Even though many of the films that are made today are an adaptation of a famous book, there are, in fact, quite a lot of books that proved impossible to film. There are some film scholars like Andrew S. Allen who think that adapting books into movies is a sign of Hollywood's waning creativity; he says that there were about half as many original films in the 2000s as they were in the 1980s. Studies also show that about a third of all Hollywood productions are book adaptations and that half of each year’s 10 highest-grossing movies have been adapted works. But just because a book is famous, it’s well-written and it sells really well, it doesn’t mean that it’s easy to film. Here are 7 famous books that proved impossible to film:
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One Hundred Years of Solitude
This masterpiece written by Gabriel Garcia Marquez is one of the most famous books that proved impossible to film. It’s not that there aren’t a ton of movie directors out there who would be more than happy to turn this epic novel into an Oscar winner. The thing is that the author refused to sell the book’s movie rights, even though he did tell Harvey Weinstein once he would agree under one condition: if they film the entire book but release one chapter, two minutes long, each year for 100 years.
One Hundred Years of Solitude is a 1967 novel by Colombian author Gabriel García Márquez. It tells the story of the Buendía family, seven generations of whom are chronicled over the course of a century in the fictional town of Macondo. The novel is considered one of the most significant works of the 20th century and has been translated into more than 40 languages. It has been widely praised for its magical realism, which is a style of writing that combines elements of fantasy and reality.
The novel has been a critical and commercial success, and has been adapted into several theatrical and television productions. Despite its success, however, the novel has never been adapted into a feature film. The author, Gabriel García Márquez, refused to sell the movie rights to the book, even after Harvey Weinstein offered to make it into a film. Marquez’s condition was that the film be released one chapter each year for a hundred years.
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The Catcher in the Rye
J.D. Salinger’s masterpiece is another famous book that can’t be adapted because the author has carefully guarded the movie rights. There are a lot of filmmakers who have expressed interest in adapting this book but they had very little luck so far, since Salinger was always concerned that the book’s narration wouldn’t translate into film.
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Infinite Jest
This book was written by David Foster Wallace and it’s a very complex satire that touches a lot of difficult themes like depression, child abuse and addiction. David Foster Wallace is considered to be one of the best postmodernist writers and even though this book is more than 1000 pages long, so far only an episode of Parks and Recreation has come close to a screen adaptation of this book.
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A Confederacy of Dunces
There were a lot of filmmakers who have tried to turn John Kennedy Toole’s 1980 novel into a movie. Actually a series of big names like Chris Farley, John Goodman, Will Ferrell and even Zach Galifianakis have been attached to the film, but so far nobody has succeeded in turning this book into a film.
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What Make Sammy Run?
Bud Schulberg’s work, “What Makes Sammy Run?” is actually a brilliant take on the inner aspects of the entertainment industry and it’s about an unscrupulous boy named Sammy Glick who works his way up from copy boy to screenwriter. Even though in 2001, DreamWorks paid $2.6 million for the rights to adapt the book on behalf of Ben Stiller, so far they haven’t announced a start date.
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Happiness depends upon ourselves.
Nostromo
About Joseph Conrad’s book, F. Scott Fitzgerald once said: “I’d rather have written Conrad’s Nostromo than any other novel.”. Even though this book was adapted for television in 1996, it wasn’t turned into a big-screen masterpiece. Even though apparently in 2002 Martin Scorsese had agreed to be the director for this project, so far they haven’t started filming.
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House of Leaves
This book written by Mark Z. Danielewski was a huge best-seller but so far nobody has tried to turn it into a movie and this may be related to the fact that this novel is kind of hard to categorize and it’s difficult to summarize since it’s a manuscript written by a blind man about a documentary that doesn’t exist and also about a house with supernatural qualities.
There are quite a few books that have proved difficult to film. I just mentioned a few but I’m sure that there are many more I could add to this list. Do you know any other famous books that have proven impossible to film? Do tell!
Sources:
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