What book/series did you read, only to watch as screenwriters or directors turn it into something else entirely?

I'll start, I loved Charlaine Harris' Sookie Stackhouse series, but when HBO got hold of it and turned it into True Blood, I was beyond sad. I feel it didn't capture the writer's intentions at all.

Any Stephen king book, that got turned into a movie.

Squishy yeah you are 100% correct, but many of his movies were butchered, I know you can agree with that.

One of the best books of Stephen King was 7 and The long walk, imho.

The I am Legend story by Richard Matheson was incredible however its been put on screen a few times and failed to impress especially the Will Smith version. That movie would have been much better if it didn't actually use the title or character names. 

I don't know if I'd say they turned it into something else entirely... but I loved all of the hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy books so when they made a movie I was excited to see it. When I actually watched it though I thought the movie was awful compared to reading the books, I guess a lot of it was just different than how I imagined it while reading. 

One of the best examples of a great King book/books that was butchered by a movie was imo The Dark Tower. Great cast, had the budget, and still managed to ruin it. 

Harry Potter, the books were much better then the movie.
More depth in it.

Ow well, the most obvious answer here is Eragon, the books are albeit a little simple in terms of lore, compared to higher quality highy fantasy but the dynamics and conditions of magic and spells was new and interesitng. Yet in the movie it was completely butchered... god awful movie

The Stand It pretty much most of Steven Kings books where better then the movie 

Almost every book made into a movie is basically better than the movie. More stuff in it and more depth like someone else said. 

Harry Potter books to take an example is so much better than the movies. There are so many scenes and details that pushes the story forward that was in the books, but left out in the movies. And sure I do know why they cut some scenes and such, but there are parts that feels so wrong when they cut that I can't really concentrate on the story. 

The Martian.

The book was great, I really enjoyed it. Watched the film with high expectations, and was bitterly disappointed. Character names were changed, script was vastly different (or entirely omitted) in key parts, plot lines were altered and the ending was entirely changed.

Highly recommend the book, would definitely avoid the film.

I definitely agree with the Harry Potter books being better than the movies. I think the movies were pretty awesome too but they could've had so much more. The Weasley family had should've had so much more screen time, especially the twins.

Now, what I was originally going to bring up is the Maze Runner series. The books were awesome! I was so excited to see them come to life in the movie theater. However, my friends and I ended up leaving the theater a bit disappointed for all three movies. It just kept getting worse and worse. The movies were basically their own series by the end of the Scorch Trials.

Other than that, I haven't read any fiction for a while. This makes me want to start reading again :')

I would also like to throw some weight behind The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy movie. There was just too much already created material for them to change quite as much as they did.

The book, the radio show, the tv show (the radio show and tv show having many of the same characters) so most people already had how things looked in their head. And then they bollocksed it right up. Sam Rockwell as Zaphod Beeblebrox could have been amazing as the guy is pretty cool but where they put his second head will infuriate me to this day!

I don't really read much, but everytime I mention a movie or tv series to someone that likes to read I keep getting told the book was better than the movie. So I guess there must be something to it.

I don't read a whole ton, and occasionally I do, I remember when I was little I read Percy Jackson... I actually quite enjoyed the series... the movie was so incredibly bad haha

I think the main issue with a lot of these adaptations is that they're taking pretty substantial content and condensing it into a two hour movie.  I think the best adaptations are ones that are given the leeway to explore the world through a TV show (imagine if Harry Potter had 1 season per book instead of just a movie) versus the movie format.  A series like Poirot is a great example of that.

For this topic specifically, pick any Stephen King movie adaptation.