Ok, well not all time, but these are definitely the highest grossing film adaptations and from that I gleaned this: Harry Potter dominates. I think that is the obvious conclusion that can be made from this compiled list of highest grossing film adaptations. With every book on the list only to be broken up by LOTR and Jurassic Park, Harry Potter reigns at the box office. I have to say though, Twilight is not in the top ten and we have Harry Potter to thank for that. Continue reading
Why are you interested in this adaptation?
Rachel-
I am interested in this adaptation because, like everyone else last year, I read the Hunger Games Trilogy over the summer. Initially, I was resistant to reading them because I felt that reading about kids murdering each other would be too stressful, but I gave in. I didn’t have to wait at all to read the complete trilogy because I began the first book only a few months before Mockingjay was published. Good thing, too–I was instantly obsessed. These books are a return to the type of science fiction I read as a child, and thus, I liked them very much. They are a return to the dystopia youth fiction, often shockingly violent and generally interested in psychology and sociology, that forces a young mind to examine its own preconceptions. Books like Ender’s Game, 1984, The Girl Who Owned a City, The Giver (which connects pretty easily to the self-sufficient, nature survival novels like Hatchet or My Side of the Mountain that were also pretty popular with my fellow elementary school attendees). I will say that the first book is far better than its sequels. There are lots of reasons for that, but it is true. Continue reading
We all know, or I hope we know, that normally the first choice for a role is not the choice that gets used in movies. Between scheduling conflicts, or “creative differences” actors and actresses quit and move on. This is often a very good thing, such as Jack Nicholson not getting the role of the dad in A Christmas Story, or Kellan Lutz not getting the role of Edward in Twilight. These things happen for a reason. So here are the top 5 book to movie adaptations that had close casting calls. Continue reading
I just put down my copy of Pierre Boulle’s 1963 opus, Planet of the Apes, as translated by Xan Fielding. “Put down” may not be the most accurate phrasing here — I closed the app on my phone and proceeded to do some web surfing for a while. That was primarily to verify the number of movies spun off of this relatively slender volume: seven films and two television series, at least one video game and several supporting documentaries and behind-the-scenes projects shot up on the IMDB site in short order. At first blush, these varied projects, most of which I have seen, bare little resemblance to the book used as their source material beyond the conceit that apes somehow supplant man as the dominant species of their planet. Continue reading
As we know there are a ton of book to movie adaptations out there with some of them less desirable then others (ahem The Scarlet Letter with Demi Moore) but there are few that for some reason society doesn’t like when they rightfully should! These are seven films that I have watched and loved over the years but I don’t feel society gives them the attention and credit they deserve. They may not stay true to the book, they have something about them that makes them memorable or recognizable. Continue reading
The world of literature and film is filled with bad people, and perpetual “bad guys”. Some of the best stories revolve around the main character being evil or amoral. Nonetheless, some of the worst bad guys had their beginnings, not in film but in literature. To honor that, I have compiled a list of the 7 worst bad guys that appear in both books and film: Continue reading
Ian McEwan’s Atonement, and its subsequent film adaptation starring Keira Knightly and James McAvoy, is one of the reasons that I wrote Spoiler Alert.
About halfway through the book, Robbie, our falsely accused hero, has joined the British army and is trudging through the woods. He passes a rock and then a tree and then another rock and then another tree and then another rock and then—well, you get the idea. I skipped ahead a few pages … more rocks and trees. Skipping further ahead, yet more rocks and trees. A Frenchman or two appear, but it’s still mostly rocks and trees. Robbie passes them; he thinks about them, too, as does Mr. McEwan. I, on the other hand, don’t. I don’t care about rocks, aside from moving them aside for fracking purposes, nor do I think about trees, except that we’re tearing them down faster than they can grow back. Continue reading
I love Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Tarzan books. The man never even went to Africa, yet he got a town (Tarzana, CA) named after his character. That’s impressive. Continue reading
Almost everyone has seen the movies on the list, but most probably don’t know that they were based on books first. The book to movie adaptation started happening a long time ago, with animated films. There are a couple of things you notice when you re-watch a childhood film you loved. Firstly, the topics were a lot more lenient, and therefore a lot darker. Death, witchcraft, animal abuse, racial stereotypes. It is sometimes hard to believe they were meant for young tiny children. (I am kind of scared to read the books and find out what tales the stories originally told.) Continue reading
Editors Note: This article is not for the easily offended. But it is hilarious if you aren’t.
Why Are You Interested in This Adaptation?
Rachel-
Oh, man, am I interested in this adaptation? Am I? I’m interested in this for the same reasons I’m interested in the latest Lindsay Lohan drama.
I just want to out myself immediately. I am not a fan of Twilight. I think they’re poorly written, dull manifestations of one woman’s Mary Sue dream that comes right at the END of a decade long vampire obsession in popular culture. Continue reading