I have no idea what’s been in the air for directors and movie makers. However, it seems that every other month, a new announcement is made about a classic book being turned into yet another movie. All while trying to outdo the movie before that.
I can’t even begin to explain how long my TBR (To Be Read) is, but I can explain that I just keep adding more books than I can even catch up with. Now with all these new classic books being made into movies my list is being rearranged, and it’s a complete and utter mess. If there’s one famous quote about movies and books, it’s that the book is always better than the movie. HOWEVER, there have been some instances where the movie was just as good as the book. For example, Pride and Prejudice has been remade dozens of times. Some say the 1995 version episodes match up perfectly to the book, while others say the 2005 movie, which is my all-time favourite does the book justice. But for the most part, that doesn’t always happen and the movie is usually not that good for instance Persuasion where they decided to use this generation’s slang in a book that was written in the 1800s. Because Jane Austen knows the sentence “Hes a ten”.
These movies that I am about to yap about are movies that have stirred the lovers of these books and really made you look at the director wondering what on earth they decided that was a good idea. These directors are not only taking important parts of the book but changing the entire story itself and so before these movies come out here is my classic TBR because if Im going to be a hater of the movie I might as well be a educated hater.
The Odyssey
At the end of 2024, Christoper Nolan announced that he would be coming out with the movie Odyssey from the classic written by Homer. Now of course it being The Odyssey a rather popular book, lots of people were very much excited about it and that Christoper Nolan was doing it. An amazing director who has made amazing movies it got alot of people excited. So why the fuss? Well it all started when the movie started filming and a picture of Matt Damon wearing a helmet and armour. People on Twitter raging on how they used the wrong era of Armour and how Directors are so scared of being different. So instead they keep using an era that’s most popular and people know the most about, even though its changing from the book. But soon after that it died down and no one cared about that.
However, a few months went by and a teaser poster came out. It wasn’t a fancy or mind-blowing teaser, although it did look amazing in my eyes. It was a photo of a sky with a statue of a face with ashes around it and it quotes “Defy the gods” in another fantasy or any movie in general that would have been an amazing poster and it would make the audience much more excited but that is not the case this is the Odyssey and the issue with that quote IS THE ENTIRE REASON FOR THIS BOOK was because of the help FROM THE GODS. I had the chance to read the Iliad which happens before the Odyssey and if you are also interested to read the Odyssey I suggest you read the Iliad first. But after reading that book, the gods did so much for the mortal men. THEY HELPED SO MUCH. So much that the gods were getting mad at the other gods for HELPING SO MUCH and I don’t doubt that will be the same line of storytelling in the Odyssey so for them to even write to defy the gods and possibly actually go with that storyline is rather insane and changing the entire damn thing. The gods are so very important in this story, and mortal men wouldn’t DARE to defy them. So when this news came out this book was immediately booted to the top of my classic Tbr because I just need to see how badly they may screw up this movie.
2. Wuthering Heights
Yet another book on that has been on my Tbr for a while even before I knew a movie was coming out. By the time I heard about Wuthering Heights, the movie was already begun filming and teaser photos of the set were released. Just like The Odyssey Wuthering Heights were called out by fans for using the wrong era of attire. From the dresses, the veil, the entire outfit was just wrong. People often said the era that this book was originally written in had really pretty types of clothing but yet again a writer and director was either to lazy, uneducated and just want to look pretty going against the book. Yet somehow that’s not the biggest issue here. Wuthering Heights is not just some romance about two people falling in love or two people from different financial classes. This is about a white woman falling in love with a man who is not white. In Wuthering Heights, Heathcliff deals with racism and stereotyping. So what’s the issues? The casted a white man.. The author Charlotte never fully said what Heathcliff race was only one some occasions describing him to be “of a darker skin colour” but from that we don’t know exactly what his race was or background. Discussions arise that he is a black man which a movie in 2012 actually depicted him to be while other says he wasn’t, but the final conclusion was that he definitely was not a white man. But because they have already messed this movie up a trailer came out. If you haven’t seen it yet here’s the teaser https://youtu.be/ID0rqEWrN44?si=tjQ2dqYUNq5-qOq-
The trailer itself uses a song from a pop artist that in reality doesn’t even fit the theme of the movie. Moving on the trailer is showing both Catherine and Heathcliff being hot and bothered. Catherine is sticking her finger into a dead fish while I presume she’s thinking something sexual, while he stares at the sweat down her chest. Some say they nearly turned this movie into some dark horny romance which is nothing about the book. But that is not what this book is about. Its about two people who were soul mates who madly and deeply loved each other, One Twitter user said the difference between the book and the movie was the movie depicted her thinking of something sexual, sticking her finger into the fish’s mouth while the book depicts that if Catherine were to die Heath would dig up her grave just to be with her. So after all that came to light of course I had to put it move it up on my classic TBR because by the time I watch the movie I would love to see how terrible they really changed the story.
3. War Of The Worlds
This one is really a laughing stock. Truthfully, I never heard of this book until one day I was at the thrift store and bought it. In was then a few weeks later that people were talking about this book being turned into a movie and how it had big actors and some people were excited about it. But that died so quickly. Even before it made it out there were early screening of the movie and the reviews were a 0 on Rotten Tomatoes which I didn’t even know it could be that bad.
So whatever hype was there was completely and utterly gone. First off the entire movie is on FaceTime… THE ENTIRE MOVIE IS ON FACETIME. A book that was written in the late 1800s? Then people are mentioning them using the same clip of the main character over and over again in the movie but that’s not the worst part, the worst is the world is saved by an Amazon package.. AN AMAZON PACKAGE!!!! Again this was written in the late 1800s. Amazon didn’t exist nothing of that existed and yet somehow by god Amazon saved the day it was a blatant way for Amazon to get a sponsor into the movie.
This movie went against everything of the book and turned something that could have been amazing and could have made people fall in love with it. To a literal laughing stock that is not even worth your time to watch just to laugh at it. So with that being said I had to bump it to the top of my classic tbr because I need to see how actually good the story is before a stupid director decided to mess it up.
4. Persuasion
If it isn’t already noticeable. I am a huge Jane Austen fan and have been for years. This last year when getting into classics she was the first author I decided to read. When it comes to her I usually end up watching the movies first then reading the book. I will say when reading Pride and Prejudice after watching the 2005 movie which was a great experience until I realized that my all-time favourite scene in not in the book.
So, getting into more of Jane Austen one of the newest movies from her books has been Persuasion. I remember the trailer coming out and people like always already having their opinion on the movie. But when it came out I watched it and…. It was bad. The most annoying part of the entire movie was the Tik Tok slang they added to the movie for some reason? It was weird and I didn’t understand the point. I’m watching a movie based in the 1900s why is there tik tok slang? Jane Austen is rolling in her grave. The movie was so bad it completely even turned me again from reading the book. But somehow by mircale after landing on classic reddit they happened to be talking about how bad the movie was and that alot say that persuasion actually happens to be way better Pride and Predjuice which is insane to believe so with being said this book was yet another one boosted to the top of my classic tbr because the movie was just so bad and I need to see just how good the book really is.
5. The picture of Dorian Gray
So this is an older conversation that happened a while ago. But due to the nature of his blog post I thought I would bring it back up again.
A new Netflix series was announced either a year or two ago talking about doing another revamp of Dorian Gray. Unlike the other movies where the trailer came out or a teaser poster came out exposing how bad the movie was going to be. Netflix talked about it when it was announced.
For some backstory, the writer Oscar Wild is a gay man so much so he even went to jail for being gay. He was married but while being married had an affair with a man whose mom later exposed him for it which produced De Proufius Borealis. Anywho so when it comes to Oscar wild his stories also happen to have gay characters. Including the Picture of Dorian Gray. The short story of it is about a man who is terrified about aging while another man is just completly overtaken by Dorian by looks and personality and ends up crushing on him. So with all this information that you can quickly google you would kinda understand the vibe of everything. You would think the writer and director would read the book and really understand about the gay love. But for some reason they made them brothers.
Yes a book about a guy who doesn’t want to age is terrified of it while another guy falls shamelessly in love with this man this director decided ahh yes BROTHERS. It’s rather insane actually so insane and I think maybe the worst out of all these books that I have talked about. It doesn’t just go against the book itself but the author who went to jail because of his sexuality. So in that this just another book booted to the top of the list of my classic tbr because the series will just ruined the entire thing.
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I remember watching this Friends documentary and one of the directors or producers talked about all these new directors remaking or rebooting old tv. He said, “It seems that no one is willing to be creative anymore, it’s just copy this and copy that,” and when it comes to all these movies, I often think about what they said. Now of course, as years go by classics will be remade for a new generation to watch. But it doenst make sense when they use the title of the book the characters of the book use the small details but yet change the entire story and make it something else. Thats just not how that should work. There is a reason these classics are looked upon, these classics are the parents of books we see today and yet the directors think they have some sort of power to make it there own? Ruining these stories they are so well done.
This is the best time to get into reading classics seeing how well written and funny and why these books were loved and why these books are the books that are always talked about. SO here is my classic tbr and maybe if this blog post made you just as mad as me your tbr just a whole lot longer.
Check out my last post regarding being very much unemployed to even afford books https://shygirlvibes.com/were-hiring-is-an-absolute-lie-annoyanceof-job-searching-in-retail/