Books you would hate to see turned into a movie

[azurawolf]

Idea from: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/18.230992-Films-You-Really-Dont-Want-To-See-Remakes-Of

We all love our books and sometimes it is awesome to see them come to life on the big screen. Sometimes they do a good job when they turn a book into a movie. In my opinion Harry Potter is a good example of that. Most of the high points are put into the movie and they don't go completely crazy trying to change everything that was wonderful about the book.

But then you get the horrible ones when the author should have thought twice about letting them turn it in to a movie. Blood and Chocolate is an example of that. I love the book and was excited to see it become a movie. But they changed everything I loved about it. All they kept was the names of the characters and the fact that they were werewolves. I refuse to watch it to this day but I still love the book.

So I have a question... which books do you not want to see become a movie for fear that they will fuck it all up? And which movies had you wished they hadn't turned into a movie?

Mine would have to be Bitten by Kelly Armstrong. That is my favorite werewolf book and I don't want to see it destroyed.
I also wish that they hadn't made Eragon into a movie. I was yelling at the screen the first time I saw it. Thank god it was just me and my bf at the theater.

Also... please keep Twilight bashing to a minimum because I know it is going to happen...
That is not the purpose of this thread.

 

[JWRosser]

Catcher in the Rye. As far as I know it isn't a film...but a film of it would be awful. The book is brilliant not because of it's plot but because of it's narrative which, obviously, would be completely lost in a film adaptation.
Also Slaughterhouse 5. It wouldn't make sense as a film and people who haven't read the book would probably criticise it too much for being 'random'

 

[Canadian Briton]

The Horus heresy series. It would be too hard to adapt it all. And I fear it would suffer heaps of adaption decay. Oh and I bet money the protagonist astartes would get love interests.

 

[Boneasse]

Any book I like, to be honest. I mainly read sci-fi and fantasy books, greater than 300+ pages in length, each. A length like that makes it hard to convert to a movie unless you re-write the whole thing.

The only book to movie adaptation that has succeeded, in that genre, in my humble opinion, is the Lord of The Rings. And that's only because I went into the cinema, not expecting anything.

So, to all those screenwriters out there; keep the book to movie adaptations down.

 

[the Dept of Science]

Well, there are lots of movie adaptations of books that haven't been shit (the Godfather, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and pretty much all Kubrick films for example).

There are very few good books where I can't imagine a good (or even great) film being made out of, given the right director.

 

[zHellas]

The House of Leaves... Unless it was made by David Lynch.

 

[Alfador_VII]

The Oxford English Dictionary.

Way too long, too many characters with cameos and you just know Zythum will end up being the bad guy.

 

[strum4h]

Lord of the Flies.

The Oxford English Dictionary.

Way too long, too many characters with cameos and you just know Zythum will end up being the bad guy.

Touche...

 

[CrashBang]

Northern Lights


Oh wait... *sigh*

 

[kintaris]

Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Marukami.

It's my favourite book, but there's no way I can see it even remotely translating well to the screen.

There's a few Murakami-adapted screenplays/concepts floating around the industry, but (thankfully, in my opinion) they haven't been picked up yet.

OT: The Dark Tower series. Oh, wait. It's already a project that's been shat all over by JJ Abrams and now scooped up by RON F***ING HOWARD.

Plenty of other things I hope they leave alone. In fact, most of my book collection.

 

[azurawolf]

Lord of the Flies.

A little late. Already been done.
Haven't seen it.
Awesome book though!

 

[kouriichi]

R.A. Salvatore's The Crystal Shards.

I know no matter how great the writing, the scripts, special effects, or acting, Drizzt would never come out right.

I cant think of a single actor i would want to play this icon of perfect character devolpment.

 

[Vhite]

Probably all of them.

 

[Serenegoose]

Iron Sunrise, by Charles Stross. Fortunately it doesn't seem like typical hollywood fare, so I don't think I have to worry about it.

 

[kintaris]

Seriously? With the exception of Norwegian Wood (which is still probably a bit too 'Japanese' for Hollywood) I have no idea how the hell they would manage to get one of his books on screen, without making it full of on-going narration and three films long. Not that his novels are overly long or anything, but the amount of stuff crammed into them.

Exactly, but there are a lot of confessed 'fans' in the industry that have speculated about it nonetheless. I can see a particular crowd of filmmakers who might try it. And all the ones I'm thinking of would fail miserably.

It's exactly the kind of thing Charlie Kaufman might gobble up and turn into a self-parodying ego trip.

Luckily no big studio would pick that sort of thing up, so it would have to be a vanity project for someone and there isn't the spare cash at the moment to fund such things. We might be spared a few more years.

 

[scatmanfan]

Definitely Ender's Game. I love the book to death, and it's actually my favorite, but nearly the whole book is narrative. Not even close to enough dialogue.

 

[Kuranesno7]

Neuromancer,
it might be good in the Watchmen sense that it was actually filmed, but if there is no creative style or proper balance of narration,
one of the greatest books of the twentieth century will end up as a cheap knockoff of Blade Runner.