This week’s MFRW 52 Week Blog Challenge asks the question what are your favorite movies inspired by books.
Well, of course, I have to start with my beloved Jane Austen books, movies and TV mini-series: Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, Persuasion and Emma. While I love the P&P movie, my favorite is the 5-hour BBC mini-series with Colin Firth as Darcy. In my mind, no one will ever surpass his performance. To me, he is the definitive Darcy.
I recently reviewed the book and movie of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. In short, I thought this was the rare case of the movie being better than the book.
The movie version of Persuasion, with Amanda Root and Ciaran Hinds, is my favorite film version of that marvelous book. It was Austen’s last published book before she died and the most emotional. Root and Hinds conveyed so much with facial expressions that I was moved to tears. If you haven’t seen it, it’s just lovely.
I also enjoyed the film versions of Emma, with Gwyneth Paltrow in the title role, and Sense and Sensibility, starring Emma Thompson and Kate Winslett as the Dashwood sisters. I liked the score of S&S so well, I listen to it while writing my Regency romances.
Another favorite is the movie of The Last of the Mohicans, starring Daniel Day-Lewis. Though it deviated a bit from the book, which I also enjoyed, I loved the film version of the story. I listened to the score while writing my French & Indian War story, Rogue’s Hostage.
Lest you think I read and watch nothing but period dramas, I also enjoyed both book and movie of Me Before You. I found it a delightful, quirky story with an inevitable sad but hopeful ending.
And I can’t forget the Harry Potter books and movies. I read all the books and watched all the movies except the very last one. I recently made a trip to Harry Potter World at Universal Studios, Hollywood, and loved it. I turned into a big kid, as you can see by the picture of me in my Ravenclaw robe, wand in hand. I’m ready for Halloween now.
There are lots more movies based on books that I enjoyed, from Gone With the Wind and The Killer Angels/Gettysburg to The Hunger Games, but I won’t natter on endlessly.
What are your favorite movies based on books?
Linda
Click below for more fun posts in the #MFRWAuthor 52 Week Blog Challenge.
Linda
The Bad Boy is a fun archetype to write and fun to read about, though not always in real life. Can a bad boy be tamed outside romance novels? I think so. My dad was a bad boy until he grew up and married and had children. But in his youth, he was always in trouble, and he never took orders readily. He raised his only daughter to think for herself and stand up to unfairness, maybe because life is seldom fair for the bad boy. As a kid he was always the first one blamed if something happened in the neighborhood, and he was demoted twice in the Army! So I gotta love those bad boys, like Johnny in Dirty Dancing. Big sigh. And Jacques Corbeau, the bastard hero of my historical romance, Rogue’s Hostage.
The Charmer is another fun archetype to write. King Calloway of Lily and the Gambler was largely inspired by Bret Maverick as played by James Garner. King can charm his way out of nearly any situation, but has a commitment problem. A recent review described him as “enticingly rakish.”