To Kill a Mockingbird, Harry Potter, and Lord of the Rings. They’re movies famous for the books they’re based on. This isn’t always the case with book adaptations. Sometimes when the credits roll, it’s a genuine surprise to see based-on the-book appear on screen. Many film adaptations are so acclaimed that the works they’re based on vanish into obscurity. Here are five movies you didn’t know were adaptations.
5. DIE HARD
Before Bruce Willis made barefoot cop John McClain an icon, author Robert Thorpe introduced readers to Joe Leland in “Nothing Lasts Forever. It has the same plot as its blockbuster adaptation. Terrorists take over an LA high-rise at Christmas time, but that’s where the similarities splinter off. Instead of John McClain coming to LA to repair his marriage, Detective Joe Leland is coming to see his daughter. Allen Rickman’s infamous Hans Gruber goes by Anton “Little Tony The Red” Gruber. Also unlike Hans, Anton isn’t after money, instead using his terrorist attack to expose the Klaxxon Corporation’s (Nakatomi Corporation in the film) evil business dealings.
The book was well-received initially, but now forever lives in the shadow of the 1988 blockbuster.
4. PSYCHO
Written by Robert Bloch, Psycho was an instant bestseller and became the most shocking book of 1959. And then in a single scene Alfred Hitchcock made everyone afraid of showers, effectively wiping the book’s existence from anyone’s mind.
Unlike some books on this list, the film is a faithful adaptation of its source material. This was partly because Hitchcock was a huge fan of the book, reading it after his assistant recommended it to him. He was so enamored with the book he bought as many copies of the novel as he could to preserve its startling twist for his film.
3. LEGALLY BLONDE
Legally Blonde is the rare case of a self-published book that blew up at the movies. The book’s author, Amanda Brown, based her novel on her experiences at Stanford Law. The book released alongside the film with the hope that audiences flocking to the movie would then go buy up copies of the book. They didn’t.
The film became a sleeper hit for MGM, even nabbing a few Golden Globe nominations, while the book faded into obscurity.
2. WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT
Who Framed Roger Rabbit launched a new line of Disney icons. Viewers fell in love with Roger Rabbit, Jessica, and the cartoon character cameos that rounded out the picture. However, most audience members were unaware that Roger Rabbit first appeared in the novel “Who Censored Roger Rabbit,” by Gary K. Wolf.
Censored had the same basic premise as the film, a detective story based around cartoon characters. The novel was much darker than the movie, killing off poor Roger within the first few chapters. It’s much more in-line with the themes and plot of classic pulp-noir paperbacks. The Disney film added a family-friendly vibe, included more comedy, and changed the setting to the 1950s to incorporate classic cartoons from that era.
In the end, the book’s only major contribution to the movie’s success was Jessica Rabbit’s iconic “I’m not bad, I’m just drawn that way” line, which appears verbatim in the novel.
1. MEAN GIRLS
Mean Girls is the Breakfast Club for millennials. It’s spawned countless catchphrases (“Fetch” is still not a thing), introduced iconic characters, and remains one of the most insightful high school movies ever made… and it started as a self-help book.
Rosalind Wiseman’s “Queen Bees and Wannabes” was a non-fiction book. Wiseman meant to show parents what their daughters would face in high school. Along with discussing how to manage the challenges of cliques, dating, and gossip. The book provided writer/actress Tina Fey a solid background to build her script off of. Even if the book is long forgotten, its theme and message live on through the film’s legacy.
