5 Movies That Nailed the Book to Film Adaptation & 5 That Flubbed It

Which ones do you think hit the mark perfectly, and which ones fell short? Share your thoughts below!

My husband and I love Princesses Bride. When he goes into work, I tell him "Have fun storming the castle !"

Eragon not being in the flubbed list is a major flaw.

“Now get out of here before I call the brute squad!” “but I’m on the brute squad.” “You are the brute squad.” Favorite scene

Princess Bride the movie was written by William Goldman, who wrote the book and was an accomplished screenwriter, so it makes sense an adaptation could be nailed

"The Shawkshank Redemption" is one of my favourite Stephen King adaptations, despite not having any Supernatural elements. It really stayed true to the Spirit and characters of the original novella.

One that should be on the Nailed list is, The Outsiders. The book was great and the movie perfectly capture the tone and the world the characters lived in. And the cast was perfect.

Princess Bride was incredible

The film adaptation of 'Get Shorty' by Elmore Leonard is virtually identical to the book. The dialogue, the pacing, the action, the narrative are closest I have ever seen between book and movie.

Flubbed It: I, Robot A movie so far removed from Asimov's ideas, his estate sued to have adapted by changed to themes suggested by, a move I have never seen before or since.

Stand by Me is missing, apparently even King was impressed

As soon as I heard The Dark Tower was not even two hours long, I noped right on out of there and never watched it. My hope is that Mike Flanagan can finally do it justice as a TV show. 🤞

It's animated but I would have added The Last Unicorn to the nailed it list as well. Like the Princess Bride its script was written by the same person that wrote the book . Peter S. Beagle. And it is amazing.

Nailed it- "Holes", "Congo" Fell Short- "Percy Jackson" (both movies), "Eragon"

I'll add The green mile to the Nailed it list.

I'm not sure Rod Taylor's "The Time Machine" deserves to be dismissed as "silly," despite its low budget, considering that it sticks far closer to the source material than the remake does. Quite a few science fiction films from the classic era had low budgets to work with; to write them off as "silly" comes close to suggesting that good SF movies didn't exist before "2001: A Space Odyssey." But hey, "To Kill a Mockingbird" makes the list, so I'm a little appeased.

I'd watch the Time Machine anyway. I love Guy Pierce. I tried reading To Kill a Mockingbird, and I couldn't get past the first page. Then, we had to read it for English class, and I read it in one day. (I love reading.) It was amazing. I'd listen to Morgan Freeman read the dictionary. Stardust was infinitely better than the book. The book was boring. I had to make myself finish it.

Flubbed It (dishonorable mentions): - The Giver - The Golden Compass - My Sister’s Keeper - Ella Enchanted Nailed it (honorable mentions) - Coraline - Charlotte’s Web (both versions) Any I missed for either?

Nailed it : The Maltese Falcon (1941).

I've been a fan of The Dark Tower novels since my tenth grade year all the way back in the early 90s. I was ecstatic when I heard it was finally being adapted to film as I had always wanted to see it brought to life. When I first heard about the casting, I was wary, but upon seeing the first trailer and getting a taste of Idris Elba in the role, I saw that he appeared to capture the spirit of Roland so I was again looking forward to the film. Then came opening day. I had bought my ticket in advance and arrived at the theater early so I wouldn't miss even a single second. On the way home from the movie, I was literally in tears because of the bastardization of one of my favorite works of fiction of all time. Several years ago, when I first became disabled, as a way to fill my time, I actually started adapting all seven Dark Tower novels into screenplays (shortly after book seven was released). I finished the first book as a screenplay that would be a single film of about 105 minutes, but as I moved beyond that, I came to realize that even a whole film for each of the following novels would never do them justice, so the screenplays for the rest of the books ended up being broken into episodes of what I envisioned as a miniseries for each book after the film of The Gunslinger. Of course, I have no connections in the entertainment industry, so those screenplays just ended up on a shelf in my room collecting dust for years until they ultimately disappeared during one of my moves (they MIGHT be in a box in my storage unit, but there's no guarantee of that). My point in all of that is to say that I, someone who had never written a screenplay in his life, was able to better recognize what would need to be done to adapt this epic story than the so-called professionals who ended up making the film. Oh. And if anyone in the industry sees this and is interested in giving the Tower a PROPER adaptation, I'd be ready, willing, and able to write those screenplays again!