Movies based on novels
My favorite movies based on a novel or other written work that I've both read and seen the movie. Ordered by a semi-arbitrary combined score of the movie and the book.
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21 titles
- DirectorJonathan DemmeStarsJodie FosterAnthony HopkinsScott GlennA young F.B.I. cadet must receive the help of an incarcerated and manipulative cannibal killer to help catch another serial killer, a madman who skins his victims.Great book, great movie. This is a move only list but the TV series "Hannibal" is seriously must-watch for anyone that has read Hariss' Lecter books.
- DirectorDavid FincherStarsBrad PittEdward NortonMeat LoafAn insomniac office worker and a devil-may-care soap maker form an underground fight club that evolves into much more.Great book, great movie. Love that Chuck Palahniuk acknowledged that the movie's ending is better. No need for King/Kubrick bickering here.
- DirectorTerry GilliamStarsJohnny DeppBenicio Del ToroTobey MaguireAn oddball journalist and his psychopathic lawyer travel to Las Vegas for a series of psychedelic escapades.Great book, great movie. Still can't understand why it's unloved by some. It's clearly not for everybody but it accomplished exactly what it set out to do.
- DirectorStanley KubrickStarsMalcolm McDowellPatrick MageeMichael BatesIn the future, a sadistic gang leader is imprisoned and volunteers for a conduct-aversion experiment, but it doesn't go as planned.Great book, great movie. Tough read but I took Russian in high school so once I started to read all the Nadsat phonetically it becomes second nature and I didn't have to keep flipping back to the glossary.
- DirectorRob ReinerStarsWil WheatonRiver PhoenixCorey FeldmanA writer recounts a childhood journey with his friends to find the body of a missing boy.Don't really remember the novella that well but it's a great movie. "I never had any friends later on like the ones I had when I was twelve. Jesus, does anyone?" Damn if that doesn't hit me every time.
- DirectorMilos FormanStarsJack NicholsonLouise FletcherMichael BerrymanIn the Fall of 1963, a Korean War veteran and criminal pleads insanity and is admitted to a mental institution, where he rallies up the scared patients against the tyrannical nurse.Very good movie but amazing book. Of all the movies on this page, there are only two that I'd like to see redone. Improving on the movie is simply absurd but I'd love to see a weird psyhco-hallucanatory retelling closer to the book. Keep all of Chief's weird delusions and imagery and maybe add him in voice-over to keep it on the rails.
- DirectorJohn HillcoatStarsViggo MortensenCharlize TheronKodi Smit-McPheeIn a dangerous post-apocalyptic world, an ailing father defends his son as they slowly travel to the sea.Good movie but the book ripped my guts out. Fantastic prose that just can't be translated to the screen.
“He walked out in the gray light and stood and he saw for a brief moment the absolute truth of the world. The cold relentless circling of the intestate earth. Darkness implacable. The blind dogs of the sun in their running. The crushing black vacuum of the universe. And somewhere two hunted animals trembling like ground-foxes in their cover. Borrowed time and borrowed world and borrowed eyes with which to sorrow it.” - DirectorEthan CoenJoel CoenStarsTommy Lee JonesJavier BardemJosh BrolinViolence and mayhem ensue after a hunter stumbles upon the aftermath of a drug deal gone wrong and over two million dollars in cash near the Rio Grande.Good movie and great book. Like The Road, MacCarthy's prose doesn't all make it to the screen but the tension of the coin flip is absolutely maddening. "What business is it of yours where I'm from, friendo? "
- DirectorDanny BoyleStarsEwan McGregorEwen BremnerJonny Lee MillerRenton, deeply immersed in the Edinburgh drug scene, tries to clean up and get out despite the allure of drugs and the influence of friends.Great movie and great book. Just say no, kids. Not sure how I feel about a sequel.
- DirectorMary HarronStarsChristian BaleJustin TherouxJosh LucasA wealthy New York City investment banking executive, Patrick Bateman, hides his alternate psychopathic ego from his co-workers and friends as he delves deeper into his violent, hedonistic fantasies.The book is more disturbing than the movie. One of those books when you hear it's being turned into a movie you wonder, "How in the hell is that going to work?"
- DirectorSpike LeeStarsDenzel WashingtonAngela BassettDelroy LindoBiographical epic of the controversial and influential Black Nationalist leader, from his early life and career as a small-time gangster, to his ministry as a member of the Nation of Islam and his eventual assassination.Very interesting. One of the few here that I read after I saw the movie but I definitely found that I wanted to know more even after a 3+ hour movie.
- DirectorJohn McTiernanStarsSean ConneryAlec BaldwinScott GlennIn November 1984, the Soviet Union's best submarine captain violates orders and heads for the U.S. in a new undetectable sub. The American CIA and military must quickly determine: Is he trying to defect or to start a war?I think I did some sort of permanent damage to my health by reading this book cover-to-cover when I was in middle school. I think I might have forced myself to put it down around 4AM. A couple of years later I was delighted to hear Sean Connery's thickly Scottish accent intrude on the couple of passages where the Russian crew is still speaking Russian. Loved how they did the switchover.
- DirectorFrank DarabontStarsTim RobbinsMorgan FreemanBob GuntonOver the course of several years, two convicts form a friendship, seeking consolation and, eventually, redemption through basic compassion.Like Stand By Me, I don't really remember the novella that much but I read them together as The Body and Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption novellas packaged together as Different Seasons by Stephen King. I know it's considered blasphemous but I just consider this a "good" movie.
- DirectorFrancis LawrenceStarsWill SmithAlice BragaCharlie TahanYears after a plague kills most of humanity and transforms the rest into monsters, the sole survivor in New York City struggles valiantly to find a cure.Don't think I ever got through the whole book but for all intents and purposes it's two different things. I love end-of-the-world stuff and this movie did it for me, weird vampire zombies or not.
- DirectorBruce RobinsonStarsJohnny DeppGiovanni RibisiAaron EckhartAmerican journalist Paul Kemp takes on a freelance job in Puerto Rico for a local newspaper during the 1960s and struggles to find a balance between island culture and the expatriates who live there.Only because I'm a Hunter S. Thompson fan did I read the book and see the movie. The book's best parts are where it's clearly almost purely autobiographical and everything else feels bolted on. The movie keeps the same feel and even though I'm a fan of the good doctor, I'm still not sure how or why this got made.
- DirectorBrett RatnerStarsAnthony HopkinsEdward NortonRalph FiennesA retired FBI agent with psychological gifts is assigned to help track down "The Tooth Fairy", a mysterious serial killer. Aiding him is imprisoned forensic psychiatrist Dr. Hannibal "The Cannibal" Lecter.I'm going to be honest: Don't really remember much about this. I remember Phillip Seymore Hoffman's Freddy Lounds meets a gristly end and that it didn't have a distractingly 80s sound track like Manhunter. I do remember I really liked the book.
- DirectorMichael MannStarsWilliam PetersenKim GreistJoan AllenFormer FBI profiler Will Graham returns to service to pursue a deranged serial killer dubbed "the Tooth Fairy" by the media.Hope you like 80s keyboards, cause you're gonna get 80s keyboards. You'll also get a much reduced role for Dr. Lecter which is disappointing. Fun fact: in the novels Hannibal Lecter has a fully functional 11th finger and maroon eyes.
- DirectorRidley ScottStarsAnthony HopkinsJulianne MooreGary OldmanLiving in exile, Dr. Hannibal Lecter tries to reconnect with now disgraced F.B.I. Agent Clarice Starling, and finds himself a target for revenge from a powerful victim.As with Red Dragon, I don't really remember much about the movie but I do know I liked the book quite a bit more.
- DirectorBoris SagalStarsCharlton HestonAnthony ZerbeRosalind CashDr Robert Neville has developed an experimental vaccine which makes him the only immune survivor of a biological catastrophe. A gang of homicidal mutants blame science for their condition and attempt to kill him.Based on the same novel as "I Am Legend". Awesome to see Heston bombing thorough the streets of LA in a big, pre-oil embargo, land yacht but the bad guys are pretty comical. Also interesting to see a time when your leading man could have janky, nicotine-stained teeth.
- DirectorMarc ForsterStarsBrad PittMireille EnosDaniella KerteszFormer United Nations employee Gerry Lane traverses the world in a race against time to stop a zombie pandemic that is toppling armies and governments and threatens to destroy humanity itself.This is the other title on this list I'd like to see redone. Not because it's bad, just because it so wildly strays from the source novel that I feel ripped off. You want to make a zombie movie? Great but why get the rights to such an interesting novel then just make a straightforward narrative?
- DirectorClark GreggStarsSam RockwellAnjelica HustonKelly MacdonaldA sex-addicted con-man pays for his mother's hospital bills by playing on the sympathies of those who rescue him from choking to death.Ugh. I liked the book but was really disappointed in the movie. Sam Rockwell was good but I felt like the source material got neutered in the process. American Psycho managed to turn some completely over the top source material into a good movie. This movie should have taken some notes.