Movie Talk: Favorite Book-to-Movie Adaptions & a $100 Giveaway!

I love books and I love movies, but the whole adapting a book to a movie thing can be kind of tricky. I mean, I get totally attached to the characters in my mind… so if Hollywood casts someone that I don’t love in a part to play someone that I DO love… well, there are some very conflicted feelings happening.

For example, while I actually did enjoy the Twilight books when they came out (I know, I know…), I didn’t love the cast for the movie. However, a phenomenal cast made a dry companion book to Harry Potter into a super awesome “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” movie.

Sometimes, if I see a movie trailer and the movie looks really intriguing but too scary for me (yes, I’m a wimp), I’ll opt to read the book instead. That’s how I picked up the Maze Runner series, the Magicians trilogy, Gone Girl and the Wayward Pines series. I really enjoyed the books, but now don’t feel like I need to “ruin” them by watching the movies or television shows!

In honor of John Grisham’s new book, Camino Island, I’ve decided to share some of my favorite book-to-movie adaptions:

The Hunger Games
I love most everything about Katniss and I basically devoured the entire series while on vacation, so when I heard that they were making movies I was cautiously excited. I LOVE the way the movies turned out and think that they totally did justice for the books. Also, Jennifer Lawrence is perfection.

Effie Trinket (Elizabeth Banks, left) and Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) in THE HUNGER GAMES. Courtesy of Lionsgate and DVD.com.

Find them here:
The Hunger Games
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, part 1
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, part 2

The Princess Bride
I was only 10 when the Princess Bride movie came out, so I’ve never seen it in the theater. However, I did/still do have a VHS tape of the movie, as well as the book (which has the front cover sadly ripped off from re-reading it so many times). If you love the movie, I highly recommend the book too: it’s here on Amazon.

Find the movie here:
The Princess Bride

The Devil Wears Prada
This movie/book combo are one of the rare times where I like the movie BETTER than the book. Once you add Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway to an awesome script, it makes everything even more fabulous!

Courtesy of 20th Century Fox and DVD.com

Find it here:
The Devil Wears Prada

Harry Potter
Of course, I can’t put together a list of awesome book-to-movie adaptions without the Harry Potter series. Obviously, the books are magical and amazing and awesome. However, the movies BLEW MY MIND! Add to that the tie-in of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios and this little Harry Potter nerd is ecstatic!

“Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets” Available on video and DVD from Warner Home Video. All rights reserved.

Find them here:
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, part 1
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, part 2

Now for the giveaway!
My friends at DVD.com are letting me give away a $100 gift card! All you have to do to enter is complete the survey below and leave a comment with your favorite book-to-movie adaption! A winner will be chosen on Monday, June 26th. Good luck!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

PS, if you missed my contest, DVD.com is cohosting a giveaway at www.caminoislandsweeps.com! Stop by to enter for a chance to win a tropical getaway!

What is your favorite book-to-movie adaption?

 

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74 thoughts on “Movie Talk: Favorite Book-to-Movie Adaptions & a $100 Giveaway!”

  1. Well shoot, favorite? Hmmm..I’m going with Hunger Games. I love Jennifer Lawrence and I felt the same way you do about the Twilight movies…any other Bella…anyway. Also the Divergent series – I don’t love that casting either.

  2. The Time Traveler’s Wife is one of the few adaptations I’ve enjoyed, although you really can’t ever beat the book. So many details have to be left out to get the stories to under 2 hours!

  3. I adore the Harry Potter books and movies. I don’t see a movie that has been adapted from a book without first reading the books. Hardly, in my opinion, do the movies do the books justice! The only exception is Harry Potter, the Lord of the Rings trilogy. I must say, I love your list because I do think The Princess Bride and The Devil Wears Prada did have much better movie adaptations than the books!

  4. I might lose my book nerd status for this, but I actually preferred the movie version of the Princess Bride to the book by a pretty wide margin. I also really love the 90s movie version of Little Women, despite any bookish inaccuracies. And despite going waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay off topic from the original book, Mary Poppins(the movie) will always hold a special place in my heart, though that may be because the movie is full of childhood nostalgia and I didn’t read the book until I was a grown up.

  5. I have to go with Harry Potter. They did an amazing job and didn’t stray too far from the books. I loved Hunger Games, but I got really hung up on them changing how Katniss received the Mockingjay pin. I felt that was important and the book version was just so much more meaningful. I loved the Divergent books, but I was displeased with the casting choice for Tris. I couldn’t stand her in Secret Life and had trouble getting past that. But she wasn’t all that bad.

  6. I have to disagree on The Hunger Games series. The first movie, “The Hunger Games,” was GREAT (probably my favorite book-to-movie adaptation). The rest of them, not so much for me. So much of the book is Katniss’s thoughts. Those just can’t be portrayed as well through film and that kinda ruined them for me. Jennifer Lawrence was GREAT, though – That I definitely agree with.

  7. My all-time favorite book to movie aadaptation has to be The Virgin Suicides. The first time I saw it I immediately watched it over again. Sofia Copolla really nailed everything. I also loved the Hunger Games and Catching Fire, but the subsequent movies in that trilogy were a let down.

  8. I love HP but my favorite adaptation is probably Outlander – it’s pretty incredible how they’ve turned a well loved book series into this masterpiece and kept the integrity and the storyline true. The acting, the costumes, the directing – it’s just superb.

    I’m also really enjoying watching American Gods, a book I had trouble getting into and gave up on but now I’m looking forward to reading it. I think I could not get my imagination to go there but Neil Gaiman has this fantastic imagination that makes me think of what it must have been like reading Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland or Through the Looking Glass when it was written. It takes your brain to another place, truly like a drug.

    I have only seen season 1 of Game of Thrones but I am on book 2 and loving the books so much more than I thought I would so I’m really looking forward to watching the series but I want to get through the books first.

    I loved the Hunger Games books and movies, loved Maze Runner the book but not the movie, and have generally loved all the adaptations mentioned here!

  9. I’d have to pick Harry Potter. I adore the books but also love the movies. And Universal? Amazing!

  10. This is not an easy choice….but I must go with No Country for Old Men written by Cormac McCarthy. The book is incredible and thrilling and the film captures that rssense so beautifully. I mean the Cohens can make even the dullest book a captivating film but the source material is just incredible.

  11. The “Harry Potter” series tops my list of favorite books to movies. It would be hard to choose which book to movie in the series is my favorite but I’d probably say the “Sorcerer’s Stone” since it was the first one.

  12. There are a lot of book series that went to movies but only ended up with one movie. That always disappoints me! One of my favorites, and it didn’t end with just one, is The Lord of the Rings.

  13. My favorite book-to-movie adaptation is “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire”. After reading the book I didn’t know how they were going to fit everything into one movie. They had to cut a lot out but I can see why certain scenes had to go. And unlike most book-to-movie adaptations (including the first “Hunger Games” movie), there are no scenes in the movie that are the opposite of how they are in the book. There are some scenes in the movie that are nearly verbatim from the book. Any scenes not in the book that are in the movie only enhance it. “Catching Fire” is now my example of the correct way to make a book-to-movie adaptation!!!

  14. I vote for Emma Thompson’s adaptation of Sense and Sensibility. Her script actually improved on Jane Austen by making the third and youngest sister Margaret an important part of the story. Austen tells us that Edward Ferrars is a nice young man, but it’s his interactions with Margaret that first show us that he is. It comes as close to a perfect movie as I can recall.

  15. Jaws. The book was terrifying enough. The movie wisely changed a few things up and ratcheted the tension to 11. Sure the effects may seem lame 40+ years later, but it gave us the summer blockbuster, and for that all movie fans can be thankful.

  16. Harry Potter is a serious favorite. They did an amazing job! I would also have to say the Hobbit movies have been really good. It’s been awhile since I’ve read the books but I don’t remember being wowed by them like the movies.

  17. The Shack. I typically think the books are better but in this case, I loved the movie more than the book!

  18. I also love everything about the Harry Potter series. It was amazing seeing everything that I had imagined in my head, come to life. Also they did an amazing job casting!

  19. Well I’m old school and after having read Gone With The Wind and seeing the movie SEVERAL double digit times it’s definitely the BEST BOOK AND MOVIE EVER!

  20. My favorite geez there are quite a few…. Harry Potter series, Stephen kings carrie, done and a few more. There are just so many.

  21. The Lord of the Rings series. Not The Hobbit, which they took way too much artistic license with, but LOTR was amazing and beautifully done.

  22. I got to go with The Bridges of Madison County , it was one of my sisters and my favorite love the book and movie

  23. Ouch, tough one seen as I dislike most book to movie adaptations. But, Misery wasn’t bad and even with the too many love stories in the movies Lord of the Rings Trilogy adaptations, the action scenes were magnificent.

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