The Hollywood Machine seems to be running out of ideas as of late, with a seemingly endless slew of reboots and sequels we long for the days of original content and ideas. Much of that original content once came in the form of novel adaptations, but even those were hit and miss sometimes. Still, once in a while Hollywood got it right and produced silver screen adaptations that were every bit as good as the original novels, sometimes even better!
Fight Club. Despite a drastically different ending, Fight Club manages to stay true to the plot, themes, and progression of Chuck Palahniuk’s debut novel. The all-star cast including Brad Pitt and Ed Norton seem perfectly suited to the characters they play, and the movie (much like the novel) is nothing short of a non-stop thrill from start to finish.
American Psycho. Christian Bale’s depiction of psychotic yuppie-businessman Patrick Bateman is nothing short of spot-on in the 2000 adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis’ extremely graphic American Psycho. Although the book only focuses on key events within the novel, it does a near-perfect job of capturing its essence.
The Shining. Stephen King is no stranger to movie adaptations, as his novels each seem to be perfectly suited for the big screen, almost as if they were written as screenplays. However, it took the magic of Jack Nicholson and the vision of Stanley Kubrick to truly make The Shining one of the greatest movies of all time, this despite its deviation from the novel and King’s very public protests. It goes to show that not all adaptations have to be loyal in order to be great.
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