# Totally Different Character In Book Versus Movie/TV **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 23, 2011, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-different-character-in-book-versus-movie-tv/586589 "2011-06-23T18:41:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2011, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-different-character-in-book-versus-movie-tv/586589/81 "2011-06-27T20:23:29Z")
> [@Argent\_Towers](#): > > Peter Fallow in _Bonfire of the Vanities._ Wolfe wrote this character as a pretentious British journalist hell-bent on slandering Sherman McCoy and American society in general. In the movie, he’s played by Bruce Willis as a wisecracking, friendly New York reporter who winds up extending a hand of sympathy to McCoy (who was, himself, played all too sympathetically by Tom Hanks.) In all fairness, it’s damn hard to adapt a Tom Wolfe novel into a movie; his characters are far too unlikable to ever carry a mainstream film. Wolfe himself said that Peter Fallows was supposed to be Alexander Cockburn. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2011, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-different-character-in-book-versus-movie-tv/586589/82 "2011-06-27T21:53:30Z")
It’s a minor thing, but consider THE FOURTH PROTOCOL. In the book, dogged sleuth John Preston is working a tough case: a courier – who promptly killed himself – was caught smuggling in what may or may not be the part for an atomic bomb. Our hero tells his high-ranking boss the only hope is to keep cracking down on every airport and every pier in hopes of catching yet more smugglers, but it’s probably not going to work. Sure enough, it doesn’t; every part gets delivered just fine, and the KGB is ready to set off a Frame-The-Americans nuke right there in the ol’ UK. That’s why Preston’s aforementioned boss sensibly cuts a deal with a high-ranking Soviet: give up the name and address of your would-be detonator and we’ll kill him instead of taking him alive. In the book, saving all those innocents to stop the war is played off as a brilliant and practical solution that greatly impresses Preston, who is utterly delighted to keep working with his savvy boss. The movie – takes a sharp turn just then, so the ending can center on Preston expressing his unadulterated disgust at the abhorrent dealmaking. (Because, hey, it’s Michael Caine, and he deserves to go out on a high note of righteous indignation, y’know?) ---
**Author:** ![UltraVires](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecccb3/32.png) [@UltraVires](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UltraVires)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2011, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-different-character-in-book-versus-movie-tv/586589/83 "2011-06-29T20:12:40Z")
The Natural. In the book, Roy Hobbs isn’t the goodie two shoes that he is in the movie. It makes far more sense why he was gone for 16 years and blathered about the mistakes he had made. Watching the movie, you wondered why he was kicking himself in the nuts for 16 years just because he visited a girl in her hotel room. The book Roy Hobbs, and the different ending, brings the story together better. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2011, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-different-character-in-book-versus-movie-tv/586589/84 "2011-06-29T22:43:58Z")
James Bond, 007. In the books, Bond was a serious professional. In the films, he joked about killing, something that would be totally foreign to the book Bond. ---
**Author:** ![Rhiannon8404](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rhiannon8404/32/17929_2.png) [@Rhiannon8404](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhiannon8404)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2011, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-different-character-in-book-versus-movie-tv/586589/85 "2011-06-30T00:18:44Z")
Definitely Mary Poppins. I saw the movie as a kid. Then later as a teen I read the books. Mary Poppins of the movie is sickly sweet and a total goody-two-shoes. The Mary Poppins of the book totally kicks ass (and the kids really need it, too)! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-different-character-in-book-versus-movie-tv/586589.md?page=4)