I agree about the Harry potter books - I loved book 3 and the film was such a dissapointment - so much of the story line left out.

I watched Eragorn before I read it - (Got it for Mum for her birthday as she loved the books). The film went very fast and I found it quite hard to keep up. Having read the book it makes more sense!

Hannah

Yes, I read Eragon about 1/2 a year before the movie came out, and I could see where gaping holes were. Even my friend, who had never read the book, could tell that there was so much missing.

Personally I wouldn't mind sitting through a 5 hour movie that was based on a book, as long as it didn't cut the plot up. I'm hoping that with the upcoming Harry Potter movies, as the books are so long, the movies wont be cut too much.

I'm sick of books being made into film. For one, the movie is usually a lot worse than the book and two, it seems like film writers don't know how to write an original script anymore. It's either an adaptation of a book or some kind of sequel.

But if they are going to continue making books into movies, like The_lioness33 said, I wouldn't mind sitting through a 5 hour movie based on a book to include everything. LotR was a long movie but I could have sat through two hours longer in each to include the whole lot that was left out.

I don't like the fourth Harry Potter movie. It was only the Triwizard Tournament and a couple of classes. They left a lot out. Grrr!

Well, I guess I'm on the other side of the fence of most of you, at least where the Harry Potter films are concerned.

I'd much rather see a well-crafted, exciting movie that perhaps leaves rather unimportant details or characters out than sit through an interminable, boring story that slavishly follows a book. The first (and to a lesser extent the second) Potter movies fall into the second category. I much prefer the later movies because they play like movies, not books on tape.

I did enjoy the LOTR movies because even though they were long, they were edited well, left out/combined non-essential elements properly (in my opinion ) and moved well.

I think Stephen King needs really fabulous directors to interpret his work properly. He also needs other people to write the screen adaptations--he pretty much stinks at that. I think a lot of his stuff doesn't translate properly to the screen because so much takes place internally, within a character's or reader's mind. Everyone is going to picture things a bit differently. I think Misery, Dolores Claiborne, The Green Mile, Shawshank Redemption, and Stand By Me all came off really well. But all of those are rather light on the 'supernatural' elements and focus on what he really does best--characterization.
I also quite like The Stand even though there were some odd casting choices, in my opinion. (Even though I like Laura San Giacomo, for instance, I cannot stand her as Nadine. Ugh, it makes me want to fast-forward through all her scenes.)

'1408' looks like it might be pretty good.

On the topic of books into movies, "Northern Lights", or "The Golden Compass" by Phillip Pullman is being made into a movie, coming out in December in Australia

Yeah, I saw the trailer today for it, and I don't think they portrayed Lyra very well. Apart from that it looks ok. Books will almost always be better in my opinion though .

I never got into those books, although I was told they were very good. . . . The movie looks interesting, so I think I'll consider reading the books first. I also saw that the Spiderwyck series is being made into movies...? so I'll be reading those too.

I understand hesitation with the HP movies, I hated the first four, but somehow the fifth one came off a bit better. I would consider seeing it again if I didn't think I'd have to wait in line for three hours.

Lol, I hadn't heard about the Spiderwyk Chronicles being made into a movie. I didn't enjoy the books all that much though, they weren't that well written. Hopefully the movies will be better.

What is it these days that people aren't imaginative enough to come up with their own storylines and they must adapt a book instead?

I keep hoping that someone will make either David Weber's Honor Harrington series or Lloyd Alexander's Vesper Holly series into a movie. Only if they follow the books, however, not just hijack the name. But unfortunately I seem to be the only person to have heard of them, so I doubt they will be.

On another note, someone is making "The dark is rising" sequence by Susan Cooper into a movie. It looks good, but I will have to re=read the books.