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This week I am counting down the top ten book to movie adaptations that I still have yet to see, but need to! I have seen a lot of excellent book to movie adaptations, as well as a lot of bad ones. Hopefully, when I get around to watching these 10, they will fall into the former category. (These are not necessarily books that I have read, they are just movies I have not seen that were based on books) All books are linked to Goodreads. Here is my list:
Movie Adaptation: The Witches premiered in 1990. Directed by Nicolas Roeg and distributed by
Warner Bros. Entertainment.
9. The Golden Compass
Original Book: The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman published in 1995 as the first book in the
His Dark Materials trilogy.
Synopsis (courtesy of Goodreads)
: Here lives an orphaned ward named Lyra Belacqua, whose carefree life among the scholars at Oxford's Jordan College is shattered by the arrival of two powerful visitors. First, her fearsome uncle, Lord Asriel, appears with evidence of mystery and danger in the far North, including photographs of a mysterious celestial phenomenon called Dust and the dim outline of a city suspended in the Aurora Borealis that he suspects is part of an alternate universe. He leaves Lyra in the care of Mrs. Coulter, an enigmatic scholar and explorer who offers to give Lyra the attention her uncle has long refused her. In this multilayered narrative, however,nothing is as it seems. Lyra sets out for the top of the world in search of her kidnapped playmate, Roger, bearing a rare truth-telling instrument, the compass of the title. All around her children are disappearing—victims of so-called "Gobblers"—and being used as subjects in terrible experiments that separate humans from their daemons, creatures that reflect each person's inner being. And somehow, both Lord Asriel and Mrs. Coulter are involved.
Movie Adaptation: The Golden Compass premiered in 2007. Directed by Chris Weitz and distributed by
New Line Cinema.
8. Inkheart
Original Book: Inkheart by Cornelia Funke published in 2003 as the first book in the
Inkworld trilogy.
Synopsis (courtesy of Goodreads)
: Twelve-year-old Meggie learns that her father, who repairs and binds books for a living, can "read" fictional characters to life when one of those characters abducts them and tries to force him into service.
Characters from books literally leap off the page in this engrossing fantasy. Meggie has had her father to herself since her mother went away when she was young. Mo taught her to read when she was five, and the two share a mutual love of books. He can "read" characters out of books. When she was three, he read aloud from a book called Inkheart and released characters into the real world. At the same time, Meggie's mother disappeared into the story
Movie Adaptation: Inkheart premiered in 2009. Directed by Iain Softley and distributed by New
Line Cinema.
7. A Clockwork Orange
Original Book: A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess published in 1962.
Synopsis (courtesy of Goodreads)
: A vicious fifteen-year-old "droog" is the central character of this 1963 classic, whose stark terror was captured in Stanley Kubrick's magnificent film of the same title.
In Anthony Burgess's nightmare vision of the future, where criminals take over after dark, the story is told by the central character, Alex, who talks in a brutal invented slang that brilliantly renders his and his friends' social pathology. A Clockwork Orange is a frightening fable about good and evil, and the meaning of human freedom. When the state undertakes to reform Alex—to "redeem" him—the novel asks, "At what cost?"
Movie Adaptation: A Clockwork Orange premiered in 1971. Directed by Stanley Kubrick and distributed by
Warner Bros.
6. The Silence of the Lambs
Original Book: The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris
published in 1988 as the second book in the
Hannibal Lecter series.
Synopsis (courtesy of Goodreads)
: There's a killer on the loose who knows that beauty is only skin deep, and a trainee investigator who's trying to save her own hide. The only man that can help is locked in an asylum. But he's willing to put a brave face on - if it will help him escape.
Movie Adaptation: The Silence of the Lambs premiered in 1991. Directed by Jonathan Demme and distributed by
Orian Pictures.
5. The Time Traveler's Wife
Original Book: The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger published in 2003.
Synopsis (Courtesy of Goodreads)
: Clare, a beautiful art student, and Henry, an adventuresome librarian, have known each other since Clare was 6 and Henry was 36, married when Clare 23 and Henry 31. Impossible but true. Because Henry unintentionally jumps in time, pulled to moments of emotional gravity, past and future. His experiences can be harrowing or amusing.
Movie Adaptation: The Time Traveler's Wife premiered in 2009. Directed by Robert Schwentke and distributed by
New Line Cinema.
4. The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Original Book: The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky published in 1999.
Synopsis (Courtesy of Goodreads)
: Charlie is a freshman.
And while he's not the biggest geek in the school, he is by no means popular. Shy, introspective, intelligent beyond his years yet socially awkward, he is a wallflower, caught between trying to live his life and trying to run from it.
Charlie is attempting to navigate his way through uncharted territory: the world of first dates and mix tapes, family dramas and new friends; the world of sex, drugs, and The Rocky Horror Picture Show, when all one requires is that perfect song on that perfect drive to feel infinite. But he can't stay on the sideline forever. Standing on the fringes of life offers a unique perspective. But there comes a time to see what it looks like from the dance floor.
Movie Adaptation: The Perks of Being a Wallflower premiered in 2012. Directed by Stephen Chbosky and distributed by
Summit Entertainment.
3. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
Original Book: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson published in 1971.
Synopsis (Courtesy of Goodreads)
: 'We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold. I remember saying something like, "I feel a bit lightheaded; maybe you should drive ..."' Hunter S. Thompson is roaring down the desert highway to Las Vegas with his attorney, the Samoan, to find the dark side of the American Dream. Armed with a drug arsenal of stupendous proportions, the duo engage in a surreal succession of chemically enhanced confrontations with casino operators, police officers and assorted Middle Americans.
Movie Adaptation: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas premiered in 1998. Directed by Terry Gilliam and distributed by
Universal Pictures.
2. Requiem for a Dream
Original Book: Requiem for a Dream by Hubert Selby Jr. published in 1978.
Synopsis (Courtesy of Goodreads)
: In Coney Island, Brooklyn, Sarah Goldfarb, a lonely widow, wants nothing more than to lose weight and appear on a television game show. She becomes addicted to diet pills in her obsessive quest, while her junkie son, Harry, along with his girlfriend, Marion, and his best friend, Tyrone, have devised an illicit shortcut to wealth and leisure by scoring a pound of uncut heroin. Entranced by the gleaming visions of their futures, these four convince themselves that unexpected setbacks are only temporary. Even as their lives slowly deteriorate around them, they cling to their delusions and become utterly consumed in the spiral of drugs and addiction, refusing to see that they have instead created their own worst nightmares.
Movie Adaptation: Requiem for a Dream premiered in 2000. Directed by Darren Aronofsky and distributed by
Artisan Entertainment.
1. American Psycho
Original Book: American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis published in 1991.
Synopsis (Courtesy of Goodreads)
: Patrick Bateman is handsome, well educated, intelligent. He works by day on Wall Street earning a fortune to complement the one he was born with. His nights he spends in ways we cannot begin to fathom. He is twenty-six years old and living his own American Dream.
Movie Adaptation: American Psycho premiered in 2000. Directed by Mary Harron and distributed by
Lions Gate Films.
So there it is! The list is long, but I think there are a lot of potentially good movies in here that I need to check out. I have not read all of these books, but I feel I should probably do that as well. Leave me a comment letting me know some book to movie adaptations you still need to see or leave me a link to your post. Happy reading!!
~Miranda Kae
