snap to catch
It ’s fall out to all of us . We register a novel that blows us away , and a few years later its title appears on bill sticker underneath the face of Harrison Ford or Natalie Portman . But at some inevitable item in that darkened dramatics , the pic takes a turn we did n’t expect . Our supercilium go up , our lips sprain down , and the disappointment begins . Maybe the wrong managing director or author can curse an otherwise fantabulous project – or perhaps some thing were just never signify to be filmed . Here are 10 books that we consider should never have been consecrate to cinema .
DUNE by Frank Herbert
There ’s no doubt about it : Herbert ’s Dune is a bona fide classic . It won the first ever Nebula prize and the 1966 Hugo honor , and most weigh it to be the well - sell sci - fi novel in history . Set in a future where a feudal conglomerate controls the planets of the unvierse , the novel tells the floor of unseasoned Lord Paul Atreides and his crime syndicate ’s rule of the desert planet Arrakis . Arrakis is the only source of “ gallimaufry , ” an addictive spicery that lengthens lives and fix interstellar travel possible . Herbert ’s Quran explore the power struggles that uprise around the spice , and the complexness of human society that exists even in the far future .
Big skid to fill for a motion picture producer . Yet in 1984 David Lynch write and directed a motion-picture show version of Dune , rescue it from development hell and plunging it into high-risk - adaptation hellhole . Reviews panned the motion-picture show – Roger Ebert deemed it “ the worst movie of the class , ” and others expressed similar disgust . Despite the pic ’s 40 - million - dollar budget , its effects were notably cheap , and the screenplay did not adjudge up to the challenge of translating a four - hundred - page Holy Scripture to screen . You ’d consider you could n’t go wrong with Patrick Stewart , Sting , and Jürgen Prochnow , but evidently you very much can .
FAHRENHEIT 451 by Ray Bradbury
Who could forget Fahrenheit 451 , “ the temperature at which book - report catches fire , and burns … ” ? Bradbury ’s Greco-Roman 1953 novel takes home in a dystopian time to come where television has entirely replace the printed word , and fire-eater burn Word of God or else of saving lives . The author himself has say that the point of the story was to showcase how have a TV readiness can put down all interest in literature – so hold a movie translation seems fairly damn ballsy to say the least .
With that in brain , the 1966 film , helmed by Gallic icon François Truffaut , seems sentence from the head start . It certainly did n’t help that there were many notable deletion , like the disappearance of the novel ’s atomic war ( which is , let ’s face it , a jolly big cut ) . Julie Christie start the main theatrical role ’s wife and his illicit lover , which adds an extra grade of pointless bizarreness . The bottom line is , there are plentitude of volume for which you could tell your ally to “ just catch the movie . ” But in the case of Fahrenheit 451 , that in all likelihood makes you kind of fascist . Just sayin ’ .
volt FOR VENDETTA by Alan Moore and David Lloyd
The book is likely one of the practiced graphical novels ever bring on . Detailing the adventure of a masked anarchist and his sweet blond protégée , Moore ’s committal to writing also turn over far deeply beyond his two main characters into complex musical theme of fascism , anarchy , indistinguishability , and the import of lifespan itself . Nobody is without a story to evidence : Even his villains are creepily large-hearted . By the end of the comic , every reader will have at least one Lloyd image burned in their brain , and be wonder – with no small amount of fear – exactly how much control their governing does have .
put down the movie . For the Wachowski brothers , the boy who gave us the two - thirds - sucky Matrix trilogy , setting this tale to film was sluttish . They just had to reduce out all of the character depth , change Moore ’s nuanced portrayal of British fascism to the cookie - cutter Hollywood standby of suitable White Men , and ( of course ) turn the pernicious , understated human relationship of the independent characters into amorous pining . But hey , at least they buzz off the costume right .
A WRINKLE IN TIME by Madeleine L’Engle
Though it ’s often marketed as a youthful - adult fantasy novel , make no mistake : This Bible is without a doubt a sci - fi classic for all generations , an incredible tale that deftly blend science , venture , and human beings . L’Engle ’s 1962 story make up the concept of a “ tesseract ” – the fifth dimension , a phenomenon that folds the textile of place and time . It infix a female parent who cook dinner on a Bunsen burner , a father whose enquiry leaves him imprisoned on another planet , and a brother and sister whose loving kinship twist out to be the most important thing in the universe .
Mostly we make an feat to brush off it , but it ’s true : Many of the great sci - fi writer were ( and are ) better at woolgather up nifty scientific discipline ideas than they were at wander together a compelling history . L’Engle , however , belongs in no such mathematical group . Her work was never have in mind to be a crappy Disney moving-picture show , and yet in 2003 , a crappy Disney made - for - TV adaptation appear thatone critic key out as“lightweight , saccharine , rather obtuse function most of the agency , and slightly simplistic ” as well as “ sometimes unwieldy , and … often uninspiring ” . have us talk no more about it .
THE MINORITY REPORT by Philip K. Dick
Dick ’s 1956 inadequate story introduced the shuddery construct of “ precrime , ” a police organisation whose ship’s officer arrest would - be murderers , raper , and thief before they get a chance to do their foul deeds . His futuristic New York City is a creation where three future - encounter sport control who goes to prison house and who does n’t , and free will is a gray area – a sumptuosity that not everyone possesses . One oldtimer fuzz , after seeing a prevision that he will kill someone he does n’t even know , is have none of it .
So what did Steven Spielberg ’s 2002 movie add , besides a gross eye transplant ? Well , for one , it fetch in Tom Cruise – bald , out - of - anatomy 50 - year - olds are never attractive narrators as far as Hollywood ’s concern , no matter what they might be able-bodied to apportion with us in real life . The setting ’s different , too , and names have been shift , but at least it presents the estimate with a set more nifty especial outcome and a lot less storytelling , right ? And that , my friends , is frighteningly autochthonal of the print - to - film adaptation .
I , golem by Isaac Asimov
This is a revolutionary sci - fi classic , a collection of nine curt stories exploring the limitation and dangers of man - created unreal intelligence . Asimov ’s 1950 publishing of I , Robot established the Three Laws of Robotics , purportedly unbreakable rule which govern the action of these metal being , and his short stories read like the unspoiled sci - fi mind puzzles you will ever find .
2004 ’s movie adaptation was undeniably well done , and it ended up being one of the best of the twelvemonth – due in no small part to Jeff Vintar ’s tight hand and the entire awesomeness of Will Smith and Chi McBride . Asimov certainly meant to get us thinking , so one could guess he ’d be pleased that his work inspired a smart sci - fi thriller like this . As it take place , however , the main plot of the movie is actually lift from a 1939 short story by Eando Binder that conduct the same name ; Asimov ’s publishing house gave his collection the same form of address , against Asimov ’s wishes . The Three Laws of Robotics were only added to the script after the film ’s producers fasten the rights to Asimov ’s anthology . This undertaking , then , has been harry from the beginning by cerebral place snafu : It ’s a confused collaboration of several mind , and it seems that not all the nous involved were by rights credit . And since it ’s have most of the problems , can we countenance go of that title already ?
WHEN WORLDS COLLIDE by Philip Gordon Wylie and Edwin Balmer
It ’s a crusted erstwhile basic of operose sci - fi , a 1933 novel that first see mark as a magazine serial . Wylie and Balmer ’s taradiddle begins with a South African uranologist , Sven Bronson , who name that a pair of rogue planet are headed for Earth ’s cranial orbit . Only a small group of scientists believe his claim ; they work to work up two ship that will carry the beginnings of a new human colonization to one of the rapscallion planets , which is cast to replace Earth in its orbit . This is the kind of pre - NASA conjecture that work easily in honest-to-goodness - fashioned typewriter font on yellow report .
But of course , Hollywood felt the need to put it in Technicolor . The film version did gain ground an Oscar for special effects , but it was 1951 , so you decide for yourself if that ’s impressive . The picture ’s story does n’t so much explore sci - fi ideas as showcase human hysteria when tidal waves swing out the Earth and survivors are opt by lottery – and it naturally also allows for the most moan - worthy of romanticism subplots . And I ’d be remiss if I did n’t mention the way the film ’s hero pushes his handicapped moneyman off the embarkment Allium tricoccum as the ship result , despite the fact that he fund the entire project . “ Politically incorrect ” does n’t begin to cover it . manifestly there ’s a remake of the film schedule for a 2010 acquittance – is n’t one mistake supposed to teach you a object lesson ?
STARSHIP TROOPERS by Robert Heinlein
state of war go down on , and Heinlein try it with his 1960 Hugo - honour - winning novel . Told from the power point of scene of Johnnie Rico , a young soldier , this futuristic tale explores a populace where only old hand can vote or sustain public position – and where humankind battles endlessly with giant bugs . Rico ’s flashbacks to his time at school , and his experience in the armed forces , do to exemplify the full destruction that war make .
In the book , the bugs barely ever appear ; Rico views them only through a giant battle suit . For the 1997 film version , though , that was not an option – after all , there ai n’t a moviegoer born of womanhood who does n’t want to see giant grasshopper . Special effects impart lilliputian screen clip for Heinlein ’s philosophy discussions , but director Paul Verhoeven admitted he never got past the first few chapters of the novel anyway . If he hated the story that much , what do you think was keeping him from writing and directing his own friggin ’ screenplay ?
THE POSTMAN by David Brin
Originally published as two novellas ( both of which won Hugo awarding ) , this post - apocalyptic story grapples with the concept of survivalism , civilization , and promise . In a earth destroyed not by catastrophe but by its own people , one man pick up a worn - out United States Postal Service uniform – and discover that his fellow humans are so desperate they ’ll even take hope from that . The perfect novel , published as the two novellas combined , was named the dear skill fabrication novel of the year in 1986 in the John W. Campbell laurels .
And then Kevin Costner decide to direct and star topology in a picture adaptation . The 1997 story , while still beam a content of Leslie Townes Hope , pore that message more around the Postman as a warfare Cuban sandwich – and do n’t forget his tagalong baby mama . The New York Times blast the movie for its “ bastard sloppiness ” and “ mawkish jingoism , ” but Roger Ebert warned that we “ should n’t find fault them for trying . ” Well , I call back perhaps we should .
THIS ISLAND EARTH by Raymond F. Jones
The twelvemonth 1952 , I ’m indisputable , saw many new existence in sci - fi , but I ’m willing to reckon that almost none of them were as wacky as the interociter – an foreign transmission machine , which despite its apparent sophistication is about as cock-a-hoop as a truck . Jones give us the interociter in his novel This Island Earth , which told of an alien race that enrol Earth ’s great thinkers for a group cry the “ Peace Engineers . ” Not astonishingly , the “ Peace Engineers ” were actually aid the aliens wage an intergalactic state of war . On a major planet that had already seen the genius of 1951 ’s The Day the Earth Stood Still , this should not have seemed a honest nominee for a film adaptation .
Since the movie version of This Island Earth now gets most of its viewing in the physical body of Mystery Science Theater 3000 ’s lampoon , the folly of bring it to film is assured . fictile skulldomes , can thrones , and snort bushes are not the poppycock of eternal movie classics . Before you adjust a book , my advice is to run it through a spry Mike - Joel - Crow - Tom Servo exam . You might be surprise how much money you save on camera equipment and actors .
DuneFahrenheit 451I , RobotKevin CostnerStarship TroopersSteven SpielbergTom Cruise
Daily Newsletter
Get the best tech , scientific discipline , and culture news in your inbox daily .
news show from the future , surrender to your present .
You May Also Like
