5 Movies That Nailed the Book to Film Adaptation & 5 That Flubbed It 

Which ones do you think hit the mark perfectly, and which ones fell short? Share your thoughts below!

Eragon not being in the flubbed list is a major flaw.

My husband and I love Princesses Bride. When he goes into work, I tell him "Have fun storming the castle !"

“Now get out of here before I call the brute squad!” “but I’m on the brute squad.” “You are the brute squad.” Favorite scene

Princess Bride the movie was written by William Goldman, who wrote the book and was an accomplished screenwriter, so it makes sense an adaptation could be nailed

"The Shawkshank Redemption" is one of my favourite Stephen King adaptations, despite not having any Supernatural elements. It really stayed true to the Spirit and characters of the original novella.

One that should be on the Nailed list is, The Outsiders. The book was great and the movie perfectly capture the tone and the world the characters lived in. And the cast was perfect.

Stand by Me is missing, apparently even King was impressed

The film adaptation of 'Get Shorty' by Elmore Leonard is virtually identical to the book. The dialogue, the pacing, the action, the narrative are closest I have ever seen between book and movie.

Princess Bride was incredible

I'll add The green mile to the Nailed it list.

Flubbed It: I, Robot A movie so far removed from Asimov's ideas, his estate sued to have adapted by changed to themes suggested by, a move I have never seen before or since.

It's animated but I would have added The Last Unicorn to the nailed it list as well. Like the Princess Bride its script was written by the same person that wrote the book . Peter S. Beagle. And it is amazing.

As soon as I heard The Dark Tower was not even two hours long, I noped right on out of there and never watched it. My hope is that Mike Flanagan can finally do it justice as a TV show. 🤞

I'm not sure Rod Taylor's "The Time Machine" deserves to be dismissed as "silly," despite its low budget, considering that it sticks far closer to the source material than the remake does. Quite a few science fiction films from the classic era had low budgets to work with; to write them off as "silly" comes close to suggesting that good SF movies didn't exist before "2001: A Space Odyssey." But hey, "To Kill a Mockingbird" makes the list, so I'm a little appeased.

Nailed it : The Maltese Falcon (1941).

I'd watch the Time Machine anyway. I love Guy Pierce. I tried reading To Kill a Mockingbird, and I couldn't get past the first page. Then, we had to read it for English class, and I read it in one day. (I love reading.) It was amazing. I'd listen to Morgan Freeman read the dictionary. Stardust was infinitely better than the book. The book was boring. I had to make myself finish it.

Flubbed It (dishonorable mentions): - The Giver - The Golden Compass - My Sister’s Keeper - Ella Enchanted Nailed it (honorable mentions) - Coraline - Charlotte’s Web (both versions) Any I missed for either?

Nailed it- "Holes", "Congo" Fell Short- "Percy Jackson" (both movies), "Eragon"

Nailed it: Holes. Still one of my absolute favorite book to movie films I've ever seen.

The original film version of The Time Machine is not "silly". It is of its time, of course, but it is brilliant.

I include these Nailed it: Interview With a Vampire, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Flubbed it: Eragon

I've been a fan of The Dark Tower novels since my tenth grade year all the way back in the early 90s. I was ecstatic when I heard it was finally being adapted to film as I had always wanted to see it brought to life. When I first heard about the casting, I was wary, but upon seeing the first trailer and getting a taste of Idris Elba in the role, I saw that he appeared to capture the spirit of Roland so I was again looking forward to the film. Then came opening day. I had bought my ticket in advance and arrived at the theater early so I wouldn't miss even a single second. On the way home from the movie, I was literally in tears because of the bastardization of one of my favorite works of fiction of all time. Several years ago, when I first became disabled, as a way to fill my time, I actually started adapting all seven Dark Tower novels into screenplays (shortly after book seven was released). I finished the first book as a screenplay that would be a single film of about 105 minutes, but as I moved beyond that, I came to realize that even a whole film for each of the following novels would never do them justice, so the screenplays for the rest of the books ended up being broken into episodes of what I envisioned as a miniseries for each book after the film of The Gunslinger. Of course, I have no connections in the entertainment industry, so those screenplays just ended up on a shelf in my room collecting dust for years until they ultimately disappeared during one of my moves (they MIGHT be in a box in my storage unit, but there's no guarantee of that). My point in all of that is to say that I, someone who had never written a screenplay in his life, was able to better recognize what would need to be done to adapt this epic story than the so-called professionals who ended up making the film. Oh. And if anyone in the industry sees this and is interested in giving the Tower a PROPER adaptation, I'd be ready, willing, and able to write those screenplays again!

I would've also added The Green Mile bc that adaptation was pretty good imo. Yes, a few changes were made but they didn't take away from the movie.

No Country for Old Men is absolutely brilliant just for Javier Bardem amazing performance he is definitely someone you wouldn't want to approach in real life

Eargon would fit in the Flubbed it side if there is another part.

There could be scores upon scores of these vidoes!! More please!!! Harry Potter, the various Roald Dahl movies, the Martian, Gone with the Wind, the various Jane Austen adaptations, Percy Jackson, Agatha Christie movies, LOTR, etc. ETC ETC!!!! Way too many to name, I would love to see your further analysis!!!

My top picks for - Nailed it: The Count of Monte Cristo Flubbed it: ERAGON .. whyyyyyy we need a remake so bad 😭

Good picks, thank you. 1. Carrie, the first adaption of Stephen King's novel nailed it, too. Some say it's better than the novel. 1) Shawshank was nominated for seven Oscar's, including picture. 2) Sisey Spacek and Piper Laurie were nominated for Best Actress and Supporting Actress Oscars, respectively. 3) Neither film won any. 4) Carrie was a sleeper in both box office and great reviews. 5) Shawshank did okay at the box office, same with initial reviews. However, with time, the consensus now is that it's a classic.

Can't believe Fried Green Tomatoes isn't here...lovely book adapted into a wonderful film!

“The Scarlett Letter” may be bad, but I love it. 🥰 It’s one of my guilty-pleasure movies I like to rewatch once in a while. “The Princess Bride” is one of my top 5 favorite movies ever….and I pray all existing deities that Hollywoods never makes a remake of it.

Misery nailed it.

I felt sorry for Ferdia Shaw, who played Artemis in the film. He did a decent job, but he just wasn't convincing as a teenage Mastermind. Maybe Aidan Gallagher would have been a better fit for the role.

One for nailed it: Tim Burton's 2005 adaptation of Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. While hated by fans of the 1971 adaptation, saying it "ruined the original" and calling it a reboot, it is anything BUT that. Tim Burton and Johnny Depp planned on keeping their version as faithful to the original (that being the BOOK) as they could, and they succeeded, the only thing changing being the ending and them adding a backstory for Wonka. Heck, they went as far as to have no one on the team watch the '71 adaptation until afterwards, so that they pulled only from the book. (It also speaks volumes that Roald hated the '71 version to the point that it was one of his biggest regrets, and that his wife and daughter both said that he would have loved the '05 version). One for flubbed it: Percy Jackson. I will go into no further detail, that movie SUCKED.

Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth Novels was misrepresented in the series Legend of the Seeker. While watch worthy, completely different stories. Hayao Miyazaki Howl's Moving Castle is better than the Diana Wynne Jones novel. For those of us that actually read Maguires book The Life and Times of the the Wicked Witch of the West and two other books know the stage musical was relatively close to the original material, only time will tell is Wicked the movie part 1 & 2 will be "for good". Les Miserables was pretty dang perfect too.

1 more personal pick for each: Nailed it - The Godfather. Took the sturdy bones of a slightly stiff, unwieldy original story and crafted one of the greatest crime epics ever made. Flubbed it - The Giver. A thoughtful, heartfelt and occasionally downright disturbing book thoroughly wasted as a boring YA romance virtually indistinguishable from its ilk.

I loved the Malkovich/Sinise version of “Of Mice and Men.” Perfectly subtle actors and great pacing of a wonderfully classic story.

If I remember correctly Harper Lee refused to give the movie rights without creative consultant over the filming. She made sure the film stayed true to the book.

I totally thought the 2018 movie "A Wrinkle in Time" was awful, I didn't like how much it strayed from the book. One movie adaptation that I thought was better than the book was the 2012 movie "The Lorax." I thought it was still loyal to the book, but that movie had more of a backstory than the book did, and I thought it was neat how plot points in the movie were set up. Some movies that I thought flubbed the book to film adaptation that were not on the list include the 2009 movie "Where the Wild Things Are," the 2015 movie "Home," both Disney adaptations of "The Little Mermaid," the 1996 movie "The Hunchback of Notre Dame," "Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant," "The Fox and the Hound," "The Black Cauldron," and the 1939 movie "The Wizard of Oz."

It also helps that the cast in The Princess bride loved being in the cast. They were having the time of their lives and it shows.

I would add that all of the Tom Clancy movies, except perhaps The Hunt for Red October, should be on the flubbed list. Most especially Sum of All Fears.

If you didn’t put Wonder on the succeeded list I’m going to be disappointed because that movie was amazing and so was the book.

The Golden Compass was so bad that I punched a wall

It probably helped that William Goldman himself was an Oscar winning screenwriter( Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid)

I can't believe "Fight Club" wasn't mentioned among the Nailed It choices. With the exception of the scene where the Narrator meets Tyler, the film is almost word for word from the novel.

The Day of the Jackal. The original ‘70s movie.

Flubbed It: Starship Troopers. Whatever the movie’s virtues, it bears little resemblance to the book it was based on. It seemed as if the screenwriter based his script on the dust jacket summary rather than the actual novel.

I wish I could tell you that movies based on books are better than the book, but they're not. A human's imagination will ALWAYS be more powerful than CGI.

It's definitely Danny Devito's Matilda. Happy thursday afternoon, Sophia. Take care and God bless you. Greetings from Colombia to you as well.

Perks of Being a Wallflower was an amazing adaptation! It is another example of the author writing the screenplay and it genuinely delivering.

I just read Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption, and the movie is truly a masterpiece adaption. Might have even improved upon the novella.

Artemis Fowl * shudder* scream 😠

Amazing video ms mojo,fantastic job.

I was so disappointed with A Wrinkle in Time! One of my favorite books as a young person, and such a crappy movie!

Major Flubbed it: World War Z. Loved the book, but I could not get past the first 10 min of the movie

As a young adult book, I Am Number Four was almost 100% accurate

Artemis Fowl was terrible but the actress who played Holly Short did a good job.

Having watched _The Scarlet Letter_ as a high school junior, I can easily say the book is 1000 times better.

Frank Capra's 1937 adaptation of "Lost Horizon" absolutely nailed the book ( It was the most expensive film made up to that date). The 1973 adaptation however was a complete flub.

I love “To Kill a Mockingbird” ❤❤ had to watch it in High School and my school never let us finish watching it. I took the time to watch it outside of class during the summer. It was good. For once I was excited to watch a movie. I think it was so good that the teacher decided not to give us homework.

The Green Mile is a very good adaptation of the original novellas by Stephen King. They didn't miss too much

Here are a few mentions for a part two: Howl’s Moving Castle, When Marnie Was There, and Apollo 13 all hit the mark while Divergent, Battlefield Earth, and Earwig and the Witch missed.

Actually you might’ve missed the Malcolm McDowell movie, Time After Time in your Time Machine adaptations list. I think it went by a different name because his reason for traveling was different, but the concept of using a machine is still part of it.

The Princess Bride was perfect!!

The stepford wives remake was an extreme flub, as well as Ella Enchanted.

Ella Enchanted should absolutely be on the flubbed list. I know they played a brief clip at the beginning, but that movie was entirely different from the book and the book is such a classic that it was a shame they didn't even try to do it justice

I'll give you one that nailed it: "Holes". The book was already terrific, but Louis Sachar wrote the screenplay for the film adaptation as well, and that one last shot at the story just tightened it up even more. I know people complained at the time that Shia LaBeouf wasn't built like Stanley was in the book, but considering the physical changes the character went through in the book, I thought that was a small concession to make for the actor's comfort. If I'm going to give you a "Nailed It', I'd better give you a flub as well: "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy". Personally, I didn't mind the movie, but I can see where a lot of fans of the book (and the radio show, which was actually the original version of the story) would be put off. The pacing is languid, and the movie doesn't quite have the zany energy of earlier adaptations. Plus, een though Douglas Adams made changes every single time he wrote a different version, the movie adaptation probably strayed TOO far from the source material for some people's tastes.

I have 1 more to both sides, nailed it the 1970s The Hobbit, flubbed it The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.

Nailed it: 1984 (1984) John Hurt, Richard Burton - Outstanding piece of film that perfectly captures the atmosphere of the original book. Flubbed it: The War of the worlds (2005) - Diabolical travesty concentrating more on action set pieces and ridiculous nonsensical writing and completely ignoring the sense of solitude, isolation and fear expressed throughout the book.

I thought the film adaptation of The Stand was horrendous!! It was my favorite book growing up and to see it butchered has made me angry for 30 years! 😂 Misery with James Caan and Kathy Bates is so much better than the book it’s crazy. Never thought I would say that about any movie!

They didn't just "flub" Artemis Fowl. A "flub" implies that they at least rose to the dignity of an error. No... they *splattered* Artemis against a McDonald's bathroom wall, and the slivers that trailed to the floor are what they flimsily pieced together into a movie. It's an astonishing failure in every regard. Not one character or plot point was portrayed accurately. Not one. It was an incoherent dung heap of a film, and the fact Eoin gave it his blessing proves he has no respect for his own hard work and material. He'll shill for anything if it means he gets a movie, no matter how bastardized and awful it may be.

The Green Mile nailed it. Twilight flubbed it.

- for nailed it The Great Gatsby. Both movies stick to the og plot pretty well, but Lahrman’s movie in 2013 handles all the lengthy narrations and manages to make them so compelling. I know his style of directing isn’t for everyone and my English class wasn’t the biggest fan, but I thought the movie brought a lot of layers to the characters, especially Gatsby, Nick, and Tom. Also making Nick a writer and not just a narrator was genius! -flubbed it Call of the Wild. I read the book in 7th grade so I could compare it to the movie. I loved the book and thought it was well strung plot wise. But the movie completely rewrote most of the plot points, especially the end. It also focused more on the humans than the dog who the book centered around!!! I remember sitting there going WWWHHHHYYYY????!!!! I will say the music was pretty good though.

A personal Flubbed it for me is "Starship Troopers". Except for the names of some of the characters, it was almost nothing like the book. If they had changed the name of the movie and of the key characters it would have been much better for me.

The Count of Monte Cristo also deserves to be in the nailed it category

fell short: I am Legend Missed the entire point of the book... that he became a legend in new world.

When “Bridge to Teribithia” came out several women said it was their favorite (or one of favorites) book as a child, and that the movie matched the book. That got me to try the movie and the movie was good enough to get me to read the book. In some ways the movie was better, while in other ways the book was better. I highly recommend both. Only thing that confused me, it’s a girl’s book where the protagonist is male.

So speaking of books to movies, the Book Thief is one of my favorite books! I think the movie is pretty good, it’s just really short. I feel like there’s minor details that they skipped over in the movie. What do y’all think?

Nailed It: Mrs. Doubtfire was a riot, unlike the kids book "Alias Madame Doubtfire." Honorable Mention: The Godfather was far superior to the plodding novel. Flubbed It: The Hobbit trilogy.

hunger games better be the number 1 on the franchise list, catching fire is the greatest adaptation i've ever seen

I think each one could’ve had its own list; one video dedicated to Nailed-It Book to Movie adaptations and another for Flubbed-It Book to Movie adaptations My vote for a Nailed It movie would be Holes. I loved that movie as a kid, surprised me to know there was a book. When I read it I was impressed by how accurately it was portrayed to film, minor things that were kept out weren’t really missed or didn’t ruin the storyline My vote for Flubbed It movie (you had to know it was coming) Percy Jackson & the Olympians. A whole essay could be and has been written by many about where this one went wrong.

One that should be here is Perks of Being a Wallflower, the adaptation is incredibly well done

Nails it The fault in our star Flubbed it Bridge to Terabitha

To be fair, The Dark Tower was confirmed NOT to be an adaptation of the books(s). At the end of the last book, it was revealed that Roland was forcibly sent back in time to the beginning of the first book and made to go through his journey again and again by the will of the Dark Tower itself with no memory of his previous journeys. The movie was confirmed to be one of these journeys that takes place AFTER the final book, so it's actually a sequel to the books. Still not a good movie, but it technically wasn't an adaptation, but a sequel.

The Princess Bride and the Neverending Story were guaranteed to be shown when we had a substitute teacher, and I loved it.

9:08 "changed very little beyond the physical appearance" red's backstory got changed, one character who just changed prisons died in the movie and the book had a consistent changing of the warden and guards...

To add to the *"Nailed It"* list: - *American Psycho* - while altering a few minor aspects of the book it was an excellent adaptation - *Fight Club* - an amazing film that faithfully captures the feeling and spirit of the source material - *Naked Lunch* - a potentially unfilmable book, Cronenberg uses significant elements of it and meshes those with elements of Burroughs own life. I think an argument could be made that it _is not_ completely faithful to the book, it encapsulates the intent and key elements of the source material - *Dune* - obviously the Vilnueve version. The Lynch version actually has a _lot_ of content that is faithful to the book, but the new film(s) capture the spirit and feel of the books and are an excellent adaptation for someone who is a fan of the series. *Flubbed It* : - *The Golden Compass* - The thrill and excitement I felt upon hearing that His Dark Materials was being adapted to film was intoxicating. The books are incredible and the trailer looked so good. But the film. Oh the film. It somehow lost the charm and intent of the book and then utterly destroyed any chance it had of a sequel by ignoring the novels ending. - *I Am Legend* - awful, just awful. The entire movie misses the point of the book entirely in every single aspect. Bitterly disappointing film. - *World War Z* - Just imagine the potential greatness of an accurate film adaptation and then look at the ridiculously generic film we ended up with. The whole initial appeal of Max Brooks' original is how different its approach is to the zombie genre. Then you start reading it and get drawn in as you witness events unfold through the eyes of those that experienced it first hand. I'm sure I was in physical pain after experiencing the movie. These three movies not only misunderstood their source material but literally mangled it beyond recognition.

Nailed It: Gone With The Wind ( 1939), The Godfather ( 1971),The Exorcist (1974), Jaws(1976), 1984 (1984) and Lord Of The Rings (2001-2003) This was not a trilogy but all 1 film......Flubbed It: Dune (1984)They tried to put too much of the books in a film that should have been longer or several films , Bonfire Of The Vanities (1990)characters were changed like the judge in the film was black so his end speech makes no sense among other things, I Am Legend (2007)ending was changed for Will Smith and to make a sequel

Lonesome Dove, it's the only movie I recommend people watch before reading the book, the reading experience is vastly improved when you picture Robert Duvall and Tommy Lee Jones as Captain Augustus McCrae & Captain Woodrow F. Call.

Flubbed: Raise The Titanic. The book is a typical high-paced thriller romp. But the movie left out chunks of plot, inserted pointless other scenes that slowed the movie's pace, then completely changed the ending. Nailed: Gettysburg. I haven't read "The Killer Angels" that it's based on, but I understand the match is very close.

Flubbed: The Lovely Bones. Peter Jackson and company sanitized it way down to obtain a PG-13 rating (at least I imagine that was the reason).

What made the 2000s Time Machine even more of a tragedy was that H. G. Wells' great-grandson directed it.

The first version of Blade Runner was a good adaptation of Philip K Dick's short story, but the remake bombed big time! On the subject of Sci-Fi, one movie that turned a good read into a gore-filled horror movie was 'The Event-Horizon', because the script differed almost completely from the book!

When talking about The Time Machine you skipped Time After Time. Starring Malcolm McDowell, David Warner, and Mary Steenburgen. That was a good movie!

"Let the writer, write the screenplay". Well... yes well done list for sure. To Kill a Mockingbird and Princess Bride are top. But what helped Princess Bride was the writer was also a screen writer as well as a novelist, so he had the way to transfer book to screen well.

The film adaptation of BLACKHAWK DOWN sure nailed it. I never read such a nail-biting, edge-of-your-seat nonfiction book, and when I heard Ridley Scott was directing the movie I was so relieved that it was him and not some hack like Roland Emmerich; because I knew he would do the story justice, and he sure did!

Completely, Absolutely, Unequivocally, !00% AGREE with the disaster that was the Dark Tower! They totally blew it.

I never read "secret window, secret garden " by Stephen king but the movie with Johnny Depp version is amazing!!! wish it was remembered more

It's funny. I heard that the original Princess Bride was a serious dramatic novel and when the screen writer was young his grandfather read him the book and only read him the "fun parts" and when awe got older he gave it to his own kids to read, couldn't understand why they didn't like it, and then read it himself for the first time only to realize it was not the story his grandfather had created. and the movie was about the story his grandfather had put together and not the actual novel

Flubbed it: Eragon. So dissapointing.