Best adaptations...

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What are some of the best book/comic adaptations to tv miniseries/tv movie/movie have you seen?

Here are mine:

Silence of the Lambs and Red Dragon.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. (This is the best version IMNSHO)

Nineteen Eighty-Four, the 1984 version with John Hurt as Winston Smith.

Lord of the Rings. Peter Jackson version (natch).

Batman and Batman Returns by Tim Burton, and the latest one, Batman Begins.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (the new movie).

V for Vendetta, while taking a different approach to the comic, is still very thought-provoking...

The Green Mile, a very good adaptation of the book.

Also, any adaptations we'd LIKE to see....

A Clockwork Orange. C'mon, Kubrick f***ed it up, and we want the 21st chapter!

The Dark Tower, preferably as a CG series (no way movies would do it justice, or live action. Bring on Advent Children style CG!)

The Colour of Magic, maybe animated, maybe live action, who knows?


If you want, bring videogame-to-movie adaptations into it, but keep it lower key, okay?

Thank You for Smoking by Christopher Buckley

On Her Majesty's Secret Service by Ian Fleming

the original All the King's Men by Robert Penn

Master and Commander: Far Side of the World based on the novels of Patrick O'Brian

Gettysburg based on The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara

the following movies adapted from plays (they are pretty obvious choices):

Casablanca adapted from Everybody Comes to Rick's by Murrey Burnett, and Joan Alison
A Man of All Seasons adapted from the play of the same name by Robert Bolt

There are several different books I would like to see adapted into movies. The one I would most like to see is Whittaker Chambers' Witness but I don't expect to see that any time soon. Hollywood has screwed up any number of novels in recent years but they don't do-over films to quickly, unfortunately.

No, please not that one. It was a travesty. A few good moments (principally with Bill Nighy playing Slartibartfast) which only served to highlight what was missing from the rest.
Arthur Dent was not Arthur Dent, nor Ford Prefect Ford Prefect.

Shakespeare. There has been some wonderful Shakespeare.
From both Henry V's, (Olivier and Branagh) the Di Caprio Romeo and Juliet,
to West Side Story and Kiss Me Kate!

The Man Who Would Be King. (Kipling to Connery and Caine!)

The African Queen. (C S Forester. I never did believe Gregory Peck as Hornblower, though.)



What would I like to see? A really good film of Operation Pedestal.
It hardly gets more heroic than that attempt to re-supply Malta and the unbelievable tale, were it not true, of "The Gallant Ohio."

Jeeves and Wooster, off the top of my head.

I'd love to see a competent film adaptation of Stephen Eriksons books.

Holes - Louis Schacar (I think that's how you spell his last name).

Great adaption of the book. Only one mistake although it would be impossible to do anyways. Stanley Yelnats is meant to be fat and loses weight. That weren't possible so they scrapped it. Apart from that it's very accurate.

I can think of three.

You've Got A Friend by James Taylor
If I Could by Ray Charles, and...
The Price Is Right

This is going to appear ironic, but Adaptation is a great adaptation of a book. Great movie.

What is that? Oh! Now I understand!

If you remember, I went all out using two forms of media, music and TV.

Peter Jackson's LotR (though it's already been mentioned)- You'll probably hear me rant and rave about the few things they changed, but all in all, great adaptation with a few big mistakes.

BBC version of Pride and Prejudice (book by Jane Austen). It's long to sit through, but it is one of my favourite movies of all time.

My mum loves that adaptation....

I agree. Have you seen the 1980 TV Hitchhikers series (that covered the first two books and used some of the same cast from the original radio shows)? Absolutely super. Never mind the creaky BBC sets; they had Arthur and Ford spot on.

Speaking as a true child of the eighties, how about Francis Ford Coppola's filming of SE Hinton's The Outsiders? I love both book and movie so, so much. Possibly the movie works so well because it isn't so much an adaptation of the story as literally transferring the book to the screen, word for word in some scenes.

Yes, that does have it's own charm. But it was more of a straight adaptation of the radio series, and Sandra Dickinson seemed a bit too much ditzy for the role (think Bonnie Langford's character Mel in "Doctor Who"). Anyway, Douglas Adams had all but written the script (for the movie) before it was filmed. Virtually everything there is Adams' work. The side-stories add some rather needed complexity to what is, after all, a very straightforward quest. And I disagree about the comments regarding Arthur Dent and Ford Prefect. Simon Jones may be damn near irreplaceable, but Martin Freeman and Mos Def do a damn good job. For god's sake, look at how Mos Def acts so bemused at situations on Earth.