This is a difficult subject to write about because everyone has their own favourite movies that have been inspired by books, there are many examples of such movies and there are times when you may have watched the movie without reading the book and vice versa.
Some of the examples of books that have been made into successful movies and TV shows are: Jurassic Park, Harry Potter, Shawshank Redemption, The Hunger Games, Game of thrones, the list goes on.
The question is do book to movie adaptations really work and why do so many of them fail?
The best example of this is the movie Treasure Island which was taken from the book of the same name written by Robert Louis Stevenson, this story was part of English Literature course when I was in primary school, I browsed the Net and found the movie based on the book and was disappointed.
The plot of the movie tried to remain true to the story of the book but the action was not very convincing and it seemed that the makers of the movie did not really understand the spirit of adventure that the story was conveying to the audience.
2. Another example of book to movie adaptation that is one of the most successful is the science fiction book Jurassic Park written by the science fiction author Michael Crichton.
The funny thing is I watched the movie and read the Book later, I liked the movie but found the book much better because there were differences in the interpretation of the book to the big screen.
Although the movie was successful and fun to watch, in fact when it was released three decades ago, it was one of the biggest blockbusters of all time but in order to really enjoy the story, you have to read the book and that means not just Jurassic Park, it includes The Lost World to get the bigger picture.
Movies based on books are commonly found in Hollywood, they are also found in Bollywood, examples include 3 Idiots, 2 States, Maqbool, omkara, Angoor etc.
Although some of them have been successful, unfortunately people have lost the reading habit and nowadays most people do not care if a movie is based on a book.
Nowadays, we are dependent on the internet as the main source of information, how many of us make the effort to read a novel, it is easier to watch a movie because of the audio visual perspective.
I have noticed that if you check the reviews of movies based on books, most reviewers suggest that we read the book instead of the movie and it is a good idea because the movie does not give the complete picture.
In the end, watching the movie is a good idea but it makes a difference if you get an opportunity to read the book, it allows us to really understand what the movie is all about.
