Based on a book
What happens when a classic piece of writing is turned into a motion picture? A look at some of the movies that have survived the crossover.
What happens when a classic piece of writing is turned into a motion picture? Rania Habib looks at some of the movies that have survived the crossover.
Behind every great movie is a great screenplay. Behind many a great screenplay is a great book.
Things may sometimes go awfully wrong and end up in a total box office flop, but many of today's legendary motion pictures are originally based on a novel, and you'd be surprised as to which ones.
Who knew that Legally Blonde's ditzy Harvard-grad was once a storybook heroine or that Shrek once satisfied the minds of children everywhere without the hilarious voices of Mike Myers and Eddie Murphy? I didn't.
Silver screen adaptations are a tricky thing, and it takes a lot of guts to attempt turning a literary favourite into a Hollywood blockbuster.
With Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, I've curiously read about author Roald Dahl's hatred towards the first adaptation of his book, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971).
As a child, the rivers of chocolate and Gene Wilder's zany portrayal of Willy Wonka fascinated me, and I could watch the movie all day long had I not been pried away from the TV set.
Until last week, I was oblivious to the fact that this movie adaptation had incurred the wrath of my favourite children's author. I am now tormented.
Many of us abide by the theory that if the book is good, the movie will automatically be horrible.
This has unfortunately been many a case in the past, but let's put our cynical literary minds aside for a second and give credit to those who have respected great books, been wildly creative, and brought us fantastic visual adaptations of our favourite storylines.
Bridget Jones's Diary
(Books: 1996, 1999/Movies: 2001, 2004)
My personal favourite. I laughed my way through the books and laughed my way through the first movie. I have however deleted the movie sequel, Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, from memory.
Author Helen Fielding's accounts of a thirty-something singleton's life caught the hearts of millions of readers when the book was published in 1996.
Renee Zellweger's portrayal of Jones was just as I had pictured the heroine to be, proving that when screen adaptations of books work, they work really well. The awful movie sequel also proved that you can get too much of a good thing.
Gone With the Wind
(Book: 1936/Movie: 1939)
Possibly one of the most watched and loved movies of all time, Gone With the Wind is a classic of epic proportions.
With quotes such as "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn" making their way into our daily lives, the drama and the passion of that movie lives on to this day. The novel was published in 1936, and written by Margaret Mitchell, a former newspaper reporter for the Atlanta Journal.
After sustaining a serious back injury after falling from a horse, Mitchell wrote her way through recovery. When Gone With the Wind was released, it was the beginning of the most successful novel in history and Mitchell went on to win a Pulitzer Prize in 1937.
The Godfather
(Book: 1969/Movie: 1971, 1974, 1990)
Everyone knows The Godfather to be one of the most successful and gripping trilogies of all time. The movie catapulted stars Al Pacino, Marlon Brando and Robert de Niro to legendary statuses.
Francis Ford Coppola is credited with making one of the best mob movies ever made, and he drew his inspiration from the book by Mario Puzo.
Claiming never to have met a gangster before writing the book, Puzo's novel left a deep impact in American society through its cinematic adaptation. The Godfather book remained on the bestsellers list for 67 weeks and sold more than 20 million copies worldwide.
The Lord of the Rings
(Books: 1954, 1955/Movies: 2001, 2002, 2003)
One of the most recent and most successful trilogies of all time, The Lord of the Rings is a fantastical journey through a fantasy world with its very own specially created languages.
Adapted by director Peter Jackson, the first movie, The Fellowship of the Ring, gripped die-hard Lord of the Rings fans and captured many others.
JRR Tolkien wrote the novels and the first one was published in 1954.
Tolkien was a professor of at Oxford University and his trilogy has sold over 50 million copies. When die-hard fans of the book respond so well to a movie, you just know that something was done right.
Harry Potter
(Books: 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2003, 2005/Movies: 2001, 2002, 2004, 2005)
The man of the hour. With the sixth book just released, Potter mania is in full bloom.
In this case, the books have been more successful than the movies, rallying millions of fans around the world to line up for copies at crazy hours of the day.
Author J.K Rowling is now famously wealthy, and this all started with the release of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone in 1997.
The novel generated a huge, cult-like following. This gave way to a first movie adaptation in 2001, and the Potter saga continues to evolve.
