Ten Movies Most People Don't Know Were Based on Books

And it is yet another Top Ten Tuesday! It's a weekly meme hosted by the creative girls behind The Broke and the Bookish. Every week, you get to post your own top ten list, based on their suggestions. I tend to break that rule sometimes, and come up with my own topics, but for the most part I stay true to the theme.

 

Yesterday, I went into an SF bookstore, and bought Michael Crichton's Jurassic Park. Published in 1990 it became a #1 bestseller, and three years later, Steven Spielberg made a movie adaptation that became a successful franchise we all know and love. I saw the movie for the first time in the late 90's and it was only about a decade later that I found out it was based on a book.

 

This soon became a trend for me - realising that some of my favourite movies are actually big screen adaptations of bestselling novels and short stories. So to honour the literary works behind some of our most beloved films, I'm listing ten movies most people don't know were based on books.

 Ironically, I have seen all the movies featured on this list, but of all the books I've only read two.

 

I have decided to exclude every book by Stephen King, because his books are generally more popular than their movie adaptations. Nor am I including Disney movies, because those require a list of their own.

 

1. Die Hard

 

 Based on a novel by Roderick Thorp, called Nothing Lasts Forever.

 

 

 

 

2. Jurassic Park

 

Based on a novel with the same title by Michael Crichton.

 

 

 

 

3. Blade Runner

 

Based on Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick.

 

 

 

 

4. Minority Report

 

Based on The Minority Report short story by Philip K. Dick.

 

 

 

 

5. The Thing

 

Is actually a second movie adaptation of the novella Who Goes There? by John W. Campbell Jr. The first adaptation came out in 1951, under the title The Thing from Another World.

 

 

 

 

6. Total Recall

 

Based on We Can Remember it for You Wholesale by... you guessed it! Philip K. Dick.

 

 

 

7. 2001, A Space Odyssey

 

Both the novel by Arthur C. Clarke and the movie were inspired by Clarke's short story, The Sentinel.

 

 

 

8. Psycho

 

Based on the suspense novel with the same title by Robert Bloch.

 

 

 

9. Starship Troopers

 

Based on the SF novel by Robert A. Heinlein.  

 

 

 

 

10. Planet of the Apes

 

Based on La Planete des Singes by Pierre Boulle.