December "Books Made Into Movies" Discussion Help

kio · Post by **kio** » 23 Nov 2015, 18:24

So, "Books Made into Movies" Genre is pretty self-explanatory. Here, however, are a few suggestions of Books Made Into Movies:

Harry Potter series

Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan

Avengers graphic novels by Marvel

The Martian by Andy Weir (science fiction)

Paper Towns or Fault in Our Stars by John Green

Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins

Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (historical fiction)

Book Thief by Marcus Zusak (historical fiction)

Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown (mystery)

One for the Money by Stephanie Plum (comedy/mystery)

Gone Girl by Vince Flynn (mystery)

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen (other fiction)

Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Nifenegger (sci fi/romance)

The list is pretty endless and browsing for a title might not be as easy on the forums (these are just off the top of my head, but I honestly could keep going for quite a while

), but other ideas on good reads are: http://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/boo ... nto-movies or google "books made into movies" for more help.

As you're reading, ask yourself (in addition to the usual questions), what elements made this book good to make into a movie?

Gravy · Post by **Gravy** » 23 Nov 2015, 18:36

:geek:
Almost anything by Michael Crichton

-- 23 Nov 2015, 16:37 --

Also, a good thing to discuss would be how/why things were changed, and how it effected the core story? Also, whether or not the changes were warranted, and did justice to the original work?

Ryan · Post by **Ryan** » 23 Nov 2015, 19:22

Graverobber wrote::geek:
Almost anything by Michael Crichton

-- 23 Nov 2015, 16:37 --

Also, a good thing to discuss would be how/why things were changed, and how it effected the core story? Also, whether or not the changes were warranted, and did justice to the original work?

That's exactly what I was thinking. I'm going to try to watch the film adaptations, but if not then I suppose a discussion of those parts which would translate well into film would be acceptable

gali · Post by **gali** » 23 Nov 2015, 22:45

I have read most of those on the list, but just watched the Harry potter movies.

DennisK · Post by **DennisK** » 24 Nov 2015, 00:08

I've decided on Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell. The movie is stared by Tom Hanks. I found the movie in Netflix, but I'll read the book first. I understand the story is a sci-fi covering different time periods, and its structure jumps back and forth between time frames. It should be interesting to see how the writer pulls this off.

Chrislock · Post by **Chrislock** » 24 Nov 2015, 07:34

Graverobber wrote::geek:
Almost anything by Michael Crichton

-- 23 Nov 2015, 16:37 --

Also, a good thing to discuss would be how/why things were changed, and how it effected the core story? Also, whether or not the changes were warranted, and did justice to the original work?

Jurassic Park was the first book that popped into my mind when I saw the title of the thread

I agree that a discussion on why things are changed is an important one to have. We often complain that the movies are never as good as the books, that they never do justice to the books. Yet the reality is if those changes hadn't been made, then the movie would've been compromised.

It would be interesting actually to look at the changes to stories as they cross multiple media (novel, movie, video game, graphic novel, live performance, radio serial etc.). It's interesting to look at how these different media bring out different elements of a story

DennisK · Post by **DennisK** » 24 Nov 2015, 10:08

I will have to limit the review of my choice to just the comparison between the book and its movie. I found this book by randomly searching the internet, but it didn't occur to me to search this forum for threads already dealing with this book – until this morning. DATo has an excellent review of Cloud Atlas along with an active discussion. I have the movie in my Netflix queue, and I do want to read the book; so I'll join in both threads, concentrating on its comparison with the movie here and more on the book …... there.

Gravy · Post by **Gravy** » 24 Nov 2015, 21:17

Found a site with an extensive list of fiction to film adaptations. Based on the Book
The only draw back is it's reliance on IMDB, which isn't the most accurate source, but it could offer some inspiration.

kio · Post by **kio** » 25 Nov 2015, 12:09

Thanks @Graverobber, that's a great list

DennisK · Post by **DennisK** » 25 Nov 2015, 15:54

I don't feel good about my first choice; so using Graverobber's web recommendation (thanks Graverobber), I found Carl Sagan's 'Contact' which is one of my favorite movies. I did a search for any mention of this book in the forum, and found nothing; so 'Contact' will be my choice for December's read.

Gravy · Post by **Gravy** » 28 Nov 2015, 03:07

Glad to be of help

teiladancer · Post by **teiladancer** » 29 Nov 2015, 01:51

I'm fond of the movie adaptation of Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged. They took the plot and put it into a contemporary setting, which I thought was interesting. I haven't seen the third and final movie yet, but the first two installments were great.

Gravy · Post by **Gravy** » 29 Nov 2015, 03:56

I've already begun my December book, The True Meaning of Smekday. It was made into an animated movie recently featuring the voices of Jim Parsons (of The Big Bang Theory), and Rihanna. The title was changed to Home for the movie.

gali · Post by **gali** » 29 Nov 2015, 05:05

Graverobber wrote:I've already begun my December book, The True Meaning of Smekday. It was made into an animated movie recently featuring the voices of Jim Parsons (of The Big Bang Theory), and Rihanna. The title was changed to Home for the movie.

I have read it and loved it, but I didn't watch the movie.

Gravy · Post by **Gravy** » 29 Nov 2015, 05:11

gali wrote:
Graverobber wrote:I've already begun my December book, The True Meaning of Smekday. It was made into an animated movie recently featuring the voices of Jim Parsons (of The Big Bang Theory), and Rihanna. The title was changed to Home for the movie.
I have read it and loved it, but I didn't watch the movie.

I watched the movie not realizing it was based on a book