Page To Screen

Over at the Times Online, Ben McIntyre rounds up adaptations of books into movies, and concludes that there may be “no such thing as an unfilmable book.” A few adaptations he mentions:

Hollywood cynics maintain that the better the book, the worse the film, but the real equation is not so simple. Certainly some of the very best books make the worst films (Louis de Bernieres’s Captain Corelli’s Mandolin), while equally good or better books languish eternally in production purgatory (Donna Tartt’s The Secret History). Some dire books make marvellous films (Peter Benchley’s Jaws), and very occasionally good books make even better films (the works of Roddy Doyle). Perhaps the oddest sub-category is that of entirely obscure books that become film classics (who has read Red Alert by Peter George, the book that was adapted into Dr Strangelove?).

Read the rest here.