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ltc
itsbruce
Loads. Badly written books often make good films ot TV shows; I think the director feels less constrained by the original, since they aren't desecrating a classic. Agatha Christie and Colin Dexter mostly wrote drivel, while Conan Doyle and Thomas Harris are hugely overrated, but decent films and/or shows have been made from their work. I would say all the Hannibal Lecter films are significantly better than the books. Silence of the Lambs is a trashy airport novel.
Some films are built not on shit books but small short stories, greatly expanding their scope. 2001 was based on a short story "The Sentinel". Total Recall is an interesting case; most Dick film treatments haven't done so well and failed to capture the author's tone and intent. Paradoxically, Total Recall is based on one of the shortest stories Dick ever wrote, a relatively weak shaggy dog joke, and yet the film (and I mean the original) was one of the most true-to-the-author adaptations ever done. The idea that the hero is a fake and decides to be a fake, combined with the suggestion that the whole thing really is just a shop-bought fantasy, is very Dick.