It seems that more and more movies these days are being based on books than on original screenplays. And who can blame film makers for wanting to take a wildly popular novel and turn it into a (hopefully) wildly popular movie?
“Give up on trying to be original. Every song has been sung, every picture has been painted, and every story has been told. The best one can do is sing, draw, or tell it again well.” – Evan Mandery, Q: A Novel
The only problem is that, quite often, the movie does not live up to our expectations. There are many varied and personal reasons for this: my own feeling is that it is impossible to perfectly replicate the images that I have already constructed in my mind while reading the book. Therefore the characters never quite look right, or behave the same, as I had imagined in my mind.
Fortunately not all book-based movies have turned out to be duds, and 2012 definitely seems to be the year for these types of movies. Here is a list of book based movies that have been confirmed so far for 2012:
April:
*The Lorax (currently showing)
*Angus Buchan’s Ordinary People
*The Avengers (comic book)
*Salmon Fishing in the Yemen
*The Hunger Games
*Mirror Mirror
May
*Wuthering Heights
*The Raven (based on the novels of Edgar Allen Poe)
June
*What to Expect When You Are Expecting
*Snow White and the Huntsman
July
*The Amazing Spider Man (comic book)
*The Dark Knight Rises (comic book)
August
*Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter
September
*The Flowers of War
*The Bourne Legacy
November
*Breaking Dawn: Part 2
December
*The Hobbit
Snow White seems to be the story to tell this year, with no less than two movies based on the tale already. The first, Mirror Mirror, is told with a comedic twist and stars Julia Roberts and Nathan Lane. The second looks like a somewhat darker retelling and stars Kristen Stewart, Charlize Theron, and Chris Hemsworth (Thor).
Whatever your feelings about book based movies, this year looks to be quite an interesting one for regular movie goers!
No comments yet.