It seems as though every blockbuster film these days is adapted from something else – a comic book, a TV show, a novel, or another film. Oh, there are still original movies being churned out, but more and more they are relegated to a limited or even video-on-demand release while the big-budget adaptations hog all the multiplex screens. To prove my point, this weekend sees the wide release of two book adaptations: The Fault in Our Stars, based on John Green’s critically-acclaimed young adult novel of the same name, and Edge of Tomorrow, a Tom Cruise-starring sci-fi actioner adapted from Hiroshi Sakurazaka’s light novel (essentially the Japanese equivalent of young adult) All You Need is Kill. Evidently, young adult literature – fiction geared toward teenagers and twentysomethings – is taking over cinematic adaptations; one needs only to look at the success of Harry Potter, Twilight, and The Hunger Games to see that this is the case.
For this Top Ten Tuesday, then, I decided to rank my favourite films based upon novels, but with a twist. Instead of merely choosing the best movies that just happened to be adapted from literature, I decided to limit myself to films based on books I had actually read; that way, I could knowledgeably judge each movie as both an adaptation and a stand-alone film. While this unfortunately forced me to leave off some films that would otherwise make the list (such as Blade Runner, Children of Men, and Naked Lunch), it also made for a more, in my opinion, interesting and diverse list, instead of the same collection of favourites that’s increasingly populating these top tens. Thus, without further ado, my ten favourite films adapted from novels I’ve read:
Cinema Charchuk 