Authors Who Hated The Screen Adaptation Of The Book

Is it unbelievable for you that someone could hate a movie like Forrest Gump? And, what if I tell you it is the author of the book itself? Yes, you read it right. Winston Groom, the author of Forrest Gump hates the screen adaptation of his writing – a movie that is considered a classic. There could be several reasons why an author would hate the screen adaptation of their book. They probably had high expectations from the book or the director. They had not imagined certain endings while writing the book, that the director portrayed in the movie, and more. In this article, we are going to read about authors who hated the screen adaptation of the book.

The Shining – Stephen King

Probably unexpected and perhaps understandable for some cinephiles when Stephen King said he hated the adaptation of The Shining done by Stanley Kubrick. He always admired Kubrick’s works but King was disappointed with the result of the movie adaptation of his writing. Stephen King ended up working on another adaptation of The Shining with director Mick Garris that aired on ABC in 1997.

Queen of the Damned – Anne Rice

Anne Rice thought the casting of the movie for ‘Interview with the Vampire’ was ‘bizarre’ and it was almost impossible for her to imagine that it was even going to work. However, after the movie was done, she was impressed by the portrayal of Tom Cruise and she complimented him for his remarkable job. This is the only movie on her website that she recommends. For ‘Queen of the Damned’, she reportedly said that movie mutilated her book.

Percy Jackson – Rick Riordan

Riordan has never shied away from expressing his dissatisfaction with his series’ adaptations and honestly, neither have the fans. The author has never watched the screen adaptation but the script of the book was enough for him to be disappointed – he just straight up said that the script was ‘terrible’.

Forrest Gump – Winston Groom

On the very first page of the sequel of this book, the author wrote, and perhaps the better word would be to advise the readers – to never let anyone make a movie out of your life and it does not matter if they get it right or wrong. The reason behind this sort of harsh comments could be two – one, he was promised three per cent of the net profit which he had not received, to which the producer gave some reason regarding profits; and two would be, no one from the movie mentioned the writer in any of the six acceptance speeches in Academy Award.

Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory – Roald Dahl

The reason why Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator never got adapted is that Roald Dahl thought that the screen adaptation of Willy Wonka was ‘pretentious, ‘crummy’, ‘bouncy’ and as for the director, he said that he had ‘no talents or flair’. He promised that there would be no more adaptations of his works, ever, at least not during his lifetime.

I Am Legend – Richard Matheson

Matheson has been exasperated since 1964 with the movie adaptation of his book I Am Legend. The author was so infuriated with Hollywood that he said that he does not understand why Hollywood is so fascinated by his works when they do not care about adapting as he wrote them.

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