Top 10 Novel to Movie Adaptations
Being the holidays and having just suffered a computer crash I have taken the easy way out and ripped another top 10 list from LitReactor available at the following link:
http://litreactor.com/columns/the-top-10-book-to-film-adaptations-that-were-actually-good
1. Jurassic Park
By Michael Crichton/Adaptation by Steven Spielberg
2. Fight Club
By Chuck Palahniuk/Adaptation by David Fincher
3. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
By Ken Kesey/Adaptation by Milos Forman
4. Trainspotting
By Irvine Welsh/Adaptation by Danny Boyle
5. American Psycho
by Bret Easton Ellis/Adaptation by Mary Harron
6. Batman Begins and The Dark Knight
Created by Bob Kane, written by others/Adaptation by Christopher Nolan
7. The Shining
by Stephen King/Adaptation by Stanley Kubrick
8. Bringing out the Dead
by Joe Connelly/Adaptation by Martin Scorsese
9. Memento Mori
By Jonathan Nolan/Adaptation by Christopher Nolan (as Memento)
10. The Godfather
By Mario Puzo/Adaptation by Francis Ford Coppola
My personal favorites are:
FIGHT CLUB – Both the book and movie are fantastic and the movie makes changes in all the right places that work. Great soundtrack, great everything.
THE GODFATHER – The movie was better than the book in my opinion and the book was awesome.
THE SHINING – I can’t beleive King doesn’t like this movie.
BATMAN – As long as the movie was by Nolan it’s good. He captured the struggle between the Dark Knight and the Joker beautifully.
One movie that didn’t make the list was CLOCKWORK ORANGE. Another movie that made a few changes that worked well on film, like leaving out the last chapter.
One of my favorite books that I’d love to see as a movie is THE PHYSIOGNOMY by Jeffrey Ford. If you haven’t read it, please do so. It’s time to make this gem into a film.
Posted on December 30, 2011, in Uncategorized and tagged Batman, christopher nolan, chuck palahniuk, clockwork orange, Fight Cub, Jeffrey Ford, Stephen King, the physiognomy, The shining. Bookmark the permalink. 2 Comments.
The Badgerine 
Regarding ‘Clockwork’, at the time that Kubrick directed the movie, the final chapter hadn’t been published. Burgess’s publisher told him that giving the story a happy ending would be a cop-out. He didn’t agree, but at the time he was still a relatively unknown writer, and didn’t have the kind of leverage to give him the final say in such matters. He had his preferred ending tagged on in later printings, after he’d gotten to be a little more famous (in part due to the success of the movie.)
I agree that the story doesn’t carry as much weight without the Burgess ending, though. If the main character doesn’t learn anything, what’s the point?
I didn’t know the final chapter hadn’t been published yet.