Academy Awards 2011: 'Best Picture' Book Adaptations Over The Years (PHOTOS)

For the Oscars this year, there are four book adaptations for "Best Picture": "The Social Network," "True Grit," "127 Hours," and "Winter's Bone."

"The Social Network is based off of "The Accidental Billionaires" by Ben Mezrich. This novel is about how Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg created the social networking website.

"True Grit" is based off of the novel of the same name by Charles Portis. It tells the tale of a young girl who goes on a mission to avenge her father's death.

"127 Hours" is based off of "Between a Rock and a Hard Place" by Aaron Rolston. It is the true story of a hiker who cuts off his own arm to survive.

Finally, "Winter's Bone" by Daniel Woodrell, is about a teen girl who has to bring her father to his court date.

Over the years, many book adaptations have taken the Oscar home. Will any of these four measure up to the wins of the past?

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All Quiet on the Western Front

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"All Quiet on the Western Front" was adapted from Erich Maria Remarque's novel and won the "Best Picture" Oscar in 1930.

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"All Quiet on the Western Front" was adapted from Erich Maria Remarque's novel and won the "Best Picture" Oscar in 1930.

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This Adaptation

Rank #2  |  Average: 4

Why did this get an Oscar? Great adaptation!

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Comments

[rickthaluddite]

01:48 PM on 02/28/2011

Forrest Gump was a better novel than movie. Funny it wasn't included on this list.

[3fingerbrown]

12:31 PM on 02/28/2011

Oddest omission was "From Here to Eternity," considering how popular Jones's novel was and how popular the movie remains to this day.

Other notable omissions include adapted Best Pictures like Around the World in 80 Days, Gigi, Bridge on the River Kwai, The Best Years of Our Lives, and Gentleman's Agreement.

[Glory 66]

10:37 AM on 02/27/2011

My dearest movies are Gone with the Wind and Ben Hur,great spectacles,wonderful actors,,,
reading a book and watching movie never can be the same experience,we all should be aware of that;by reading a novel you are in an intimate relation with the characters,you practically absorb all the content and its heroes,feeling as you live their lives together
To watch a movie is pleasure,that is space where you love actors and usually your focus is on the main..one or two..in the books,all players matter;
Or put things this way:by reading a favorite book,i am free to picture the characters as i wish..sometimes it is disappointed seeing actors in movie that i don't like so much/..yes, it is beauty of mystery i have in a book

[SpencerDeck]

10:34 PM on 02/26/2011

No Country For Old Men was a novel. Unless you guys aren't into the whole accuracy thing,

[johndoewasthere]

05:08 PM on 02/26/2011

How about from the book 'movies for dummy's'

[BlackJAC]

04:21 PM on 02/26/2011

Hamlet must be disqualified from this because it was originally a stage play.

[3fingerbrown]

12:28 PM on 02/28/2011

Yep. If we include Hamlet, we'd have to add You Can't Take It With You, Casablanca, My Fair Lady, and West Side Story among other Best Pictures that began as stage plays.

Interesting case is Oliver!, which is a Best Picture based on a stage musical based on a novel.

[JDJones72]

02:57 PM on 02/26/2011

No Country For Old Men was a novel - not a short story. Probably the truest adaptation I've ever seen.

[FPhoebe]

11:43 PM on 02/27/2011

Did you read The Road? I read the book a few years ago and only watched the movie about a month ago, but from what I remember the movie was pretty true to the novel.

[Elvyn Jones]

01:05 PM on 02/26/2011

No Grapes of Wrath?
or even East of Eden

Blade Runner

[ProfWagstaff]

01:14 PM on 02/26/2011

ALL great movies, but none of them won the Oscar for Best Picture.

[headly67]

12:45 PM on 02/26/2011

Braveheart is one of those movies I hate to like. It's entertaining enough but there's too much comedy in it and it's too melodramatic. Gibson's directing style has a strange feel to it. But the worst has to be the history itself. Mel is well known as a revisionist and I don't begrudge a filmmaker for having to cut some corners because of time constraints but this thing is so far off it's laughable.

The kilt wasn't worn anywhere in Scotland in Wallace's time, and at no time in history was it worn in Wallace's part of Scotland.

Wallace was a knight from a noble family, and his father Malcolm wasn't killed by the English, but fought on the English side for political favor. He wasn't poor and he never married.

Edward II did not marry Isabella of France until 1308, half a year after the death of his father and three years after Wallace. Wallace never met Isabella who was around ten years old when he died. And she was not a delicate flower who was ashamed of cruelty toward the Scots. On the contrary, she had her husband killed, and she then launched her own invasion of Scotland.

The primae noctis decree was never used by King Edward.

Gibson is about a foot shorter than Wallace who was 6'8".

Wallace and King Edward I did not die at the same time or even in the same year.

Has anyone read the book? It can't be like this movie.

[Demitasse]

01:34 PM on 02/26/2011

The movie wasn't adapted from a book but, according to Wikipedia, from Blind Harry's 15th century epic poem, The Actes and Deidis of the Illustre and Vallyeant Campioun Schir William Wallace.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blind_Harry

[headly67]

05:37 PM on 02/26/2011

"Braveheart" was adapted from the novel by Randall Wallace. He also wrote the screenplay with Gibson. He got some inspiration from the Blind Harry poem which is considered a work of fiction.

[Pennsanic]

02:55 PM on 02/26/2011

Plus Gibson has a weird sado-masochistic bent to (at least some of) his films.

[hharvey102]

12:42 PM on 02/26/2011

Based on grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

[Demitasse]

12:36 PM on 02/26/2011

No Bridge on the River Kwai?

Love the Coens but the book No Country has to be one of the easiest adaptations ever - it's all there in the book. The Coens got the Oscar for basically staying true to the book.

BTW Sylvia Nasar did not adapt her book, A Beautiful Mind, for the screen, Akiva Goldsman did & he won an Oscar for his efforts. It's a shame she didn't because so much of John Nash's varied & interesting life didn't make it to the screen.

[sabelmouse]

11:52 AM on 02/26/2011

slum dog millionaire grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr another failure.

[Bruce Henderson]

11:40 AM on 02/26/2011

"The Accidental Billionaires" is NOT a novel--it is a non-fictional account. My undergrads call any book beyond a picture book a novel--I expect more from THP!

[SpencerDeck]

10:36 PM on 02/26/2011

There is such a thing as a Non-fiction novel--things like In Cold Blood, and I'd say that Mezrich takes alot of the same sensational liberties that Capote did, albeit those two books are incomparable.

[RickTheScribe]

11:21 AM on 02/26/2011

Where is Midnight Cowboy? It won the Best Picture Oscar in 1969 and was based on James Leo Herlihy's 1965 novel.

[headly67]

12:11 PM on 02/26/2011

And the first and only X rated movie to win it.