From page to screen

You can’t throw a stone in the blogosphere this week without hitting a post about the latest Harry Potter volume to make it to the big screen, "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince."

From initial reviews, it looks to be an excellent translation from book to film—but this isn’t always the case. Filmmakers are charged with transforming a beloved text to something palatable for the screen, which often means taking a hatchet to many readers’ favorite parts.

So in celebration of "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" and our love of books on film, I did an impromptu poll around the P&P office. Here’s what a few of our publicists had to say about their favorite—and least-favorite—book-to-movie adaptations:

Tolly
Hit: "Pride and Prejudice" (The six-hour BBC miniseries version, of course.)
Miss: "The Last Unicorn" (“It totally freaked me out as a kid! Although that probably has to do more with me being 5 than it being inherently flawed. But I loved the novel.”)

Shelby
Hit: "X-Men: The Last Stand" (“I don't know if it counts, but I'm a huge comic book-to-movie fan!”)
Miss: "Fahrenheit 451" (Apparently not a fan of Truffaut...but with those dated 1960s special effects, I don’t blame her.)

Elizabeth
Hit: "The Shawshank Redemption" (It’s so popular as a film, you can actually take a Shawshank trail that traces places featured in the movie.)
Miss: "The Notebook" (“It alludes that they both die together to spend eternity in heaven together - but in the book, he lives she dies and spends the next years missing her dearly.”)

Merritt
Hit: "Bridget Jones' Diary" (British fans were actually upset by the casting of American Renée Zellweger as the popular novel’s heroine—but the movie ended up a hit with audiences everywhere.)
Miss: "Congo" (“People walked out of ‘Congo’ because they loved the book, but hated the movie.”)

Amy
Hit: "The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring" (Or, really, just any of the Lord of the Rings films. They stayed true to the books, while also not being afraid to take some creative license for cinematic effect.)
Miss: "Queen of the Damned" (I don’t think they could have been more off-base with this one if they tried. Just terrible.)

Feel free to share your own picks in the comment section! Which are your favs and worst offenders?