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Friday 20 January 2012

Page to Screen

Happy Friday, everyone! I cannot wait for the weekend. Sleeeeeep...

Is it just me or is every 'big' book becoming a movie? Books have always spawned adaptations - I'm not just realizing this or anything! - but it feels like everything is being optioned or adapted lately. And as many of us noted during Alex J. Cavanaugh's Worst Adaptations blogfest, so few movies actually live up to their original sources.

But sometimes they do. Here are a few of my favourites (not in order)-

1. Nanny McPhee and Nanny McPhee 2 (in fairness, these are very loose adaptations of the original books so maybe they don't count, but they're so good!)

2. The Godfather Part I 

3. War Horse (this is a bit of a cheat, actually, because it's really the West End play that I love - though the new movie is pretty great too. But an adaptation is an adaptation, right?)

4. The Reader

5. The Lord of the Rings trilogy (erm, better than the books, me thinks)

6. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Harry Potter and Deathly Hallows Part I, and Part II (okay, the books were better. But I think these three films were awesome)

What are your favourite adaptations?

12 comments:

  1. Agree that LOTR movies were better. War Horse was good as well. I've never seen the play, but they had a snippet on the news recently and it looks intriguing the way they did the horse.

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  2. I'm ashamed to say I haven't seen the last Harry Potter movie yet. I liked the LOTR movies but there were a few places where the characters and intents were changed so drastically that it upset me.

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  3. I love the LOTR and Harry Potter movies! And Nanny McPhee was so cute! I'm hesitant about seeing War Horse because I'm not a big animal movie fan (they make me bawl when the animal inevitably dies at the end, and that's not fun for anyone). Maybe when it comes out on DVD. :)

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  4. HP movies 3 and on were just as good as the books (in their own way, of course!) My favorite adaption is The Road by Cormac McCarthy. They both get the feeling of loss of hope so well, it's amazing. Love it!

    <3 jordan
    JordanDibb.com

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  5. Oh I loved Nanny McPhee. She scared my kids to pieces, though. As for good adaptations, I recently saw Hugo. Also, I liked The first The Lion The Witch and the Wardrobe.

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  6. Ah I loved War Horse the movie! And those are my fave Harry Potter adaps too, Azkaban was just fantastic :)

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  7. My favorite Harry Potter was THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN. The movie left out less and handled the edits much better than the latter ones. Enjoy your weekend, Roland

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  8. Ah, I LOVE Godfather and The Reader. They're such well done stories, on and off screen. Great post!

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  9. I thought The Help was a pretty good adaptation of one of my favorite books. And I absolutely deplore the Anne Hathaway version of Ella Enchanted. Such a disgrace to a classic.

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  10. The Prisoner of Azkaban is one of my favorite movies. :) And definitely one of the best Harry Potter movies they made!

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  11. Hmmm... I'm usually disappointed by the film version of books, but I did love The Devil Wears Prada!

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  12. Totally with you on LOTR. I cannot get through those books, but I can watch the movies again and again. I also admit to really liking Jurassic Park. If you separate the book and the movie in your mind, they're both good.

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