# UN-faithful movie adaptations of novels **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 11, 2013, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/un-faithful-movie-adaptations-of-novels/652647 "2013-03-11T18:12:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2013, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/un-faithful-movie-adaptations-of-novels/652647/101 "2013-03-25T14:05:27Z")
I enjoyed both _Kick-Ass_ and _RED_ very much. A _Kick-Ass_ sequel is coming out in August, with the main cast returning: [Kick-Ass 2 (film) - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kick-Ass_2_(film)) ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2013, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/un-faithful-movie-adaptations-of-novels/652647/102 "2013-03-25T15:28:18Z")
Since a thread on it was bumped recently - Book: **The Club Dumas** by Arturo Perez-Reverte Film: **The Ninth Gate** , starring Johnny Depp and directed by Roman Polanski Vaguely spoilery: The film completely omits the major storyline about a possibly real, possibly forged draft of a chapter of The Three Musketeers and all of the conspiracy/mystery/bibliophilia around it. Which makes sense since films necessarily have to cut corners, but it also makes the book’s title useless here. It otherwise kind of stays faithful to the remaining material - barring reuse of characters for different purposes - until near the end. In the book, the forged pages are not the acts of Lucifer, but instead of a pair of forgers, and the mysterious woman who protects the lead character is not trying to lure him into Hell, but is a fallen angel (possibly Lucifer but this is not clear from my memory) who has been wandering the earth, deeply lonely, and fell in love with the lead character. The book’s ending is rather touching, while the movie’s is very confusing and even apocalyptic. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2013, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/un-faithful-movie-adaptations-of-novels/652647/103 "2013-03-25T16:01:05Z")
_The Club Dumas_ has a _lot_ of literary references, I see: [The Club Dumas - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Club_Dumas) ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2013, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/un-faithful-movie-adaptations-of-novels/652647/104 "2013-03-25T16:44:09Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > _The Club Dumas_ has a _lot_ of literary references, I see: [The Club Dumas - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Club_Dumas) Tons, and invents a mess of fake books to refer to as well. So it’s a great book for fans of books to read, IMO. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2013, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/un-faithful-movie-adaptations-of-novels/652647/105 "2013-03-25T16:59:58Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > A _Kick-Ass_ sequel is coming out in August, with the main cast returning: [Kick-Ass 2 (film) - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kick-Ass_2_(film)) I’m going to assume this will also deviate from the book as that one is REALLY gruesome. Plus the scene where Red Mist machine-guns a bunch of young kids for no good reason is unlikely to test well in the US these days, if ever it would have. ---
**Author:** ![Scupper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Scupper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scupper)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2013, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/un-faithful-movie-adaptations-of-novels/652647/106 "2013-03-25T20:55:50Z")
> [@Ibn\_Warraq](#): > > The movie _Wanted_, has virtually nothing in common with the graphic novel by Mark Millar it was based on. I’ve never had a more negative reaction to a graphic novel than I did to Wanted. I didn’t think the movie could be any worse, but I hadn’t counted on Hollywood’s amazing ability to disappoint. They took a wildly violent, nihilistic and pretentious example of the very worst of the comic book genre and made a boring, forgettable action movie. I mean, say what you like about the GN (and I liked a few things), at least it was _lively_. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2013, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/un-faithful-movie-adaptations-of-novels/652647/107 "2013-03-25T21:04:45Z")
Ursula LeGuin’s Earthsea was turned into a very bad min-series on the Syfy channel. Among the changes: the copper skinned people of Ged’s land are made white; the celibate wizard is given a love interest and many new characters are introduced. LeGuin pretty much wrote an open letter saying don’t watch this show. ---
**Author:** ![johnspartan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a183cd/32.png) [@johnspartan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnspartan)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2013, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/un-faithful-movie-adaptations-of-novels/652647/108 "2013-03-25T21:41:50Z")
The big “reveal” in L.A. Confidential was established pretty early as a given fact in the book. Thankfully I saw the film before reading the book (actually listened to the audiobook), so thankfully it didn’t ruin the movie for me… but if you read the book then went to see the film you’d lose a lot of the suspense. ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2013, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/un-faithful-movie-adaptations-of-novels/652647/109 "2013-03-26T00:20:16Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > As I’vre said regarding Hunchback – I don’t think there’s been a single film version that’s really faithful to Victor Hugo’s book (although someone has suggested the Anthony Quinn version. I haven’t seen it.) . This version is indeed faithful to the novel. I recommend it. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2013, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/un-faithful-movie-adaptations-of-novels/652647/110 "2013-03-26T00:27:42Z")
> [@Frumpy\_Jones](#): > > One of my all time favorite books is “A Prayer for Owen Meany”. I was super-excited to hear it was being made into a movie, but was curious as to how they’d pull it all off. > > They did so by removing about 90% of what made the book fantastic, including changing the ending drastically… > > So much so that they changed the name of the movie (And main character) to “Simon Birch”… > > It was just awful. ☹ John Irving asked them to change the title precisely because it was so different from the book. I have a feeling he also didn’t think it was very good. I didn’t love the book, but the movie was awful. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2013, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/un-faithful-movie-adaptations-of-novels/652647/111 "2013-03-26T00:44:00Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > The silent Lon Chaney version has Quasi die, but Esmeralda gets to live. In the novel, Quasimodo interrupts the priest being nasty to Esmerelda. There is a lot of writing about what Quasimodo is thinking about. His confusion and allegiance. In the silent film, the scene is brief and wonderful. Like Quasimodo, we are deaf watching the film. Like he, our vision is obscured watching the old black and white film. ---
**Author:** ![Hermione](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/cdc98d/32.png) [@Hermione](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hermione)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2013, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/un-faithful-movie-adaptations-of-novels/652647/112 "2013-03-26T03:47:49Z")
> [@Gedd](#): > > The most recent _Cheaper by the Dozen_ was just like the original book (which is non-fiction, by the way) in the following ways: > -The family has twelve kids > -The title is “Cheaper by the Dozen” > > I don’t know why they kept the title if they didn’t keep any resemblence of the plot. This. I mean, I can see somewhat altering the facts in a film based on a true story, but THIS?! Did they ever say WHY?! They already HAD a good alternate title if they’d just given it a little thought. Steve Martin’s character is named Tom Baker (no scarf or jellybabies, though). So why not call it “Baker’s Dozen”? ---
**Author:** ![SSG\_Schwartz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@SSG\_Schwartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SSG_Schwartz)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2013, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/un-faithful-movie-adaptations-of-novels/652647/113 "2013-03-26T04:01:16Z")
I just remembered the story by George R.R. Martin story “Sandkings.” It got made into a made-for-TV-movie on Showtime. The only thing that was similar was that there were creatures in the sand that could fight and eat. SFC Schwartz ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2013, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/un-faithful-movie-adaptations-of-novels/652647/114 "2013-03-26T04:16:20Z")
> [@Gangster Octopus](#): > > I have not read them, but I have heard the Bourne novels bear little resemblance to the movies. Is this correct? > [@spanna](#): > > Definitely - aside from The Bourne Name and amnesia the films bear little resemblance to the books - Unfortunately Yeah, afraid so. The movies are fantastic action flicks, but they completely omit the original plot twist from the first book that makes the entire series make sense. Same with _Shooter_, the Mark Wahlberg-starring movie version of the novel _Point of Impact_ - the movie completely omits the clever plot twist central to the entire book and substitutes a revenge fueled bloodbath by the main character. Not that that’s a bad thing, but after reading a taut thriller in which the main character brilliantly outwits everyone who betrays him, seeing an alternate ending where he simply murders them all is a bit of an eyeroller. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2013, 10:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/un-faithful-movie-adaptations-of-novels/652647/115 "2013-03-26T10:13:24Z")
> [@Hermione](#): > > This. I mean, I can see somewhat altering the facts in a film based on a true story, but THIS?! Did they ever say WHY?! > > They already HAD a good alternate title if they’d just given it a little thought. Steve Martin’s character is named Tom Baker (no scarf or jellybabies, though). So why not call it “Baker’s Dozen”? I agree. There is, of course, already a perfectly good (and largely faithful) movie of the book made in 1950 with Myrna Loy as the mother. > [@SSG\_Schwartz](#): > > I just remembered the story by George R.R. Martin story “Sandkings.” > > It got made into a made-for-TV-movie on Showtime. The only thing that was similar was that there were creatures in the sand that could fight and eat. Isn’t that basically “Tremors”? ---
**Author:** ![Gedd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gedd/32/4938_2.png) [@Gedd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gedd)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2013, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/un-faithful-movie-adaptations-of-novels/652647/116 "2013-03-26T13:02:42Z")
> [@Gyrate](#): > > I agree. There is, of course, already a perfectly good (and largely faithful) movie of the book made in 1950 with Myrna Loy as the mother. I know, I liked it. That just adds to the shame of the most recent movie. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/un-faithful-movie-adaptations-of-novels/652647.md?page=5)