Wednesday, March 11, 2009

The Mysteries of Filmmaking

I was so, so thrilled when I found out there was a trailer for the movie adaptation of Michael Chabon's Mysteries of Pittsburgh. I absolutely LOVED the book (and if you haven't read it yet-- get it on your reading list as soon as humanly possible!), and when I read the book, I remember wondering why a film version hadn't yet been made of this wonderful novel.

So, I dug into the trailer with glee, and was pleased to see that the movie seemed to have captured the tone of the book. However, as I continued watching the trailer, I noticed that something was missing. Something really important.

One of the main characters from the book had been dropped completely! Arthur Lemcote does not appear to be in the movie at all. His character is simply gone. Which is odd, since those of you who read the book know that he was a major character. Some aspects of his character (yes, I'm speaking in code, but I'm trying not to give any spoilers here!) seem to have been collapsed into Cleveland's character. Which doesn't make sense to me, given what I know about the character of Cleveland. I'm not sure how this is really going to work in the movie....

Are there any beloved books of yours that were changed when they were turned into films? Favorite characters left on the cutting room floor?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Jurassic Park was a phenomenal book. When then converted it to a movie, they did a major revision. I;m told by people that saw the film but didn't read the book that they movie was "really good" but I don't know anyone who read the book who agrees.