Quote:
Originally Posted by kilofox
I have seen many many novels translated to a movie, and have almost always been left lacking. For the most part, there is almost no way that you can shrink a novel into a screenplay that lasts 2-2 1/2 hours... something always gets cut out, glossed over etc etc.
What I have found is that the television mini-series is a much better avenue for getting a story on the screen... its just on the teley instead of a movie screen. Roots, Thornbirds, Lonesome Dove etc etc. were all more complete than if they were brought to the big screen.
Agreed?
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Agreed entirely. That's why I think short stories / novellas make better movies than novels. One excellent novella movie adaptation was Barry Longyear's SF story "Enemy Mine".
One exception I would make is the LOTR movies, especially their "extended editions". I think those are as good as one could really hope for.
I was
extremely disappointed by the recent movie adaptation of Phillip Pullman's "The Golden Compass". They cut out virtually
all the interesting "background stuff" to leave a rather incoherent "action" movie which didn't make a lot of sense.