The list of book-to-film adaptations is never-ending, as audiences are seeing a new addition almost monthly, and we’re not talking about turning comic books into film or TV shows. No, these are books that audiences love, and you know how much Hollywood loves to mess with what we hold dear. That said, out of the dozens of titles that have flooded the market annually over the last two decades, only a few adaptations — Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings, among others — have earned a rightful place in the hearts of their respective books’ fans.
And that’s probably why Hollywood is banking on repeating that success strategy again, with new takes on books that have already been made into films. 2021’s Dune is a masterpiece compared to the 1984 original, and we’re all looking forward to the sequel with a possibility of a part 3. And just as not every adaptation can be successful, there is value in trying again for the ones that failed the first time. After all, think about the high number of adaptations of Bram Stoker’s Dracula in film and TV — if the book is popular enough, there is an audience.
And Hollywood is slowly becoming aware, with the upcoming re-adaptation of The Chronicles of Narnia. That said, there are more movies from book adaptations that miss the book’s magic entirely, remaining in the minds of fans for all the wrong reasons.
Some of them are just too good to be remembered as movie flops and should be graced with a second chance in the name of redemption. From Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children to Eragon, here is the list of book-to-film adaptations that deserve another shot at the big screen.
1) Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children (2016)
Tim Burton (Corpse Bride, Batman) not being able to keep his characters creepy and eerie? Has the world gone topsy-turvy? Unfortunately, that was one of the flaws in the 2016 film adaptation of the 2011 novel of the same name by Ransom Riggs. The book follows Jake Portman as he discovers a hidden world of extraordinary children with unique abilities and uncovers dark secrets that threaten their existence.
The film adaptation suffered from the flaw that most book adaptations do: stuffing a ton of characters and world-building into a short time period. However, a bigger problem was the difference in how the main antagonists, the Hollows, were portrayed in the source material and in the movie. According to the novel, these monsters seem to be the stuff of nightmares, with their appearance kept a mystery for the most part as only certain people are able to see them.
The book describes them as such: “It’s believed that the hollows can live thousands of years, but it is a life of constant physical torment, of humiliating debasement – feeding on stray animals, living in isolation – and of insatiable hunger for the flesh of their former kin, because our blood is their only hope for salvation. If a hollow gorges itself on enough peculiars, it becomes a wight.” Essentially, a Wight looks like a human with no pupils.
While the adaptation was initially able to carry the eerie tone of the Hollows and Wights, the constant visual of the Hollows took away the element of fear, leading to the Wights becoming almost comedic relief by the end of the film.
2) Vampire Academy (2014)
Bad vampire books-to-films adaptations are not uncommon (Yeah, we’re dedicating this to Twilight), but it still hurts when they happen. Where most films in this bucket hold the flaw of making their characters deeper than they actually are, the 2014 film adaptation of the 2007 Vampire Academy novel has the opposite problem.
The book tells the story of Rose Hathaway, a Dhampir, and her Moroi vampire best friend, Lissa Dragomir, who are forced to return to their school, St. Vladimir’s Academy, after being on the run for a year. They have to fend off the oncoming Strigoi attacks while dealing with the intricacies of romance, friendship, and other dark secrets.
The film missed the critical point of just how close the bond between Rose and Lissa was, a core theme of the novel with Rose being able to see through Lissa’s eyes and breaking traditional rules to let Lissa feed off her when they are on the run. Another major point lost in the film’s efforts to turn up the comedic factor, in a Mean Girls-meets-vampires sort of way, was the touch-and-go exploration of Rose’s inner turmoil in having crossed that taboo line with Lissa, dealing with the school slut-shaming of being a ‘blood whore’.
Vampire Academy did have a second shot with Peacock as a TV series adaptation. However, it was cancelled after just one season after being unable to hit the target demographic. With the potential to be the next big vampire franchise, with 6 novels to adapt, Vampire Academy is very much welcome to grace the big screen once again.
3) The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones (2013)
Timing can make or break a film, and sadly the latter fell on the 2013 adaptation of the first of The Mortal Instruments book series – in more ways than one.
The movie’s premise was exciting enough, with Clary Fray (Lily Collins) discovering she is a Shadowhunter, a supernatural warrior, embarking on a quest to rescue her mother, navigating a world filled with supernatural beings. But when matched up with the other franchises at the time, the film failed to meet the already high expectations of fans.
The pacing was another issue the film faced with timing, with the Telegraph taking issues with the flow of the story:
“The plot is an incomprehensible tangle of dead ends and recaps, and afterwards you realise only two things have stuck: the story’s countless unsubtle borrowings from very recent pop culture — not only Twilight, but Harry Potter, Star Wars and Buffy the Vampire Slayer are all plundered for parts — and a brief aside in which we learn one of the earliest demon-hunters was Johann Sebastian Bach.”
The Mortal Instrument series was redeemed with a 2016 successful reboot series on Freeform, Shadowhunters, that spanned 3 seasons. It may be nostalgia, but there is still a longing to see The Mortal Instruments series take another shot in cinemas.
4) The Giver (2014)
A major reason why book-to-film adaptations don’t succeed is because they are unable to live up to fan expectations. This was why the 2014 film adaptation received the opposite reaction compared to the beloved 1993 novel of the same name.
The novel takes place in a seemingly utopian society where a young boy named Jonas discovers the dark secrets behind their supposedly perfect world and embarks on a journey to challenge the status quo and reclaim individuality and freedom. There is a larger focus on internal conflict and world-building, but the film added more unneeded twists than necessary, with chase sequences and frenetic plotting.
The romance in the novel, where Jonas has ‘stirrings’ and a sexy dream about Fiona, is not pursued. Still, in the spirit of making a film in the Young Adult genre, filmmakers aged Jonas up to have a somewhat conventional romance with Fiona.
If it ain’t broke, why fix it? Hopefully, the next set of filmmakers to take on The Giver will remember that.
5) The Bonfire of the Vanities (1990)
Based on the 1987 novel by Tom Wolfe, The Bonfire of the Vanities saw itself landing into another book, the 1991 Devil’s Candy: The Bonfire of the Vanities Goes to Hollywood, where its failures were written for all to see.
With source material of a satirical novel that explores the extravagant lifestyles, social divisions, and moral decay of 1980s New York City through the downfall of an influential Wall Street figure, you might wonder: how did Hollywood go wrong?
A big problem that the studio had with the novel was that there were no likeable characters, consistent with Wolfe’s scornful examination of the various institutions of New York. In a lapse of judgement, the studio took a huge turn, turning greasy Sherman McCoy into a likeable protagonist, and casting Tom Hanks (Toy Story, The Green Mile) in the role. The film also experienced continuity issues with Melanie Griffith (Lolita, Working Girl), playing Maria Ruskin, getting breast implants mid-way. While Hanks did a good portrayal of the role he was given, critics could not take the deviation from the original.
Now would be perfect if there was any time to do a film about an oily Wall Street figure.
6) The Dark Tower (2017)
Turning a Stephen King book series into a film that stays within the PG-13 ratings will not bode well. That is precisely what director Nikolaj Arcel (King’s Game, A Royal Affair) did despite the series’s graphic violence, dooming the adaptation even before filming began.
The Dark Tower series, comprising eight novels, depicts a gunslinger’s quest to reach the enigmatic Dark Tower and save his own decaying world from destruction while facing supernatural forces and confronting his demons.
In an interview with Vulture, Stephen King pointed out that another issue the adaptation had was squeezing an entire series of books into a single film.
“The major challenge was to do a film based on a series of books that’s really long, about 3,000 pages. The other part of it was the decision to do a PG-13 feature adaptation of books that are extremely violent and deal with violent behaviour in a fairly graphic way.”
The Dark Tower is in development as a TV series, so while it might be a while to see it back on the big screen, we can only hope that those in charge will be less stingy with the violence this time.
7) The Golden Compass (2007)
The Golden Compass graced the big screen in 2007 and followed the story of 11-year-old Lyra Belacqua, set in a world where humans’ souls manifest as animal companions called daemons, as she unravels the secret of Dust on her dangerous quests alongside her loyal daemon. The film was based on the 1995 novel Northern Lights by Philip Pullman, the first of the His Dark Materials trilogy.
Despite having a solid cast composed of Daniel Craig (Skyfall, Knives Out) and Ian McKellen (X-Men, The Da Vinci Code), the film’s efforts to pull itself away from the religious controversy surrounding the books left it a lacklustre product. Not to mention the attempt to squeeze in multiple character backgrounds, mythology, and politics into a scant 113 minutes meant that a few points from the book had to be left out.
Though His Dark Materials trilogy had another shot with a TV series produced for HBO and BBC One that spanned 3 seasons, it would be great to experience the human and daemon world of Philip Pullman in cinemas once again.
8) Beautiful Creatures (2013)
When a director says he wants to change a lot of a book’s story, you should start seeing warning lights. That’s exactly what director Richard LaGravenese (Freedom Writers, P.S. I Love You) told Warner Bros. Studios in the planning stages of adapting the first book in The Caster Chronicles series.
“When I was writing it, I kept saying to the studio and my producer: you know, I’m changing this a lot because I don’t know how else to do it; there are problems with the book. And they all said to me: it doesn’t matter, because it’s not a popular YA,” he recalled.
“And then because we were making it, and they started marketing it, it started to outsell a lot of the other YA books. So that when it was done, American teenagers completely rejected it because it was too different from the book!”
Supposedly set to rival the Twilight film franchise, the story is set in a small Southern town where a young boy falls in love with a mysterious girl with supernatural powers, unravelling a curse and discovering dark secrets that intertwine their destinies.
May this be a warning to the next director willing to take on The Caster Chronicles series – leave the books alone, and the fans will leave you alone.
9) Eragon (2006)
Eragon is the first book in The Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini. It tells the story of a young farm boy, Eragon, who discovers a dragon egg and embarks on an epic adventure to overthrow an evil king and restore justice to the land of Alagaësia. The book became the second best-selling paperback of 2005, attracting readers with a storyline reminiscent of The Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter.
Fans were delighted when a film adaptation took to cinemas in 2006, though that excitement was short-lived. Critics praised the CGI, but the unfaithfulness to the source material stopped the potential Inheritance Cycle film franchise right out of the gate. An example was Arya, Eragon’s love interest in the book series, who originally had a cold personality and never showed any romantic affection. However, Arya is much warmer with Eragon in the movie and sees him as her saviour.
While Eragon might not be returning for another chance at the big screen, Variety revealed in 2022 that an Eragon TV adaptation is in early development with Disney+.
10) Jurassic Park (1993)
The Jurassic Park franchise did justice when it came to adapting from the source material, a duology by Michael Crichton. It highlighted the consequences of humans playing God to resurrect the extinct reptiles.
However, there is still longing from some fans to see a reboot of the novels on the big screen in all their gritty, graphic glory. For example, in the Jurassic Park novel, an infant is described as being eaten alive in its crib by a trio of Procompsognathus. Many characters, like John Hammond and Ian Malcolm, meet grisly ends by the claws and teeth of dinos by the end of the second instalment, The Lost World.
It might be morbid curiosity, but would it not be fascinating to see a true-to-the-book film adaptation in cinemas?
With The Chronicles of Narnia set to get a second wind on the silver screen, the door remains open for more reboots of book-to-film adaptations to follow. It won’t be an easy undertaking, as there are a lot of considerations to factor in when translating novel pages into a motion picture, but the payoff can be rewarding when done right. After all, if the likes of Hunger Games, Harry Potter, Dune, The Lord of The Rings, and more can find success, what’s stopping the rest from doing so as well?
Pay attention to the source material, and chances are, the battle is half-won.
Sasha has been a lover of all things geek since before she could read, having driven her mother up the wall in providing geek material as fast as her daughter could get through them. While Fantasy has been her greatest love, Sasha won’t say no to anything Horror, Action-Packed, or Sci-Fi!
Natalie
