A Crappy Job
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wrote on 12 Feb 2021, 14:37 last edited by
Zane Grey was a very popular writer in the early 1900's. His style is very readable, even today. Many of his books have been made into movies and tv programs.
But like many adaptations of an author's work, some do not follow the plot of the book very well. Under the Tonto Rim was made into a movie on three occasions. None are even close to the plot of the book, even remotely close. Sad, because for the 1920's, it's a pretty decent novel. If you've never read it, check on the Faded Page website for a free read.
Grey's book is my nomination for worst adaptation of a book into a movie.
What is yours?
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Zane Grey was a very popular writer in the early 1900's. His style is very readable, even today. Many of his books have been made into movies and tv programs.
But like many adaptations of an author's work, some do not follow the plot of the book very well. Under the Tonto Rim was made into a movie on three occasions. None are even close to the plot of the book, even remotely close. Sad, because for the 1920's, it's a pretty decent novel. If you've never read it, check on the Faded Page website for a free read.
Grey's book is my nomination for worst adaptation of a book into a movie.
What is yours?
wrote on 12 Feb 2021, 14:46 last edited by -
wrote on 12 Feb 2021, 16:10 last edited by
World War Z @Aqua-Letifer
Also, pretty much every adaptation of a Stephen King book...
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World War Z @Aqua-Letifer
Also, pretty much every adaptation of a Stephen King book...
wrote on 12 Feb 2021, 16:14 last edited by@lufins-dad said in A Crappy Job:
World War Z @Aqua-Letifer
Also, pretty much every adaptation of a Stephen King book...
Good pick. Then again, it had to be different; serialized or epistolary novels don't have a chance being produced as-is. Probably for the best. I don't think that narrative structure works well in movies.
For me it's Gunslinger. Hands down.
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wrote on 12 Feb 2021, 18:00 last edited by
On the one I mentioned, none had the plot of the book in almost any way. Two out of three didn't even have any of the character names.
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wrote on 12 Feb 2021, 18:06 last edited by Doctor Phibes 2 Dec 2021, 18:06
I, Robot was a horrible adaptation. It was originally an original screenplay with no connection to the Azimov book, but then they changed a character name to Doctor Susan Calvin and introduced the 3 Laws of Robotics.
Also, The Golden Compass was just horrible.
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@lufins-dad said in A Crappy Job:
World War Z @Aqua-Letifer
Also, pretty much every adaptation of a Stephen King book...
Good pick. Then again, it had to be different; serialized or epistolary novels don't have a chance being produced as-is. Probably for the best. I don't think that narrative structure works well in movies.
For me it's Gunslinger. Hands down.
wrote on 12 Feb 2021, 18:20 last edited by@aqua-letifer said in A Crappy Job:
@lufins-dad said in A Crappy Job:
World War Z @Aqua-Letifer
Also, pretty much every adaptation of a Stephen King book...
Good pick. Then again, it had to be different; serialized or epistolary novels don't have a chance being produced as-is. Probably for the best. I don't think that narrative structure works well in movies.
For me it's Gunslinger. Hands down.
Dark Tower was a total disappointment.
As for Z, I think a movie with a series of vignettes would totally work. See the biographer walk into the room and just start the interview and fade into the scene... Of course, Z may not work due to the length. Maybe a Prime series?
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wrote on 12 Feb 2021, 18:28 last edited by
Many years ago I redd Captain Blood and just loved it. I still think it's the best pirate story ever. DC had a retro movie theater in those days -- don't know if it's still there -- and I saw Casablanca there. I saw the movie exactly as moviegoers saw it back in the day. Boy, was that a thrill.
They advertised Captain Blood would be showing, and I was all excited to see it. Right at the beginning was a shot of Errol Flynn, who played Blood. Errol Flynn is about as much like Peter Blood as Wile E. Coyote. I left forthwith, not wanting to pollute my beautiful memories of the book.
So I can't say whether the movie failed the book. But with Flynn on board, it probably did.
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@aqua-letifer said in A Crappy Job:
@lufins-dad said in A Crappy Job:
World War Z @Aqua-Letifer
Also, pretty much every adaptation of a Stephen King book...
Good pick. Then again, it had to be different; serialized or epistolary novels don't have a chance being produced as-is. Probably for the best. I don't think that narrative structure works well in movies.
For me it's Gunslinger. Hands down.
Dark Tower was a total disappointment.
As for Z, I think a movie with a series of vignettes would totally work. See the biographer walk into the room and just start the interview and fade into the scene... Of course, Z may not work due to the length. Maybe a Prime series?
wrote on 12 Feb 2021, 18:29 last edited by@lufins-dad said in A Crappy Job:
As for Z, I think a movie with a series of vignettes would totally work. See the biographer walk into the room and just start the interview and fade into the scene... Of course, Z may not work due to the length. Maybe a Prime series?
You need a character to complete a full story arc, which is hard with serials. I think it's the main reason why there has never been a very true-to-form adaptation of Dracula.
Prime series? Absolutely. That'd be fun as hell.
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Many years ago I redd Captain Blood and just loved it. I still think it's the best pirate story ever. DC had a retro movie theater in those days -- don't know if it's still there -- and I saw Casablanca there. I saw the movie exactly as moviegoers saw it back in the day. Boy, was that a thrill.
They advertised Captain Blood would be showing, and I was all excited to see it. Right at the beginning was a shot of Errol Flynn, who played Blood. Errol Flynn is about as much like Peter Blood as Wile E. Coyote. I left forthwith, not wanting to pollute my beautiful memories of the book.
So I can't say whether the movie failed the book. But with Flynn on board, it probably did.
wrote on 12 Feb 2021, 18:32 last edited by@catseye3 said in A Crappy Job:
Many years ago I redd Captain Blood and just loved it. I still think it's the best pirate story ever. DC had a retro movie theater in those days -- don't know if it's still there -- and I saw Casablanca there. I saw the movie exactly as moviegoers saw it back in the day. Boy, was that a thrill.
They advertised Captain Blood would be showing, and I was all excited to see it. Right at the beginning was a shot of Errol Flynn, who played Blood. Errol Flynn is about as much like Peter Blood as Wile E. Coyote. I left forthwith, not wanting to pollute my beautiful memories of the book.
So I can't say whether the movie failed the book. But with Flynn on board, it probably did.
Don't know how well the movie follows the book, but it made Flynn's career. One of the few movies on Rotten Tomatoes to receive a 100%. 7.7 score at IMDB.
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wrote on 12 Feb 2021, 18:35 last edited by
As for Stephen King adaptations, I think one reason they don't work is because so much of his books contain so much interior monologue -- about the character's fear of the monster and so on. You can't really portray that in film. All you can do is show the monster and maybe the character's horrified face or something.
Also, King makes the point in one of his books that the monster you don't see is much scarier than the one you do see. Once you see the monster is ten feet tall, your first reaction is, whew, it could have been 100 feet tall! And there goes the suspense.
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@lufins-dad said in A Crappy Job:
As for Z, I think a movie with a series of vignettes would totally work. See the biographer walk into the room and just start the interview and fade into the scene... Of course, Z may not work due to the length. Maybe a Prime series?
You need a character to complete a full story arc, which is hard with serials. I think it's the main reason why there has never been a very true-to-form adaptation of Dracula.
Prime series? Absolutely. That'd be fun as hell.
wrote on 12 Feb 2021, 18:40 last edited by@aqua-letifer said in A Crappy Job:
@lufins-dad said in A Crappy Job:
As for Z, I think a movie with a series of vignettes would totally work. See the biographer walk into the room and just start the interview and fade into the scene... Of course, Z may not work due to the length. Maybe a Prime series?
You need a character to complete a full story arc, which is hard with serials. I think it's the main reason why there has never been a very true-to-form adaptation of Dracula.
Prime series? Absolutely. That'd be fun as hell.
AFAIK. The White Company has never been made into a movie or a mini-series. Or, it's prequel, which gives one a pretty big story arc, and a case where a major character fades into a lesser role.
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@aqua-letifer said in A Crappy Job:
@lufins-dad said in A Crappy Job:
As for Z, I think a movie with a series of vignettes would totally work. See the biographer walk into the room and just start the interview and fade into the scene... Of course, Z may not work due to the length. Maybe a Prime series?
You need a character to complete a full story arc, which is hard with serials. I think it's the main reason why there has never been a very true-to-form adaptation of Dracula.
Prime series? Absolutely. That'd be fun as hell.
AFAIK. The White Company has never been made into a movie or a mini-series. Or, it's prequel, which gives one a pretty big story arc, and a case where a major character fades into a lesser role.
wrote on 12 Feb 2021, 19:20 last edited by@jolly said in A Crappy Job:
@aqua-letifer said in A Crappy Job:
@lufins-dad said in A Crappy Job:
As for Z, I think a movie with a series of vignettes would totally work. See the biographer walk into the room and just start the interview and fade into the scene... Of course, Z may not work due to the length. Maybe a Prime series?
You need a character to complete a full story arc, which is hard with serials. I think it's the main reason why there has never been a very true-to-form adaptation of Dracula.
Prime series? Absolutely. That'd be fun as hell.
AFAIK. The White Company has never been made into a movie or a mini-series. Or, it's prequel, which gives one a pretty big story arc, and a case where a major character fades into a lesser role.
I think you're right. Not that it's impossible, but for movies it's a lot more important to give viewers a central character to latch on to. For streaming TV, you can have several, but that's hard for stand-alone video.
