Novelisations and movies based on books

[furthest1]

It often happens like that for me by chance. I watch the movie, then get interested and read the books. Happened with black hawk down and LOTR. A book I would recommend reading after the film definitely is "We Were Soldiers Once...And Young" after you watch the mel gibson film.

[Volcane]

Originally Posted by furthest1

It often happens like that for me by chance. I watch the movie, then get interested and read the books. Happened with black hawk down and LOTR. A book I would recommend reading after the film definitely is "We Were Soldiers Once...And Young" after you watch the mel gibson film.

I may take your advice on that as I enjoyed the movie but have yet to read the book!

[Slanter]

Davinci Code was a great book. 5 pages into it, I knew they would have to make a movie. Ron Howard is awesome in the directors chair, even though Cinderella Man bombed. And Tom Hanks.....well after Saving Private Ryan, The Terminal, and that stranded-on-an-island movie (can't believe I forgot the title) he'd better put some talent behind Langdon. And Jene Reno playing Fache was THE best casting decision I've heard in a while.

[furthest1]

Originally Posted by Slanter

Davinci Code was a great book. 5 pages into it, I knew they would have to make a movie. Ron Howard is awesome in the directors chair, even though Cinderella Man bombed. And Tom Hanks.....well after Saving Private Ryan, The Terminal, and that stranded-on-an-island movie (can't believe I forgot the title) he'd better put some talent behind Langdon. And Jene Reno playing Fache was THE best casting decision I've heard in a while.

Castaway...that's it.

You are absolutely right though. Ron Howard is a great director and I think he ca bring this book to life in a Peter Jackson/LOTR kind of way. Take the writers fantasy and make it real and on screen. Tom Hanks and Jean Reno are just great, I'll love to see them do this, and Fache and Reno are a great matchup. I was also rightly pumped about this choice.

[Slanter]

I'm on Book 3 of Stephen King's Dark Tower saga. It's good, really good. I wonder if anyone has brought it to Hollywood's attention yet.

[dhmacg]

Originally Posted by MooglePorn

I'm far from alone my friend, those movies are overly long, full of useless dialogue and scenes, and rife with pacing issues. I'm glad you liked them, and I liked them too for the most part, but they're far from great movies, and it's mostly because he was way too worried about cutting material from the books.

Based on your postings, if I was to guess whether or not you've ever read the LOTR book, the answer would be a definite "NO".

Because the movies both changed and cut out a lot of material from the book.

[MooglePorn]

Originally Posted by dhmacg

Based on your postings, if I was to guess whether or not you've ever read the LOTR book, the answer would be a definite "NO".

Because the movies both changed and cut out a lot of material from the book.

And that matters why? I assumed the movies had tons of useless and unneeded scenes because they were trying to stay to the books. I said after the post you quoted that that might be wrong, but still, they needed editing.

[Chrisse]

Finished with Sum of All Fears, and halfway through Debt of Honor (which has a more accurately translated title) God I love Tom Clancy books.

Anyho as for The Da Vinci Code. I have not read the book but I do have a teacher who seemingly can't stop talking about it. Personally I have little faith in Tom Hanks as an actor, though I have not seen an extensive number of his films.

Aside from that I hear theres an Artemis Fowl book coming up. I doubt it'll beat the books, cuz the ROCK.

[MooglePorn]

Originally Posted by Chrisse

God I love Tom Clancy books.

God I hate Tom Clancy books.

[furthest1]

Originally Posted by Chrisse

Anyho as for The Da Vinci Code. I have not read the book but I do have a teacher who seemingly can't stop talking about it. Personally I have little faith in Tom Hanks as an actor, though I have not seen an extensive number of his films.

The book is worth a read. It's exciting and a good piece of fiction that kept me entertained. NOthing special, not very deep, but a good book. The movie should be pretty good though, there is alot of talent attached to it.

[Brikar99]

Originally Posted by Chrisse

Finished with Sum of All Fears, and halfway through Debt of Honor (which has a more accurately translated title) God I love Tom Clancy books.

Me too. What'd you think of "Sum of All Fears" compared to the movie (if you saw it, of course...)?

[Slanter]

Originally Posted by furthest1

The book is worth a read. NOthing special, not very deep,

I disagree. The plot isn't deep, true that, but the knowledge and facts of Chrisitanity go deeep.

[furthest1]

Originally Posted by Slanter

I disagree. The plot isn't deep, true that, but the knowledge and facts of Chrisitanity go deeep.

I was speaking more to the plot. The "facts" in the book really did make you think, but the plot and characters ultimately weren't very deep.

[SilentBob]

Well i shall bring up a few books that i love but movie wise come up short

Jurassic Park Man i remember seeing the movie in theaters for my BDay with my friend. The DTS sound was installed and the dinos sure as hell looked real. It was a fun and awesome movie. It stil kind of holds out on the fun and awesome side but after reading the books it loses a bit of that punch. Dr. Grant basically brings up that they are breeding on the island before the tour begins. Grant and the kids travel a lot by raft and have a few awesome water chase scenes with the T-Rex (who are suppose to be awesome swimmers with their huge tail) The at some point near the end of the book have another T-Rex run in and shot it full of tranq's in the head. The go into the compound to get a jeep back to the base and the T-Rex bursts in and licks up Timmy into its mouth. Tranq's kick in and Timmy rolls out of the mouth and they escape. Mr. Hammond is not the kind man we see in the movie and gets killed by the little compie dinos.

Jurassic Park 2 Well there are actually 2 kids in the film and not relationship Malcome. they are students looking for their school professor. They do hide away on the trip with Malcome though. The T-rex attack is a lot better as there is only Malcome and a woman when the attack happens on the mobile home camper and Malcome is F^cked up on morphine and not ordering from their movie sponser Burger King. More dealings with the High Hide with a great Raptor attack and chase scene. Plus they never have that other team bringing back the dinos to America.

To Kill A Mockingbird is not a bad movie but i just wish they had more of the first half of the book with the adventure's with Dill. Maybe a remake will happen and we will see this happen.

[MooglePorn]

Jurassic park and The Lost World are really good books, for sure, and kick their adaptation's ass, for sure. I love those books a lot, which is odd because every other Crichton book I've read I thought sucked.

[Volcane]

I was in the minority at the time that found Jurrassic Park disapointing as I'd read the book. I must revisit the book and the film as I've not digested either for years.

I've not read The Lost World but heard some bad things about it. The film was far from greatness but didn't find it it as bad as the critics did.

Jurrassic III however that was generally regarded "as better than the second" I found to be VERY poor. I don't *think* there's a book of this film but I am willing to be corrected

[SilentBob]

Originally Posted by Volcane

I've not read The Lost World but heard some bad things about it. The film was far from greatness but didn't find it it as bad as the critics did.

Its not as great as JP as it has a slower pace to it compare to the first book. Nothing really picks up until about 150 pages into the book and everything just happens. Awesome stuff to read

Jurrassic III however that was generally regarded "as better than the second" I found to be VERY poor. I don't *think* there's a book of this film but I am willing to be corrected

Count me in as "better then the second" and fo the very reason you pointed out. There is no book to compare the filmt oo and for that it made the film a great popcorn flick. Plus the DTS-ES track just rocks on the dvd and on my sound system

[LeCercleRouge]

A Scanner Darkly

I decided to read the book before Linklater ruins it for me.

the trailer shows potential. And for this Philip K Dick novel, the whole live-action to animation concept actually works. Or should work, if done right.

I hated Waking Life, but somehow I think Linklater can make a movie with Downey, Woody Harrelson, and Keanu Reeves having paranoid conversations …interesting.

But I don’t know if anyone other than Dick fans will appreciate this. Well, druggies. Of, course.

[Volcane]

Now we are bit further down the road of time, how do people feel about Narnia?

[reapersaurus]

I think Narnia (movie) is better than the book in many ways I could detail (see Narnia DVD thread for some).

It skips much of the unneeded stuff, and keeps the most ffecting parts, while dodging some of the mistakes the book made (Edmund's character WAY too unredeemable, no worthy climax for the beginning of a series, etc).

And as for Jurassic Park -
I can't believe how much love the book gets. The science was great, but almost every single action sequence in the book was so insultingly unbelievable, it made it hard to read.

The action in the movie is heads-and-shoulders above the book, and improves on it in almost every way possible (save the whole T-Rex entering from the same place that later is a 150 ft drop-off thing).