Quiz: Can you identify the reasons each author disliked the film adaptation of their work?

I was bored this weekend, so I thought I’d look for another fun and interesting book quiz. I filled in a bunch of them, most fairly straightforward and easy. But then I remembered Sporcle, which is a website with much more in-depth and more difficult quizzes besides the traditional, easy ones. And then I stumbled upon this quiz, which gives you 7 minutes to answer 15 questions about movie adaptations and, more specifically, why the author of the book the movie was based on disliked the movie adaptation. Ready? Set. Go!

So first you see all 15 novels that this quiz will be talking about, so it’s a matter of picking the right answer for the right question. But, let me start with the questions:

1. Quoted as saying “Kubrick just couldn’t grasp the sheer inhuman evil of The Overlook Hotel. So he looked, instead, for evil in the characters and made the film into a domestic tragedy with only vaguely supernatural overtones.”
2. Strongly disliked the animation sequences and had to “embarrass” a Disney executive to be invited to the premiere.
3. Hated that the title changed to a highlight a different character. He felt that Gene Wilder’s portrayal of the new titular character was “insufficiently gay and bouncy.”
4. Wanted to play the male lead himself and wanted his friend Marilyn Monroe to play the female lead. Said that seeing Audrey Hepburn in the film “made me want to throw up.”
5. Spoke out against the casting before the film was made saying the male lead was “no more Lestat than Edward G. Robinson is Rhett Butler.” This statement was recanted upon viewing the film.
6. Hated the vapid love story of the film and title change so much that he would not allow any further written adaptations of his work. Due to this, his novel Catcher in the Rye has never been adapted to film.
7. Repudiated the film and the original novella it was based upon. Felt that it was misinterpreted to “glorify sex and violence… I should not have written the book because of this danger of misinterpretation.”
8. Left the film production after two weeks. Disliked the shift of narrator away from Chief Bromden and wanted Gene Hackman for the lead role.
9. Quoted as saying “The story is interrupted every few minutes so that somebody can sing a jolly song. I don’t care much for jolly songs. The Blue Hill Fair has become a Disney World, with 76 trombones.”
10. Felt the satire and wit was removed from the original graphic novel to create a “Bush-era parable.” Has since removed his name from any film adaption of his work.
11. Upset that his six-hour script was not fully filmed. He called the movie both a “cheap, shallow American action flick” and a “contemporary German propaganda newsreel from World War II.”
12. He labelled the film as “revolting… a gigantic melodrama of kitsch, commerce, plush and plastic.” The film ended when the main character arrived in Fantasia, leaving the second half of the book unfilmed.
13. Angry that the film removed all homosexual themes, he reportedly told people in line for the film “This movie will set the industry back 50 years. Go home!”
14. Wrote an open letter to teachers asking them to refrain from showing the films when teaching Greek mythology. He tweeted “No. Stop. Please. No class deserves such a punishment. I mourn the loss of perfectly good classroom time.”
15. After disagreeing with the taming of the language and sex, this author began the book’s sequel with the line: “Don’t never let nobody make a movie of your life’s story.”

And here are the answers:

Now, I have to admit something. As you can see below, I still have 4 minutes left on the timer and I got every answer correct. That is because I cheated! I did so poorly the first time that I retook the test a few times to get to this result. I apologize, but doesn’t a 15 out of 15 look much better? The things I do for this blog…

But, I must say: yes, I do fill out crossword puzzles in pen! So goodie for me!

Happy quizzing,

Loes M.