Random Authors Who Loved the Movie Adaptations of Their Books (18 items)

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  (#1) Stand by Me

  • Kiefer Sutherland, Corey Feldman, John Cusack, Richard Dreyfuss, River Phoenix, Wil Wheaton, Jerry O'Connell, Marshall Bell, Bruce Kirby, Casey Siemaszko, Bradley Gregg, Frances Lee McCain, Gary Riley, Scott Beach, William Bronder, Art Burke, Jason Oliver, Madeleine Swift, Popeye, Geanette Bobst

  Stephen King considers Stand by Me to be the best film adaptation of any of his books. As he told Rolling Stone, he considers Rob Reiner's 1986 film to be "true to the book," and faithful to the story's "emotional gradient." After Reiner screened the film for King at The Beverly Hilton, a tearful King gave him a hug.
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  (#2) Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

  • Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Maggie Smith, Alan Rickman, Richard Harris, Rupert Grint, John Hurt, John Cleese, Bonnie Wright, Julie Walters, Tom Felton, Robbie Coltrane, Verne Troyer, Warwick Davis, Richard Griffiths, Fiona Shaw, Leslie Phillips, Zoë Wanamaker, Matthew Lewis, Derek Hough, David Bradley, Devon Murray, Ian Hart, Alfred Enoch, Sean Biggerstaff, Geraldine Somerville, Chris Rankin, Oliver Phelps, Jamie Waylett, James Phelps, Elizabeth Spriggs, Adrian Rawlins, Danielle Tabor, Joshua Herdman, Harry Melling, Richard Bremmer, Ray Fearon, Terence Bayler, Stefan Pejic, Richard Ried, Derek Deadman, Nina Young, Miles Richardson, Eleanor Columbus, Harry Taylor, Lisa Osmond, Luke Youngblood, David Holmes, Simon Fisher-Becker, Paul Marc Davis, David William James Elliott, Leilah Sutherland, David Brett, Will Theakston, Scot Fearn, Ben Borowiecki, Emily Dale, Jean Southern, Darren Tough, Jacob Saunders, Bernadette Jane Vanderkar, Paul Grant, Charles Saunders, Michael Saunders, Will Howes, Oliver Lavery-Farag, Kieri Kennedy, Nicholas Read, Cath Peakin, Holly-Ann Filtness, Bianca Sowerby, Amy Puglia

  When it was time to turn her 1997 novel, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, into a movie, J.K. Rowling's top priority was finding a film company that would faithfully execute her story. She rejected several offers before finally deciding on Warner Bros. Rowling was anxious the first time she saw the film, but in the end she was satisfied with the result. "At the end of the film, I was happy," she said. "There is an awful lot of my book up there. All the important bits, I’d say. It’s my plot and I think it’s a very faithful adaptation.”
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  (#3) Psycho

  • Alfred Hitchcock, Janet Leigh, Anthony Perkins, Vera Miles, Martin Balsam, John Gavin, Ted Knight, John McIntire, John Anderson, Lurene Tuttle, Simon Oakland, Jeanette Nolan, Frank Albertson, Pat Hitchcock, Virginia Gregg, Vaughn Taylor, Sam Flint, Mort Mills, Fred Scheiwiller, George Eldredge, Francis De Sales, Kit Carson, George Dockstader, Pat McCaffrie, Frank Killmond, Fletcher Allen, Paul Jasmin, Helen Wallace, Harper Flaherty, Lillian O'Malley, Lee Kass, Prudence Beers

  As Stephen King would tell you, having a legendary filmmaker adapt your novel doesn't necessarily mean you're going to like it. But author Robert Bloch was "delighted" with Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 adaptation of Psycho. He particularly appreciated how close the movie was to his book. "It was about 90% from my book...the characters, the setting, various devices, all came from the book, right down to the last line," he said. Hitchcock's two major changes were expanding on certain scenes from the book that Bloch hadn't described fully, and making Norman Bates younger. Bloch thought aging Bates down was an especially good idea, because he thought a middle-aged Bates would have been too obviously villainous.
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  (#4) Blade Runner

  • Harrison Ford, Daryl Hannah, Sean Young, Rutger Hauer, Edward James Olmos, M. Emmet Walsh, Joanna Cassidy, James Hong, William Sanderson, Brion James, Joe Turkel, Morgan Paull, Monty Pyke, Kevin Thompson, John Edward Allen

  Blade Runner was Ridley Scott's 1982 adaptation of Philip K. Dick's novella Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? And although the movie only loosely follows the book's plot, Dick loved it. Dick hadn't even seen a full cut when he wrote a letter to producer Jeff Walker praising the film. “This indeed is not science fiction,” Dick wrote. “It is not fantasy; it is exactly what [star] Harrison [Ford] said: futurism. The impact of Blade Runner is simply going to be overwhelming, both on the public and on creative people - and, I believe, on science fiction as a field. [ ... ] Nothing we have done, individually or collectively, matches Blade Runner." 

  Dick viewed the Blade Runner movie as the culmination of his life's work, but he passed six months before the premiere. The film underperformed at the box office, but since then it's become one of the most highly regarded films ever made.
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  (#5) Fight Club

  • Brad Pitt, Jared Leto, Helena Bonham Carter, Edward Norton, Meat Loaf, Eion Bailey, Lauren Sánchez, David Lee Smith, Edward Kowalczyk, Holt McCallany, Zach Grenier, Bob Stephenson, Christina Cabot, David Andrews, Brian Tochi, Matt Winston, Ezra Buzzington, Carl Ciarfalio, Tim De Zarn, Jim Jenkins, Richmond Arquette, Philip Hawn, Leonard Termo, Thom Gossom Jr., Charlie Dell, David Jean Thomas, Paul Dillon, Michael Shamus Wiles, Stuart Blumberg, Marcio Rosario, Pat McNamara, Michael Arturo, Markus Redmond, Tommy Dallace, Rachel Singer, George Maguire, Robby Robinson, Paul Carafotes, Peter Iacangelo, Joel Bissonnette, Christopher John Fields, Scotch Ellis Loring, Eugenie Bondurant, Eddie Hargitay, Kevin Scott Mack, Mark Fite, Evan Mirand, Sydney 'Big Dawg' Colston, Bennie Moore, Chad Randau, Lou Beatty Jr., Matt Cinquanta, Joon B. Kim, Michael Girardin, Christie Cronenweth, Baron Jay, Hugh Peddy, Tyrone R. Livingston, Andi Carnick, Owen Masterson, Rob Lanza, Van Quattro, Trey Ore, Jawara, Gregory Silva, Valerie Bickford, Alekxia Valdez, J.T. Pontino, Dierdre Downing-Jackson, Anderson Bourell, Todd Peirce, Louis Ortiz

  Chuck Pahlaniuk is one of the rare authors who thinks the movie adaptation of his book is better than the original. According to Pahlaniuk, not only does the film of Fight Club streamline the book's plot, it also makes thematic connections that he himself missed. "There is a line about 'fathers setting up franchises with other families,' and I never thought about connecting that with the fact that Fight Club was being franchised and the movie made that connection," Pahlaniuk said. "I was just beating myself in the head for not having made that connection myself."
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  (#6) The Rainmaker

  • Matt Damon, Claire Danes, Mickey Rourke, Danny DeVito, Jon Voight, Danny Glover, Virginia Madsen, Randy Travis, Roy Scheider, Mary Kay Place, Dean Stockwell, Teresa Wright, Andrew Shue, Red West, Johnny Whitworth, Claire Robinson, Adrian Roberts

  Altogether, nine of John Grisham's novels have been made into movies, and he's enjoyed almost all of them. But when asked to pick a favorite, Grisham's choice was Francis Ford Coppola's 1997 drama, The Rainmaker. "To me, it's the best adaptation of any of my books," Grisham said. "I love the movie, it's so well done." Critics mostly agree with Grisham, since the film currently has an 83% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
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  (#7) A Clockwork Orange

  • Malcolm McDowell, Warren Clarke, Steven Berkoff, David Prowse, Adrienne Corri, Aubrey Morris, George Coulouris, Patrick Magee, Pat Roach, Michael Bates, Gaye Brown, John Clive, Margaret Tyzack, Philip Stone, Carol Drinkwater, Miriam Karlin, Anthony Sharp, John Savident, Godfrey Quigley, Peter Burton, Clive Francis, Gillian Hills, Sheila Raynor, Madge Ryan, James Marcus, Virginia Wetherell, Michael Gover, Carl Duering, John J. Carney, Vivienne Chandler, Katya Wyeth, Neil Wilson, Billy Russell, Michael Tarn, Paul Farrell, Robert Bruce, Norman Gay, Katharina Kubrick, Andros Epaminondas, Prudence Drage, Fred Hugh, Helen Ford, Maurice Bush, Alec Wallis, Shirley Jaffe, Barrie Cookson, Olive Mercer, Frankie Abbott, Leslie Nye, Tom Sye, Margaret Heald, Nat Pearn, Sister Watkins, Jeremy Curry, Steadman Clark, Winifred Sabine, Rex Rashley, Craig Hunter, Dr. Gundry, Barbara Scott, Jan Adair, Lee Fox, Richard Connaught, Cheryl Grunwald, Shane Shelton, Lindsay Campbell, Henry Robert, Arthur Tatler, Peter Hannon, Roy Beck, Pauline Taylor, Nicholas Hill, Fred Real, George O'Gorman, David Dawkins

  When Stanley Kubrick adapted his novel into a motion picture, Anthony Burgess (in contrast with Stephen King almost a decade later) was thrilled with the result. He called it "a remarkable work, probably already a classic." Kubrick's version omitted the "happy ending" of the book's final chapter, in which the protagonist Alex considers giving up his criminal lifestyle. Burgess himself later regretted his original ending and insisted the American publisher remove it. Burgess considered the 1971 movie version so superior that he later dismissed his own book, describing it as "a work too didactic to be artistic, pure art dragged into the arena of morality.”
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  (#8) Crazy Rich Asians

  • Constance Wu, Henry Golding, Gemma Chan, Awkwafina, Michelle Yeoh, Chris Pang, Harry Shum Jr., Ken Jeong, Jimmy O. Yang

  When production began on the movie adaptation of Crazy Rich Asians, the stakes were high because it was first-ever Hollywood studio romantic comedy with an all-Asian cast. But when author Kevin Kwan finally saw the final cut, he couldn't have been happier. "I was blown away," he said. "I sat there in a darkened room by myself and was just in absolute awe of what [director] Jon Chu achieved. It was amazing, and it's been this five-year-long adventure. It's been climbing Everest to get this movie made, in a good way. Because we really, really wanted to take our time and get it done right. We knew how important this was becoming so we wanted everything to fall into place perfectly."
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  (#9) Empire of the Sun

  • Christian Bale, Ben Stiller, John Malkovich, Miranda Richardson, Paul McGann, Joe Pantoliano, Leslie Phillips, Paula Hamilton, J. G. Ballard, Burt Kwouk, Robert Stephens, Masatō Ibu, James Greene, Nigel Havers, Ralph Michael, Peter Copley, Nina Armstrong, Guts Ishimatsu, Eric Flynn, Rupert Frazer, Emily Richard, Ralph Seymour, Marc de Jonge, Anna Turner, Ann Queensberry, Kieron Jecchinis, Yvonne Gilan, Ann Castle, Sylvia Marriott, David Neidorf, John Moore, Simon Harrison, Frank Duncan, Ray Charleson, Ken Enomoto, James Walker, Tony Boncza, Paul Reynolds, Lu Ye, Francesca Longrigg, Susan Leong, Takatarô Kataoka, Hiro Arai, Nicholas Dastor, Emma Piper, Sheridan Forbes, Sybil Maas, Gary Parker, Kong-Guo-Jun, Tom Danaher, Jack Dearlove, Ronald Eng, Nigel Leach, Shi Rui Qing, Peter Gale, Samantha Warden, Zhai Nai She, Ge Yan Zhao, Shirley Chantrell, Za Chuan Ce, Michael Crossman, Thea Ranft, Takao Yamada, Barbara Bolton, Guo Xue Liang, Edith Platten, Barry Houghton

  It took novelist J.G. Ballard over 40 years to start writing Empire of the Sun, the autobiographical novel about his experiences living in WWII-era Shanghai and in a civilian internment camp at Lunghua. The novel was published in 1984, and only three years later Steven Spielberg approached him about adapting it into a movie. While Ballard was initially reluctant to give someone else permission to depict his deeply personal memories on film, Ballard was "deeply moved" with the end result.
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  (#10) The Silence of the Lambs

  • Jodie Foster, Anthony Hopkins, Chris Isaak, George A. Romero, Roger Corman, Scott Glenn, Ted Levine, Frankie Faison, Brooke Smith, Charles Napier, Obba Babatunde, Tracey Walter, Dan Butler, Kasi Lemmons, Diane Baker, Daniel von Bargen, Ron Vawter, Anthony Heald, Harry Northup, Adelle Lutz, George Michael, John W. Iwanonkiw, Don Brockett, Brent Hinkley, Kenneth Utt, Paul Lazar, David Early, Gene Borkan, Pat McNamara, Ted Monte, Stuart Rudin, Buzz Kilman, Bill Dalzell, Tommy Lafitte, Danny Darst, Chris McGinn, Chuck Aber, Cynthia Ettinger, Leib Lensky, Lamont Arnold, Andre B. Blake, Frank Seals Jr., George 'Red' Schwartz, Alex Coleman, Rebecca Saxon, Lauren Roselli, Darla, John Hall, Lynette Jenkins, Jim Dratfield, Mike Schaeffer, Miranda Dali, Maria Skorobogatov, Lawrence T. Wrentz, Jim Roche, James B. Howard, Bill Miller, Steve Wyatt, Jeffrie Lane, Josh Broder, Lawrence A. Bonney

  All four of Thomas Harris's Hannibal Lecter novels have been adapted for film or TV, but things got off to a rocky start with Manhunter, Michael Mann's 1986 adaptation of his novel Red Dragon. Harris was reportedly so disappointed with Manhunter that when Silence of the Lambs was adapted into a 1991 movie, he refused to watch it - even when it won seven Oscars at the 1992 Academy Awards. (It should be noted that not everyone share's Harris's opinion of Manhunter; it currently holds a 92% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes.) But one day Harris accidentally found Silence of the Lambs on cable, watched, and found it to be a "wonderful movie." Last year the famously media-shy Harris just gave his first substantial media interview in four decades, so we doubt he'll be sharing his opinions on the other adaptations of his work any time soon.
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  (#11) L.A. Confidential

  • Kevin Spacey, Russell Crowe, Kim Basinger, Danny DeVito, Guy Pearce, Simon Baker, James Cromwell, Amber Smith, David Strathairn, Sandra Taylor, Brenda Bakke, Ron Rifkin, Paul Guilfoyle, Thomas Rosales, Jr., Tomas Arana, Jim Metzler, Nectar Rose, Graham Beckel, Jack Conley, Michael Chieffo, Matt McCoy, Allan Graf, David St. James, Lennie Loftin, Colin Mitchell, Jimmy Ortega, Bob Clendenin, Brian Lally, Paolo Seganti, Michael McCleery, Gilbert Rosales, Darrell Sandeen, Jack Knight, Scott McKinley, Rocco Salata, Steve Rankin, Jeremiah Birkett, Jeff Austin, Dick Stilwell, Gene Wolande, Irene Roseen, Ingo Neuhaus, Jordan Marder, Norman Howell, Michael Warwick, Don Pulford, Elisabeth Granli, John Mahon, Marisol Padilla Sánchez, Shane Dixon, Priscilla Cory, Will Zahrn, Jeff Sanders, Steven Lambert, Salim Grant, Symba, Gregory White, Precious Chong, Sam P.Whitehead, Shawnee Free Jones, Jody Wood, Rebecca Klingler, John H. Evans, Jonathan Adler, Mike Kennedy, Noel Evangelisti, Robert Foster, Vern Urich, Gwenda Deacon, Patrice Walters, John Slade, Dell Yount, Jess Thomas, Kevin Patrick Kelly, Scott Eberlein, Chris Short, Matthew Allen Bretz, Henry Meyers, Robert Thompson, Beverly Sharpe, Robert Barry Fleming, Kevin Maloney, Bodie Newcomb, Monty McKee, T.K. Durham, Ginger Slaughter, Michael Ossmann, Henry Marder, Brian Bossetta, Lisa Worthy, Robert Harrison, Karr Washington, George Yager, Hennen Chambers, April Breneman

  On the subject of authors complaining about adaptations of their work, James Ellroy has made his opinion very clear: "I think that if a writer options a novel to a studio or to film makers in general, then he has an obligation to keep his mouth shut if the movie gets made and it's all f***ed up."

  So when director Curtis Hanson approached him about adapting L.A. Confidential, Ellroy was happy for the paycheck but not expecting much else. Ellroy was especially concerned about Hanson's ability to condense a 500-page novel told from three points of view into a 140-minute thriller. But in the end, Ellroy loved the finished product. "The most startling thing about it is seeing a work of art, that I created out of thin air, metamorphose in to a compatible work of art that is recognizably my work, yet is something that I couldn't have imagined in a million years," Ellroy said.
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  (#12) Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles

  • Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, Kirsten Dunst, Thandie Newton, Antonio Banderas, Christian Slater, Stephen Rea, Susan Lynch, Roger Lloyd-Pack, Helen McCrory, Sara Stockbridge, Domiziana Giordano, John McConnell, Andrew Tiernan, Marcel Iureș, George Yiasoumi, Robert 'Bobby Z' Zajonc, Indra Ové, Reese Foster, Danny Kamin, Greta Valenti, Gustavo I. Ortiz, Bellina Logan, Laure Marsac, Micha Bergese, Ben Gardiner, Rory Edwards, George Kelly, Louise Salter, Katia Caballero, Lyla Hay Owen, Matthew Sim, Jeanette Kontomitras, Simon Tyrrell, François Testory, Nathalie Bloch-Lainé, Lee E. Scharfstein, Mike Seelig, Monte Montague, Louis Lewis-Smith, Doron Jacobs, John Risso, Virginia McCollam, Nicole DuBois

  Often, the most important and most difficult part of adapting a hit movie is casting the main character. For example, over 300 child actors auditioned for the role of Harry Potter before it went to Daniel Radcliffe. But for Interview with a Vampire author Anne Rice, any apprehension about the 1994 film adaptation of her novel was alleviated when producers selected Tom Cruise for the lead. "From the moment he appeared, Tom was Lestat for me," she said. "He has the immense physical and moral presence; he was defiant, yet never without conscience."
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  (#13) The Devil Wears Prada

  • Anne Hathaway, Heidi Klum, Meryl Streep, Emily Blunt, Gisele, Stanley Tucci, Simon Baker, Rebecca Mader, Adrian Grenier, Bridget Hall, Daniel Sunjata, Tracie Thoms, Valentino Garavani, Alyssa Sutherland, Stephanie Szostak, Inés Rivero, Emily Sandberg, Nina Lisandrello, James Naughton, John Rothman, George C. Wolfe, David Marshall Grant, Alexie Gilmore, Julie Jei, Rich Sommer, Tim Krueger, Pamela Fischer, Tibor Feldman, Lauren Weisberger, Jennifer Elise Gould, Andrea Bertola, Denis McKeown, Robert Verdi, Colleen Dengel, Taylor Treadwell, Carl Burrows, Guy A. Fortt, James Cronin, Justin Restivo, Carla Collado, Brandhyze Stanley, Suzanne Dengel, Hector Lincoln, Scott Hatfield, David Callegatti, Mateo Moreno, Alexander Blaise, Mira Tzur, Molyneau DuBelle, Ivan Magrin-Chagnolleau, John Graham, Paul Keany, Laura D. Williams, Jimena Hoyos, Stan Newman, Laura McDavid, Steve Benisty, Robert Stio, L.J. Ganser, Stuart Lopoten, Lindsay Brice, Eric Seltzer, Zev McAllister, Caroline Slaughter, Wells Dixon, Ingrid Schram, Rori Cannon, Matt Murray, Ilona Alexandra

  The Devil Wears Prada author Laura Weisberger, whose experiences as a 22-year-old personal assistant to Anna Wintour inspired the book, has said multiple times that she loves the movie version. “I’m so happy with what they did with the movie,” she told People in 2016. Like the rest of us, she loved Meryl Streep's performance as the domineering Miranda Priestly, and she thought Streep actually humanized the character more than she herself did. "[The movie version of Miranda Priestly] was a real person,” she said. “In the book, she was just straight evil.”
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  (#14) Mystic River

  • Emmy Rossum, Sean Penn, Kevin Bacon, Tim Robbins, Laurence Fishburne, Laura Linney, Eli Wallach, Marcia Gay Harden, Ari Graynor, Connor Paolo, Jonathan Togo, Tom Guiry, Spencer Treat Clark, Kevin Conway, John Doman, Will Lyman, Eric Bruno Borgman, Kevin Chapman, Lance Norris, Jenny O'Hara, Stephen O'Neil Martin, José Ramón Rosario, Scott Winters, Robert Wahlberg, Tom Kemp, Cayden Boyd, Ken Cheeseman, Shawn Fogarty, Ed O'Keefe, Lonnie Farmer, Bates Wilder, Cameron Bowen, Brett Murphy, Adam Nelson, Susan Willis, Douglass Bowen Flynn, Brian Van Kay, Frank Ridley, Sean Patrick Doherty, Jillian Wheeler, Ryan Patrick, Celine du Tertre, Celeste Oliva, Mackenzie Hawe, Bill Richards, J.T. Turner, Greg Stechman, Shawn Fitzgibbon, Paul Bronk, Mikey Kelley, Jason Kelly, John Pungitore, Gary Greenberg, Joe Stapleton, Andrew Mackin, Jerry Trupiano, Tori Davis, Jon Joyce, Mark O'Leary, Michael Peavey, Brian A. White, Jim Smith, Kris Williams, Richard DeAgazio, Charley Broderick, Patrick Shea, Duncan Putney, Bill Thorpe, Zabeth Russell, Matty Blake, T. Bruce Page, Adam LaFramboise, John Ferus, Miles Herter, Michael McGovern, Dave Zee Garison, Thomas Derrah, Stephen Kyle, Marc Vos, Dean H. Huh, James DeVoy, Loy Lee, Anthony Taurasi, Brian Frates

  When Dennis Lehane wrote Mystic River, he was attempting to marry pulpy plotting with a more literary writing style. Lehane was nervous that a movie adaptation would miss the point of his book and try to give the story a happy ending. Director Clint Eastwood convinced Lehane to sign over the rights by promising not to change Lehane's ending. In the short-term, Eastwood and Lehane paid the price. Warner Brothers only agreed to finance half the film's budget, forcing Eastwood to secure funding from Village Roadshow, and initial reviewers described the film's unhappy ending as "bleak chic." But Lehane was happy with the film, and it went on to receive six Academy Award nominations, winning two. 
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  (#15) Who Framed Roger Rabbit

  • Kathleen Turner, Christopher Lloyd, Bob Hoskins, Mel Blanc, Frank Welker, Jim Cummings, Joel Silver, Joanna Cassidy, Amy Irving, June Foray, David Lander, Russi Taylor, Charles Fleischer, Richard LeParmentier, Richard Ridings, Wayne Allwine, Mike Edmonds, Tony Anselmo, Lou Hirsch, Stubby Kaye, Alan Tilvern, Betsy Brantley, Edwin Craig, Lindsay Holiday, Paul Springer

  If a filmmaker who's adapting a book decides to completely change the original story, it can give the author a bruised ego. But for Gary Wolf, the author of the 1981 novel Who Censored Roger Rabbit? that became the 1988 film Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, seeing his story evolve wasn't a problem. According to Wolf, Disney changed practically everything in his story except for the premise and the main characters. But Wolf's top concern was whether the filmmakers could bring his story's unique world, which features cartoon characters living alongside humans, to life. Wolf said he "loved everything about" the film, and thought that director Robert Zemeckis and producer Steven Spielberg elevated his material to a higher level.
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  (#16) The Shawshank Redemption

  • Morgan Freeman, Rita Hayworth, Tim Robbins, Clancy Brown, James Whitmore, William Sadler, Jeffrey DeMunn, Bob Gunton, David Proval, Gil Bellows, Jude Ciccolella, Mark Rolston, Paul McCrane, Ned Bellamy, Frank Medrano, Brian Delate, Don McManus, Bill Bolender, Joseph Ragno, Neil Giuntoli, Larry Brandenburg, Ken Magee, James Babson, Neil Summers, Rohn Thomas, Alfonso Freeman, V.J. Foster, Dion Anderson, Brian Libby, Gary Lee Davis, John D. Craig, Richard Doone, Dorothy Silver, Brian Brophy, Joe Pecoraro, Alonzo F. Jones, Alan R. Kessler, Paul Kennedy, James Kisicki, Robert Haley, Fred Culbertson, Mack Miles, Brad Spencer, Michael Lightsey, John R. Woodward, John Horton, Charlie Kearns, Gordon Greene, Ron Newell, Renee Blaine, Eugene C. DePasquale, Claire Slemmer, Scott Mann, Dennis Baker, Morgan Lund, Harold E. Cope Jr., John E. Summers, Donald Zinn, Dana Snyder, Cornell Wallace, Rob Reider, Chuck Brauchler

  The Shawshank Redemption is a modern classic, but when you look back at its production history, it seemed like anything but. Stephen King originally didn't think his short story, Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption, lent itself to the big screen, but he still agreed to sell the rights to director Frank Darabont for a few thousand dollars. Star Tim Robbins said the script was the best he'd ever read, but The Hollywood Reporter thought the title was enigmatic, and doubted its marketability. Even worse, Shawshank had to open against Pulp Fiction, one of the biggest movies of 1994, and its box office returns suffered as a result. 

  But Stephen King knew the film was special. "When I first saw it, I realized [Darabont had] made not just one of the best movies ever done from my work, but a potential movie classic," King said. "[Darabont] has gone on to make other great films, two from my work, I'm happy to say, but Shawshank is its own thing - an American icon - and I'm delighted to have been a part of it."
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  (#17) Hidden Figures

  • Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer, Janelle Monáe, Kevin Costner, Kirsten Dunst, Jim Parsons, Glen Powell, Mahershala Ali

  Margot Lee Shetterly's book Hidden Figures tells the story of three NASA mathematicians - Katherine Johnson (Taraji P Henson), Dorothy Vaughan (Octavia Spencer) and Mary Jackson (Janelle Monae) - who overcame racism, sexism, and segregation to make major contributions to the space program. It had taken 40 years for Johnson, Vaughan, and Jackson to get recognition for their work via Shetterly's book, and the movie version was a chance to tell their story to an even bigger audience. For Shetterly, the stakes for the movie adaptation couldn't have been higher. 

  Fortunately, the film impressed the most important critic, a then 98-year-old Katherine Johnson. “I’m so happy with what the filmmakers did," Shetterly said. "One of the biggest compliments to the book and the movie is that Katherine Johnson and her family were very highly complimentary ... the real test, the real award, came from Katherine and her family loving it.”
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  (#18) Adaptation

  • Nicolas Cage, Meryl Streep, Maggie Gyllenhaal, John Malkovich, Tilda Swinton, John Cusack, Judy Greer, Brian Cox, Chris Cooper, Catherine Keener, Spike Jonze, David O. Russell, Doug Jones, Ron Livingston, Stephen Tobolowsky, Peter Jason, Jim Beaver, Gregory Itzin, Bob Stephenson, Curtis Hanson, Cara Seymour, Gary Farmer, Nancy Lenehan, Curt Clendenin, Rheagan Wallace, Jay Tavare, Lisa Love, Litefoot, Lance Acord, Wendy Mogel, Bob Yerkes, Susan Orlean, Tony Collucci, Roger Willie, Sandra Lee Gimpel, Paul Jasmin, Ryan Bosch, Lathan Crowe, Agnes NaDene Baddoo, Roger Fanter, Ray Berrios, John Etter, Caron Colvett, Jake Magnuson, Paul Fortune, Larry Krask, Brigitte Bogle, Lynn Court

  For a movie that's all about the difficulties of adapting a book into a movie, adaptating Adaptation seemed to be a smoother experience than most. At least, that's according to author Susan Orlean, on whose nonfiction book The Orchid Thief: A True Story of Beauty and Obsession the film is based. You'd think the meta-layer added by screenwriter Charlie Kaufman - in which a writer struggles to bring the story to life while his twin brother blithely pens a lazy blockbuster - would annoy an author, but Orlean rolled with the punches.

  Despite initial anxiety, Orlean was happy with the final product. In some ways she even feels it improved on the original. "What I admire the most is that it's very true to the book's themes of life and obsession, and there are also insights into things which are much more subtle in the book about longing, and about disappointment," she said. 

  For added pressure, Orlean herself is a character in the movie, so she also had to wrap her head around the idea of an actor playing her. But she was a big fan of Meryl Streep's performance. "It was great because she wasn't trying to impersonate me and because she's amazing!" she said. "She created the character just through knowing me from the book. It's actually one of my favorite performances by her. Maybe I'm a little prejudiced, but how could I not be? I really like her portrayal of this strange creature!"

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