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 Hobbit is unwatchable

It really is. It's forever repeated on ITV2, and there is one absolutely massive plot-hole that renders the entire Jackson premise utterly unworkable, and sees me ranting and raving every time it's on. The LOTR movies take liberties, but at least they are passable entertainment. For anyone actually familiar with events preceding and precipitating those in the canon "Hobbit", the movie makes no sense whatsoever.

I would, if I was a billionaire, form a company to adapt books faithful to the spirit, characters and plot, to film.

Obviously some things do need to be changed, but so often the changes don't work.

This - Gone Girl was always set in the US.
I think you might be thinking of the adaptation of The Girl on the Train, in which case, I agree with you!

Larkrise to Candleford.
Abysmal.
Bore little resemblance to the book whatsoever.

Agree with this. Not many people seem to have heard of Georgette Heyer today but many of her books are absolutely perfect. I really read my favourites recently when I was convalescing after major surgery and was surprised all over again by how good they are.

Not to mention the cowardly name change for Titty.

@Matildatoldsuchdreadfullies Yes, The Dark is Rising was just awful. BUT - I really liked the BBC World Service version, adapted by Robert McFarlane and Simon McBurney. It doesn't totally follow the book either, but it gets the atmosphere - amazing sound effects and music, and an excellent cast. I've listened several times. Still available!

Though the film of The Birds is very different from the original short story

Apologies. I meant of course, The Girl on tthe Train.

I still want to tell them all where they went wrong !!

Re Captain Corelli's Mandolin - I read it and later I saw a trailer for the film, and I knew that it was one which I wouldn't see.

Not happened yet but I hear Poirot is going to have a massive character change to having been a priest in his early years! Actually a lot of recent Agatha Christie adaptations have made significant changes (including who did the murders!). As my friend who is a big Christie fan says: write your own stories instead of ruining classics!

Phew! For a minute there I thought I'd completely garbled the book and the movie😅

But Gone Girl was a crap movie so you were ultimately right!

yes, there was a BBC Poirot adaptation a few Christmases back which showed flashbacks of him as a priest. John Malkovich played Poirot.

I tend to agree , though I did like Michelle Dockery as Susan Sto Helit.
Del Boy as Rincewind, on the other hand ….

Captain Corelli’s Mandolin .
As I say on every MN crap film thread.

Same here!

Unlike the original film which was exactly like the book? <sarcasm>

My Sister's Keeper- changed the ending and lost the actual point of the book. I stormed out of the cinema and I'm not normally so quick to anger 😂

Lovely bones

I watched the first episode of BBC's 'Great Expectations' from a year or two back and really could not face watching more. The problem wasn't that is was 'woke' as the press was whinging (yes, it had some black people in it, big wow), the problem was it took the thing you go to Dickens for - wonderful characters - and just totally changed some of them, thus missing the point of the story!

The whole point of Pip's arc is that he starts off humble and becomes rather a prig and a snob due to his 'great expectations', but this version starts him off as a snobbish prig, which means you don't have any sympathy for him, for example.

But the BBC His Dark Materials series was brilliant.

Kpo58 -
Musical Matilda! I really didn't like it.
Stephen Graham, wonderful actor - but I hated this casting.
Andrea Riseborough - I adore her but not in this.
I like the little Matilda but most of all I HATED LA THOMPSON!
She's wonderful in most things but she threw this film out of kilter somehow. Not her fault, it's the director's but she's like Meryl Streep - when she hams it up it can be just too much.

I came on to say the recent-ish Murder on the Orient Express. It had some big names, but it was truly terrible. Nice scenery but I didn’t give a monkeys about any of the characters, or even whodunit.

Quote fail, sorry, reposted above as makes no sense otherwise.

Echobelly - I agree about that great expectations, I don't mind the blind casting but I do mind messing with the spirit of an amazing book.