What’s the worst book to film/tv adaption you’ve seen?

[Soubriquet]

Mine is Miss Peregrines home for peculiar children.

In the book, Emma controls fire. She’s sassy, strong, stands up for herself and calls out peoples shit.

In the film, she is lighter than air and defers to her male costar. I was really disappointed by this film

The Host, adapted from Stephanie Meyer’s book. Awful direction, completely missed the point of the book and even changed who the main character was.

I second, third and fourth this post!

Dark Tower is not doable as a film properly IMHO

What about misery? That was good.

P.S I Love You.

Secret Dreamworld of a Shopaholic.

No Greater Love.

It needs to be a series. The film was not a bad film, but nothing like the book!

Ah yes, I stand corrected. Misery was good.

I watched Firestarter the other night, the newer one, and what a load of shite!!

Carrie is another one. Nothing like the books.

Yes, the fairly recent Swallows & Amazons was terrible! They totally changed the character of all the children - e.g. in the book there’s an incident when one boy is unfairly accused of lying about something, and he’s terribly insulted and upset. In the film they changed it so he actually was lying! That sort of thing matters much more than adding extra drama or plot twists IMO.

That was so fucking bad it was almost funny.

Almost.

Noooo, not Legolas? I've not watched the Hobbit but, as a teenager, I had an alternative LOTR story going on in my head where I was Aragorns younger sister and was one of the Company. I accompanied Sam and Frodo into Mordor . But along the way I fell in love with Legolas.

Sadly, forty years on, I do sometimes revert to this daydream. 🫣. Legolas only has eyes for me.....

Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy film…in contrast I loved the ‘80’s tv version!

Another vote for the dark is rising, it could have been soooo good. I was so excited at the prospect of my favourite childhood book becoming a film but should have remembered the mess they made remaking my friend Flika...

Totally agree. There was a brilliant radio 4 series adaptation a couple of years ago that was properly atmospheric. It would make a great film if done properly.

Discovery of Witches - it would have been done so well but they squeezed three huge books filled with details into two short seasons

Handmaid's tale

Just so bad

The characters were very badly cast

I opened this thread specifically to say this! It was horrendous.

I'd say a trilogy of films maybe. I can see it being done with too much CGI again though (like The Hobbit) and i just can't see how they'd convey the whole concept/atmosphere correctly.

I've only read the books through once, when i was about 15, i loved them, and they remain in my mind like a clearly remembered fever dream! I was wary of watching the shite film they made and i was right and wish i hadn't.

Chocolat by Joanne Harris.

A fabulous book about control and manipulation by the Catholic Church.

Reduced to an absurd parody of the original story - presumably paid for by the Catholic Church.

Agree with lots of those already mentioned. I will add The Maze Runner and Divergent films to the list. Also Bridgerton series 2 - ruined both Kate and Edwina's characters, they were nothing like the in the book and completely unlikeable as a result.

Yup, came to say this! I don't even usually get annoyed about adaptations, I'm prepared to take them as stand-alones almost, but couldn't even through 10 minutes of this.

Also, I quite liked the Emma version with Romola Garai as lead until that silly nosebleed ...

Flowers In The attic, brilliant books but a ridiculous film.

The Laurence Olivier Pride and Prejudice.

Can't fault Larry as Darcy, but everything else... It started when they said "we've got a job lot of crinolines we want to reuse let's make it Victorian" and went downhill from there.

The Hobbit's added material is pretty terrible too.

I do have a soft spot for Alan Rickman as Marvin though

The recent ish version of Rebecca with Lily James and Armie Hammer

Harry Potter. Great books, awful films.

I was going to watch that despite suspicions it would be trash. But then the whole 'Armie Hammer is a cannibal' thing came out and I went right off the idea.