08T14:35:39Z")
Okay, let’s go old school.
In first two of the ‘Doctor…’ series of books by Richard Gordon, the main character was him. Also, in the first book ‘Doctor in the House’, Lancelot Spratt was described as being a thin, balding, ginger Scot who took himself away towards the end of the book to die from cancer.
In the later books Lancelot Spratt was now alive (can’t remember if he featured in the second book or returned in the third) and quite clearly became the version played in the films by the great James Robertson Justice and the main character was named Simon Sparrow, as played by Dirk Bogarde in the films.
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### Author:  [@Wallenstein](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wallenstein)
#### Post date: [November 8, 2008, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sequel-changed-because-of-the-movie/471783/10 "2008-11-08T14:43:34Z")
Inspector Morse originally drove a Lancia, but the production company for the TV series used a classic Jaguar.
Colin Dexter decided he preferred the Jag and wrote it into subsequent books.
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### Author:  [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)
#### Post date: [November 8, 2008, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sequel-changed-because-of-the-movie/471783/11 "2008-11-08T14:54:36Z")
Wasn’t Richard Sharpe changed from Cockney to northern because of Sean Bean’s portrayal?
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### Author:  [@Ponderoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponderoid)
#### Post date: [November 8, 2008, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sequel-changed-because-of-the-movie/471783/12 "2008-11-08T22:48:43Z")
> [@Red\_Barchetta](#):
>
> Though oddly, the movie 2010 takes some elements from the book 2001.
Interesting, can you provide some examples? I don’t recall anything in particular from the movie _2010_ that outright retconned anything in the movie _2001_.
> [@Der\_Trihs](#):
>
> Also, the Monoliths in the original _2001_ novel were crystalline and transparent. The ones in the movie were made black, and so were the one’s in Clarke’s book sequels.
Only the very first monolith in the novel version of _2001_, the one that uplifted the apes, was crystalline, and that one was changed to black for the movie. However, all the subsequent monoliths in _2001_ and later novels were black to begin with and that didn’t change in the movies.
\*\*\* Ponder
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### Author:  [@De\_La\_Rue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/De_La_Rue)
#### Post date: [November 9, 2008, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sequel-changed-because-of-the-movie/471783/13 "2008-11-09T01:05:11Z")
> [@astorian](#):
>
> But since few people read the book, and millions saw the movie, Groom’s 1995 “Gump & Company” sequel used the movie as the starting point, rather than his own book.
Which is interesting, because I thought he hated the movie.
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### Author:  [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)
#### Post date: [November 9, 2008, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sequel-changed-because-of-the-movie/471783/14 "2008-11-09T01:29:59Z")
> [@De\_La\_Rue](#):
>
> Which is interesting, because I thought he hated the movie.
Maybe he did… but hey, business is business.
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### Author:  [@Johnny\_Q](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Q)
#### Post date: [November 9, 2008, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sequel-changed-because-of-the-movie/471783/15 "2008-11-09T01:31:12Z")
Throw someone enough little green pieces of paper and you’d be surprised what really doesn’t suck all that much after all.
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### Author:  [@gallows\_fodder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gallows_fodder)
#### Post date: [November 9, 2008, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sequel-changed-because-of-the-movie/471783/16 "2008-11-09T02:28:31Z")
> [@astorian](#):
>
> And if we include TV shows as well as movies…
>
> I’ve heard P.D. James say that she was so impressed by Roy Marsden’s performance as Adam Dalgliesh in the BBC productions of her books, she started giving Dalgliesh a number of Marsden’s characteristics and mannerisms in later mysteries.
Likewise, Val McDermid’s Tony Hill mysteries were made into the TV series “Wire in the Blood,” and she has said that she has incorporated actor Robson Green’s mannerisms into her writing.
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### Author:  [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)
#### Post date: [November 9, 2008, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sequel-changed-because-of-the-movie/471783/17 "2008-11-09T14:05:11Z")
The protagonist of the novel _Prizzi’s Honor_ bore no resemblance to Jack Nicholson. But when he wrote the sequel, Richard Condon said he could not get the image of Nicholson out of his mind.
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### Author:  [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)
#### Post date: [November 9, 2008, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sequel-changed-because-of-the-movie/471783/18 "2008-11-09T16:27:22Z")
Gary K. Wolf’s sequel to **Who Censored Roger Rabbit?** incorporated elements from the movie ( **Who Framed Roger Rabbit?** ) into his next book **Who P-P-P-Plugged Roger Rabbit?**. It’s not exactly a sequel, but the characters all have taken on traits of their movie counterparts.