Taking a well-known novel and adapting it for the big screen is risky business.
On the one hand, you risk completely destroying a fan’s image of the characters, story and setting they’ve come to know and love.
On the other? You’re opening a beloved tale up to millions of potential new fans.
And while we’ve seen it work time and time again – think Fight Club, The Hunger Games and even Harry Potter – there are some instances when Hollywood just doesn’t quite get it right.
Here are five examples of when stories should have been left on paper, rather than being caught on film. #SorryNotSorry
1. The Cat In The Hat
If there’s anything that could possibly destroy a Dr. Seuss book, it’s when it’s made into a movie. Cue: 2003’s Cat In The Hat starring Mike Meyers.

The film - which has a 10 per cent 'fresh' rating on movie review site Rotten Tomatoes - manages to take a story that's meant to be fun and cute and turns it into the stuff of nightmares.
Take it from us, best keep the 1,600 words (yes, they managed to make 1,600 words stretch for 82 minutes) inside the covers of the book.
(And if you need to recover after watching the film, you can re-read these timeless children's classics).
2. The Da Vinci Code
When Dan Brown released this mystery-detective novel in 2003, it was outsold by only one other book: J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.
Few books have caused such a stir before or since, especially within religious communities, so it was no surprise when the screenplay was snapped up and the tale was adapted into a blockbuster film just three years later.
Top Comments
Uhhh...the Hobbit strayed from the original story line about 1/3 of the way through the second movie, probably before, there were characters added, key characters removed, plots totally changed/removed... The basic idea was there, but it was not nearly as well done as the Lord of the Rings Trilogy. And another disappointing book to movie adaptation - Pride & Prejudice the one with Keira Knightley, so very, very wrong.
On the 'good (tv) adaptations'side, I'd say the Miss Fisher books (esp. once they started using original stories) and most of the Agatha Christie Marple/Poirot series. I'm currently waiting on a TV version of another favourite, A Discovery Of Witches by Deborah Harkness, which looks to be heading in the right direction so far.