With the increased difficulty to get original ideas made into films, particularly ones that possess ambitious and challenging concepts, filmmakers have turned their attention toward adaptations. Although studios are reticent to fund more daring original projects, they have surprisingly been open to supporting bold films based on previously successful material.
Whether for their density, abstractness or intellectual complexity, numerous source materials have been considered "unfilmable" or "unadaptable." However, with the arrival of Noah Baumbach's White Noise, now seems an ideal time to go through movie adaptations nobody thought could be made.
'White Noise' (2022)
Based on the masterpiece by Don DeLillo, White Noise is the first film by Noah Baumbach not to be based on an original story of his own. While DeLillo's novel is considered one of the canonical works of 20th-century postmodern fiction, Baumbach's film has attracted a more polarized response. Released on Netflix, the film surrounds the Gladney family who is forced to evacuate their home after "The Airborne Toxic Event."
With its pointed language, broad scope and distinctive descriptions, DeLillo's novel was long deemed unfilmable. Rather than trying to encapsulate an all-encompassing novel like White Noise, Baumbach's film goes through stages, breaking the book down into different parts. A mammoth task, perhaps only a director as wise as Baumbach could turn White Noise into such a heady film.
'Dune' (2021)
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For many years fans wondered if a film version of the Frank Herbert sci-fi epic Dune could ever be made. That sentiment continued even after David Lynch released his version on screen in 1984. With a $170 million budget, famed director Denis Villeneuve took his shot at Dune in 2021. Grossing $400 million at the box office, the film is about Paul Atreides who is stuck in the middle of a battle over melange, a precious resource.
Unlike Lynch, Villeneuve's vision to adapt the Nebula Award-winning novel was by splitting it into two parts, with Dune: Part Two set to be released on November 3, 2023. Although film rights were originally optioned in the early 1970s, a film version of Dune was always seen as a challenge due to the breadth of content possessed by the novel. However, with 2021's Dune, Villeneuve officially put skeptics to rest.
'Catch-22' (1970)
Coming off Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf and The Graduate, Mike Nichols may have been the hottest director in Hollywood. Both adaptations, Nichols's first two films proved he was a master at translating previous material to the screen. However, that challenge would only mount greater when he took on Catch-22 about a group of "lunatic characters" during World War II.
Translated by Buck Henry and featuring an A-List ensemble cast, the film was generally well-received. The book by Joseph Heller was long considered un-expressible on screen, mostly because its absurd tone wouldn't be able to be rendered without being reduced to slapstick. While in recent years George Clooney has only made his turn at the novel, Nichols's film may be one of the director's most underrated achievements.
'American Psycho' (2000)
A moderate success at the time, American Psycho is now considered a cult classic. Written by literary Brat Packer Bret Easton Ellis at just 27 years old, the novel was deemed so potentially disturbing that it has been censored in multiple countries. The film, directed by Mary Harron, stars Christian Bale as Patrick Bateman, a banker, who under his facade hides an uncontrollable psychopathy.
Ellis himself denounced the film in 2002 but has since moderated himself to only be somewhat critical of it. While many deemed it too unsettling to be made, Ellis considers his book unadaptable due to the ambiguous nature of the novel. Having grown in popularity in the 2010s, American Psycho may not have been necessary to make, but fans are glad it was.
'Naked Lunch' (1991)
David Cronenberg has been no stranger to difficult adaptations. Whether it was Cosmopolis, Maps to the Stars, or Crash, Cronenberg has taken the challenges on head first with often fascinating results. Maybe no adaptation was more formidable than Naked Lunch, an indescribable surrealist and thematic journey.
Titled after the William Boroughs novel of the same name, the film is only a loose translation, incorporating other fictional works of Burroughs as well as some autobiographical aspects. According to an interview with Cronenberg, the reason for this is that a direct adaptation would have been too expensive and "would be banned in every country in the world." While unconventional, the film's cult status proves fans are happy with the outcome they got.
'Cosmopolis' (2012)
Following a series of critically well-regarded but commercially underperforming films around the turn of the century, director David Cronenberg rebuilt himself with a string of critically and financially successful ones including A History of Violence, Eastern Promises and A Dangerous Method. After having his pick for his next project, Cronenberg eyed Cosmopolis, based on the novel by Don DeLillo about a currency speculator who watches his life unravel throughout the night.
While the idea of Cronenberg adapting a novel by DeLillo was not a surprise, it was a little startling that the one he would choose was Cosmopolis, one of DeLillo's more mixed-received novels. Although a box office flop, the film's sharp observations and Robert Pattinson's perfectly rhymed performance in the lead role make Cosmopolis an odyssey worth exploring.
'High-Rise' (2015)
While Crash could have been included, High-Rise was as much an arduous adaptation attempt. Directed by Ben Wheatley with a screenplay by Amy Jump, the film covers a group of tenants in a London high-rise who experience a whirlwind of chaos when a young doctor, played by Tom Hiddleston, moves in.
A film adaptation of the novel by J.G. Ballard was in pursuit since its release in the 1970s with Nicholas Roeg at one point slated to direct. What makes High-Rise a testing translation is the novel's moral neutrality as well as Ballard's emotional abstractness. Losing money at the box office, High-Rise divided critics, some declaring it a masterpiece while others denoting it was just out of Wheatley's grasp.
'Lolita' (1962)
How did they ever make a movie of Lolita? asks the poster of Stanley Kubrick's 1962 psychological drama. With copious amounts of censorship was the answer, a factor which Kubrick years later lamented he didn't take into account at the time. Adapted from Vladimir Nabokov's controversial novel of the same name, the film follows a middle-aged lecturer who becomes sexually infatuated with an adolescent schoolgirl.
Although Adrian Lyne's 1997 remake of Lolita is more faithful to the original novel and more sexually explicit, Kubrick's 1962 version is still the superior one, being nominated for an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay. A veteran of adapting tricky material from A Clockwork Orange to 2001: A Space Odyssey, Lolita is one of the finest feathers in Kubrick's grand cap.
'Watchmen' (2009)
When Terry Gilliam says your project is "unfilmable," you know you've got a challenge on your hands. An adaptation of the acclaimed DC Comics limited series, Watchmen had been stuck in development hell since the 1980s. Eventually directed by Zack Snyder, the film follows a group of retired superheroes who, while investigating the death of one of their own, stumble upon a conspiracy.
Polarizing among fans and critics alike, the film was praised for its visual splendor but censured for its lack of subtlety and wit. Originally released with a 163-minute running time, a better received 3 hour and 35-minute director's cut was launched later that year. While it has many flaws, there's enough in Watchmen to make it an enjoyable, if imperfect adaptation.
'Adaptation' (2002)
Frequently cited among the best screenplays ever written, Adaptation cemented Charlie Kaufman as one of the most brilliant screenwriters alive, and the true master of invention and metafiction working in Hollywood. Taken from the 1998 nonfiction book The Orchid Thief, the film covers screenwriter Charlie Kaufman's struggle to adapt the novel The Orchid Thief, when his life gets tangled up with the book's characters.
The novel itself may still be unadaptable as the only way the ingenious Kaufman could make a movie work out of it was by including his own storyline in it. The original novelist Susan Orleans has expressed that while she was originally trepidatious about the bonkers script, she admires how it stays true to the themes of the book. Creatively monumental and delightful in all the best ways, Adaptation is a one-of-one.