50 Fun Facts About Book to Movie Adaptations

In L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, what color are Dorothy's shoes, ruby on film?

Silver was Baum's choice, and the shoes do the same job in both versions. Screenwriter Noel Langley changed them to red for the 1939 film.

Jack Torrance swings an axe in Kubrick's The Shining; what does he wield in Stephen King's novel?

A roque mallet from the hotel's own lawn-game set is the weapon in the novel. Wendy fights back there with a razor, not the bat she swings on screen.

Which job does Forrest Gump hold in Winston Groom's novel that the Tom Hanks film left out entirely?

Astronaut is the missing career: NASA recruits Forrest for his gift for mental math. The flight ends in a crash landing in New Guinea with an orangutan named Sue aboard.

Which Christmas-set action film is based on Roderick Thorp's novel Nothing Lasts Forever?

Die Hard swapped the novel's retired detective Joe Leland and his daughter for John McClane and his estranged wife, Holly.

Disney's Ariel weds her prince; what does Hans Christian Andersen's little mermaid dissolve into?

Sea foam is what every mermaid in the tale becomes at death, because they have no immortal soul. The heroine then rises as a spirit, a daughter of the air.

Which Disney character began as a nameless figure Pinocchio kills in Carlo Collodi's novel?

Jiminy Cricket is Disney's version of the Talking Cricket, a minor character who comes back as a ghost in the novel to keep scolding the puppet.

Which landmark, absent from Pierre Boulle's novel, ends the 1968 film Planet of the Apes?

The Statue of Liberty reveals the alien world to be a future Earth ruined by nuclear war, a twist ending devised by Twilight Zone creator Rod Serling.

Which Jurassic Park character do small dinosaurs kill in Michael Crichton's novel but not on screen?

John Hammond falls, breaks his ankle and is killed by a pack of Procompsognathus in the novel. On screen the park's founder leaves the island alive by helicopter.

Casino Royale's 2006 film has James Bond play Texas hold 'em; which game is in Ian Fleming's novel?

Baccarat is the game in the 1953 novel, where Bond must bankrupt Le Chiffre at a casino in France. The film moved the table to Montenegro.

Which Jane Austen novel did the film Clueless move to a Beverly Hills high school?

Emma Woodhouse became Cher Horowitz. Writer-director Amy Heckerling read the novel in college and loved its heroine's relentless positivity.

Which character is eaten in Peter Benchley's novel Jaws but survives Steven Spielberg's film?

Matt Hooper is eaten after the shark destroys his cage, leaving Martin Brody the novel's lone survivor.

Disney's Esmeralda survives The Hunchback of Notre Dame; how does she die in Victor Hugo's novel?

By hanging: the king's men take her to the gallows as Frollo and Quasimodo watch from a tower of Notre-Dame. Disney's version lets her walk free.

Which animal is Mowgli's ally in Rudyard Kipling's stories but tries to eat him in Disney's film?

Kaa the python is a friend and mentor in the books. Walt Disney recast him as an antagonist because he felt audiences would not sympathize with a snake.

Which Harry Potter book character was cut from the films after Rik Mayall had shot his scenes?

Peeves the poltergeist, the castle's resident mischief-maker, was the most prominent character dropped from the first film. Mayall's footage was never released.

Which rescuer of the hobbits in the Old Forest did Peter Jackson omit from The Lord of the Rings?

Tom Bombadil went, along with the Old Forest and the Barrow-downs. Jackson felt the character does little to advance the story and would have made the film too long.

Which author hated the animation in Disney's Mary Poppins so much that she ruled out any sequels?

P. L. Travers advised on the production but disapproved of its softened nanny and felt ambivalent about the music. A screen sequel did not arrive until 2018.

Which Ridley Scott film adapts a Philip K. Dick novel but took its title from an unrelated book?

Blade Runner adapts Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? but borrowed its name from Alan E. Nourse's novel The Bladerunner, by way of a William S. Burroughs film treatment.

Annie Wilkes takes an axe to Paul Sheldon in Stephen King's Misery; which tool replaces it on screen?

A sledgehammer breaks Paul's ankles because director Rob Reiner insisted on toning the scene down. In the novel Annie cuts off his foot and cauterizes the wound with a blowtorch.

Which Joseph Conrad novella did Apocalypse Now move from the Congo to the Vietnam War?

Heart of Darkness only loosely inspired the script. John Milius first developed it with Francis Ford Coppola as producer and George Lucas set to direct.

Which Rob Reiner film about four boys on a hike is based on Stephen King's novella The Body?

Stand by Me was renamed before release because Columbia Pictures feared the original title was misleading. The new one came from Ben E. King's 1961 song.

Meg Cabot's Princess Diaries novels are set in New York; which city is Mia's home in the Disney film?

San Francisco was director Garry Marshall's choice, made in honor of his grandchildren. Before the move the script was called The Princess of Tribeca.

Which dragon is tiny and common in Cressida Cowell's How to Train Your Dragon books but rare and mighty on screen?

Toothless is an astoundingly small green dragon with no teeth in the books, where he is also arrogant and slow to obey Hiccup.

Which elf in Peter Jackson's Hobbit films was invented for the screen and is not in Tolkien's book?

Tauriel, head of the Mirkwood Elven guard, was created by Jackson, Philippa Boyens and Fran Walsh, partly to bring another woman into a cast dominated by men.

Which action hero dies at the end of David Morrell's novel First Blood but survives on screen?

Rambo dies in the novel, where he also kills many of his pursuers. Sylvester Stallone used his clout to change the script so the character stayed sympathetic and alive.

Which zombie film had to invent a main character because Max Brooks's novel reads like a UN report?

World War Z cast Brad Pitt as its new lead. Pitt's company Plan B had won the screen rights in a bidding war with Appian Way Productions.

Which animated film adapts a children's novel by poet Ted Hughes that was retitled for American readers?

The Iron Giant was the American title of The Iron Man, changed to avoid confusion with the Marvel character. Brad Bird's film reset the story in the Cold War of 1957.

Which teen comedy grew out of Queen Bees and Wannabes, a parenting self-help book with no plot?

Mean Girls needed a story written from scratch because the book is nonfiction, so writer Tina Fey drew on her own years at Upper Darby High School.

Which Nicholas Pileggi book about Henry Hill did Martin Scorsese film as Goodfellas?

Wiseguy lost its title on screen because Brian De Palma's comedy Wise Guys and a TV crime series had already used similar names.

Which film is loosely based on Q & A, a novel by Indian diplomat Vikas Swarup?

Slumdog Millionaire swapped the novel's hero, a waiter named Ram Mohammad Thomas, for a new main character named Jamal.

Which real author appears in the novel Shoeless Joe but became Terence Mann in Field of Dreams?

J. D. Salinger threatened to sue if his name was used, so writer-director Phil Alden Robinson rewrote the part as a fictional recluse.

Which Roald Dahl film displeased the author by turning its hero back from a mouse into a human?

The Witches leaves its hero a mouse for good in the book, content that he will not outlive his grandmother. The 1990 film has a reformed witch change him back.

In the Goblet of Fire film Neville gives Harry Potter gillyweed; who does so in J. K. Rowling's novel?

Dobby was left out of the fourth film altogether, along with Ludo Bagman and Bertha Jorkins, so his gillyweed errand passed to Neville.

Which actress was named in the title of the Stephen King novella behind The Shawshank Redemption?

Rita Hayworth is on the poster Red procures for Andy. The 96-page novella was written to explore genres beyond King's usual horror.

Which Winnie the Pooh character was created by Disney and appears nowhere in A. A. Milne's books?

Gopher was developed by Disney as a replacement for Piglet, though Piglet was kept in the end. On screen he even remarks that he is not in the book.

Geese doom Veruca Salt in the 1971 Willy Wonka film; which animals did Roald Dahl write instead?

Squirrels shell walnuts for Wonka in the book, and they throw Veruca down a rubbish chute after she tries to take one as a pet.

Which Hans Christian Andersen tale became Disney's Frozen, with Elsa a villain in early drafts?

The Snow Queen had been shelved by Disney before. It worked once the writers recast the title character as a scared girl and made Prince Hans the real villain.

Will Smith fights Darkseekers in the film I Am Legend; what are they in Richard Matheson's novel?

Vampires, pale and nocturnal, are what a dust-borne plague makes of humanity in the 1954 novel. The film blames a virus engineered to cure cancer instead.

Disney drew Bambi as a North American species; which European animal is he in Felix Salten's novel?

Roe deer are native to Europe, where the Austrian novel appeared in 1923. Disney made Bambi a white-tailed deer, a species American audiences would recognise.

Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey heads for Jupiter; which planet does Arthur C. Clarke's novel target?

Saturn lost out because Kubrick and effects supervisor Douglas Trumbull could not build a model of its rings that convinced them.

Which patient narrates Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, a viewpoint dropped on screen?

Chief Bromden tells the story in the novel while posing as deaf and mute. Kesey wrote a screenplay from his point of view, but it went unused and he sued the production.

Which Elf-lord saves Frodo from the Nazgûl in Tolkien's novel, a role Peter Jackson gave to Arwen?

Glorfindel lends Frodo his horse to outrun the Black Riders in the novel. The 1978 animated film handed the same job to Legolas.

Hitchcock set The Birds in California; in which English county does Daphne du Maurier's story unfold?

Cornwall was du Maurier's adopted home, and her hero is a disabled war veteran on a coastal farm. Hitchcock kept only her title and the idea of unexplained attacks.

Which James Bond novel never leaves Britain, unlike its globe-trotting Roger Moore film?

Moonraker is unique among the Bond novels for its all-British setting, which drew complaints from readers who missed exotic locations. Its plot turns on a missile, not a shuttle.

Which fantasy film adapts only half of Michael Ende's novel, leading the author to sue its producers?

The NeverEnding Story strayed so far that Ende asked for production to be halted or the title changed. When the producers did neither he sued, and lost.

Screen monsters are often mute, but Mary Shelley's creature in Frankenstein learns to read which epic poem?

Paradise Lost is among a collection of books the creature finds, and he becomes eloquent and educated. Christopher Lee's screen monster, by contrast, was totally mute.

Which Quentin Tarantino film adapts Elmore Leonard's novel Rum Punch?

Jackie Brown was Jackie Burke on the page, and white. Tarantino and Roger Avary had bought the rights to three Leonard novels after finishing Pulp Fiction.

Which French novel of seduction did the film Cruel Intentions move to a wealthy New York high school?

Dangerous Liaisons is the usual English title of Les Liaisons dangereuses, which Pierre Choderlos de Laclos published in 1782, more than two centuries before the film.

Roger Rabbit is an animated film star on screen; in which medium does he work in Gary K. Wolf's novel?

Comic strips are home to the novel's toons, who talk in speech balloons. One balloon found at the crime scene is a clue to Roger's own murder.

Which Stanley Kubrick film moved Arthur Schnitzler's novella Dream Story from Vienna to New York?

Eyes Wide Shut reached the screen three decades after Kubrick first read the novella in 1968, while looking for a project to follow 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Which Paul Thomas Anderson film is loosely based on Oil!, a 1927 novel by Upton Sinclair?

There Will Be Blood began when writer Eric Schlosser bought the film rights in 2004. Reporters had compared his own Fast Food Nation to Sinclair's The Jungle.