52
votes
Accepted
Why did they avoid Charlie's name in the film title Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory?
What was the reason for the shift from Charlie to Willy Wonka in the film title?
NAACP (The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, a civil rights organization in the United ...
A J♦
- 58k
50
votes
Accepted
Has a movie based on a novel ever had its own new novelisation?
Yes
I think the answer to this is probably many
After a short think, the first example I was able to find was:
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, by Philip K. Dick was adapted as
Blade Runner, ...
43
votes
Is the title of “The Man With the Golden Gun” deliberately deceptive, or is something missing from the adaptation?
I don't believe there was any intended deception.
The films were adapted from two separate novels with those respective titles, which had two distinct villains. For Goldfinger (1964), they chose to ...
39
votes
Accepted
Clearing the Shire of Orcs and Goblins
The movies as a whole primarily tell the story of the destruction of the ring. So when the ring is destroyed, that is the climax of the movie, and movies almost always end shortly after the climax.
I ...
32
votes
Has a movie based on a novel ever had its own new novelisation?
Yes
Planet Of The Apes (1968) was based on French author Pierre Boulle's 1963 novel La Planète des Singes. After becoming a movie and additional sequels, it was further developed into cartoons, TV ...
29
votes
Why did they avoid Charlie's name in the film title Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory?
But what was the reason for the shift from Charlie to Willy Wonka in the film title?
From the Dutch wikipedia about that movie:
De titel van het verhaal werd echter aangepast naar Willy Wonka ...
25
votes
Accepted
Why did Filius Flitwick's appearance change after first two Harry Potter movies?
As explained to Movie Pilot by Warwick Davis himself,
When it came to the third film, of course the looks of the whole films had changed.
Alfonso really wanted to put his mark on the films. And then ...
A J♦
- 58k
19
votes
Why "Jack Ryan"...when it isn't?
Probably the most important element of Jack Ryan's personality is that he's just an analyst in the CIA, yet he repeatedly gets drawn into dangerous situations where he's forced to act as an operative. ...
19
votes
Has a movie based on a novel ever had its own new novelisation?
If you consider a graphic novel to be a novel, then the graphic novel V for Vendetta (written by Alan Moore and illustrated by David Lloyd) was adapted as a film (directed by James McTeigue and ...
15
votes
Accepted
From which book is the backstory of Yennefer taken?
Yennefer's backstory is aluded to in The Tower of Swallows:
Janka! Dear Janka!
Take this hunchbacked monstrosity from me! I don’t want to look at it!
She’s your daughter as much as she ...
15
votes
Is the title of “The Man With the Golden Gun” deliberately deceptive, or is something missing from the adaptation?
The title is a deliberate riff on The Man With The Golden Arm (1955). I don't think there was ever any intent to tie it back to Auric G, but rather to create an "in-joke" in the title. ...
13
votes
Accepted
Is Eurus mentioned in books?
In the original books, no, a sister is never mentioned. However, in a very roundabout way, the seeds of her origin are contained within the books.
The only sibling mentioned in Doyle's books is Holmes'...
11
votes
Accepted
Why is Snape's Potion/logic puzzle not in the movie?
I would wager that it was a combination of factors.
Money/time constraints - the budget on a movie that already has a lot of special fx does not stretch endlessly. Plus, the scene would take some ...
10
votes
Why are two such similar movies being made at the same time?
This is a case of what is known as "Twin Films". I'm not sure who coined the phrase exactly but there is a Wikipedia article which details some of the reasons that twin films are made and ...
10
votes
Accepted
Why was the focus moved to guns rather than smoking in the film adaptation?
Because Tobacco had already been covered.
The Insider, starring Russell Crowe and directed by Michael Mann, came out in 1999. The film was a huge box office and critical success based on Jeffrey ...
10
votes
Is there a reason behind the 'Ending' joke?
The joke is about Stephen King himself, he receives a lot of criticism for his weak book endings, here's one example:
You can find a lot of discussions on this topic ...
9
votes
Clearing the Shire of Orcs and Goblins
In the movie, Peter Jackson made the choice to paint Merry and Pippin as more fool-hardy than they actually are in the book.
For example, one of the two (can't remember which at the moment) were ...
9
votes
Has a movie based on a novel ever had its own new novelisation?
In 1992 Francis Ford Coppola did his version of Dracula, released under the title "Bram Stoker's Dracula". Apparently the original novel was not adequate so a novelization was published (by ...
8
votes
Accepted
How was Pennywise's appearance in the novels when compared to film and miniseries?
I happened to find this excerpt from the novel online (my paperback is packed away somewhere in the attic):
There was a clown in the stormdrain. The light was far from good, but it was good enough so ...
8
votes
Why is it so common for characters to be renamed to avoid same first initials?
This is something I learned in screenwriting school. It makes your scripts easier to read.
I once read a script by a student that had characters named "Leo" AND "Leon". It was hard to read. That's ...
8
votes
Is there a reason behind the 'Ending' joke?
The bad endings reflect Bill's view on the world.
The endings are considered bad because they are sad. At some point in the movie (I can't find the script, or subtitles as of this date) Bill ...
7
votes
Accepted
To what degree is the in-universe music from Game of Thrones based on the novels?
It's all Ramin Djawadi:
Djawadi, who grew up in Germany and now calls Los Angeles home, says that when the series started in 2011, he and the show's creators, David Benioff and D. B. Weiss, met to ...
7
votes
Accepted
What are the main differences between Dan Brown's 'Inferno' novel and Ron Howard's adaptation?
There are many differences between the movie and the book:
In the book, the person who finds Robert Langdon and Sienna in the Church where Dante was baptized is a man named Jonathan Ferris, who ...
7
votes
Accepted
Why were Olive and Emma's powers changed in Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children?
Because Burton thought it worked better that way.
He explained to BuzzFeed:
We switched Emma and Olive's afflictions, or whatever you want to call them. But luckily we had Jane, the screenwriter, [...
7
votes
Accepted
Night's Watch vs Army of Dead - Unshown battles
If you are asking about the actual battles and not skirmishes, etc. then the battle you mention (Battle of the Fist of the First Men) is the only one that wasn't shown on screen.
Interestingly, the ...
7
votes
Accepted
Is The Good Place inspired by Swedenborg as a state of spirit rather than a Place?
It may be one of several influences, but it is not the main or only influence, as the creator Michael Schur explains to The Hollywood Reporter, after doing extensive research, he quite because he ...
6
votes
Accepted
Which author has had the most books adapted for film?
Not counting sequels or remakes, Stephen King has ~40 based directly from a novel, novella or short story authored by him, with 4 more adaptations in the pipeline for 2017.
To Get to near 40, I did ...
6
votes
Accepted
Why is the blackmail scene in Fight Club different from the book?
The ending has some reasons for changes.
Perhaps some more context may serve to understand other general differences that may make the novel more political and down-pitched).
in the novel it is ...
6
votes
Accepted
Why did Harry not use Polyjuice Potion at the wedding of Bill and Fleur?
IMO, it's simply due to the fact that film is a visual medium.
Harry's disguise made every sense, and so he had it in the book (where you can stuff loads of details with minor explanations), but it ...
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