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  1. #1
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    Authors and big-screen movies

    I was wondering recently about big-screen adaptations of books. Which modern authors have had the most. I know some big ones are Michael Chriton (sp?), John Grisham, and Nicholas Sparks. Anyone know any others? Anyone have a list of the top ten?

    Finally, just for fun - What's your favorite book (or short story) to movie adaptation?

    My favorite is the Shawshank Redemption!
    Our greatest accomplishments cannot be behind us, because our destiny lies above us. - Matthew Mcconaughey - Interstellar

  2. #2
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    Lets see,
    Tom Clancy - 4 movies (so far)
    Michael Crichton - I believe 4 movies so far (if I am wrong please correct me)
    John Grisham - 7 movies (so far)
    Thomas Harris - 5 movies (6 if you count Manhunter)
    Stephen King - 11 movies (I think anyways. If you count the TV miniseries' then he is your champ!)

    Thats all I can think of right now.

    As for my favorite,
    hmmm

    It would have to be a three way tie:
    Shawshank Redemption
    Silence of the Lambs
    and Stand By Me

  3. #3
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    Phillip Dick with 6 big time movies and also some smaller ones.

    Blade Runner
    Total Recall
    Minority Report
    Paycheck
    A Scanner Darkly
    Next

    My favorite adaptations: Fight Club, Requiem for a Dream, 25th Hour.

  4. #4
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    Smile

    Quote Originally Posted by Jake View Post
    Phillip Dick with 6 big time movies and also some smaller ones.

    Blade Runner
    Total Recall
    Minority Report
    Paycheck
    A Scanner Darkly
    Next
    don't forget a little known movie based on a short novel by Philip K. Dick which IMO is one of the best Sci-Fi fun movies ever:

    Screamers

    http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114367/

  5. #5
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    Quote Originally Posted by Granite View Post
    Finally, just for fun - What's your favorite book (or short story) to movie adaptation?

    My favorite is the Shawshank Redemption!
    Quote Originally Posted by stardragon View Post
    Stephen King - 11 movies (I think anyways. If you count the TV miniseries' then he is your champ!)
    King is the champ indeed. I also loved The Shawshank Redemption. The short story was really short and they managed to make a great movie out of it. I also think that Green Mile is a very good adaptation. King is very lucky when it comes to directors. Darabont, Reiner, De Palma, Kubrick (but I must say that his "The Shining" is not very close to the book)

    From my favorites I would also add "Mystic River". Eastwood did a great job, he captured the mood and feel of Dennis Lehane's book perfectly Lehane is my favorite author (right after King ) I hope "Gone, Baby, Gone" (directed by Ben Affleck ) will be good.

  6. #6
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    James Bond anyone, how about Ian Flemming??
    I'm a mog, half man, half dog, I am my own best friend.

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    I will also add Jason Bourne, Robert Ludlum

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    ^Both Ian Fleming and Robert Ludlum's books are very very far from the movies. Great books, great movies, horrific adaptations.

  9. #9
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    I never read or saw the Bourne Identity or any books in that series, but every other book of his I have read has been excellent. I know they made the Hades Factor into a tv movie, but I haven't seen it yet. Those would have been really good if they found the right director. Also, I think they should turn the Dark Tower series into films, there doing 7 Narnia's and 7 Harry Potters, so why not this? I really enjoyed reading Into the Darkness series by Harry Turtledove, and he wrote a ton of alternate history books that I think would make great films. The only other things I would want to see made are the Left Behind Series (I am not religious, and I know they made a few already, but they were crappy low budget ones), and some good video game movies, these directors are getting it all wrong, they should at least play the game before making the dam movie.

  10. #10
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    James Patterson:
    Along Came a Spider
    Kiss the Girls
    And according to IMDB,
    Maximum Ride pre-production (Which I am very excited about.)

    "Suddenly I heard a tapping, as of someone gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door. You heard me rapping, Right?"

  11. #11
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    Sahara by Clive Cussler is one of my favorite books, which was made into a movie not too long ago (I thought the movie was OK, but Clive I guess didn't care for it... at least it was much better than the last movie attempt on one of his books, Raise the Titantic, which was an awful movie.)

    I don't know if it counts as an adaptation from a book (since it was a radio show first), but don't forget Douglas Adams' "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy".

    I also don't know if these count as "movies" or are more of a mini-series, but I like "Anne of Green Gables" series by L.M. Montgomery (I know, I'm weird, but I like both the DVDs and the books... of course, it helped that I had a small crush on Megan Follows who played Anne Shirley).

    The movie Apollo 13 is based on the book "Lost Moon" by James Lovell.
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  12. #12
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    a bit of research some surprises

    Quote Originally Posted by Granite View Post
    I was wondering recently about big-screen adaptations of books. Which modern authors have had the most. I know some big ones are Michael Chriton (sp?), John Grisham, and Nicholas Sparks. Anyone know any others? Anyone have a list of the top ten?

    Finally, just for fun - What's your favorite book (or short story) to movie adaptation?

    My favorite is the Shawshank Redemption!

    Thread fascinates me. First of all I agree with stardragon and michalz00 that Stephen King has to be modern author and champion in this arena with far more than 11 bigscreen adaptations . just look here. It's too difficult to assess how many though not TV went straight to video http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000175/

    It depends what you mean by modern Allowing Jake
    Phillip Dick with 6 big time movies and also some smaller ones.

    Blade Runner
    Total Recall
    Minority Report
    Paycheck
    A Scanner Darkly
    Next
    Phillip K Dick died in 1982, so setting last 25 years as a criterion I'd have to include other writers like:-

    http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0533745/ Alistair McLean (died 1987)
    http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0046701/ Desmond Bagley (died 1983)
    http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0383604/ Patricia Highsmith (died 1995)
    http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0531792/ John D MacDonald (died 1986)
    http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0355261/ Trevor Dudley Smith aka Elleston Trevor/Adam Hall (died 1995)
    http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0402805/ Evan Hunter/Ed McBain (died 2005)
    http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001294/ Graham Greene (died 1991)
    http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001920/ Isaac Asimov (died1992)
    http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0585151/ James Michener (died 1997)


    ...as well and they are all up for contention with more than 3.

    Also living writers like.

    http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0929696/ Charles Willeford
    http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001465/ Elmore Leonard
    http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0215050/ Len Deighton
    http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001969/ Ray Bradbury
    http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0810335/ Wilbur Smith
    http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0287046/ Frederick Forsyth
    http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0255278/ James Ellroy
    http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0458461/ Andrew Klavan

    Getting a headache posting (besides wasting download time) ... so will cut it off in a moment - may post again though. Please forgive any wrong links I make mistakes.

    Thrilled that John D MacDonald's Travis McGee character may be getting a big screen treatment with the announcement of filming for "The Deep Blue Goodbye" (2008), but then I heard that sometime ago about Adam Hall's Quiller character and nothing seems to have come of that!

    http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0908624/ Edgar Wallace (long dead!) would probably give Stephen King a run for his money as all time most prolific but then again they only had big screens at the time. I don't know quite why he was quite so popular with German Filmmakers and I didn't know that the King Kong stories were based on him either!

    All this research is probably re-inventing the wheel anyway
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  13. #13
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    Question Authors and big-screen movies

    How about Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler?

  14. #14
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    Quote Originally Posted by jmcc View Post
    How about Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler?
    http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0358591/ Dashiell Hammett
    http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0151452/ Raymond Chandler

    I thought of Both , jmcc, but set myself the perhaps arbitrary limit that modern authors must have been alive in last 25 years. Both are outside that range although also prolific. I would also include
    http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0825705/ John Steinbeck
    http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0002133/ Ernest Hemingway
    http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001907/ Eric Ambler
    http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0002005/ Agatha Christie

    among quite a few others if i didn't set some limit. Having problems with pc so will just send this. list is not complete. And may post later from library faster machine/internet connection free too so want to get there and start hogging a machine!

  15. #15
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    some more prolific authors

    Quote Originally Posted by legolasfan411 View Post
    I never read or saw the Bourne Identity or any books in that series, but every other book of his I have read has been excellent. I know they made the Hades Factor into a tv movie, but I haven't seen it yet. Those would have been really good if they found the right director. Also, I think they should turn the Dark Tower series into films, there doing 7 Narnia's and 7 Harry Potters, so why not this? I really enjoyed reading Into the Darkness series by Harry Turtledove, and he wrote a ton of alternate history books that I think would make great films. The only other things I would want to see made are the Left Behind Series (I am not religious, and I know they made a few already, but they were crappy low budget ones), and some good video game movies, these directors are getting it all wrong, they should at least play the game before making the dam movie.
    Agree completely that books are being overlooked as a source of ideas for big screen productions, and would love to see something made out of the Harry Turtledove books partcularly "The Great War", "American Empire" and "Settling Accounts" series none showing on iMDB (maybe a mini-series would do the books more justice though). Can't agree on the "Left Behind" series" (shudder).

    Other authors I would like to see mor of on the big-screen are:

    http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0121715/ James Lee Burke (1 completed another in production)

    http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0809262/ Martin Cruz Smith ( Gorky Park and Nightwing) more of Arkady Renko please!

    http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2604261/ Peter Blauner (none!)

    http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0382437/ Carl Hiassen (only two) there should be more...so funny!
    and...
    http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0175093/ Michael Connelly (only one) no Harry Bosch why not. On second thoughts>..if he's not going to get a faithful serious screen adaptation don't bother.

    Anyway I found a few more authors to throw in the mix as having more than 3 movies made out of their novels/stories:


    http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0288826/ John Fowles
    http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0905709/ Walter Wager died 2004
    http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0050618/ J G Ballard
    http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0025006/ Kingsley Amis died 1995
    http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0859155/ Leslie Thomas
    http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0798105/ Allan Sillitoe
    http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0457006/ Hans Hellmut Kirst died 1989
    http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0410288/ John Irving
    http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001279/ William Goldman
    http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0920543/ Irvine Welsh
    http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0236486/ Roddy Doyle
    http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0505615/ Ira Levin
    http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0021196/ Isabel Allende
    http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0172360/#writer Jackie Collins
    http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0409172/ Hammond Innes
    http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0153546/ Leslie Charteris (died 1993)

    yeah I know while by my criterion they still count as modern authors many of the movies made are now so OLD!

    and some interesting articles:
    http://enjoyment.independent.co.uk/b...cle2450331.ece
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film_adaptation

    on the difficulty of adaptation. Maybe mini-series are better. Still think there are are quite a few authors I havent even thought of. Other suggestions please.

    Oh yeah my personal favourite would have to be:
    http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119396/
    violent funny and surprisingly faithful to the book. While I've read one or two Walter Wager books, I haven't read the one Die Harder was based on...... Yippee KAy Yay.........

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