Movie adaptations of books authors hated

Authors who were not happy with the movie adaptations of their books

All readers know that most books are better than movies made on them and we suspect authors agree, despite some being contractually obliged to praise their book being butchered on screen. Though there are exceptions, most screen adaptations disappoint. It could be that a different medium can’t always convey what a book can but mostly because of the creative license movie makers take with the original material. Though most authors understand this, sometimes they voice dissatisfaction. Here are some adaptations even authors didn’t like and what they had to say.

‘Mary Poppins’ by Pamela Lyndon Travers

It’s a little-remembered fact that musical movie of the magic nanny was based on a set of books by Pamela Lyndon Travers. She quite disliked most parts of the movie that was likely to appeal to children like the music and animation. She wept during the premiere and was vocal about how she felt about the adaptation saying, “I cried when I saw it. I said ‘Oh God, what have they done’. I really hadn’t wanted Disney to do it – I don’t think he was the man. I had been with him in Hollywood, and he had made me certain definite promises as to about 20 items. And it seemed to me that these promises had not been kept.”She stipulated that no one involved in the movie could have anything to do with the stage adaptation.

‘Earthsea’ by Ursula K. Le Guin

Ursula K. Le Guin’s books series set in the world of Earthsea was adapted into a miniseries of which she said, “I had been cut out of the process, and just as quickly, race, which had been a crucial element, had been cut out of my stories”, she went on to lament the whitewashing of her diverse books. She succinctly summarised what most books seem to endure at the hands of those making adaptations, “I realized the producers had no understanding of what the books are about and no interest in finding out. All they intended was to use the name Earthsea, and some of the scenes from the books, in a generic McMagic movie with a meaningless plot based on sex and violence.”

​ ‘I Know What You Did Last Summer’ by Lois Duncan

Though many have watched this slasher film, it’s not commonly known that it’s based on a book. ‘I Know What You Did Last Summer’ was written by Lois Duncan and she said she was kept far from the production and when she saw the movie, it was a shock.“Heads flew off, blood spurted, the audience screamed, I SCREAMED — I was so horrified I couldn’t even open my popcorn. The first thing I did when I staggered out of the theater was phone my married daughter, Kerry, and tell her, “Don’t let my grandchildren see it!” She said in an interview with Barry Lyga. She added why the sensationalised violence didn’t didn’t agree with her personally, “several years ago my own teenage daughter, Kait, had been chased down in her car and shot to death, and I had seen, right in front of my eyes, what real violence is. To have people screaming and laughing about it did not go down well.”

‘Queen of the Damned’ by Anne Rice

Anne Rice’s ‘Interview with the Vampire’ is well known both as a movie and a book and though the author was unsure of the casting she came to praise the movie. However the adaptation of one of the sequels only earned her ire. Even before the movie released she said, “The young director is supposed to be developing THE QUEEN OF THE DAMNED which I think is a bad idea, and basically a doomed project,” and though she relented just after the movie she said it mutilated her work.

‘A Clockwork Orange’ by Anthony Burgess

Anthony Burgess is best known for his novella, ‘A Clockwork Orange’, but found the screen adaptation so bad, he seems to be questioning his decision to have written the book at all. In ‘Flame into Being: The Life and Work of D. H. Lawrence’ he said, “The book I am best known for, or only known for, is a novel I am prepared to repudiate: written a quarter of a century ago, a jeu d’esprit knocked off for money in three weeks, it became known as the raw material for a film which seemed to glorify sex and violence. The film made it easy for readers of the book to misunderstand what it was about, and the misunderstanding will pursue me until I die. I should not have written the book because of this danger of misinterpretation,”

‘A Wrinkle in Time’ by Madeleine L’Engle

This Sci-fi by Madeleine L’Engle has a recent(2018) movie adaptation but there was a two-part mini series that released in in 2003. Madeleine simply and succinctly said, “I expected it to be bad, and it is,” in an interview with Newsweek.

‘The Shining’ by Stephen King

Stephen King is openly vocal about his dislike of the movie interpretation of The Shining. He had written a screenplay which was closer to the books but unfortunately rejected. He said in an interview with Rolling Stone,”The book is hot, and the movie is cold; the book ends in fire, and the movie in ice. In the book, there’s an actual arc, where you see this guy, Jack Torrance, trying to be good, and little by little he moves over to this place where he’s crazy. And as far as I was concerned, when I saw the movie, Jack was crazy from the first scene.”

‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s’ by Truman Capote

This much-loved classic doesn’t get much love from Truman Capote, who wrote the book it was based on. He thought the lead, Holly, should be played by Marilyn Monroe, saying, “I had seen her in a film and thought she would be perfect for the part. Holly had to have something touching about her . . . unfinished. Marilyn had that.”

He also told Playboy that, “The book was really rather bitter and Holly Golightly was real—a tough character, not an Audrey Hepburn type at all. The film became a mawkish valentine to New York City and Holly and, as a result, was thin and pretty, whereas it should have been rich and ugly. It bore as much resemblance to my work as the Rockettes do to Ulanova.”