By Rebecca Reed
With every great book, a movie is sure to follow. There are some movies that deserve the quip; “the book was better” however, in a majority of cases, the movie and the book sit as equals. We will always love the books slightly more here at World of Books, but watching your favourite novel get transformed into a moving masterpiece is very exciting, especially when you enjoy it as well.
We have selected a handful of our favourite book to movie adaptations that really didn’t leave us disappointed.
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
“I volunteer as tribute!” A well-known phrase uttered by one of the most heroic female literary role models in this modern age. Katniss Everdeen, the girl on fire, the Mockingjay. Thanks to the film it propelled Jennifer Lawrence straight into the spotlight. There are subtle differences from page to screen in the first of the trilogy, these were put in to make sure the film flowed. The Hunger Games movie and book trilogy do stand as equals and in our opinion are up there with another obvious teenage fiction series, Harry Potter. Although, I don’t think we will be seeing a theme park around The Hunger Games trilogy. That may be too scary!
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
One of the greatest science fiction novels in my opinion, all except the Star Trek/Star Wars sagas. When this was turned into a film my parents were excited and shared this excitement with me. There are major differences in the book and movie, even to the point where parts of the movie do not feature in the books. The film stands out with its brilliant casting of Alan Rickman as Marvin the Robot, but if you prefer to curl up with the book, I highly recommend it just for the differences in a story that swallow Arthur Dent.
Stanley Yelnats, the name that resonates with so many children whether that be from the film or the book. Some students may have studied this in school, I know I did. We spent many a lesson analysing each chapter and then out rolled the TV and we got to watch the film starring the child superstar Shia LaBeouf. The book and movie are pretty much identical the changes are minimal just a few character tweaks, which gives the film a touch of reality, this makes it a great book to movie adaptation.
The book and film for this are both just as creepy and have left me with nightmares that I don’t think I ever recovered from. From the books to the movie, there were a few minor changes and I think they changed the parts from the book to film to make it less scary for their target audience. However, the “other mother” will remain a terrifying character in my eyes in both versions.
Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton
One of my all-time favourite films, admittedly I did read the book after I had watched the films however, Steven Spielberg didn’t miss much out, and with many books to movie adaptations, it is very hard to fit the story into a 2-hour film. The book creates all the tension and the horror in the exact same way the film does. You begin the story with the scepticism of “this is going to go well”. A few characters from the book had their roles switched for the movie however, I think we all have to agree that Lex is as irritating in page form and on-screen.
There are of course many more books to movies that are great and are many people favourites. We will just give them an honourable mention here: – The Godfather, The Shining, The Notebook, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (the Gene Wilder version, not Johnny Depp’s (sorry)) to name just a few, with Hollywood now steering itself into remakes upon remakes we hope to see a few more great book to movie adaptations in the coming years. Look out for Captain Underpants, The Lost City of Z and Murder on the Orient Express coming to the big screen this year!
What is your favourite book to movie adaptation, is yours listed above? Shop our full books to blockbusters selection here at World of Books.
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