# Books that become films /tv programes



## am64 (Jun 1, 2010)

This started with Vicsetters  thread re 'going postal' as i hadnt realised it was by Terry Pratchett.... so what other films/tv/radio have originated from books and who wrote them

mine is flashforward ...havent watched it but i know many of you have ...the concept is (loosely) based on 'Timequake' by Kurt Vonnegut


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## Caroline Wilson (Jun 1, 2010)

There are loads. I have always prefered the books but here are some I can remember

Chocolat Joanne Harris (I think)
The Lord of the Rings J R R Tolkein
Oliver Charles Dickens
A Christmas Carol (loads of adaptations) Charles Dickens
Great Expectations Charles Dickens
Cadfael stories Ellis Peters
Miss Marple Stories Agatha Christie
Poirot Stories Agatha Christie
Morse Colin Dexter
Midsommer Murders (but I can't remember who wrote the books)
memoirs of a Geisha (but I can't remember who wote the book and it's one I read too)


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## AlisonM (Jun 1, 2010)

One of my all time favourites, book and movie, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee.

War and Peace, Tolstoy
The Daughter of Time and Brat Farrar, Josephine Tey
The Moving Toyshop, Edmund Crispin
The Woman in White, Wilkie Collins
A Clockwork Orange, Anthony Burgess


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## Caroline Wilson (Jun 1, 2010)

Gone with the Wind Margaret Mitchel
Dr Zhivago (another one I can't remember who wrote it)

Love Story bucks the trend. the film came first then the book came out. It always makes me cry bucketts...


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## Andy HB (Jun 1, 2010)

"Do Androids dream of electric sheep" by Philip K Dick became the film Bladerunner.

Andy


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## Northerner (Jun 1, 2010)

The worst ever film of a book was Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams). They ruined it by trying to pander to the US market, totally miscasting Ford Prefect and getting Marvin completely wrong. TV series was much better.


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## Annimay (Jun 1, 2010)

Pride & Prejudice, Sense & Sensibility, Emma - all by Jane Austen
Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights by the Brontes (I can never remember who wrote which one)
Watership Down by Richard Adams


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## Northerner (Jun 1, 2010)

War and Peace, Anna Karenina, Dr Zhivago...books all better than films. in my opinion. Lord of the Rings trilogy - I couldn't get into the books at all, so enjoyed the films, but I'm sure afficionados found lots to criticise!


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## cazscot (Jun 1, 2010)

Cadfael - Ellis Peters, Chirstine, Carrie, The Green Mile - Stephen King, Sherlock Homes...


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## twinnie (Jun 1, 2010)

harry potter jk rowling {film}
agatha christie poirot{tv}
twlight cant remeber the lassie name{film}
jack higgins {flims the books are better}
one for the kids the princess diaries {flim}


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## AlisonM (Jun 1, 2010)

CS Lewis' Narnia stories


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## Andy HB (Jun 1, 2010)

Northerner said:


> The worst ever film of a book was Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams). They ruined it by trying to pander to the US market, totally miscasting Ford Prefect and getting Marvin completely wrong. TV series was much better.



But I find that the pictures were much better on the original radio series! 

I'd also hazard a guess that this is the only time that a radio series became a book, became a tv series and then a film? 

Andy


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## AlisonM (Jun 2, 2010)

Andy HB said:


> But I find that the pictures were much better on the original radio series!
> 
> I'd also hazard a guess that this is the only time that a radio series became a book, became a tv series and then a film?
> 
> Andy



Oh, that reminds me, War of the Worlds. I first heard that on the radio in 1967 (sadly not the Orson Welles one), it was terrifying. The book wasn't, neither were the films. I have a musical version made in 1978 by Jeff Wayne that I find hysterically funny. And that, of course leads to other classic films like The Time Machine, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Journey to the Centre of the Earth.


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## PhilT (Jun 2, 2010)

Caroline Wilson said:


> Gone with the Wind Margaret Mitchel
> Dr Zhivago (another one I can't remember who wrote it)
> 
> Love Story bucks the trend. the film came first then the book came out. It always makes me cry bucketts...


 
Dr Zhivago was written by Boris Pasternak. 
A friend of Pasternak's smuggled the book out of Russia and it was published in 1957 by an Italian publishing house.

It wasn't until 1988 that the Russian authorities allowed it to be published in Russia.


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## Catwoman76 (Jun 2, 2010)

AlisonM said:


> One of my all time favourites, book and movie, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee.
> 
> War and Peace, Tolstoy
> The Daughter of Time and Brat Farrar, Josephine Tey
> ...



I agree with To kill a Mockingbird, what a fantastic film it is. Sheena(haven't read the book though)


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## Catwoman76 (Jun 2, 2010)

Northerner said:


> The worst ever film of a book was Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams). They ruined it by trying to pander to the US market, totally miscasting Ford Prefect and getting Marvin completely wrong. TV series was much better.


I read The Silence of the Lambs,before I saw the film, the book is MUCH better than the film. Sheena


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## am64 (Jun 2, 2010)

has anyone mentioned one flew over the cuckoo nest ....pure brilliance both book and film x


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## cazscot (Jun 2, 2010)

am64 said:


> has anyone mentioned one flew over the cuckoo nest ....pure brilliance both book and film x



Hubby and I saw it when visting London, Christian Salter was okay as McMurphy and Frances Barber played a good evil Nurse Ratched.


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## AlisonM (Jun 2, 2010)

sheena76 said:


> I agree with To kill a Mockingbird, what a fantastic film it is. Sheena(haven't read the book though)



I know they've tried a couple of remakes, but it's Gregory Peck all the way for me. The book is wonderful, there's a lot more in it than the film and it doesn't pull any punches on the subject of prejudice which, for the time of writing, was incredibly brave.


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## PhilT (Jun 3, 2010)

Twelve Angry Men with Henry Fonda was another great film.


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## Catwoman76 (Jun 3, 2010)

AlisonM said:


> I know they've tried a couple of remakes, but it's Gregory Peck all the way for me. The book is wonderful, there's a lot more in it than the film and it doesn't pull any punches on the subject of prejudice which, for the time of writing, was incredibly brave.



When our library re-opens I will have a look for it. Sheena


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## Catwoman76 (Jun 3, 2010)

PhilT said:


> Twelve Angry Men with Henry Fonda was another great film.



Yes, another fantastic film, his logic was so right, but not to the other jurors at first. Sheena


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## Northerner (Jun 3, 2010)

PhilT said:


> Dr Zhivago was written by Boris Pasternak.
> A friend of Pasternak's smuggled the book out of Russia and it was published in 1957 by an Italian publishing house.
> 
> It wasn't until 1988 that the Russian authorities allowed it to be published in Russia.



I visited Pasternak's grave in 1980 in the village of Peryedelkino near Moscow (claim to fame )


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## Vicsetter (Jun 3, 2010)

2001 Space Odyssey was based on a short story of about 4 pages, the book of the film came later.


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## Northerner (Jun 3, 2010)

Vicsetter said:


> 2001 Space Odyssey was based on a short story of about 4 pages, the book of the film came later.



'The Sentinel' - nice story. ACC kept banging away at the concept wiht 2010 amd 2061, but preferred his 'Rama' series (would be good films!)


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## Laura22 (Jun 4, 2010)

AlisonM said:


> The Daughter of Time and Brat Farrar, Josephine Tey



 Farrar is my surname 

Famous! lol


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## Northerner (Oct 18, 2010)

am64 said:


> has anyone mentioned one flew over the cuckoo nest ....pure brilliance both book and film x



The film is on Film4 tonight at 9 pm


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## RachelT (Oct 18, 2010)

I loved the Hitchiker's TV series, it was amazing (my brother has the DVD), but you're right, the movie was a bit pants, except for Bill Nighy as Slartibartfast...

Usually i prefer the book, even Lord of the Rings, which was so very nearly perfect, doesn't quite match the book for me. But then i reaaalllly like books.

If i do like the film as much as the book it either has to be a really obscure book or be subtily different to the book but not detract from it..

Interview with the Vampire: Book by Anne Rice
Different from the book, a tad less introverted, a tad less metrosexual, and one character got converted from ginger teenage vamp to Antonio Banderas, which in my oppinion is a very good thing. Fantastic performance from a young Kirsten Durnst. It even makes Tom Cruise look sexy.

Howl's Moving Castle: Book by Dianne Wynne Jones film by Hayao Miyazaki (appologies to all japanese readers i've probably spelt that wrong). Very different from the book but with i feel, the same spirit and just as lovely.

Red Cliff: Film by John Woo based on The Romance of the Three Kingdoms a classic chinese novel (who's author i can't remember the name of) which was loosely based on historical fact. That's the obscure one, the battle the film is based upon is only a couple of chapters in a very long book (the english translation of which i have read)

I also like the film of The Constant Gardener by John LeCarre, and i wasn't totally upset by the adaptation of Northern Lights by Phillip Pullman, i's love to see the other two books on the big screen but i doubt it will happen now. Also liked the Disney version of The Lion The Witch and the Wardrobe, probably as much as the TV series i saw as a kid, but i think the old TV series may be better than the sequels.


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## rossoneri (Oct 19, 2010)

Northerner said:


> The film is on Film4 tonight at 9 pm


The Gregory Peck version of To Kill A Mockingbird was on ITV3 on Sunday afternoon, it is repeated next Sunday (24Oct2010) 9.30am if anyone still hasn't seen it.  It caught my eye because I am sure BBC4 showed it alongside a documentary celebrating the 50th anniversary of the book being published.  If you haven't seen it yet then I would recommend trying to catch it on the Beeb so it is not interupted by ads.

For another example of where the film adaptation was far better than the book I would choose The Godfather.  The film was based upon a Mario Puzo book published in 1969, three years before the film was released.  The film and its first sequel are regarded as two of the all time classics, the book is ok and was a bestseller before the film but I doubt anyone would regard it as a classic.


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## Caroline (Oct 19, 2010)

Personal opinion here, it is better to see the film first then read the books. I think The Lord of the Rings films ruined the plot of the fantastic books. My lot wont see a film with me if they think I read the book first...


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## Ellie Jones (Oct 19, 2010)

I'm a Tolkien nut through and through, read all his books I didn't go to the cinema but have watched the DVD's...  Superb even though the film version of a hobbit is what I percieve a hobit to look like!

Another TV/Films

French Lieutenants woman

All creatures great and small after 'it shouldn't happen to a vet' james harriot

Roots...  My remember my mum reading the book mega read..

The Fog...


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## bex123 (Oct 19, 2010)

another great book that was turned into a film was The spiderwick chronicles great one for the kids


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## HelenP (Oct 19, 2010)

Thorne, a TV adaptation of Mark Billingham's books starring a character of that name is one of the BIGGEST disappointments I've seen (although nowhere near as disappointing as The Time Traveller's Wife!). 

I love Mark Billingham's stories, and the current one they are showing, Sleepyhead, is my favourite.  But the TV adaptation is confusing (or maybe it isn't if you're unfamiliar with the books), it's moving along way too quickly, there are no lighter parts as there are in the book, they've changed some characters and the ones that are in it are all very unlikeable, and the WORST thing for me, is that MY DI Thorne doesn't look ANYthing like that !! 

xx


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## Caroline (Oct 19, 2010)

HelenP said:


> the WORST thing for me, is that MY DI Thorne doesn't look ANYthing like that !!
> 
> xx



That's the thing with adaptations, we all see charecters as we want to see them, and not as the author or the people doing the adaptations see them. I wont watch the adaptation if I have read the book and even if I read the book after seeing the adaptation, I always think the book is better. I'm allowed to think the book is better thoe, I work in a library!


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## katie (Oct 19, 2010)

I really want to see To Kill a Mocking Bird again now


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