December 28, 2011

Book-to-movie adaptations: some thoughts

If you follow me on Twitter (and check on it often), then you might have already seen this article from Salon: "And the next 'Tintin' is..." It's chockablock with opinions from all-star YA authors from Sherman Alexie to Maggie Stiefvater to Patrick Ness on book-to-movie adaptations; on which movies they'd like to see made, and which movies should never have been made. It's a great piece, and I'll still be here when you all finish reading it.

Finished? Okay? Okay.

It left me thinking which books were released this year that I'd love to see adapted for the big screen: Scott Westerfeld's excellent Leviathan trilogy that concluded with Goliath this October, Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor, Holly Black's Curseworkers trilogy, Witch Eyes by Scott Tracey, If I Stay and Where She Went by Gayle Forman, Divergent by Veronica Roth, Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs, and--while I doubt it would transfer to screen well--Everybody Sees the Ants by A.S. King.

It also got me to thinking about which movie adaptations never, ever should have been made: Eragon, The Golden Compass, and, while Anne Hathaway was cute, Ella Enchanted.

So what say you, fellow bibliophiles? What book-to-movie adaptations would you most like to see, and which do you most wish you could un-see?

5 comments:

Emidy (Une Parole) said...

I have to agree with you about the Eragon movie. I never read the book, but I could still tell that the movie itself was terrible! However, I think we all know about one series that was fantastic as movies - Harry Potter. As for books I'd like to see adapted, I'd have to say Florence & Giles. It's a dark, gothic story that would be fabulous as a movie.

Jessica D. Stampe said...

I absolutely HATED the movie version of ELLA ENCHANTED. I think I got through 30 minutes of it before I decided I couldn't make it through it.

As for a book I'd like to see on the big screen... I'd go with THE SNOW QUEEN by Joan D. Vinge. It's an older book, but I know it'd just be a beautiful movie.

Maggie Desmond-O'Brien said...

When I was younger, my best friend and I read every single Gail Carson Levine novel we could get our hands on. We were so excited for the Ella Enchanted movie, and then we saw it, and...it was not pretty. Char was cute, I guess?

I haven't read THE SNOW QUEEN but I'll have to check it out!

Maggie Desmond-O'Brien said...

The Inheritance novels are so campy and great, and the movie killed everything I loved about them. Really. I know I'll have to get around to the fourth book eventually, but I'm not sure I can bring myself to do it after the images of the characters that have been burned into my retinas by that movie.

I haven't read Florence & Giles, but say dark and gothic, and I'm there!

Jessica D. Stampe said...

I LOVE Levine's novels. Have you ever read The Two Princesses of Bamarre? One of my favorites (aside from Ella Enchanted).

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