And now for something light

[rhu]

OK, let's get a good discussion going here. :-)

The other night, introverte and I were discussing film adapations of science fiction stories that originally appeared in print. We were unable to come up with a single example of a story that meets all these criteria:

• Science fiction (not fantasy) (excluding, for example, The Lord of the Rings and The Wizard of Oz)
• First appeared in print (excluding, for example, 2001: A Space Odyssey)
• Movie adaptation remains essentially faithful to the print story (excluding, for example, We Can Remember It for You Wholesale, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, I, Robot, etc.)
• Both the original print story and the movie adaptation are generally accepted as great (excluding, for example, well, most others).

The closest I could come up with was Farenheit 451 but I'm not sure the movie really qualifies as great. But I figure that if there exists a true example, you, gentle readers, will let me know.

Comments

[ambug666.livejournal.com]

I enjoyed the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy movie, but I understand that many do not consider it "great."

A shame you aren't including fantasy or I'd respectfully submit "The Princess Bride."

[530nm330hz.livejournal.com]

The THHGTTG movie was not faithful to the books, if that has any meaning in the context of THHGTTG

And I'm not including fantasy because I think there are plenty of examples of fantasy stories that crossed over well. It's the relative dearth of good SF adaptations that got me started.

[cheshyre]

Then again, the books weren't where the story first appeared.
It was initially radio and print only came later...

[530nm330hz.livejournal.com]

Good point!

[cheshyre]

That said, the original TV series was pretty damn good, even given the limited special effects of the time it was filmed.

Of course it had new elements that weren't in any previous incarnation of HHG -- every adaptation of Hitchhikers (from radio -> book -> TV --> computer game --> comic --> movie) added and removed and changed things...