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[Genki]

What are your guy's opinions on adapting books for the screen. I mean on one hand you got some incredible ones like LotR, Schindlers List, Fight Club and To Kill a Mockingbird. But on the other hand you got some serious slaughtering of classics as is the case with Dune. In your overall opinion, is it usually a good or a bad idea to try and adapt novels, especially longer ones, into films?

[Mlarg]

Now come on, the Dune movie wasn't that bad. Ok, yes it was but it still represented the true version of Star Wars to me. In my opinion, the adaption question all depends on the director. Too often, directors get caught up in their own ego, take on the adaption of a novel, and try and twist it so it fits their own personal way of thinking, thus alienating the original fans of the book. The best adaptions come from the likes of Stanely Kubrick, who, when directing A Clockwork Orange, literally worked with a copy of the book in his hand, using it as his own personal screenplay.

Now and again you get exceptions where directors took only the basic plotlines of a story and still made an awesome movie (Benjamin Button?) but I still find that this rule holds true in the majority of cases.