The book is almost always better than the movie; even the author agrees in these cases. For your consideration, we now present the ten book-to-film adaptions hated by the respective authors. Some of these films are so prolific that you may not have even known they were adaptations of books. Material translates differently in different entertainment mediums, which is why many filmmakers take creative liberty when adapting novels and short stories. While this often works without offending the author, there are occasions where the spirit of the original material is so neglected that even the author can’t forgive where the filmmakers go wrong. Case and point, the following book-to-film adaptations were loathed by the authors of the original material.
10. Christina Crawford Hated ‘Mommie Dearest’
While Joan Crawford was one of the most celebrated actresses of her time, she posthumously became less known for her acting talents and more known for being an abusive mother, thanks to her adoptive daughter Christina’s memoir Mommie Dearest. The book was adapted into a film in 1981. While it has now become a cult classic (which may be part of the problem), it was tarnished by critics, and it won several Razzie Awards, including Worst Picture and Worst Actress for Faye Dunaway. Perhaps the film’s worst critic is none other than Christina Crawford herself. In numerous interviews, she denounced the film for inaccuracies, for focusing on extremities, and for Dunaway’s overly campy portrayal of her mother, which she referred to as “grotesque.” This campy grotesqueness is most evident in the infamous “NO WIRE HANGERS” scene, which is so over-the-top that it’s now often joked about in casual conversation and in shows such as Family Guy and Futurama. While Christina Crawford was trying to portray a complicated relationship and promote awareness of child abuse, Mommie Dearest ended up being a melodramatic camp fest that she didn’t appreciate.
9. Anne Rice Hated ‘Queen of the Damned’
The late Anne Rice’s The Vampire Chronicles has received two film adaptations, and a TV series is on the way. While Rice was impressed with 1994’s Interview with the Vampire starring Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise, she and the rest of the world were appalled by the 2002 adaption of Queen of the Damned, which starred Stuart Townsend (replacing Cruise) and the late R&B star Aaliyah. Rice was upset enough that they completely skipped over adapting the second novel in the series, The Vampire Lestat. But she was more displeased that it was a complete deviation from the material. Rice considered the film a mutilation of her work that adapted little more than the characters’ names.
Credit: Warner Bros. via IMDb
8. E.B. White Hated ‘Charlotte’s Web’
Hanna-Barbera’s 1973 adaptation of E.B. White’s Charlotte’s Web was a moderate success with critics and at the box office. While its popularity grew massively through reruns and a VHS release, few people would consider the movie a masterpiece, especially not E.B. White. White was not fond of the jolly musical numbers, and he wasn’t fond of the Blue Hill Fair being inaccurately portrayed as a Disney World-type event. White prevented some changes from happening in the film, but not enough to make him like it.
7. Truman Capote Hated ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s’
Breakfast at Tiffany’s is a beloved film, and everyone who sees it loves Audrey Hepburn’s portrayal of Holly Golightly. That is, everyone except for Truman Capote. The author felt there was only one actress who could ever play his favorite creation, and that actress was Marilyn Monroe. Yet the role went to Hepburn, and Capote was not happy. He went on to trash the film for years, calling it the most miscast film he’d ever seen. While many can’t imagine anyone else but Hepburn in the role, one can understand why Capote felt she was too elegant to play a Texas runaway making it as a Manhattan “it” girl. Regardless, many still treasured the film, no matter how much the author hated the book-to-film adaptation.
6. Winston Groom Hated ‘Forrest Gump’
While it may be a beloved and iconic film, Forrest Gump gets dumped on quite a bit for numerous reasons (e.g., people hate Jenny and people who don’t think it should have won Best Picture). But no one hated it more than Winston Groom, the author of the novel Forrest Gump. The book-to-film adaptation of the author’s novel differed significantly from the source material. Forrest has moments of high intelligence in the novel, and he’s also a lot less wholesome. He also goes to space and plays chess, he doesn’t meet Bubba in the army, and (spoiler) he doesn’t end up with Jenny, who in the novel takes their child and leaves him for another man (and you thought she was bad in the movie). Regardless, the studio made the changes we all know of, and Groom couldn’t stand it. In the sequel novel, Gump and Co., Forrest says on the first page, “Don’t ever let nobody make a movie of your life’s story.” Seems like Groom was sending Robert Zemeckis a message there.
5. Rick Riordan Hated ‘Percy Jackson’
Percy Jackson & The Olympians is an immensely popular fantasy series, and fans were looking forward to the book-to-film adaptations. Unfortunately, only two of the books were adapted into films, and both of them disappointed fans and series author Rick Riordan. His hatred for the movies was revealed in a 2016 tweet from a schoolteacher showing one of the films to her class. In an open letter begging teachers not to show the films to their students, Riordan wrote, “No. Stop. Please. No class deserves such a punishment. I mourn the loss of perfectly good classroom time.” Riordan took it a step further in 2020 when he said, “Well, to you guys, it’s a couple hours entertainment. To me, it’s my life’s work going through a meat grinder when I pleaded with them not to do it.” While Riordan has not actually seen the movies, reading the scripts was enough to cause him massive offense. And most fans of the books agree with him. Thankfully, he will be highly involved in the series reboot for Disney+ and can prevent the failure of these movies from repeating itself.
4. Roald Dahl Hated ‘Willy Wonka’ and ‘The Witches’
We got a twofer here. Roald Dahl was the author of many beloved children’s stories, including Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. The 1971 film adaptation, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, is considered a classic and one that made Willy Wonka an iconic film character. He’s such an icon that we will soon learn his origin story in the upcoming film Wonka. However, for Roald Dahl, that was part of the problem. Dahl didn’t appreciate Wonka taking center stage over Charlie. Moreover, he loathed Gene Wilder’s performance, feeling Peter Sellers would have been a better choice for the role.
Sadly, Willy Wonka wasn’t the only book-to-film adaptation to disappoint Dahl. He also loathed Jim Henson’s 1990 adaptation of The Witches (now a cult classic). While he did praise Anjelica Huston as the perfect actress to play the Grand High Witch, he was enraged by the ending change as well as the gruesome make-up. The latter actually upset Dahl so much that he wrote a letter to Henson accusing him of “vulgarity” and “bad taste.”
Both movies have now received remakes with Tim Burton’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Robert Zemeckis’ The Witches. While no one knows what Dahl would have thought of these films (he died in 1990), neither film performed with audiences or critics as well as the originals. This is a case where the fans and the author seem to not be on the same page (pun intended).
3. Ken Kesey Hated ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest was critically acclaimed and received numerous accolades. Along with the Best Picture Oscar, it earned Jack Nicholson his first Academy Award, and Louise Fletcher took home Best Actress for her portrayal of one of the most famous villains of all time, Nurse Mildred Ratched. However, none of those accolades change author Ken Kesey’s hatred for this adaptation of his work. Kesey was offered the opportunity to write a screenplay, but his script didn’t work, leading to a fallout. This already made him bitter. He was also disappointed that the character Chief Bromden was removed from the narrator role. Kesey avoided the movie like the plague and even passed over it while channel surfing.
2. P.L. Travers Hated ‘Mary Poppins’
Mary Poppins is a Disney classic that has remained popular for almost 60 years. But beloved as it may be, the source material’s author couldn’t stand it. According to Reader’s Digest, P.L. Travers hated the animated sequences as well as the glamorization of the title character. Travers reportedly cried during the film’s premiere, and they were not tears of joy. The creative differences between Travers and Walt Disney inspired the film Saving Mr. Banks, although you can debate what to do with that film since it is in and of itself a Disney movie. While a spoonful of sugar may help the medicine go down, this book-to-film adaptation was too sugary for the author to stomach.
1. Stephen King Hated ‘The Shining’
It’s one of the most celebrated horror films of all time, based on a novel written by one of the most prolific horror writers of all time. However, Stephen King’s hatred of Stanley Kubrick’s adaptation of his third novel is legendary. King was disappointed that Jack Torrence was made into the story’s villain rather than a flawed but well-meaning man who was the victim of a haunted hotel. He also hated Shelley Duvall’s portrayal of Wendy Torrence, saying Duvall did little more than scream throughout the film. These and many other changes made King feel hurt by Kubrick’s film.
Here is a fun fact to help you understand the extent of this hatred. King was so disappointed in Kubrick’s novel adaptation that he sought to get the rights back so he could make a miniseries, which he did in 1997. One of the conditions for those rights was that King had to stop criticizing Kubrick’s film. King agreed and complied. However, when Kubrick died in 1999, King felt free to go back to bashing Kubrick’s take on his work. Even in death, the director can’t escape the author’s hatred of his book-to-film adaptation.
