# Why Ruin Michael Crichton books?! **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 6, 2003, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-ruin-michael-crichton-books/217339 "2003-12-06T06:22:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![0rbytal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/0/65b543/32.png) [@0rbytal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/0rbytal)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2003, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-ruin-michael-crichton-books/217339/1 "2003-12-06T06:22:44Z")
I am sure Michael Crichton is not the only author that Hollywood is proverbially shat on, but why do they do this?! I have heard from several friends that the movie Sphere Sucked because it was so different from the book. Now, I liked Sphere probably only because I have yet to read the book. One of my same said friends saw Timeline and said “I want that 2 hours of my life back” because it sucked so bad — nothing like the book. I LOVED that book and was eager to see the movie until she told me that. WHY does hollywood use book titles for their movie that is “based on the book” yet so horribly different?!!?! What authors have been shat on? I also heard the most accurate book-to-film movie is “The 13th warrior” though the book had a different title… ---
**Author:** ![SmackFu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/53a042/32.png) [@SmackFu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmackFu)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2003, 6:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-ruin-michael-crichton-books/217339/2 "2003-12-06T06:33:50Z")
How about Clive Cussler? No, he doesn’t write good books. But you have to admit, he does write good stereotypical action movies. Yet I think the only book that was adapted was “Raise the Titanic”, and that was back in the 70’s and apparently was quite horrid. ---
**Author:** ![Chimpsmack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eb9ed0/32.png) [@Chimpsmack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimpsmack)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2003, 7:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-ruin-michael-crichton-books/217339/3 "2003-12-06T07:44:41Z")
I think a lot of the time people have some kind of fetish for the book and get po’ed when the movie differs in some fashion. As for me, if I’ve already read the book, I like a movie that is a little different, or else I’d get bored cause I already knew exactly what was going to happen :eek: And anyone that says > [@](#): > > “I want that 2 hours of my life back” should be fined for overusing a tired joke 😉 ---
**Author:** ![3trew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/3/13edae/32.png) [@3trew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/3trew)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2003, 8:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-ruin-michael-crichton-books/217339/4 "2003-12-06T08:00:37Z")
I think it was Jim Thompson who was asked how he felt about the fact that Hollywood had ruined so many of his books. He pointed to a shelf and said “No they didn’t, they’re right over there”. ---
**Author:** ![BrandyFine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrandyFine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrandyFine)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2003, 8:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-ruin-michael-crichton-books/217339/5 "2003-12-06T08:02:21Z")
Stephen King, obviously. I cringe whenever someone says they loved Salem’s Lot…the movie! How anyone who read the book can feel anything but revulsion for that miscarriage is beyond my comprehension. ---
**Author:** ![Odinoneeye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/97f17d/32.png) [@Odinoneeye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odinoneeye)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2003, 8:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-ruin-michael-crichton-books/217339/6 "2003-12-06T08:18:43Z")
I read Sphere and saw the movie and I liked both. The movie wasn’t really that different from the book. There were a few changes, some of them necessary, some not, but I’ve seen many movies that were much less faithful to the book. Now I hated the book Timeline. I probably won’t see the movie until it comes out on DVD. ---
**Author:** ![SolGrundy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbce88/32.png) [@SolGrundy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SolGrundy)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2003, 8:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-ruin-michael-crichton-books/217339/7 "2003-12-06T08:58:53Z")
In general, I’d agree with the OP, but Michael Crichton is a bad example. He writes books for the express purpose of selling the movie rights to them. (And making a ton of money off the book itself, of course). He’s also a director and producer, remember – he produces “E.R.”, and was director of _Westworld_, _Coma_, and _The Great Train Robbery_ from his own book. As he was writing the first _Jurassic Park_ book, he was interviewed and they asked what he was currently working on. He said, “I’m writing what’s going to be the most expensive movie ever made.” I don’t know why, but that made me lose a lot of respect for him. (It doesn’t make sense; if anything I should respect somebody with enough savvy to be able to make money at every point in the production line.) I used to like his books until I realized how formulaic they all are. Still, _Jurassic Park_ and _The Great Train Robbery_ are pretty good reads. ---
**Author:** ![Hunter\_Hawk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/50afbb/32.png) [@Hunter\_Hawk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hunter_Hawk)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2003, 12:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-ruin-michael-crichton-books/217339/8 "2003-12-06T12:04:44Z")
Sorry, but IMNSHO the book _Sphere_ was awful. The end was the single worst literary copout I have ever seen. What’s worse is that he actually had one or two vaguely interesting ideas earlier in the book, but then threw them away–I got the impression that he wrote himself into a corner and just gave up. This is the one Crichton book I’ve ever read (I was stuck in an airport and was desperate), and I’ve sworn never to read another. And no, I don’t like Stephen King either. So there. ---
**Author:** ![RikWriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/49beb7/32.png) [@RikWriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RikWriter)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2003, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-ruin-michael-crichton-books/217339/9 "2003-12-06T13:23:22Z")
I agree with Hunter. Crichton writes books with the specific intent of selling them to Hollywood. He gets what he deserves and I am sure he cries all the way to the bank. ---
**Author:** ![norinew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/eb9ed0/32.png) [@norinew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/norinew)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2003, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-ruin-michael-crichton-books/217339/10 "2003-12-06T14:34:39Z")
Sometimes changes work well, though. As much as I loved Stephen King’s novella “Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption”, I liked the movie better. And Winston Groom’s “Forrest Gump” was **way** different from the movie, but, IMHO, both were great! It doesn’t bother me at all to know that Crichton writes novels with the intention of selling them to Hollywood. I’m sure Hollywood has screwed any number of authors over the years; this seems like a little bit of cosmic karma to me. The guy’s business savvy. Can’t fault him for that. ---
**Author:** ![Gadfly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/aeb1de/32.png) [@Gadfly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gadfly)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2003, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-ruin-michael-crichton-books/217339/11 "2003-12-06T14:45:53Z")
Why write Michael Chrichton books? ---
**Author:** ![Charlie\_Tan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/charlie_tan/32/12582_2.png) [@Charlie\_Tan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charlie_Tan)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2003, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-ruin-michael-crichton-books/217339/12 "2003-12-06T15:07:29Z")
I’ve only ever read ‘timeline’ and it was really an airport book. Forgot to have a book in my carry-on and picked it up while hustling to the gate. Seriously, can anything short of burning ruin his books? If ‘Timeline’ is any indication of his writing abilities, then his writing sucks. Formulaic, to say the least, void of emotion, character development and so utterly mechanical in the storytelling, the only reason I kept reading, was that I was stuck on a plane and there wasn’t a movie. The whole book reads like a screenplay, including that stupid countdown, which is a tired cliché, to say the leat, even in movies, but in a book, it was just so incredibly annoying. ---
**Author:** ![widdershins](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f0a364/32.png) [@widdershins](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/widdershins)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2003, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-ruin-michael-crichton-books/217339/13 "2003-12-06T15:10:53Z")
Well since Crichton has stunk up the movie screen with some of his directorial efforts like _Looker, Runaway_, and _Physical Evidence_ and I quit reading his books around the mid-90s when I got tired of his formulaic plots and tissue paper characters, I don’t feel to sorry for him as he cranks out lousy books for scads of money. Films like _Rising Sun, Congo, Twister_ and _The Lost World: Jurassic Park_ written by him or based on his work convinced me I haven’t missed much by not reading him anymore. You could make a case that Ian Fleming has been shat on the further away from his books the Bond Movies got after his death and even more so as they ran out of his original works to base films on. Now that the Broccoli family has their own process for cranking out Bond movies, it seem like bond in name only. Most of the movies I’ve seen based on Alistair MacLean novels have sucked, but MacLean was such a straight forward brain candy adventure writer it doesn’t make too much difference. Still they really screwed up _River Of Death_ and not just by putting Michael Dudikoff in the lead. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2003, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-ruin-michael-crichton-books/217339/14 "2003-12-06T17:12:05Z")
Personally, I’ve found most Crichton books to be pre-ruined. Even his better works (_The Andromeda Strain_, _The Bionic Man_, _The Great Train Robbery_, _Fever_) were good action novels and thin on characterization. ---
**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:** [December 6, 2003, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-ruin-michael-crichton-books/217339/15 "2003-12-06T17:57:03Z")
Crichton’s science is universally sloppy. It always sounds like he’s vaguely remembering a newspaper article on some hot science topic that he read five years before, but he can’t be bothered to do any research on the topic. He’s also got one theme that he’s used too many times: There Are Things That Man Was Not Meant To Know. How many times are we going to have to hear about a theme park gone wrong? ---
**Author:** ![CrazyCatLady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dfb087/32.png) [@CrazyCatLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CrazyCatLady)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2003, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-ruin-michael-crichton-books/217339/16 "2003-12-06T18:06:40Z")
What always killed me about the second Jurassic Park book was that the main character had _died_ in the first book! Can anybody explain that to me? ---
**Author:** ![Foolonthehill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e274bd/32.png) [@Foolonthehill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Foolonthehill)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2003, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-ruin-michael-crichton-books/217339/17 "2003-12-06T18:09:14Z")
Not sure how you can “ruin” a Crichton story, as all they seem to be is plot outlines, with no character development, and some hocus-pocus science thrown in. The San Francisco Chronicle has an article today, (12/06/03), on this very subject; “Whodunit to who ruined it.” (Sorry, I don’t know how to link). How and why some adaptations work, and some don’t. 2trew; It was James Cain who said that. ---
**Author:** ![Fifteen\_Iguana](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8c91f0/32.png) [@Fifteen\_Iguana](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fifteen_Iguana)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2003, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-ruin-michael-crichton-books/217339/18 "2003-12-06T18:20:31Z")
Sue Grafton used to write screenplays. Now she is a bestselling novelist. She has never given permission for her books to be filmed and as I recall she gives three reasons: 1. She doesn’t need the money. 2. THey usually ruin them. and 3. SHe is held in much greater respect in Hollywood because they can’t buy her. Htichcock always said he would never make a movie from a great book; he didn’t want to mess with someone else’s masterpiece, he wanted to make his own. I’m sure Dahpne Du Maurier, Robert Bloch, and the others whose work he adapted found this faint praise, but he had a point. Anyone have a nominee for a movie that was better than the book? How about if we limit it to one where you read the book FIRST? In that latter category I can only think of one, off hand: A Christmas Story was better than the book it was based on, and I’m a lifelong Jean Sheeherd fan. Fifteen Iguana ---
**Author:** ![Kizarvexius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/da6949/32.png) [@Kizarvexius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kizarvexius)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2003, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-ruin-michael-crichton-books/217339/19 "2003-12-06T20:06:17Z")
Some of Tom Clancey’s books (I know, I know, _heretic!_ were more enjoyable as movies, watered-down as they may have been. More than once while reading _Clear and Present Danger_ I reached some crucial plot twist and said "wait a minute, who the heck is _this_ guy? The books have so many characters, so many sub-plots, and so many technical details that screenplay adaptations have tended to distill out much of what was probably unnecessary in the first place. And, yes, I read the books first. ---
**Author:** ![Baldwin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baldwin/32/7264_2.png) [@Baldwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baldwin)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2003, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-ruin-michael-crichton-books/217339/20 "2003-12-06T21:45:50Z")
_Posted by 2trew:_ [quote] I think it was Jim Thompson who was asked how he felt about the fact that Hollywood had ruined so many of his books. He pointed to a shelf and said “No they didn’t, they’re right over there”. [quote] _Posted by Foolonthehill:_ > [@](#): > > 2trew; It was James Cain who said that. And I heard it was Elmore Leonard! Maybe this is one of those quotes that take on a life of their own, and end up being attributed to all sorts of people. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-ruin-michael-crichton-books/217339.md?page=2)