It is the era of the recycled tale. So much so I often wonder whether or not any original stories are being filmed.
Cape Fear, a story originally written by John D. MacDonald in 1957, has been made into two movies since its publication. Want more of what would you do for your family tale: A mini-series starring Javier Bardem as baddie Max Cady has been greenlit by Apple. Think nothing great’s been written for millenia? Check out this trailer for The Return, the story of Odysseus. In the past few months, Like Water for Chocolate, The Day of the Jackal, and Presumed Innocent have all hit the small screen years after the the books that inspired them were turned into film.
One can see why–when well done, a film or TV adaptation both pleases its fans and creates new legions of the latter. I loved Big Little Lies as well as its Hello Sunshine adaptation. (I’d argue the story is made richer by the completely original second season.) Daisy Jones and the Six, a very good book, was made fabulous–and better–in the series of the same name. Tolkien purists can wail at me all they’d like: Those movies are an improvement on the overlong originals. (Plus, we all needed this desperately.)
I like so many adaptations, it’s hard to choose a fave. If pressed, any of these would make my top pick.
North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell. Love stories don’t get any better. #bestkissever
The Princess Bride. The book is a smart hoot, the movie is perfection.
Shakespeare’s the man, sure, but I’d rather watch Heath Ledger on the stands than reread Taming of the Shrew.
Crazy Rich Asians was fun but a bit strident. The film made all the same points but with far more charm.
Station Eleven is a phenomenal book. And still, the mini-series tops it by remaking the plot so without losing anything that made the book so stellar.
I tried to read Silo and found it too sci-fi for me. But, whoa, is the mini-series electrifying.
I could list more but I’d rather hear from you! What are your favorite literary adaptations?
I adored North and South. I also loved Howards End and Mansfield Park. I really don’t watch TV anymore, I am probably missing out, however I stick to reading these days. I did watch the first Dune movie – the newest version – and I thought that it was an engaging adaptation of a very difficult and complex book to adapt. I do need to watch the second movie!
There are a few BBC audio dramatisations – I remember listening to Friday’s Child and Regency Buck and a couple of others many years ago, and they’re available from Audible – https://www.audible.co.uk/pd/The-Georgette-Heyer-BBC-Radio-Drama-Collection-Audiobook/1529127785?eac_link=dLljv3Fcc1sJ&ref=web_search_eac_asin_1&eac_selected_type=asin&eac_selected=1529127785&qid=bSe0iKAqv2&eac_id=260-7492006-3177122_bSe0iKAqv2&sr=1-1 (not sure if that will work outside the UK).
Some are better than others though, and of course, they’re abridged.
I’ll check it out! Thanks.
I love that version of North and South, too!
The Shawshank Redemption always comes near the top of my list. Clueless is still one of the best adaptations of Emma out there – better than most of the period-set ones.
Almost all of King’s work makes for fabulous films. Were I picking one of his, I’d pick The Shining. And I do love Clueless. I also like the 1996 Emma.
I like that Emma as well, although Toni Colette and Ewan MacGregor are badly miscast, IMO.
Misery is my favorite King adaptation!
I can’t watch it–it’s just too upsetting!
Agree on Clueless, one of my favorite movies and it still holds up now.
I hadn’t thought of Clueless in a while, but I agree, it’s a great adaptation, keeping the heart of the book in a new setting.
IMO Clueless is THE best adaptation of Emma, just like 10 Things I Hate About You is about a million times better than the actual Taming of the Shrew.
Agreed!
Princess Bride is a near-perfect translation of theme and purpose to celluloid; 1985’s A Room with a View, though it loses a couple of my favorite plot beats (avoid the ITV version like poison if you can); both the 2005 and 1995 versions of Pride and Prejudice, for different reasons.
I love A Room with A View. So profoundly romantic. What’s not to adore about The Princess Bride? It’s the gift that keeps on giving! My fave P&P is the 2005 version. It’s a true to the sense of the novel–I never tire of it.
I can’t stand Keira Knightley, and I just can’t buy Matthew MacFad as Darcy; it’s 1995 and Colin Firth all the way for me – although that’s a TV series and not a film.
A TV mini; they stream it all as a single experience these days, so people seem to count it as such?
I adore them both!
As long as I don’t think of it as a P&P adaptation but just a comedic period piece, I can watch it, but I think it makes the book seems pretty shallow. That scene where she learns about Lydia took ahighly emotional moment in the book and made it silly and frivolous, something for a laugh.
OMG, ditto on Knightley.
I’m a big fan–I fell for her in Bend It Like Beckham and have never quit enjoying her roles. I’m currently watching her in Black Doves which is great fun.
Deeply so, and it made me a Julian Sands stan, heh.
So sad.
And the Princess Bride script was smart enough to cut out boring and sickening parts of the book.
Adapted by the same author! Never let it be said WG didn’t know where to stop.
I can often enjoy a film adaptation if I have not read the book. For those where I read the book first, I almost always like the book better. I want the movie to be exactly like the book but often that is not cinematically possible. Sections of the book must be cut for time and inner dialogue doesn’t make for a dynamic movie. One exception that always comes to my mind when discussing this topic is the 2005 movie The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, which features Tilda Swinton as Jadis and James McEvoy as Mr. Tumnus. Since it is a children’s book, it is only about 175 pages long and they were able to fit THE ENTIRE BOOK into the movie. I just loved it! I also agree with others that The Princess Bride is a wonderful adaptation and one of my favorite movies of all time. It is a case where I saw the movie first, though.
The Starship Troopers movie turned an awful book into a bloody good fun movie.
Persuasion 2007 is my favourite romantic adaption. Sally Hawkins’ yearning is unmatched.
The movies’ mistreatment of noble Faramir (my favourite character) does, of course, rule out LoTR.
We didn’t let our youngest daughter see the first too LOTR movies in the theater because we felt she was too young (5 and 6 yrs old). She held a grudge. When she was 7 she decided to listen to the entire triology on audio (we had the cassette tapes back then). I thought she wouldn’t retain much and get bored, but she completed the triolgy and demanded she get to see Return of the King in the theater that year. On leaving the theater afterwards, her first remark was that the film got Faramir “all wrong!” 🙂 Years later she still remembered tons of details about the books, like Tom Bombadil, which weren’t in the movies. But I just wanted to let you know my then 7 year old agreed with your assessment.
Well done raising such a discerning child. 😀
Now almost 50 years since I saw it, Stanley Kubrick’s Barry Lyndon, based on Thackery’s novel The Luck of Barry Lyndon, remains my all-time favourite film adaptation. It remains, for me, the most beautifully made film ever. The sound track is still amongst my most adored pieces of classical music and the costumes were superior. Second on my list would be the BBC’s 1995 adaptation of Pride and Prejudice with that Sally Hawkins version of Persuasion third.
I’d like to add Tom Jones, the splendid film with Albert Finney as our dear, darling, bad boy Tom.
Oh yes! That movie captured the rollicking fun of the book
One, very, very last one (promise!), Dr Zhivago with Omar Sharif and the divine Julie Christie. I can hear Lara’s theme in my mind and remember struggling to learn it for the piano…..
Now it’s in my head!
If we’re talking books to movies, I’ve got to say that Gone With the Wind is spectacular in all senses of the word. Then there’s Hitchcock’s Rebecca, just about perfect. As for tv adaptations, I don’t think anything has beaten the 1981 Brideshead Revisited.
I ought to add that a personal romantic favorite has always been The Prisoner of Zenda with Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and Ronald Coleman—not the later version with a middle-aged James Mason sadly miscast as the 19-year-old Rupert of Hentzau.
I loved Louis Sachar’s novel, Holes, almost as much as I loved the movie. And Easy A was so much fun and better than The Scarlett Letter. LOL
I do love Easy A. Such a fun fun film.
So many favorite adaptations: North & South, 1995 P&P, The Shawshank Redemption, Princess Bride, GWTW. I’d add Hunger Games and the Harry Potter movies – although the books are far better.
Lil’s mention of Ronald Coleman in Prisoner of Zenda reminded me of another Coleman film from a book, Random Harvest. I have a fondness for both films.
I quite agree with you about the Hunger Games and Harry Potter films. To see those worlds on the screen was amazing and both movie series stayed pretty faithful to the books.
My favorite movie adaptation is Edith Wharton’s The Age of Innocence by Martin Scorsese. It is one of his most underrated movies. Using Joanne Woodward for voice over narration, it captures the inner thoughts of all the characters faithfully without missing any part of the story and without making it boring. It is cinema but it is also like listening to an audio version of the book and Scorsese’s direction makes it work seamlessly. Excellent acting by Winona Ryder, Daniel Day-Lewis and Michelle Pfeiffer.
I would not say any one of these is my favorite adaptation but during the lockdown I saw every adaptation of Little Women (movie and tv). I read the book too!
Highly unoriginal, but Pride and Prejudice 1995 all the way. And…the original Anne of Green Gables from like 1988 with Megan Follows and Colleen Dewhurst
Oooh, I agree that Megan Follows and Colleen Dewhurst were perfection in their roles!