Films you might not know were based on books Part 2

AKA the Books behind the films. We all know classic examples like The Godfather and Jurassic Park. Continuing from the last post, but here are a few more examples

Breakfast at Tiffany’s

Giving us one of cinema's most beloved characters, in Hepburn's Holly Golightly, this comedy romance about a cafe socialite had all the hijinks and infectious eccentricity of its source novella of the same name, by Truman Capote


The Blind Side

Launching Sandra Bullock back into the spotlight, this was basically the story of how any poor, uneducated black kid can make it in the world, as long  a rich white lady helps them....Okay so it wasn't really but that’s sometimes how it feels. Its the story of Michael Oher being effectively adopted by a Christian woman, and his rise in the world of High school football. It is loosely based on The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game by Michael Lewis, though the book itself features much more information on offensive football strategy with less focus on drama


Diary of a Wimpy Kid

There are a three of these films at the time of writing and I suspect there will be more to come. While they are essentially comedies about a small, wiley kid going through school without any great degree of popularity, and a dorky best friend, I feel the films can never replicate the books, just because of the format. The books are written as fake diaries, coupled with various drawings and doodles, and the combined effect presents a very very funny story, which makes you think back to your own youth. As amusing as scenes from the film may be, the first one in particular, they can never touch the emotional chord of the books. There are 7 in all so far: the  Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, by Jeff Kinney


Shutter Island

Scorsese reunited with DiCaprio yet again for this psychological drama about a missing person on an island housing a psychiatric facility. The fragmented narrative and multiple contradictions keep the suspense going, even if the eventual 'conspiracy'/'explanation' is fairly routine. The gothic, pulpy atmosphere is in close keeping with the source material, the best-selling novel of the same name by Dennis Lehane. Incidentally Lehane also wrote Mystic River, which also ended up being made into a film


Drive

This one may come as something of a surprise. The very deliberate nature of the directing and cinematography gives the impression that the entire endeavour is one man's distilled vision. The film tells the story of a mysterious man called The Driver, who lives by a set of precise rules, and takes driving jobs for criminals. Just as he is finding love with his neighbour, he ends up in the middle of a double cross over a bag of money and a bloodbath ensues. The Film is based on the novel Drive by James Sallis, one of two featuring his character The Driver. Short, dark, and gloomy, the novel isn't a linear story and includes many flashbacks and jumps, which in some way helps explain the style of its movie incarnation


Children of Men

Starring Clive Owen and set in a world where infertility is absolute, and there hasn't been a newborn in years, it follows a man trying to protect a pregnant woman, and eventually her baby. The premise is excellent, but the implications seem somewhat blunted by the pedestrian plot. This is in contrast to the novel, The Children of Men by P.D.James, which delves much deeper into the politics of this dystopia and the psychological and social implications


Brewster’s Millions

An underrated Richard Prior movie in my opinion, it may not be as caustic as some of this other works, or feature his great chemistry with Gene Wilder, but it is nonetheless a funny premise, carried off with aplomb. Essentially a man is given 30 million dollars, and told that if he can spend it all and have nothing left to his name in a month, he will inherit 300 million. Hilarity ensues. I was surprised to find that this was based on novel from way back in 1902 by George Barr McCutcheon, and surprised further to find that in all this time, it has been made into not just one, but ten separate films across the globe!


Doc Hollywood

A classic from the Michael J Fox back-catalogue, this is a really charming, enjoyable story of a hotshot young surgeon crashing his car in a rural South Carolina hamlet. Sentenced to community service, he ends up having to stay in the town and adapt to life at a slower pace, developing friendships with the locals and even finding love. If the plot sounds familiar, it may be because the Pixar film Cars used almost exactly the same story years later. Its a pretty faithful adaptation of What? Dead Again? by Neil B. Shulman, who in addition to being an MD, was also a producer for the film


Jaws

Now here's an unexpected one. A Spielberg classic which spawned far far too many sequels [which was nicely spoofed in Back to the Future II], one can only guess how many people have developed a phobia of swimming, oceans and beaches from this motion picture about a Shark terrorising a summer resort. It is considered monumental in the history of cinema, effectively being the first ever 'blockbuster', and it is based on Jaws by Peter Benchley. The novel has a lot of other subplots which were dropped for the film, which instead focused on the shark, and then men hunting it.


The Princess Bride

Another classic story, this one is a fantasy story about a pirate assembling a group to help him rescue a princess who was once his lover. It is based on a novel of the same name by William Goldman. The Book itself is presented as an abridgement of the fictional book ' The Princess Bride' by S. Morgenstern, with a fake forward and Goldman's comments running throughout. This atmosphere of silliness and irony permeates through to the film, which is unsurprising given that he adapted the screenplay for it. Some hold it in as high regard as The Goonies..more or less says it all


The NeverEnding Story

The first of a trilogy of Epic Fantasy films, it was based on a German novel, The Neverending Story by Michael Ende, which was later translated into English by Ralph Manheim. The story is of a boy in the real world who is reading a book which effects a fantasy world called Fantasia, which is being destroyed by 'the nothing' which is a lack of imagination in the real world.... it’s not actually as complicated as it sounds. It looks a bit dated now, but fun nonetheless. Incidentally the first film only covers the first half of the novel, and even then with some omissions. The remainder of the novel influences  the sequel, to some extent, but other plotlines have been made up and added in too


Forrest Gump 

Forrest Gump is a wildly popular film even now, and for many, it shows Tom Hanks at his acting finest. The film is based on the novel of the same name by Wilson Groom, published 8 years before the film was released. The film tried to stay relatively faithful to the book, but some of the plot had to be abridged due to time constraints, leading to the whole 'Ape called Suzie' and 'NASA astronaut' arcs being dropped. The sex was sanitized, as was the retardation angle. Groom was so disappointed with the film, that in Gump and Co, the sequel, he begins with the line, "Don't never let nobody make a movie of your life's story."

Doctors Famous for Other Things

Aka Physicians famous for other activities, aka doctors famous for other activities. Some of these are doctors turned actors, others are doctors turned writers. Its a very short list, and this is partly because its my top 5, but also because...its a short list. After all, not many people get through the gruelling, time consuming ordeal of medical school only to give it all up. But of the brave few that have, here are some success stories.

5. Khaled Hosseini

Writer of the hugely successful novels The Kite Runner and a Thousand Splendid Suns, Hosseini was a practising Dr in the US for over ten years before hitting the big time. The Kite runner was a runaway hit and spawned a film of the same name, and the studios have already optioned his second book too

4. Arthur Conan Doyle

Doyle was a doctor for much of his early life before writing took over, graduating from Edinburgh, and working in Birmingham. These days he is probably best known as the creator of Sherlock Holmes, the book series of which has led to numerous comic book, TV and film spinoffs

3. Harry Hill

British comedian Harry Hill started out on the fringes, and slowly worked his way up, from his quirky, cult routines in Fruit Corner and Fruit Fancies, through to his own late night show and finally into mainstream, mass audience appeal with Harry Hill's TV Burp. He's a man so ludicrously silly, its a shock to discover that he's actually a fully qualified doctor in the UK, though he quit shortly after becoming a house officer.

2. Michael Crichton

Not only is Crichton the best selling author of works such as Jurassic Park, Sphere, Congo, The Andromeda strain and many more, he also helped create behemoth medical drama ER. While he only wrote the first 3 episodes, he developed the first season with Spielberg, and the show is now one of the longest running dramas of all time. The chaotic, exhausting, ramshackle atmosphere in a hospital was based on his own personal experiences of medical school and residency.

1. Ken Jeong

Known to most as the Asian mobster from the Hangover films, or Spanish teacher Senior Chang from Community, Ken too started out in medicine. He was doing stand-up comedy on top of 90 hour weeks whilst completing his residency and he continued the standup comedy even after he set up his own practice in LA in the late 90s. It was Judd Aptow discovering him that eventually led to him abandoning his profession for his one true love: comedy

Slow Running

Its been many a day since the last Pointlesstown post, for which I apologise. There's some issues that need dealing with, and as soon as I'm all done, I'll have some new, solid posts for you. In the mean time, I'll still try to get a short post as often as I can, to keep you internet trolls appeased!

HIMYM Novelty Episodes

How I Met Your Mother has definitely waned in recent years, but it’s easy to forget, it can actually be quite an inventive sitcom. Over its run, it’s had a pretty regular stream of episodes experimenting with flashing forwards and backwards, breaking up multiple stories into pieces, and altering narratives based on hazy recollections. I like to think of these as concept episodes, and below are the top 15

15. "Brunch"
Over brunch with Ted’s parents, unresolved tensions come to light, in 3 separate parts of the story, including Barney’s antics with Ted’s dad, Lily and Marshall’s reconciliation of sorts, and a revelation of divorce. It’s quite a nice mix of stories but after the events of previous episodes, Lily and Marshall’s story felt forced, and as always, Barney stole the show

14. "The Burning Beekeeper"
Much like Brunch above, this is the story of a chaotic scene at a party, the build up to which is revealed through individual stories. Perhaps this episode should be higher on the list, but the individual stories were all so over the top, and I don’t really like the character of Lily’s dad, who is a lazy stereotype played without imagination.

13. "Bad News"
The main gimmick in this episode is an idea borrowed from the film “Murder by Numbers” in which numbers randomly placed in the background sequentially count down throughout the episode. It’s a nice idea and it gave the episode a thrust which it otherwise wouldn’t have had, but the numbers were generally too obvious and ended up a little distracting. Subtlety would have gone a long way here

12. "Trilogy Time"
A flashback/forward episode in which we trace the gang’s tradition of watching the Star Wars Trilogy every three years, and predicting what their lives will be like in the future, starting with the year 2000. With each flashback 2003,2006 and 2009, we see how the characters have changed, and how their predictions were shaped by who they were at that point in their lives. Since some of these flashbacks also fall within the run of the show itself, the writers also get to have a little fun. A simple idea but it works very well.

11. "Lucky Penny"
This reminds of Malcolm in the Middle’s season 2 opener “Traffic Jam” in which Hal obsesses how a few minor differences in the moments leading up to a traffic jam could have led to him being in an accident. The same idea applies here, as Ted and Robin try to work back through all the minor little things in their day, which have led to him being late for a potentially life-changing flight. Again, a simple little idea but executed well, and with a healthy dollop of comedy.

10. "Disaster Averted"
Not exactly a concept episode, but close enough. This one uses a story framed in the past, coupled with flashbacks to what happened during Hurricane Irene. Since this falls within the run of the show, we essentially get an ‘in-between-sode” from a few seasons earlier.

9. "Three Days of Snow"
Another nice idea plays out in this episode, which involves three separate stories on what you initially think is the same day of a particularly bad snow storm. Only at the end do we see that they are actually set on sequential days, and the final act where Marshall meets Lily at the airport is as sweet as anything the show has managed. Ted hitting on a cute Star Wars fan and running a fake bar ‘Puzzles’ with Barney is another highlight in a very funny episode.

8. "The Playbook"
Barney episodes are often the best simply because he’s one of the most fun characters. This one sees him orchestrating a very elaborate plan to pick up a girl at the bar, the details of which are constantly changing so that the viewer never realises what’s going on until the very end. As usual, Barney ends up playing everyone. Classic


7. "The Bracket"
With a mystery woman sabotaging Barney’s pickup attempts, a sports-style bracket is created to whittle down the list of suspects. What’s great about this one is the number of ex-girlfriends we’ve seen previously on the show, cropping up again here. Great continuity aside, it’s also very funny, as most Barney episodes are, and the final reveal is unexpected

6. "Subway Wars"
A surprisingly exciting episode, this one features a race to get to a restaurant, as different members of the gang all believe they know the fastest modes of transport in New York. The race element is like a competition and you end up rooting for different people as things progress. It’s also nice to see Ranjit again. The final scene with Ted and Barney is also surprisingly sweet

5. "Perfect Week"
Imagined from the point of view of Barney talking to a talk show host, this is the story of the Barney trying to get 7 girls over 7 nights aka the Perfect Week. His antics end up distracting the rest of the gang from the personal problems they have going on, and in the end, everyone is cheering him on. Pure fantasy, but a great combination of character, setup, and one liners.

4. "Third Wheel"
This episode is essentially Ted and Barney recapping what happened when both of them tried to have a threesome on the same night, cutting back and forth between the two stories. The story itself is simple enough, but it provides for a lot of comedy, and a surprising amount of characterisation for both leads, and a commendably open ending. The inclusion on a WWE championship wrestling belt and Trudy from "The Pineapple Incident" (below), sweeten things even further

3. "The Platinum Rule"
This is classic HIMYM in every sense. With Ted thinking about dating Stella, his tattoo removal doctor, Barney explains that you should never try to form a relationship with someone you see regularly. It splits the gang up into 3 groups who tell intercut stories, about attempts over successive years to defy the rule, each in turn ending in failure. The brilliance is how well crafter a theory it becomes, using so many differing stories to build the case. I also quite like Wendy the waitress (from Barney’s tale) so that’s a plus.

2. "Ted Mosby: Architect"
Another episode that pulls the wool over the viewer’s eyes, it basically has Robin drive Ted away, and then spend the night investigating what seems like a stream of debauchery on his part, seen through ‘imagined’ flashbacks. It’s only at the end that we see the truth of what happened, and how Barney used Ted’s name and job to get laid. Barney’s form letter at the end is priceless

1. "The Pineapple Incident"
This episode has the highest ratings of the show so far, and for good reason. It’s awesome! Essentially Ted drinks too much, and wakes up in bed next to a mystery girl. Various members of the group, crudely made signs, and obscure voicemails all slowly piece together the mystery of what happened last night. Very Very Very funny.