Books to Movies

How often do you read books that are being or have been made into movies? Do you read the book first or see the movie first?

I usually try to read the book first. Sometimes that helps, like with The DaVinci Code. I’m glad I read the book first. It helped with the movie. There were changes in the movie that made it different from the book, but it still followed close enough that having read the book first, I was better able to understand the intricacies of the story in the movie. Plus, it was sort of fun to spot where things had been altered either to get all the story in or to be politically correct.

In a few cases, the books and the movies are almost identical, like with the Harry Potter books. Sure, some things get left out of the movie because the books are so large and so cram-filled that you can’t get everything into a two hour movie. Even so, the movie is more true to the book than in almost any other case of a book to a movie. The only problem for me is that I’ve read the books so long ago that by the time the movie comes out I’ve forgotten the book.

I’m now reading The Bourne Ultimatum by Robert Ludlum. I know there’s another Bourne movie coming out soon, but I’m not sure if it has the same name as the book. But this is the third movie in the series and The Bourne Ultimatum is the third book in the series. So, I figured I’d read the book. I’m on page 130, but I knew right away that the movie, if it is based on this book, will be very different. Without giving too much away … Bourne’s whole motivation in the book for doing what he does cannot be his motivation in the movie. That motivation was taken away in the second movie.

So, it’ll be interesting to see what new motivation they give him in the movie. Hopefully, I’ll have read the book close enough to the movie’s release that I’ll still remember the book. It is very involved, though. I’m only to page 130 and I’m already struggling to sort out the characters. Part of the problem, though, may be that I’ve got so much going on that I can’t sit and read for long stretches. It’s a couple of pages and that’s it for the day.

Wonder when the movie comes out? It’s not out already, is it?