7 Worst Film Adaptations (VIDEO)

Two things can happen when Hollywood brings your favorite story to life on the silver screen: you can absolutely adore the adaptation and thank the filmmaking heavens for staying true to the words you so loved reading...or you could question how a book so good could be turned into something so bad.

With "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2" having crossed the $1 billion mark this past weekend, we thought it would be fun to recognize those adaptations that didn't quite have Harry's magic touch. Here are some of the worst book to film adaptations.

Have any bad adaptations you think we missed? Let us know in the comments!

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The Scarlet Letter

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Though the credits warn that this movie is "freely adapted from the novel by Nathaniel Hawthorne," nothing can prepare you for just how "freely" director Ronald Joffe adapted this film. True fans of the classic will be disturbed by the absence of connectivity between the book and the film, and those who have never read the novel will probably never want to after seeing the movie.

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Though the credits warn that this movie is "freely adapted from the novel by Nathaniel Hawthorne," nothing can prepare you for just how "freely" director Ronald Joffe adapted this film. True fans of the classic will be disturbed by the absence of connectivity between the book and the film, and those who have never read the novel will probably never want to after seeing the movie.

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This Adaptation

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Comments

[Max Vohra]

09:27 PM on 09/29/2011

Harry Potter movies were terrible adaptations (especially after the second movie) that deviated from the original plot, missed out on important points, and sold out a brilliant story for stupid special effects.
Another awful adaptation, "The Princess Diaries." The movie did everything that the character in the books hated!

[Michael Mora]

06:05 AM on 08/20/2011

Couldn't agree movie about Time Traveler's Wife. Wonderful book, not so good movie. Same with Home at the End of the World and Prince of Tides.
I am Legend was nowhere near as good as the book and very different from the book.

[flex9050]

05:44 PM on 08/14/2011

How about "The Time Machine"? Or any version of "The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde"? Try "The Running Man" by Stephen King (aka Richard Bachman). It was so different from the book as to be unrecognizable. I could make a list as long as the movie "Modern Times Forever". Movie adaptations are meant to do one thing.... SELL TICKETS! And if the original story gets trampled a little, so what?

[Sean McLain]

12:07 PM on 08/14/2011

This list is incomplete, as there is no mention of Eragon.

[Howie Sheinfeld]

10:07 PM on 08/13/2011

Missing from this list only because it was an intentional satire of its source material is Paul Verhoeven's "Starship Troopers." Before its release it was not advertised as such, so when fans of Heinlein's novel flocked to see it, they were generally outraged. The second direct-to-video sequel, "Marauder," was more faithful to Heinlein's theme. Surprisingly, that film was written and directed by Ed Neumeier, who had written the screenplay for Verhoeven.

I have heard that "I, Robot" was also a satire of its original source material, but I did not see it (I was not up to watching "Another Will Smith Movie) so I will not comment on it.

[kehkaplan]

05:22 PM on 08/13/2011

Stephen King's Lawnmower Man.

[mburgh]

01:44 AM on 08/11/2011

Of all the books you've listed as being made into film adaptations, only TSL has any lasting literary value. All others are passing trash.

[chicamorena]

01:56 PM on 08/09/2011

"Mansfield Park". Every film version of the book -- and there have been several -- is godawful.

[seckhoff]

10:55 AM on 08/09/2011

The American version of Wings of Desire.

[Artist Jaguar]

05:28 AM on 08/07/2011

I knew a very good writer who was so protective of her books that, as far as I know, none of them have been adapted for TV or movies. This is to her credit and she is probably to be admired, but I used to argue that any adaptation, no matter how bad, was going to be good for her books, in the long run. A bad film won’t kill a good book, but it will alert more people to your works footprint. A bad film will probably even help draw attention to a bad book, again, more people will be alerted to the existence of your work.
Perhaps a follow up blog could be to ask if there have been any great films inspired by tepid books or stories. Wizard of Oz initially failed at the box office because, I think, Judy Garland was a lot older than readers thought Dorothy should be. Time changes everything.

[wckoko]

12:48 AM on 08/07/2011

Manhunter, the original film version of Red Dragon, was really bad , except for Brian Cox's performance as Hannibal Lechter.

[mburgh]

01:42 AM on 08/11/2011

I kind of liked it. William Petersen did a good job.

[wckoko]

02:04 AM on 08/11/2011

Perhaps, but the film was way off the book.

[QueenOfViolets]

02:50 PM on 08/06/2011

I vote to add Steven Soderberg's version of "Solaris" to the list. Poor Stanlislaw Lem!

[TheBestPatriot]

02:13 PM on 08/06/2011

The Scarlet Letter - Saw it in high school and I liked it. I later realized it wasn't like the book.

Fever Pitch - Loved it, but never read the book.

Time Traveler's Wife - horrible and I never read the book.

I am Legend - horrible

Cat in the Hat - the movie sucked. I read the book quite often as a child and as an adult.

A Series of Unfortunate Events - Loved the book and I liked the movie

[vestafarms]

01:27 AM on 08/06/2011

Vanity Fair was one of the worst film adaptations I have ever had the misfortune to see. Followed closely by the Dutchess (the story of the Dutchess of Devonshire.) The stories were rearranged to suit modern times, at the expense of the story.

[PiperSniper]

11:36 AM on 08/05/2011

A Wrinkle in Time with Alfre Woodard ... just god-awful