Classic "Books-Made-Movies", much to the dismay of the author

[ifuweregay93]

Posted: 10/27/12 at 2:16pm

What are some examples of classic movies that were made into books, that for whatever reason, the author had disapproved of?

I can only think of two off of the top of my head, which are "Mary Poppins" and "Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory"

[CJ N2N]

Posted: 10/27/12 at 2:24pm

I'm confused? Are you talking about books made into movies of movies made into books?

If you're talking about the former, "The Shining".

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 10/27/12 at 2:28pm

I think it's subjective. King, at the time, was excited about Kubrick making The Shining.

[strummergirl]

Posted: 10/27/12 at 2:35pm

Immediately thought Stephen King and The Shining. I just consider the book and film two separate entities.

Anne Rice waffled on Interview With The Vampire based mostly on the casting of Tom Cruise as Lestat. I think she may have come out being okay with it, but she has switched her opinion too many times to keep track.

Winston Groom hated Forrest Gump and it is very different from the film. Its sequel opened with the fact the biggest mistake for somebody to make is to have their life story become a movie.

Anthony Burgess own relationship with A Clockwork Orange was crystallized when Kubrick was adapting the American copy of the book that happened to omit the last chapter that pretty much would have made Alex a completely different character. Burgess always felt his book was misunderstood and the film version, Kubrick never saw the original copy until it was too late, did not help matters.

Bret Easton Ellis only liked The Rules of Attraction as far as the adaptations of his work goes.

Ken Kesey did not like One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.

[romantico]

Posted: 10/27/12 at 2:42pm

I though Anne Rice was not happy with Interview with a Vampire,but didn't she criticize the casting of Tom Cruise until she saw the finished film? So, not sure if it was the film or Cruise but Interview is one of the few Tom Cruise films I actually like.I wish they would have gone on and made the rest from the Vampire Chronicles will Neil Jordan directing.

[tazber]

Posted: 10/27/12 at 3:07pm

I don't know if he ever commented publicly, but I can't imagine Tom Wolfe was happy with Bonfire of the Vanities.

I remember reading that Chuck Palahniuk was unhappy with Choke.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 10/27/12 at 3:12pm

Gore Vidal's Myra Breckinridge

[strummergirl]

Posted: 10/27/12 at 3:23pm

Gore Vidal and Caligula. I think everybody but John Gielgud wanted to take their name off that film.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 10/27/12 at 5:46pm

Anne Rice and Exit to Eden.

[sondheimboy2]

Posted: 10/28/12 at 2:24pm

Even though he had a cameo in it, I doubt that Peter Benchley was thrilled by the film version of "Jaws".

[AEA AGMA SM]

Posted: 10/28/12 at 3:18pm

In regards to Interview With the Vampire, Anne Rice publicly decried the casting of Tom Cruise, but was so thrilled with the finished product that she took out a two page ad in Variety to praise him and apologize for her earlier statements.

Roald Dahl's dislike of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory was more from a matter of pride than what actually ended up on screen. There were a fair amount of rewrites to his screenplay after he turned in his final draft, including the ending and the "happily ever after" tone of that final scene, that he didn't like because he wasn't involved with them. Dahl reportedly never even saw the completed film, so in my mind he could never really say whether or not he was happy with the way it turned out.

William Peter Blatty disagreed very strongly with William Friedkin on the ending to the original cut of The Exorcist that did not include that tag with Kinderman and Father Dyer, though he was pretty happy with the rest of the film, and I would assume one of the driving forces to put that final moment back in for "the version you've never seen" (which I actually don't care for, preferring the original edit).

[trentsketch]

Posted: 10/28/12 at 3:35pm

Let's be clear on chronology here. Stephen King, at one point, loved Stanley Kubrick's The Shining. He supported it for years as a great film even if it wasn't a great adaptation of his work.

Then the made for TV movie came out and because it was closer to his book, King suddenly didn't like Kubrick's version. Whether he was lying back then just to not criticize what he admitted was a great film is debatable.

I'm trying to think of other examples and I'm drawing a blank. I know they exist.

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 10/28/12 at 4:38pm

Rice did come around to Interview. She was misquoted apparently, however, in her acceptance of Queen of the Damned (which at the time, shocked me that she would be so pleased with it) and has said as much, since.

[Jon]

Posted: 10/28/12 at 5:27pm

Ken Kesey had a right to be pissed off. He wrote a surreal fantasy, seen through the eyes of Cheif Bromden. The movie was gritty and realistic. It eliminated the sexual tension between Ratched and the men. It eliminated the Christ symbolism of the electroshjock scene. And somehow, it omitted the crucial scene in which the title is explained:

Native American nursery rhyme:

Wire, Briar, Limber Lock
Three geese in a flock
One flew East, One flew West
And one flew over the cuckpo's nest

[Jungle Red]

Posted: 10/28/12 at 5:46pm

Once you sell the rights, you don't have the right to be pissed.

[strummergirl]

Posted: 10/28/12 at 6:04pm

Re: The Shining, There are too many quotes attributed to King not just disliking the departure from the film but actually saying the film itself does not really take on. He liked 2001 and a couple of other Kubrick films so he was initially excited Kubrick took on the project. But really, Kubrick is not a strict follower of source material. When he adapted the source material that would become Dr. Strangelove, Red Alert, he changed the genre of the film from drama to black comedy while he was working on the script. Kubrick had considered the rights of that book for a very long time and immediately jumped on the rights of it when Frank Sinatra, who originally had the rights, could not get it produced before the rights expired.

Jaws had to be different from the book. It was an accessible box office breaker for a reason. The film largely eliminating the crude language and adult situations from the book.

Updated On: 10/28/12 at 06:04 PM

[South Fl Marc]

Posted: 10/28/12 at 6:09pm

My first thought was A Clockwork Orange too.

While the film is brilliant, the changing of the ending destroys the message the author was going for. On a side note, there is a theatre in DC right now doing an amazing production of "A Clockwork Orange". If you are in the area yyou should check it out.


Clockwork Orange

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 10/28/12 at 6:11pm

Despite playing a role in the movie, Dickey spoke out about the film of Deliverance after the fact. He claimed the film made it too much about "hillbilly rape"--and there's some truth there, what's a two page part (if that) in the novel, becomes the central scene of the movie (and at least ten minutes long). I think he only decided that after-the-fact, when the movie became so well known for that scene.

[Renart]

Posted: 10/29/12 at 11:42am

I believe Charles Portis was not happy with the original True Grit. I recall reading that John Wayne received an envelope in the mail from him and it contained a turn-of-the century photograph of a short dumpy man with a mustache with a note essentially saying, “This is Rooster Cogburn.”