Beloved Film Adaptations Of Books That The Authors Absolutely Hated
Hollywood has no problem turning books into movies or TV shows. Take one look at the highest-grossing films every year, and there are bound to be some adaptions at the top of the list. Still, it's commonplace for viewers to love the original books more — the medium gives more space for painting colorful characters and vivid scenes. Filmmakers don't always have the space to give adaptions their diligence, and that's why these these writers hated the way their beloved novels played out on the big screen.
Roald Dahl - Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
After Warner Bros. brought Dahl's beloved children's book, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (1964), to the big screen in 1971, the author wasn't impressed. According to Donald Sturrock, writer of a 2010 biography on Dahl, Roald "had serious reservations about Gene Wilder's performance as Wonka, which he thought 'pretentious' and insufficiently [joyful] and 'bouncy.'"
Wonka's Soul
"I think he felt Wonka was a very British eccentric," Sturrock — a friend of Roald Dahl's (right) — said in a later interview with Yahoo! "Gene Wilder was rather too soft... His voice is very light and he’s got that rather cherubic, sweet face. I think [Roald] felt…there was something wrong with [Wonka’s] soul in the movie – it just wasn’t how he imagined the lines being spoken."
Winston Groom - Forrest Gump
Winston Groom began the highly-anticipated sequel to his 1986 Forest Gump novel — Gump and Co. — with this line: "Don't never let nobody make a movie of your life's story...Whether they get it right or wrong, it don't matter." Clearly, the award-winning film about a mentally challenged man with relentless optimism didn't sit well with its creator. So what went wrong?
No Mentions
When Forest Gump raked in six Academy Awards, not one recipient mentioned the author in their speech. That didn't sit well with Groom, who had been additionally been snubbed by the studio. He was supposed to receive 3% of the film's profit, but executives told him that, after production costs and marketing, there were no profits.
