Why are the movies that are based on the novels never like the actual novel?? For class, we read Something Wicked This Way Comes and then we watched the movie. The movie had hardly anything in common with the novel? I would prefer to read the book then watch the movie because then there would be less confusion in what is going on. Which would you prefer?

I completely agree with you! The movie could have been sooo good, but it was nothing like the book at all. I really enjoyed the book, but the movie I can't say the same for. They really need to learn how to write better scripts for the movies that are based on books.

books and movies are never the same. the something wicked this way comes movie was pretty bad compared to the book, and i heard bradbury wrote the screenplay himself, which i thought was kinda wierd.

I dont really get why the books and the movies are never the same. in my english class we read something wicked this way comes and then watched the movie. it was really stupid. i thought that bradbury wrote the screen play or something for that. if he did you would think it would be the same. but it was definetly not!

I didn't like the movie that much either. Especially when they rescued Jim. They should've had more effects like show his faces changing like they mentioned in the book. I also thought that Bradbury wrote the screen play I don't understand why he'd change it either.

In general, the reason films differ from books is that what works in a book doesn't necessarily work on a screen. Plus, once a film studio has bought the rights to a book, the script will often go through dozens of re-writes by a series of scriptwriters - none of whom bother to refer back to the original book!

In the case of Something Wicked, the story is a bit more complex than this. Ray Bradbury started the whole thing off as a short story, then turned it into a script in the 1950s. The script was never filmed, so Ray turned it into a novel. In the early 1980s, he wrote a new script, and this one was filmed.

Ray doesn't usually refer back to his stories when adapting them for film or television - he usually re-works the story and characters according to what interests him at this point in time. Only when he has drafted the script does he go back to the original story to see if he has missed anything. (This process is the one he followed for his TV series - see my website for information on this.)

According to Sam Weller's biography of Ray, the script for Something Wicked was re-written by John Mortimer before it was filmed. Parts of the film were also re-re-written (by Ray) and re-filmed!

The nature of the written word and one's imagination is definitionally different than the experience of film -- which provides words, visual, and sound. Film can only allude to what is going on in the character's head -- the novel can specify it. Film leaves less of the imagining up to the reader, whereas a novel leaves much more of the imagination (visuals, sounds) up to the reader. So in reading a novel, the novel will be interpreted in a wider variety of ways. I may imagine Mr. Dark to look and sound one way, another reader will imagine him in another. The producer/director/writer of the movie will have to take one interpretation of that and make it THE interpretation. In other words, what Phil says is correct; but in addition to that, even if the filmakers stuck to the novel, they would only be able to show "their" version of the novel.

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Originally posted by calichic86:
Why are the movies that are based on the novels never like the actual novel?? For class, we read Something Wicked This Way Comes and then we watched the movie. The movie had hardly anything in common with the novel? I would prefer to read the book then watch the movie because then there would be less confusion in what is going on. Which would you prefer?

I would also prefer the book to the movie, because when they make a movie they are trying to squeeze some much detail and plot into a certain time limit that much of the useful parts get left out.

I agree with calichic....The movies have scenes cut out and never show EXACTLY what happened. Wihle reading the book I pictured the town to be way different. I also pictured Will and Jim's houses to be out in the country. Also I pictured the lightning rod salesman to be wearing a business suit and looking nice, not lie a bum. Therefore, I personally would rather read the book first, then watch the movie.

I Completely agree!! Movies are NEVER as good as the books!!! I really believe that if Disney would have just used Something Wicked as their screenplay it would have been a lot better!
I found myself laughing A LOT at the strangeness of the movie. I wish they would re-do the movie now, because the special effects could be AWESOME now!