Movies You (may not) Have Known Were Based on Books

by Clark

OK, we’re not really supposed to borrow posts from other blogs. But those of you who remember the really crappy MAD magazine rip off from the 70’s called Cracked may not know that they have gone Web 2.0 and have a pretty good web page. What makes it pretty good is some writer who writes amazing “top X lists” on various pop culture topics. Things like the the top 5 drug meltdowns on TV. What makes them great is the links to YouTube videos and pretty sarcastic and well written prose. Well I found today a great list I just had to share. It’s a list of movies based on books. It’s to my eternal share that I not only knew far more of these than I should have but have actually read many of the books. (David Morrell’s Rambo books were actually pretty good - far superior to the films, which got progressively stupider) But here’s the one I have to tell you about.

Die Hard was a sequel to a book called The Detective which was made into a movie starring Frank Sinatra.
The Detective

There I said it. Discuss.

7 Comments

  1. So Die Hard was originally a book? Or the movie was a sequel to a book?

    Comment by Susan M — November 30, 2007 @ 2:02 pm

  2. I’m still laughing at and Dave trying to deal with Crispin Glover!

    Comment by tracy m — November 30, 2007 @ 2:23 pm

  3. Die Hard was based on a book that was the sequel to The Detective. The book was Nothing Lasts Forever.

    The real weird one was the book that Who Frame Roger Rabbit was based upon.

    Comment by Clark — November 30, 2007 @ 2:47 pm

  4. I think the Crispin Glover thing is funny because people assume he was on drugs. He was actually in character from another movie he did. He sold it brilliantly, too.

    Comment by Susan M — November 30, 2007 @ 3:41 pm

  5. Are you sure he wasn’t on drugs and in character Susan? It sure freaked out David Letterman.

    Comment by Clark — November 30, 2007 @ 4:36 pm

  6. Who knows? but his character was *exactly* like that. (You’ve never seen Rubin & Ed, Clark?) I just did a post here about that very same Letterman clip not long ago.

    Comment by Susan M — November 30, 2007 @ 5:09 pm

  7. Cracked wasn’t all that crappy. I would call it “the only passable MAD rip off” - but then, I read it as a kid in the 80s.

    However, the current Cracked has little connection with the old one from the 70s and 80s. The current incarnation was an attempt to do a humorous Men’s magazine by someone who had bought the rights to the name, but only two or three print issues came out. The website proved popular, so they kept that aspect of the business alive.

    FWIW. I know way too much about this kind of stuff.

    Comment by Ivan Wolfe — November 30, 2007 @ 8:19 pm