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New Film(!) List: Genre Lit-Flicks
Anyone paying close attention to our novel pages today may have noticed a curious thing. Many of our novels now have a section for “Film & Television Adaptations.” This was added to tie into our brand new shiny book list, Genre Lit-Flicks. This begins our project to build what we hope will be the definitive list of Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror novels adapted for feature films and television. Here are some fun facts to whet your appetite:
Did you know…
…the children’s classic The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe has been adapted a total of three times: once animated, once as live-action for the BBC, and most recently as a special effects extravaganza by Disney?
…John Carpenter’s horror film The Thing (1982) was adapted from the novel Who Goes There?, which also spawned the film The Thing from Another World (1951) and the prequel The Thing (2011)?
…legendary actor Marlon Brando’s most infamous role was in the critically panned The Island of Dr. Moreau (1996)?
…the novel The Body Snatchers was adapted four times as Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956), Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978), Body Snatchers (1994), and The Invasion (2007)?
…auteur director Andrei Tarkovsky’s film Stalker was an adaptation of the SF Masterworks novel Roadside Picnic?
…the ur-Horror novel Dracula has been adapted to film so many times we didn’t even try to list them all?
These and many other fun facts await your perusal at the Genre Lit-Flicks list.
But wait… there’s more!
That’s right! In addition to providing our loyal WWEnd members with the most comprehensive and up-to-date list of genre novel adaptations, we are launching a new blog series entitled Hell is Adaptations (series is not yet rated), which will document our ongoing trudge through the mire of Hollywood’s idea of what makes for good genre storytelling.
See any glaring omissions in our list? Think we should add a book to our database that was made into your favorite movie? Let us know in the comments below! Just be aware that we are not planning to add adaptations to the list until they have a theatrical or (shudder) direct-to-DVD release. We do know that World War Z is on its way, thanks…
13 Comments
Ramsey Campbell – The Nameless
filmed as Los sin nombre (dir. Jaume Balaguero)
Re-posted.
Glaring omission: 2 adaptations of Lem’s Solaris.
Oops. And now I’m going blind.
@Justifiedsinner: Don’t know what happened with the comments but I deleted them from the Hugo post. Thanks for re-posting them here. We’ve got Solaris on the list and 2 versions on the Solaris novel page 1972 and the recent Clooney take.. What adaptations are you referring to?
Sorry. Screwed up. I didn’t see them at first. Going blind in my old age.
Although. The Continuous Katherine Mortenhoe was made into a film called Death Watch by the French director Bertrand Tavenier.
And – I’m not sure whether it was a BBC series based on the novel or the novel was based on the TV series but Fred Hoyle and A for Andromeda (th is had the first major appearance of Julie Christie)
Then John Lymington’s novel Night of the Big Heat (a scifi horror) was made into a movie of the same name with Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing.
John Christopher’s Death of Grass was made into No Blade of Grass.
Of course several films are based on short stories such as Ray Bradbury’s A Sound of Thunder.
And finally (for me) H. G. Wells’ novel The Shape of Things to Come was adapted as Things to Come.
And finally (sorry I’ve been looking through my various collections):
Pierre Boulle – Planet of the Apes
D. F. Jones – Colossus (Made as Colossus: The Forbin Project)
John Varley – Millenium
L. Ron Hubbard – Battlefield Earth (truly awful film)
Craig Harrison – The Quiet Earth (New Zealand, film was pretty good)
John Christopher’s YA Tripod series was made into a TV series by the BBC
And Roger Zelazny’s short story Damnation Alley, film of the same name.
BBC also made ‘The Changes’ based on Peter Dickinsons ‘Changes’ Trilogy
There have been a few adaptations of Quatermass (but I think the novels came second).
Similarly with the Hitch-Hiker’s Guide which has been a radio show, novels, a tv show and a fillm (all different!)
The interesting one is ‘Neverwhere’ by Neil Gaiman. If it becomes a film, it will have appeared in 5 different media adaptations:-
TV series -> Novel -> Graphic Novel -> Radio Drama -> Film (hopefully). I’m not including audio book as it’s a reading of an existing version.
@origamidennis We already had “Neverwhere” on the list because of the miniseries, but I think it could make a great feature film, too.
Keep the suggestions coming! We’ll be expanding the book list periodically with items we’ve missed.
Hi jynnandtonnix,
I wrote the comment before I realised that there was a booklist, sorry! HItchhikers and Neverwhere are both there already.
So how about:-
Flashforward by Robert J. Sawyer
Lots of Philip K. Dick missing. But with the exception of A Scanner Darkly, the others are short stories:-
We can remember it for you wholesale (Total Recall), Minority Report, Adjustment Bureau, Imposter, Second Variety (Screamers), Paycheck, The Golden Man (Next) and a few others.
And (if I’m in a playful mood) Time out of Joint (The Truman Show) 😉
Yes, we do need to figure out how to add some of those PKD-based films on the list, since so many come from short stories in the same collections. We had the same quandary with a few H. P. Lovecraft-based films. Hopefully we can sort this out soon!
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