8 Movies That Are Completely Different From Their Books

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Adaptation is a tricky business. Sometimes a film sticks close to its source, changing a scene here or trimming a subplot there. Other times, filmmakers take the bones of a story and build something almost unrecognizable on top of them, keeping a title and a premise while discarding nearly everything else. The eight examples below show just how far a movie can drift from the page, sometimes to the delight of audiences and sometimes to the lasting frustration of the authors who wrote the originals.

The Shining (1980)

The Shining (1980) (Image Credits: Unsplash)
The Shining (1980) (Image Credits: Unsplash)

Stanley Kubrick’s film is widely considered a horror classic, but Stephen King has spent decades explaining why it barely resembles the book he wrote. King’s novel focuses more on the supernatural forces that change Torrance during the story, whereas Kubrick’s film treats Jack himself as the primary antagonist rather than the hotel. King has also pointed out a much more literal difference in how the two versions end. “The other real difference is at the end of my book the hotel blows up, and at the end of Kubrick’s movie the hotel freezes. That’s a difference,” he said.

Beyond plot mechanics, King has repeatedly said the emotional register of the two versions couldn’t be more different. He told the BBC he isn’t a cold writer, explaining that his books reach out and invite readers in, while Kubrick’s version felt very cold to him. He was so unhappy with the result that he made a three episode…

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Author : Matthias Binder

Publish date : 2026-08-26 07:15:00

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