Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Top 10 9 Book-to-Movie Adaptations

I don't watch many movies so this list was hard to come up with. I just couldn't think of one more.

9. Ghost in the Shell

I haven't actually seen this one yet but I've heard great things about it. The manga it's based on is incredible.

8. Girl, Interrupted

Angelina Jolie was AMAZING!

7. Brokeback Mountain

A major milestone in LGBT film.

6. Schindler's List

Literally one of the greatest movies of all time.

5. The Shining

OMG SCARY!

4. The Gangs of New York

Not many people know this, but The Gangs of New York was originally a 1928 nonfiction book by Herbert Asbury.

3. True Blood

Okay, it's a TV show not a movie, but I love it and it's way better than the books. I tried to read the first one, Dead Before Dark, but found the writing so mediocre I couldn't even finish it.

2. Interview with the Vampire

Says Anne Rice herself on Amazon.com:

The film took me back even further, into the soul that had exposed itself inthe writing. Darkness. No grace. No salvation. The film got it. It got "the glamor of evil" and that darkness, that hopelessness, that despair. It is -- and I say this now as a film buff -- a great film. Forget me. Forget the book. It's a piece of sublime work in which genius "happened" as it can in film when great directors like Neil Jordan, and great actors, and great professional on all levels are giving it everything that they can -- when they have but one goal and that is to be true to something in which the author was true to himself or herself. It worked. It's magic. And now ten years later people are discovering it. They are sharing that sublime vision. I'm thankful; I'm happy; I'm proud to have been part of it. I'm grateful. And I hope David Geffen knows. I hope he knows how the world values that film. He did that. I hope he's proud.


1. Lord of the Rings

Enough said.

Book-to-movie adaptations I would like to see (in no particular order):

Precious
Orlando
(That's a movie?!)
Rebecca
Trainspotting
City of Bones (Upcoming adaptation of the first book of Cassandra Clare's Mortal Instruments series.)
Blade Runner (Loosely based on Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?)
Dagon (Based on H.P. Lovecraft's "The Shadow Over Innsmouth," my favorite of his stories.)
At the Mountains of Madness (Upcoming Lovecraft adaptation directed by Guillermo del Toro!)



Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish. This meme was created because we are particularly fond of lists at The Broke and the Bookish. We'd love to share our lists with other bookish folks and would LOVE to see your top ten lists!

Each week we will post a new Top Ten list complete with one of our bloggers' answers. Everyone is welcome to join. If you don't have a blog, just post your answers as a comment. Don't worry if you can't come up with ten every time . . . just post what you can!

7 comments:

Short Story Slore said...

Completely agree with Interview with the Vampires. Tom Cruise is Lestat to me and that movie went above my expectations.

Laura said...

Oh, Precious is so good, but unbelievably sad! Don't watch it if you're feeling emotionally unstable lol! I had a lot of the same films (and TV show!) as you :)

http://devouringtexts.blogspot.com

Anonymous said...

I really need to watch Interview with the Vampire - it's been on my list forever. Also, one of these days I'll read an Anne Rice book. I saw her house when I was in New Orleans a few years ago...not that that is particularly relevant!

I watched Orlando last winter and really liked it - it's similar to the book, but not exact.

Emily said...

The film of Orlando is actually decent. I love Tilda Swinton as Orlando, and some of the set design really channels the bizarre allegorical quality of the book (though I think Sally Potter could have done more in this regard). But I hate hate HATE what she did to the Shelmerdine character, who is played atrociously by Billy Zane, and to Orlando's relationship with him, which is weirdly transformed into her badgering him into having a baby. I will forever hold it against the film and it will eclipse all the film's good qualities for me. Still, if you're not as attached to that relationship in the book you would probably enjoy the movie.

LBC said...

I can't believe I forgot Brokeback Mountain. From your list of movies you want to see, both Blade Runner and Precious were on my list.

Check out mine at: http://hawthornescarlet.blogspot.com/2011/02/top-ten-tuesday-on-silver-screen.html

Kayla + Cyna said...

Ghost in the Shell is very good, much more serious than the manga, but very good. I'd recommend the series as well, Stand Alone Complex. It's a very good balance of some of the lighter aspects of the manga while keeping with the kind of bleak cyberpunk feel of the movie. :)

GUILLERMO DEL TORO IS ADAPTING AT THE MOUTH OF MADNESS? DO WANT. He's quite possibly one of my favorite writer/directors ever MUST SEE THIS NOW.

Anonymous said...

Interesting list! Schindlers List is one of the all time great movies although I haven't read the book. You definitely should see Blade Runner. I've read and watched True Blood and decided they are nothing like each other. So I think you either like one or the other.

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