As is always the case when something from one medium gets translated into another, boring people with recycled opinions are losing their shit over Baz Luhrmann's new The Great Gatsby movie. "Luhrmann's personal take on the story isn't exactly like the novel!" they cry. "Artistic interpretations shouldn't be allowed in this particular Hollywood production! An industry where people remake and reinterpret stories the whole time!" they imply, with their reviews lamenting the fact that the director didn't follow the book to an absolute tee.
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Oh really? Well, I’m never going to watch it.So why is Le Petit Prince so precious to you?
The story is really nice. And, I mean, I've read it since I was a kid, and I'm 24 right now and I still continue to read it. It absolutely has to stay as a book.Fair enough.Emma, 32, pattern cutter: Oh, that’s really hard. My brain is going blank. I think it would have to be The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. It’s my childhood favourite. I just think it’s too much of a beautiful, sweet, innocent thing. We can’t ruin it and make it into a three-hour movie.Do you think it could ever be made into a three-hour movie?
Probably not, no.
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Well, because it’s just two people in the book.There are loads of films with just two characters, though.
Yeah, but there are also so many emotions that the main girl goes through; you can’t capture all of that in a movie.Naoki, 36, stockbroker: It's a book called 1Q48 by Haruki Murakami. It's a Japanese book.What is it about that book that makes you think it wouldn't work as a film?
Because it’s so complex. Maybe it would be too difficult to make it into a film.What – the structure of the story?
Yes, the structure, because it’s not so simple. And it’s too long a story to be a film.Ever heard of Lord of the Rings, mate?Lyndon, 29, writer: I would say The Alchemist by Paolo Coelho would be the book that I’d never want to see made into a film. It’s so profound and so powerfully written that I just don’t think it would translate as well.How so?
The themes that Coelho writes about are emotions, the soul and connecting to your spiritual self. I don’t think a film could do justice to those themes. Some books just don’t work as films.Previously - What Would People Say at Your Funeral?