While he didn’t recently announce his dislike for the movie, I didn’t know that King didn’t like Kubrick’s The Shining, something that left me shocked. That being said, King hasn’t been known for his level headed views in the past and it can often be hard to get the author happy when interpreting their own creative baby. That being said, lets have a look at some other writers who were not happy with how their film adaptations turned out.
Interview With The Vampire – Anne Rice
Rice’s major issue with the movie adaptation of her novel was the casting of Cruise. Describing it as bizzare, she didn’t understand how it would ever work. Despite this however, she’s come out since to say that Cruise’tom cruises acting in the film was actually to her tastes.
A Clockwork Orange – Anthony Burgess
Unbelievably, Burgess doesn’t like one of Kubrick’s greatest works. That being said, he also turned on the novella before his death. I couldn’t put it better than him, so I’ll let him take it from here.
“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 till I die. I should not have written the book because of this danger of misinterpretation.”
Every Novel – Brett Easton Ellis
Ellis is famous for hating every adaptation of his novels, especially American Psycho. When the movie took away the high level of ambiguity contained in the books end, llis declared his dislike for the adaptation.
One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest – Ken Kesey
After his death, Kesey’s wife claimed that he was glad to the movie was made. However, he left production of the movie only two weeks in and claimed that moving the perspective from the chief had upset him.
Forrest Gump – Winston Groom
Despite the fact that Groom was promised 3% of whatever the movie made, he was given nothing and also was not mentioned in any of the Academy Award speeches. When he wrote the sequel to his novel, he even made reference to the incident by having Gump claim that you should never let anybody make a movie of your life
Do you think there’s some movie adaptations out there that were rubbish? Sound off in the comments about directors who ruined your favourite novels and let us know what books you think should be adapted.