The Help
The Hunger Games
The Book Thief
Divergent
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
Twilight
The Fault in Our Stars
The Perks of Being a Wallflower
The Lightning Thief
The Notebook
The Da Vinci Code
Life of Pi
The Kite Runner
Gone Girl
The answer is...
Besides being popular reads, all of these books have been made into movies. The idea of turning good books into movies has been around a long time. Some of the earliest film adaptations of books, such as Uncle Tom's Cabin, A Christmas Carol, Ben Hur, and Oliver Twist, were made during the silent movie era.
Here is a list of some other books that have been made into movies. How many of them have you seen or read?
The Godfather
Rebecca
The Grapes of Wrath
One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest
The Color Purple
To Kill a Mockingbird
The Lord of the Rings
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
The Great Gatsby
Bridge to Terabithia
The Shining
The Princess Bride
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
Jane Eyre
Movie producers take a risk when converting a book to a movie. Will the characters fit the images that were formed by the readers? What book scenes can be edited to make the movie a reasonable length? Will changes to scenes or endings be accepted by viewers?
Another factor that is taken into consideration is the author's feelings about the conversion. Many authors collaborate with producers and directors during the making of movies and several authors have publicly stated that they are happy with the movie versions of their book, such as Cressida Cowell (How to Train Your Dragon), Stephen King (The Green Mile), and Anne Rice (Interview with a Vampire) . Stephen King even preferred the changed ending in the movie to the ending in his book The Mist.
However some authors have been unhappy with the movie version of their books like Roald Dahl (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory), Stephen King (The Shining), and Winston Groom (Forrest Gump).
But whether we love a movie version of a book or we hate it, we readers are always interested to see a book we read come to life in a movie. I guess that's what movie makers are counting on!
For a list of books that have been made into movies, check out the Popular Books Made Into Movies Shelf on Goodreads.
Goodreads also has a list of Books That Should Be Made Into Movies. Do you agree with the choices?