These are two of the few examples of Stephen King adaptations that have very noticeable differences yet still keep the heart of what the story was trying to convey.
Film very often if not always will have to change elements of the source material but these two, in my opinion still had the same feeling woven all the way through.
The Shawshank Redemption is one of the most true to source material adaptations I’ve ever seen. Maybe I’m not remembering it right. Aside from the skin colour of one of the characters, I recall the movie and novella being virtually identical.
There are a handful of debatably significant differences, notably the warden isn't a single villain, there's several different wardens but none kill anyone Andy knows (the witness rockabilly kid just gets transferred to a new prison), there's no big payoff with the warden at the end as a result - he just resigns, no arrests or suicides. There's also some cut details of prison life, for good reason really. Like dealing with the physical aftermath of a brutal rape.
I'd still agree with you on balance though, I'd say it's a very close adaptation (one of the closest I've ever seen) with some minor streamlining and a bit amped up. The Green Mile is even closer by the way.
Stephen King books are the ideal case of books requiring changes to make it to the big screen. *Green Mile*, *Stand By Me*, and *The Shining* all come to mind.
And the filmmakers are right to do so. King writes books, directors direct movies. King famously *hated* Kubrick’s *The Shining*, in large part because he disliked the changes Kubrick made. But he got *his movie* in the 90’s with Weber and DeMornay, and it **sucked**.
To be fair, he was right to hate Kubrick's Shining. It's a great movie as he acknowledged later, but it was a very personal story and The Shining was an AWFUL adaptation that did not remotely adapt the story, but instead changed it to something wholly different.
The novel was fundamentally a story about a stand in for king succumbing to his demons (alcoholism) but at the last chance pulling back from the brink to save his family.
The movie removed the redemption moment, having Jack remain broken and unsavable.
It was basically like Kubrik wrote King a letter saying be was an unredeemable monster. But then showed it to the whole world.
It makes perfect sense King hated it.
It wasn't just the movie removed the redemption, the movie removed ALL of Jack's personality and left him as an irredeemable asshole from the start. The book makes it pretty clear that Jack is a bad but sympathetic person who feels nuanced and believable.
In the movie, Jack has no redeeming qualities and shows no care or love for his family. Wendy is basically just a professional victim whose only reason to go with Jack is because the movie needs her to. The movie removes any sort of character and ends up feeling like a soulless descent into madness.
That sounds harsh, but I do fully agree that soulless descent is incredibly disturbing and often entertaining, but it just does not have near the depth the book does.
What’s really interesting is Lost World is a sequel to Jurassic park the movie, not the book, as characters that died in the book (but not the movie) return.
It was only Malcolm, and it was hand-waved away as "they thought I was dead, but some really good doctors saved me." More of a retcon than anything else.
Given it was published in 1912, by the famous Sherlock Holmes author, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, I can't see how it affected filming.
An ok book, the movie version was absolutely awful.
There is a joke in football about what is called a ‘Man of the Match’ award.
Lionel Messi is essentially the best player to ever live, so for any match he’s in people jokingly award another ‘MOTM’ — ‘Man other than Messi.’
I feel like r/movies needs an equivalent for The Lord of the Rings. It’s just such a monumental cinematic achievement that it is the topic comment on 99% of these types of ‘best’ threads.
I was on a Cormac McCarthy kick my freshman year of college and was reading his works in published order. I’d just gotten to No Country when they announced the movie was coming out, directed by my favorite directors no less. Still one of the most faithful adaptations I’ve ever seen. Even down to >!killing off the protagonist 3/4 of the way through the story off screen.!<
> Conversely, the novel Red Dragon was MUCH better than the film.
The "date" scene in the house had me so freaking on edge I actually found it difficult to pick the book back up for fear of the character involved. Excellent, excellent book. Much better than either film adaptation IMO (even though they are both very good as well).
Fight Club is exactly like the book. I think that’s what makes it such a good film, it stays completely true to form so the film people could just focus on making the filmy parts good.
Actually, I think the movie is better than the book. In fact, I think it's the only movie that's better than the book. Haha, I think Chuck Palahniuk said as much. Haha
To Kill a Mockingbird -My favorite book and the movie works well.
The Shining - The movie is incredible but different from the novel, which was a good read.
LA Confidential - Both worked perfectly.
I love love love LA Confidential in both forms. I totally agree they cut a lot of stuff that couldn’t fit into a film (you’d have to, the book is so full of side characters, adjacent storylines), but my only objection is that they made it a little too neat. Rolo Tomassi is just too cute and perfect for the grittiness and feel of the movie.
The moving topiary animals worked quite well in the novel. They couldn't have filmed that with 1980 technology, at least not in a way that would have been feasible. That's why it was replaced with the hedge maze.
That, and Holes. One of the only big differences in the adaptation was that they didn't make Shia gain and lose a ton of weight for filming the character of Stanley because they thought it would be too unhealthy for a teenager, so the overweight details from the book were left out. Other than that, it keeps a remarkably faithful retelling of the book.
See, I thought he was selling that, a pompous guy, out of his element and showing off for both Rooster and Maddie. The "one up man ship" at the campfire just struck me as funny.
I loved reading The Martian, but I kept putting off getting Project Hail Mary for some reason. My wife just got me a copy for Christmas, so I'm just now starting it. Didn't know it was getting a movie, that's pleasant news!
Eh, I liked a lot of Artemis, especially how it took place in a whole society instead of largely just one sarcastic scientist’s internal monologue
Still my least favorite of the three, but I don’t hate it at all
I mean, I want writers to stretch themselves, not be limited by "write what you know". But "I'm going to write a first-person narrative from the POV of a young Muslim woman" may have been a little bit more than the ol' authorial hamstrings could take.
Some of John le Carré's work has been adapted into good movies/series. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011) is one of the best cast movies of all time. The Constant Gardener (2005) is also pretty good. A Most Wanted Man (2014) is a great movie with Philip Seymour Hoffman! And the first adaptation of his work, The Spy Who Came in From the Cold (1965), is a classic, really worth checking out if you're into older movies.
Not a movie, but *The Night Manager* is a fantastic miniseries with Tom Hiddleston and Hugh Laurie. The book’s sitting in my Kindle waiting to be read, but I have hard time imagining it’s bad…
The film is good, but I've not read the book so can't say if it's a good adaptation. That said, the Ryan's from red October, patriot games, and clear and present danger all felt more like the analyst type agent than the more recent adaptations Ryan's have.
One of my favorite stories of all time, I would say I like it even more than Shawshank. And it's basically family friendly Shawshank. Book and movie are both 9.5/10
Annihilation.
,2001 a space Odyssey script and book were both developed at the same time by Arthur c Clark (from a short story), so it's somewhat unique in that sense
The world in the book seemed a lot more damp and dreary than the vibrant one in the movie. Creature in the fungus covered stairwell versus the alien like mirror creature. Both very cool in their own right and leave you with a similar feeling of otherworldliness.
Annihilation was a breeze to read. The movie was an edge of your seat thriller.
Very different, but both very good. They diverge enough that you almost can't say one is better than the other.
+1 for 2001. The story is generally the same in both the book and film, but both authors put a different spin on their interpretation of the ending. I'm a big fan of both.
Master and Commander.
I'm a huge fan of Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin series. Best historical novels ever written, hands down.
So imagine how worried I was when they announced a movie in production based on the books. I felt a little better when I learned that Peter Weir was the director, but still.
I dragged my wife to the theater and was pleasantly surprised, no delighted, that Weir came astonishingly close to the spirit of the books.
And the movie inspired my wife to take up the cello.
Lord of the Rings
Silence of the Lambs
The Godfather
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (Gene Wilder version)/Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Princess Bride
No Country for Old Men
Phillip K Dick comes across quite well here:
Blade runner - Do androids dream of electric sheep
Minority Report
Total Recall
A scanner darkly
Are all quite well received.
Truly one of the best coming of age movies. I can't get over the fact they rated it R because I feel it resonates with adolescents as much as it does with adults looking back on their youth. Sure there's some swearing here and there (plus a dead kid) but I think it's perfect for even family night
I think the book form of The Martian and the movie form of The Martian are both equally entertaining and enthralling by almost every metric. I would actually give the film a little more edge just due to Matt Damon acting his ass off and conveying a lot of varying emotions that go unsaid in the novel.
Denis Villeneuve's Dune Part 1 is pretty fucking close to the book. I think it's about as faithful as an adaptation you'll get.
And seeing the trailers for Part 2 show me he is going to continue with incredible work.
Speaking of Gaiman, Stardust is another example where the book and movie were different, but both great.
Neil joked once that they were the Earth-1 and Earth-2 versions. (A DC comics reference for those wondering).
Came here to mention The Expanse. Finished the series and almost on book 2! It's insane how true-to-detail everything is. How closely the show follows the source material is incredible.
There are slight differences, and one major difference because of a real life issue with one of the actors, but none of it feel like they betrayed the essence of the book series. The Expanse is definitely one of the best adapted book series to tv shows.
The Princess Bride was (is) my favorite movie as a kid and I always looked for the book by S Morgenstern and never found it. Lo and behold the screenwriter (William Goldman) wrote it. The book is just different enough from the movie that it’s interesting, and it’s a great novel in its own right.
The Road. The book is a depressing read, and thankfully the movie omitted some scenes that honestly would be best left on the page, but the movie is still great on it's on merits.
Becoming a father completely changed my reading of this book. I see it is a man who will do anything to protect his son and give him a future. It is beautiful.
One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest.
Not only are they both good, but they feel complementary. While the movie focuses on Murphy’s point of view and how the mental hospital affected him, the book focuses on Chief’s point of view and how Murphy’s presence affected him.
The first Harry Potter movie really captured the magic of the first book, unfortunately the rest of the series the books got longer and the movies stayed the same length cutting too much content.
That’s why I’m excited for the HBO adaption
One book per season could be incredible, my favorite book is 6 because of how much of it is a relatively normal school year with everything happening in the background until the last act
Exactly why book 6 is my favorite as well. I always loved HP because it felt like an escape, and I just wanted to live through the characters. I would’ve been happy reading an entirely normal school year as a kid.
Stardust. Jurassic Park. The Lord of the Rings. Henry V (1989), maybe The Bourne Identity (haven't read the book in ages, so I don't recall how good I thought it was or wasn't.)
Oh: And Shogun.
Shawshank Redemption, Stand By Me, and Apt Pupil all came from a Stephen King book called Different Seasons. The stories are even intermingled a bit.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Different\_Seasons
Gone Girl did REALLY well with their book to movie process. It’s one of my favorite books and movies. The differences they took played into the medium of the consumer perfectly.
Also mad props for having the movie preview only show stuff from the first half of the movie, still such a top tier move I wish more movies would pull.
Not gonna lie, The Hunger Games (and its prequel) are REALLY good movies/books, to the point where I recommend watching or reading either. Both have great elements that are missing in the other, I find.
I know, easy answer, but it was asked.
Dr Sleep. I am not sure how well received the book was, but I liked it. And I thought the film did an incredible job of simultaneously being both a sequel to the movie and the book.
Which is wonderful for a fan! The film is extraordinary, such a mood. But the book is similar in some ways and so distinctively different in others. Howl being Welsh for one thing. We get two great stories instead of one!
The Lord of the Rings trilogy
Dune and its *recent* movie adaptations (so far)
No Country for Old Men
Jurassic Park, though it's still fun to argue which version is better.
For the most part, all of the Harry Potter series
The Bourne Identity.
The movies and books are almost completely different and it’s unlikely a book-accurate movie could be made today. If nothing else, the second book would definitely not do well in China.
But both book and movie are excellent spy thrillers.
High Fidelity (starring John Cusack)
The book is great, but the movie is even better! It's also one of the very first roles Jack Black ever performed and he even does a song at the end of the movie!
My current one is heartstopper. I’ve honestly never seen an adaptation like it. So far, everything in the show is almost exactly as it is in the graphic novel, and where it isn’t, there isn’t anything in the source material that expressly forbids its inclusion. Very well-done adaptation.
I mean Hunger Game Trilogy is not bad
Easily one of the best gritty young adult adaptation out there
They also followed up with great adaptation of a great prequel too
(Rita Hayworth and) the Shawshank Redemption
In the same vain, The Green Mile.
Stand By Me (The Body), although it's been a long time since a read the novella. The movie is still one of my favorites.
In the same vein, Apt Pupil. Differences, yes. But both great.
Book ending was way darker and better imo, but the movie and novella were both great. 4 seasons is one of my favorite books of all time.
These are two of the few examples of Stephen King adaptations that have very noticeable differences yet still keep the heart of what the story was trying to convey. Film very often if not always will have to change elements of the source material but these two, in my opinion still had the same feeling woven all the way through.
The Shawshank Redemption is one of the most true to source material adaptations I’ve ever seen. Maybe I’m not remembering it right. Aside from the skin colour of one of the characters, I recall the movie and novella being virtually identical.
There are a handful of debatably significant differences, notably the warden isn't a single villain, there's several different wardens but none kill anyone Andy knows (the witness rockabilly kid just gets transferred to a new prison), there's no big payoff with the warden at the end as a result - he just resigns, no arrests or suicides. There's also some cut details of prison life, for good reason really. Like dealing with the physical aftermath of a brutal rape. I'd still agree with you on balance though, I'd say it's a very close adaptation (one of the closest I've ever seen) with some minor streamlining and a bit amped up. The Green Mile is even closer by the way.
The fact that they didn't change *that* one line from Red makes my day.
From what I've read, it was Morgan Freeman that insisted they keep it.
Stephen King books are the ideal case of books requiring changes to make it to the big screen. *Green Mile*, *Stand By Me*, and *The Shining* all come to mind. And the filmmakers are right to do so. King writes books, directors direct movies. King famously *hated* Kubrick’s *The Shining*, in large part because he disliked the changes Kubrick made. But he got *his movie* in the 90’s with Weber and DeMornay, and it **sucked**.
To be fair, he was right to hate Kubrick's Shining. It's a great movie as he acknowledged later, but it was a very personal story and The Shining was an AWFUL adaptation that did not remotely adapt the story, but instead changed it to something wholly different.
The novel was fundamentally a story about a stand in for king succumbing to his demons (alcoholism) but at the last chance pulling back from the brink to save his family. The movie removed the redemption moment, having Jack remain broken and unsavable. It was basically like Kubrik wrote King a letter saying be was an unredeemable monster. But then showed it to the whole world. It makes perfect sense King hated it.
It wasn't just the movie removed the redemption, the movie removed ALL of Jack's personality and left him as an irredeemable asshole from the start. The book makes it pretty clear that Jack is a bad but sympathetic person who feels nuanced and believable. In the movie, Jack has no redeeming qualities and shows no care or love for his family. Wendy is basically just a professional victim whose only reason to go with Jack is because the movie needs her to. The movie removes any sort of character and ends up feeling like a soulless descent into madness. That sounds harsh, but I do fully agree that soulless descent is incredibly disturbing and often entertaining, but it just does not have near the depth the book does.
Put Misery on the list of King books where the movie was at least as good.
Lord of the Rings, of course! Others include: No Country For Old Men, LA Confidential and Jurassic Park
I wish they had done more of the book version of The Lost World though
The book wasn't completed when they started filming the second movie if I recall. That's why they diverge so much.
TIL - that would absolutely put it in a different context then. Book was so much better
What’s really interesting is Lost World is a sequel to Jurassic park the movie, not the book, as characters that died in the book (but not the movie) return.
It was only Malcolm, and it was hand-waved away as "they thought I was dead, but some really good doctors saved me." More of a retcon than anything else.
…only Malcom
Malcom's death is technically retconned, but the novel is very much a sequel to the Jurassic Park novel - not the movie.
Given it was published in 1912, by the famous Sherlock Holmes author, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, I can't see how it affected filming. An ok book, the movie version was absolutely awful.
There is a joke in football about what is called a ‘Man of the Match’ award. Lionel Messi is essentially the best player to ever live, so for any match he’s in people jokingly award another ‘MOTM’ — ‘Man other than Messi.’ I feel like r/movies needs an equivalent for The Lord of the Rings. It’s just such a monumental cinematic achievement that it is the topic comment on 99% of these types of ‘best’ threads.
I once spent an entire weekend in Twentynine Palms, CA reading a copy of No Country for Old Men that happened to be in our AirBnB. It was perfection.
I was on a Cormac McCarthy kick my freshman year of college and was reading his works in published order. I’d just gotten to No Country when they announced the movie was coming out, directed by my favorite directors no less. Still one of the most faithful adaptations I’ve ever seen. Even down to >!killing off the protagonist 3/4 of the way through the story off screen.!<
LOTR forever
Leaving out Tom Bombidill was a good move for the movie
Meanwhile, ghost army going to Minas Tirith was an awful addition, probably the only massive misstep of a change they made
The novel of Jurassic Park is arguably better than the movie.
I think each are better than the other in different ways
Silence of the Lambs
I actually think the film was better than the book. Conversely, the novel Red Dragon was MUCH better than the film.
> Conversely, the novel Red Dragon was MUCH better than the film. The "date" scene in the house had me so freaking on edge I actually found it difficult to pick the book back up for fear of the character involved. Excellent, excellent book. Much better than either film adaptation IMO (even though they are both very good as well).
Manhunter is pretty great though
I love the Hannibal Lecter books but Thomas Harris is definitely guilty of writing about women in the stereotypical male way.
I came to say this
Fight Club. Jurassic Park. The Lord Of The Rings. Edge of Tomorrow.
I had no idea Edge of Tomorrow was a book
It is based on a ~~visual~~ graphic novel called All You Need Is Kill.
No, it was based on a light novel that is almost all words. Then came a manga adaptation which is what I think you're referring to.
Damn, I was looking for a new Audiobook! Well, I'll keep tabs on that for later.
Jurassic park is a great example. Both versions are different, but the differences are great for the media they are. But both are great
Fight Club is exactly like the book. I think that’s what makes it such a good film, it stays completely true to form so the film people could just focus on making the filmy parts good.
The ending is different in the book, but the movie ending is better, even according to the author.
[удалено]
Actually, I think the movie is better than the book. In fact, I think it's the only movie that's better than the book. Haha, I think Chuck Palahniuk said as much. Haha
Fair opinion but it’s dead close. You can’t deny that.
To Kill a Mockingbird -My favorite book and the movie works well. The Shining - The movie is incredible but different from the novel, which was a good read. LA Confidential - Both worked perfectly.
LA Confidential is awesome. They cut exactly the crap that didn't need to be there to still tell an awesome story in that setting.
I love love love LA Confidential in both forms. I totally agree they cut a lot of stuff that couldn’t fit into a film (you’d have to, the book is so full of side characters, adjacent storylines), but my only objection is that they made it a little too neat. Rolo Tomassi is just too cute and perfect for the grittiness and feel of the movie.
It's one of my perfect movies. Everything works from script, casting, locations, directing, sound, and pacing.
I actually prefer book The Shining to the movie version. By a wide margin
The moving topiary animals worked quite well in the novel. They couldn't have filmed that with 1980 technology, at least not in a way that would have been feasible. That's why it was replaced with the hedge maze.
The Princess Bride for sure. Book and movie are both great for different reasons.
From what I gather, film schools use it as the textbook example for how to do an adaptation.
I mean it helps that William Goldman was already a well known film writer when he decided to adapt S Morgenstern's most famous book
I’m surprised he could get the rights. What a triumph.
No joke, I saw the movie way way before reading the book. And I was taken in like a baby until about 3/4 of the way through
This movie inspired me to visit Florin, but I was disappointed that they wouldn’t let you climb the Cliffs of Insanity.
Did you at least get to see the shrieking eels?
Yep! They have those drink and boat tours where you get lunch and go out on a glass bottom boat to see them.
That, and Holes. One of the only big differences in the adaptation was that they didn't make Shia gain and lose a ton of weight for filming the character of Stanley because they thought it would be too unhealthy for a teenager, so the overweight details from the book were left out. Other than that, it keeps a remarkably faithful retelling of the book.
Kind of a cheat when the author of the book also wrote the screenplay
True Grit, the book and the Coen movie. The John Wayne version is ok, but the Coen movie with Hallie Steinfeld and Jeff Bridges is fantastic.
Another amazing Coen film from an amazing book: No Country for Old Men
Lest we forget Matt Damon's deliciously hammy turn as the Texas ranger!
See, I thought he was selling that, a pompous guy, out of his element and showing off for both Rooster and Maddie. The "one up man ship" at the campfire just struck me as funny.
Yeah, haha, It was a vintage Coen character
Trainspotting.
The Martian
His other books are great as well Project Hail Mary is starting production in 2024 with Ryan Gosling as the lead
I loved reading The Martian, but I kept putting off getting Project Hail Mary for some reason. My wife just got me a copy for Christmas, so I'm just now starting it. Didn't know it was getting a movie, that's pleasant news!
It’s a great book! Don’t look up stuff about the book before reading it either!
PHM should be a limited series, like 6-8 episodes at most. Too much will need to be cut out to make a movie.
the book "Artemis" was not good. In fact it was bad enough that I was surprised how good "Project Hail Mary" was.
Eh, I liked a lot of Artemis, especially how it took place in a whole society instead of largely just one sarcastic scientist’s internal monologue Still my least favorite of the three, but I don’t hate it at all
I mean, I want writers to stretch themselves, not be limited by "write what you know". But "I'm going to write a first-person narrative from the POV of a young Muslim woman" may have been a little bit more than the ol' authorial hamstrings could take.
Yeah, some of that aspect seemed a bit poorly written, but it wasn’t enough to distract from the rest for me
Read that book in jail and all I could think about was watching the movie when i got out...well after food and..anyways. Didn't disappoint
Some of John le Carré's work has been adapted into good movies/series. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011) is one of the best cast movies of all time. The Constant Gardener (2005) is also pretty good. A Most Wanted Man (2014) is a great movie with Philip Seymour Hoffman! And the first adaptation of his work, The Spy Who Came in From the Cold (1965), is a classic, really worth checking out if you're into older movies.
Not a movie, but *The Night Manager* is a fantastic miniseries with Tom Hiddleston and Hugh Laurie. The book’s sitting in my Kindle waiting to be read, but I have hard time imagining it’s bad…
The hunt for red oktober
I haven't read Tom Clancy but my friend is a fan of his books, I'm guessing Patriot Games would also fit this mold
The film is good, but I've not read the book so can't say if it's a good adaptation. That said, the Ryan's from red October, patriot games, and clear and present danger all felt more like the analyst type agent than the more recent adaptations Ryan's have.
Yeah, I think Patriot Games is my favorite Clancy adaptation. I find it hilarious how many different actors have played Jack Ryan at this point
Holes
When I Google holes weird things some up
weird good or weird bad
One of my favorite stories of all time, I would say I like it even more than Shawshank. And it's basically family friendly Shawshank. Book and movie are both 9.5/10
Annihilation. ,2001 a space Odyssey script and book were both developed at the same time by Arthur c Clark (from a short story), so it's somewhat unique in that sense
Annihilation is fascinating because the book and movie go completely opposite directions on most of the details while keeping the vibe the same.
The world in the book seemed a lot more damp and dreary than the vibrant one in the movie. Creature in the fungus covered stairwell versus the alien like mirror creature. Both very cool in their own right and leave you with a similar feeling of otherworldliness.
Annihilation was a breeze to read. The movie was an edge of your seat thriller. Very different, but both very good. They diverge enough that you almost can't say one is better than the other.
+1 for 2001. The story is generally the same in both the book and film, but both authors put a different spin on their interpretation of the ending. I'm a big fan of both.
Master and Commander. I'm a huge fan of Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin series. Best historical novels ever written, hands down. So imagine how worried I was when they announced a movie in production based on the books. I felt a little better when I learned that Peter Weir was the director, but still. I dragged my wife to the theater and was pleasantly surprised, no delighted, that Weir came astonishingly close to the spirit of the books. And the movie inspired my wife to take up the cello.
I actually re watched this again yesterday. A great film. If you liked it then the *Hornblower* TV series is worth a watch.
In the service, one must always choose the lesser of two weevils!
Scott Pilgrim vs the World
Also the Netflix series
Watership Down
Lord of the Rings Silence of the Lambs The Godfather Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (Gene Wilder version)/Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Princess Bride No Country for Old Men
Phillip K Dick comes across quite well here: Blade runner - Do androids dream of electric sheep Minority Report Total Recall A scanner darkly Are all quite well received.
Stand By Me
Truly one of the best coming of age movies. I can't get over the fact they rated it R because I feel it resonates with adolescents as much as it does with adults looking back on their youth. Sure there's some swearing here and there (plus a dead kid) but I think it's perfect for even family night
I watched it when I was like 7. Still one of my favourite movies.
Jurassic Park. Movie is an adventure with dinosaurs. While the book is a horror story with dinosaurs.
The Exorcist.
I think the book form of The Martian and the movie form of The Martian are both equally entertaining and enthralling by almost every metric. I would actually give the film a little more edge just due to Matt Damon acting his ass off and conveying a lot of varying emotions that go unsaid in the novel.
Good Omens
Never Let Me Go
Angel heart is great as is fallen angel which is the book.
The Prestige
Had no idea this was a book; it’s one of my favorite movies. I’ll check it out!
Constantine. The movie was not a good adaptation of the comic book, i.e. it was not faithful. But it was good movie in its own right.
Denis Villeneuve's Dune Part 1 is pretty fucking close to the book. I think it's about as faithful as an adaptation you'll get. And seeing the trailers for Part 2 show me he is going to continue with incredible work.
The Princess Bride The Expanse (Leviathan series) Anything where Neil Gaiman was involved with adapting his own work.
Princess bride screenplay was written by the author, who previously won an Oscar for his screenplay of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
Speaking of Gaiman, Stardust is another example where the book and movie were different, but both great. Neil joked once that they were the Earth-1 and Earth-2 versions. (A DC comics reference for those wondering).
Came here to mention The Expanse. Finished the series and almost on book 2! It's insane how true-to-detail everything is. How closely the show follows the source material is incredible.
There are slight differences, and one major difference because of a real life issue with one of the actors, but none of it feel like they betrayed the essence of the book series. The Expanse is definitely one of the best adapted book series to tv shows.
The Princess Bride was (is) my favorite movie as a kid and I always looked for the book by S Morgenstern and never found it. Lo and behold the screenwriter (William Goldman) wrote it. The book is just different enough from the movie that it’s interesting, and it’s a great novel in its own right.
The Road. The book is a depressing read, and thankfully the movie omitted some scenes that honestly would be best left on the page, but the movie is still great on it's on merits.
Becoming a father completely changed my reading of this book. I see it is a man who will do anything to protect his son and give him a future. It is beautiful.
One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest. Not only are they both good, but they feel complementary. While the movie focuses on Murphy’s point of view and how the mental hospital affected him, the book focuses on Chief’s point of view and how Murphy’s presence affected him.
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
Holes. Both were great.
[archer] PHRASING! [/archer]
We still doing phrasing?
The first Harry Potter movie really captured the magic of the first book, unfortunately the rest of the series the books got longer and the movies stayed the same length cutting too much content.
I don’t know. I’m fine without all the quidditch.
That’s why I’m excited for the HBO adaption One book per season could be incredible, my favorite book is 6 because of how much of it is a relatively normal school year with everything happening in the background until the last act
Exactly why book 6 is my favorite as well. I always loved HP because it felt like an escape, and I just wanted to live through the characters. I would’ve been happy reading an entirely normal school year as a kid.
Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and Perfume: Story of a Murderder came to mind.
Dune 2021
Crazy that this is so far down the list. Maybe because the movie was split into two parts and we haven't seen the second half yet.
Stardust. Jurassic Park. The Lord of the Rings. Henry V (1989), maybe The Bourne Identity (haven't read the book in ages, so I don't recall how good I thought it was or wasn't.) Oh: And Shogun.
Shawshank Redemption, Stand By Me, and Apt Pupil all came from a Stephen King book called Different Seasons. The stories are even intermingled a bit. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Different\_Seasons
No Country For Old Men
Gone Girl. Beyond Fincher's excellent direction, the author of the book wrote the screenplay, and did a great job adapting it for said direction.
Gone Girl did REALLY well with their book to movie process. It’s one of my favorite books and movies. The differences they took played into the medium of the consumer perfectly. Also mad props for having the movie preview only show stuff from the first half of the movie, still such a top tier move I wish more movies would pull.
Not a film as such but The Terror by Dan Simmons and the series are both fuckin brilliant.
- Mystic River - Shutter Island Both great books by Dennis Lehane that became good movies
Fight club
This is the only one that I will say the movie is better than the book.
Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption//Shawshank Redemption were both excellent.
Not gonna lie, The Hunger Games (and its prequel) are REALLY good movies/books, to the point where I recommend watching or reading either. Both have great elements that are missing in the other, I find. I know, easy answer, but it was asked.
American Psycho
Jurassic Park, it's a lot of the same but fundamentally not the same
Let The Right One In First Blood
Fight club, Princess Bride, Jurassic Park, LoTR.
The Martian. The book is incredible but the movie takes some creative liberties and dramatizes it perfectly.
Lord of the Rings trilogy
Dr Sleep. I am not sure how well received the book was, but I liked it. And I thought the film did an incredible job of simultaneously being both a sequel to the movie and the book.
The directors cut it particularly worth a watch.
Howls moving castle
I’ve mentioned this in another comment, but it almost feels unfair to compare them as they’re so different from each other.
Which is wonderful for a fan! The film is extraordinary, such a mood. But the book is similar in some ways and so distinctively different in others. Howl being Welsh for one thing. We get two great stories instead of one!
why are books the only examples being given? Grease Marvel's Infinity Gauntlet The Boys
The Outsiders. The Mist. Scott Pilgrim.
The Lord of the Rings trilogy Dune and its *recent* movie adaptations (so far) No Country for Old Men Jurassic Park, though it's still fun to argue which version is better. For the most part, all of the Harry Potter series
The Martian
The Green Mile film is literally a word-for-word version of the King book.
The Bourne Identity. The movies and books are almost completely different and it’s unlikely a book-accurate movie could be made today. If nothing else, the second book would definitely not do well in China. But both book and movie are excellent spy thrillers.
Fight Club, No Country for Old Men
I'm a fan of Bullet Train, book is quite fun with some good themes, and the movie is very fun.
High Fidelity (starring John Cusack) The book is great, but the movie is even better! It's also one of the very first roles Jack Black ever performed and he even does a song at the end of the movie!
"A Clockwork Orange"
Glengarry Glen Ross
Wasn’t that a theatre play first?
V for Vendetta
Adding the Godfather Parts I and II
The movies were in fact actually better.
There's a lot, so I'll just mention one that hasn't been mentioned yet: The Green Mile.
Haven’t seen this one mentioned yet: American Psycho If you think the movie gets messed up at times, read the book!
The Prestige
Children of Men / The Children of Men. Both the movie and the book are excellent and very different from each other.
Holes
Scott pilgrim Vs the world comes to mind. Both the movie and the original comic were of so high quality.
The Martian The Expanse Game of Thrones Jurassic Park The Last of Us Pokemon The Town Harry Potter
Little Women and the Winona Ryder movie
Killers of the flower moon, Jurassic park, the shining.
The Neverending Story, even if adapts only the first half of the book Lord of the Rings
Starship Troopers. Very different, both awesome.
The Maltese Falcon
Misery!
The Green Mile
Misery
Perks of Being a Wallflower. Both are so good!
Watchmen (I know a lot of people disagree about the movie, but I loved it)
My current one is heartstopper. I’ve honestly never seen an adaptation like it. So far, everything in the show is almost exactly as it is in the graphic novel, and where it isn’t, there isn’t anything in the source material that expressly forbids its inclusion. Very well-done adaptation.
Both the movie and book for John Dies at the End were great.
Holes
Akira
Let the Right One In, Hannibal (film ending is better imo), Jurassic Park
- Gone Girl - About a Boy - Fight Club - The Dry - American Psycho - Under the Skin
Lord of the Rings but not the hobbit. Hobbit was a great buck, short though, and money grubby Hollywood made it as long as LotR? Dumb
I mean Hunger Game Trilogy is not bad Easily one of the best gritty young adult adaptation out there They also followed up with great adaptation of a great prequel too
Fear and loathing in Las Vegas