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The best-selling books in history that Hollywood still haven't adapted

If something is proving popular, then Hollywood won't be far behind, attempting to buy the rights...
Newstalk
Newstalk

15.48 2 Mar 2016


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The best-selling books in hist...

The best-selling books in history that Hollywood still haven't adapted

Newstalk
Newstalk

15.48 2 Mar 2016


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If something is proving popular, then Hollywood won't be far behind, attempting to buy the rights and turn it into a movie.

Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Twilight, Fifty Shades Of Grey, The Hunger Games, The Da Vinci Code, Gone Girl, The Life Of Pi... the list goes on and on of very popular books that movie-makers eventually make into movies.

However, there are some books that have, inexplicably, missed out on the Hollywood makeover. Here's just a handful of some of the biggest selling books in the history of literature that have yet to be transported to the silver screen.

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THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

Copies sold: over 65,000,000

J.D. Salinger's 1951 novel is pretty much a corner-stone of adolescence in America, dredging up all those feelings of angst and alienation, with Holden Caulfiend an absolute cultural icon, so how it is that Hollywood has yet to successfully turn it into a movie is beyond us. It could be that, by this point, the pressure of actually pulling it off is way too much, so it's better left alone. Which is a shame, since Salinger was all for the adaptation going ahead, but even with people like Steven Spielberg, Jack Nicholson, Leonardo DiCaprio and Billy Wilder attempting through the years, the adaptation has yet to come to pass.

ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF SOLITUDE

Copies sold: over 50,000,000

Telling a story set across seven generations of a family that founded a town (or, outside of subtext, Columbia), it does sound like something that might be better suited to a multi-season show on HBO or Netflix, but Marquez's 1967 epic has never been adapted for one simple reason: he never agreed to sell the rights to produce such a film. Still though, it's not like Hollywood to give up without a fight. Watch this space...

THE ALCHEMIST 

Copies sold: over 65,000,000

Almost as much a self-help book as it is fictional novel, you'd think that Paulo Coelho's 1988 release was full of the kind of "Fulfill Your Destiny" plot-lines that Hollywood would eat right up... and you'd be right. Warner Brothers bought the rights in 2003, but the addition of huge battle scenes were what lead to Coelho reportedly paying to buy the rights back. Harvey Weinstein bought them next, lining up Laurence Fishburne to direct and star in, but nothing transpired. In 2015, Idris Elba was the latest name to be attached, but there's still been nothing solid to follow through on just yet.

DREAM OF THE RED CHAMBER

Copies sold: over 100,000,000

If you've never heard of this book, don't worry, it wasn't all THAT popular in Western Culture, but closer to home it is considered one of China's Four Great Classical Novels. Over the years there have been a number of movies that have focused on Chinese history - Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Lust/Caution, Hero, House Of Flying Daggers, The Assassin, Memoirs Of A Geisha - and this novel that tells the story of the rise and fall of the Qing Dynasty would be perfectly suited to a lush, lengthy epic telling. 

BERENSTAIN BEARS

Copies sold: over 300,000,000

Since 1962, this series has spawned over 300 titles, in over 200 languages, who tell safety or moral lessons to the kids that read them. If you think that doesn't lend itself to a movie, we would have agreed with you, but director Shawn Levy (Night At The Museum) had planned on doing just that back in 2009. "I'd like the film to be un-ironic about its family connections but have a wry comedic sensibility that isn't oblivious to the fact that they're bears," comparing the project to Elf, using a mix of live-action and CGI animation. However, the project never came to pass. But with that many books sold, don't expect it to stay that way for very long.


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