Bad Book to Film Adaptations - or I expected nothing and I’m still let down

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MembersSchoolPizza dijo:
I got to meet Bruce Campbell once. He gave a talk to a small audience I happened to be a part of, for Reasons. One of the things I asked him was, given how his career was largely being the B-listingest B-lister that ever B-listed, was there any movie he really, really regretted.

His answer was something to the effect of "No, but if there was, it would be Congo."



Yeah, no, I won't even give it that much credit Sphere was a bad movie. It was a terrible adaptation of a reasonably creepy and interesting book, that utterly squandered some very solid acting talent and not-terrible special effects by completely bastardizing the screenplay and directing.

To be fair to the director and/or script writer... for some reason... I can imagine how it would be a tough book to adapt to a movie. For a relatively short stand-alone book it actually was a very slow burn, where every time one mystery got solved it just gave way to another, and as the layers got peeled away the tone shifted from mystery, to awe, to wonder, to suspicion, to fear, to terror, then finally into fucking existential horror. The movie only really had time for about two of those beats.
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You know what? I'm remembering that I don't think I ever saw the entirety of Sphere, so I'll take your word for it.
 
BrunoMattei dijo:
The Disaster Artist. It missed so much that made the book interesting. So much was cut out that it's a travesty such as:

Greg Sestero starting out as a struggling actor.

Greg dealing with a casting couch situation with a gay executive.

Greg's first night trying to get inside Tommy's place and having to sleep in a rundown hotel because he didn't have a key.

Tommy Wiseau being... Tommy Wiseau.

Tommy recording all of his phone calls with Greg.

One of Greg's friends questioning Tommy over his origin leading to Tommy kick Greg out of his car and kick him out of his apartment and changing his mind.

Tommy and Greg watching The Talented Mr. Ripley and Tommy being inspired by it (and seeing himself in that character, a guy pretending to be someone else) that directly lead to him deciding to make his own movie.

Gregg wanting nothing to do with the Room and Tommy paying him a "large amount of money" plus a new car to act in the movie and also act as an assistant director and everything else.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=Jv3MhjSmR3c
I know it's in the movie but there's so much more. This one shot, just the ONE shot of Tommy walking out of that little shack took THREE HOURS TO FILM. 24 takes. It was Greg's idea that he sit in the corner so Tommy could look at him and Tommy had the idea of having the water bottle so he'd have something to work with.

Tommy most likely originally living somewhere in Poland, emigrating to France, dealing with corrupt police officers, his obsession with Disney and all things American, and escaping to America.

The fact that Tommy owned a 5 story building in San Francisco that Greg never knew about that was used for pick up shots for The Room.

And still more I'm sure. The movie is so poorly made and the only thing it has going for it is James Franco's Tommy impression.



Reminds me: there was an attempt at a Stand movie directed by George Romero and it would have been a two-parter. The script is out there but it never got off the ground because it was too expensive. It's ripe for another attempt at a big screen adaptation.
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Can you explain the casting couch thing?
 
BrunoMattei dijo:
The Disaster Artist. It missed so much that made the book interesting. So much was cut out that it's a travesty such as:
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Holy fuck finally someone who agrees with me.

First off, James Franco can't direct worth shit and is a horrible director, with this only getting wide release because The Room has a huge cult following. Don't believe me? He directed thirteen movies prior to this, and this was the only one that got a wide release. (He's made eighteen total)

It also forgot to mention some other neat shit like with Retro Puppet Master. They took it out completely and replaced it with a Bryan Cranston cameo during his Malcom in the Middle days.
During that time, James Franco also auditioned for the part Greg got in Retro Puppet Master, Tommy sends a letter to Greg despite never telling Tommy where he was going to.
All those stupid ass interviews in the beginning were completely unnecessary.
The relevance of The Talented Mr. Ripley and how much it inspired Tommy
The Vampire shit is just briefly glanced on.

The "so bad it's good" audience reaction didn't happen immediately, the book itself ends just as the movie was about to start at the films premiere. (which I get they added for the sake of the script, but still it bugged me. Also they way the ending was written in the book made me smile.)

Plus they didn't get into Tommy's backstory, which is arguably the best part of the book.


I honestly think someone like Todd Solondz could have made this work.
 
breadandcircuses dijo:
I thought American Psycho, while a good movie, was a bad adaptation.

In the book, Bateman and his coworkers dress like fucking clowns and they didn't in the movie.

A Scanner Darkly was a good adaptation, though. So was Ender's Game. My friend who never read the book liked the twist at the End.
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It's an adaptation that couldn't be made in 2000. The violence in the book is NC-17 stuff. The de-emphasis on Bateman's hallucinations and racism among his peers is unfortunate. Originally, Cronenberg was going to shoot it in black and white and depict an NC-17 picture.

I'd love to see another attempt at an adaptation.
 
BrunoMattei dijo:
He was going for a part and the casting guy gave him the eye and said something to the effect of "Do you play tennis like the other guys?"
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Lbr he blew him

Stardust is one of the best and underrated book to film adaptations because it works on the strength of Charlie Cox, DeNiro, etc Claire Danes questionable accent notwithstanding. Michelle Pfeiffer is in her element chewing scenery (it's my favorite performance of hers) and Peter O'Toole is having fun. I was disappointed when Lindsay Ellis mentioned it as one of the "bad" adaptations.
 
BrunoMattei dijo:
It's an adaptation that couldn't be made in 2000. The violence in the book is NC-17 stuff. The de-emphasis on Bateman's hallucinations and racism among his peers is unfortunate. Originally, Cronenberg was going to shoot it in black and white and depict an NC-17 picture.

I'd love to see another attempt at an adaptation.
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Same, and part of me wishes they'd keep the Rat scene in if they remake it
 
Not a bad adaption, but lacking to be sure, of a book that has potential for a great adaption. "Annabel", the Alfred HItchcock Hour version of Patricia Highsmith's "This Sweet Sickness". Even with a hand like Robert Bloch adapting it, all of the knife-edges have been made smooth, a lot of the atmosphere cut into making a 45-minute TV show out of a whole novel and all you really have is Dean Stockwell having a good time playing the typical Highsmith gentleman with a jealous streak and a murderous streak.

To give you an idea of the original novel: the main character is a man who is obsessively in love with a woman who is in his circle but whom he can never have. Even though he is prosperous in his career, he lives in a dingy rooming house. Except on the weekends, He goes out to a little house in the country he maintains under an assumed name, he bought with the woman he's obsessed with in mind. He has decorated it as if he and this woman live there together and he goes there on the weekends to pretend they do, makes two meals, eats across from a picture of her etc. Obviously, this coping mechanism is bound to fail, and the failure will end badly.
 
MembersSchoolPizza dijo:
I got to meet Bruce Campbell once. He gave a talk to a small audience I happened to be a part of, for Reasons. One of the things I asked him was, given how his career was largely being the B-listingest B-lister that ever B-listed, was there any movie he really, really regretted.

His answer was something to the effect of "No, but if there was, it would be Congo."



Yeah, no, I won't even give it that much credit Sphere was a bad movie. It was a terrible adaptation of a reasonably creepy and interesting book, that utterly squandered some very solid acting talent and not-terrible special effects by completely bastardizing the screenplay and directing.

To be fair to the director and/or script writer... for some reason... I can imagine how it would be a tough book to adapt to a movie. For a relatively short stand-alone book it actually was a very slow burn, where every time one mystery got solved it just gave way to another, and as the layers got peeled away the tone shifted from mystery, to awe, to wonder, to suspicion, to fear, to terror, then finally into fucking existential horror. The movie only really had time for about two of those beats.
Presiona para expandir...


Funny, because back in the day the one movie Bruce regretted doing was... Maniac Cop. Yes, really. He used to defend doing Congo because it was a huge movie with A list actors and he got paid.
 
BrunoMattei dijo:
It's an adaptation that couldn't be made in 2000. The violence in the book is NC-17 stuff. The de-emphasis on Bateman's hallucinations and racism among his peers is unfortunate. Originally, Cronenberg was going to shoot it in black and white and depict an NC-17 picture.

I'd love to see another attempt at an adaptation.
Presiona para expandir...

I would've paid money to see it shot in that. There were some DAMN good visuals in that movie that came from the book (the business card scene) but there was absolutely no way they could've emulated 1/10 of what Bateman does to women on screen. It'll never get made now in this movie climate so this is as close to a version as we get.

Also there was a lack of stabbing hobo's which i do support.
 
Reverend dijo:
I would've paid money to see it shot in that. There were some DAMN good visuals in that movie that came from the book (the business card scene) but there was absolutely no way they could've emulated 1/10 of what Bateman does to women on screen. It'll never get made now in this movie climate so this is as close to a version as we get.

Also there was a lack of stabbing hobo's which i do support.
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The downside to that is that it would have starred Leonardo DiCaprio. But Cronenberg was able to get a decent performance from Rob Pattinson so who knows? The movie could have gone deeper in a lot ways. The most noticeable omission the current adaptation is Bateman bumping into his ex fiance at the laundromat ("Stupid bitchee! Understand?"). In the film you notice he's holding a cigar and we never see her again. In the book he meets up with her later at his apartment, nails her to his floor with a nail gun and tortures her while proclaiming "I never stopped smoking cigars!"
 
BrunoMattei dijo:
Funny, because back in the day the one movie Bruce regretted doing was... Maniac Cop. Yes, really. He used to defend doing Congo because it was a huge movie with A list actors and he got paid.
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I suppose it's possible the public perception of Congo began to influence his feelings, I don't know. I do know I've since seen him talk about Congo in another presentation (this one I saw on YouTube, not one I went to) about Congo where he described it as, basically, a movie that any sane person hearing about would think was a great idea - good director, good cast, good source material, good script writer, etc. But somehow it turned into one of the biggest AAA flops of the decade.
 
I Am Legend is one of my favorite books of all time but every single film adaption has been a let down, especially the Will Smith version. In fact, the Will Smith version even missed the entire point of the book though there was an alternative ending which got the point of the book but it was changed because it was too depressing or something along those lines.
 
MembersSchoolPizza dijo:
I suppose it's possible the public perception of Congo began to influence his feelings, I don't know. I do know I've since seen him talk about Congo in another presentation (this one I saw on YouTube, not one I went to) about Congo where he described it as, basically, a movie that any sane person hearing about would think was a great idea - good director, good cast, good source material, good script writer, etc. But somehow it turned into one of the biggest AAA flops of the decade.
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The thing is that he's been in way worse movies than Congo. It could be Bruce just taking a piss because that's what he does best at conventions.
 
Jessica Campbell dijo:
I Am Legend is one of my favorite books of all time but every single film adaption has been a let down, especially the Will Smith version. In fact, the Will Smith version even missed the entire point of the book though there was an alternative ending which got the point of the book but it was changed because it was too depressing or something along those lines.
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From what I heard they changed it because test audiences didn't get it/ didn't like it. I love I Am Legend, but the Will Smith version is one of the worse adaptations I've seen.
 
Nekromantik2 dijo:
From what I heard they changed it because test audiences didn't get it/ didn't like it. I love I Am Legend, but the Will Smith version is one of the worse adaptations I've seen.
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Funnily enough I heard that when they had plans for a sequel it was going to be based on the alternative ending of the movie (the one that test audiences didn't like).
 
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