Movies are one of my favorite topics of conversation, as are, of course, books. So a book about movies is a real winner for me.
So I was pleased when I heard that Knopf is coming out with a huge tome called Have You Seen…? from film critic David Thomson, who wrote the wildly popular The New Biographical Dictionary of Film. This new book is tagged as a “personal introduction to 1,000 films” which is nice to have from one of the world’s leading experts on the subject. And I was REALLY pleased when an autographed copy landed on my desk yesterday. Unfortunately, though, I have to give it away.
In order to enter the drawing for this autographed copy, just leave a little comment below telling us: what is your favorite film that was first a book? (you know, those ones when you’re murmuring before you see it that “they better not screw this up…” and then they don’t.) So this is like “Best Adaptation of All Time.” Have at it. Maybe you’ll win this book and make me jealous. We’ll be announcing a winner next week.
-David
The Princess Bride by William Goldman. My dad gave me this book to read when I was in 8th or 9th grade and I fell in love with it. Then I saw a trailer for it one night at the movies and thought, “They’ll mess it up, and they’ll add all sorts of stuff so that it’s rated R.” But they didn’t. They changed stuff, but, probably because Goldman is also a screenwriter, I always felt that the movie stayed true to the essence of the story.