5 blockbuster movies you didn’t know were based on books
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">So many books have been turned into movies that the question of which was better has become quite divisive. While it can be pretty obvious which books most film adaptations are based on, there are some that can overshadow their source material and come as quite a surprise.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Here are five movies you may be surprised to know were based on books.</span></p>
<p><strong>1. Nothing Lasts Forever became Die Hard</strong></p>
<p><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">Nothing Lasts Forever</span></em><span style="font-weight: 400;">, written by Roderick Thorp, was inspired by </span><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Towering Inferno</span></em><span style="font-weight: 400;"> which also features a skyscraper on fire. The main character, retired NYPD detective Joe Leland, was chased through the ashes of the skyscraper by a group of gun-toting terrorists.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">When it was later adapted into </span><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">Die Hard</span></em><span style="font-weight: 400;">, there were a few changes made.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Though both stories feature NYPD detectives facing off against terrorists inside a skyscraper on Christmas Eve, the film changed the protagonist’s name from Joe Leland to John McClane, featured a younger version of the character and changed the ending to a happier one.</span></p>
<p><strong>2. From The Short-Timers to Full Metal Jacket</strong></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Stanley Kubrick took the 1979 novel </span><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Short-Timers</span></em><span style="font-weight: 400;"> and adapted it into </span><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">Full Metal Jacket</span></em><span style="font-weight: 400;">. Though both stories are set during the Vietnam War and feature soldiers going from boot camp to the frontline, Kubrick’s film rearranged the novel’s structure to create a more cohesive and tragic story.</span></p>
<p><strong>3. There Will Be Blood came from Oil!</strong></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Academy Award-winning movie </span><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">There Will Be Blood</span></em><span style="font-weight: 400;"> is a loose adaptation of Upton Sinclair’s 1927 novel </span><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">Oil!</span></em><span style="font-weight: 400;"> While director Paul Thomas Anderson was a fan of the book, he only used the novel’s first 150 pages in the film. Instead, he took the story in a different direction to focus on self-made oil tycoon Daniel Plainview, played by Daniel Day-Lewis, rather than the tycoon’s son.</span></p>
<p><strong>4. Mrs. Doubtfire: Alias Madame Doubtfire</strong></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The hit comedy </span><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">Mrs. Doubtfire</span></em><span style="font-weight: 400;"> was adapted from British author Anne Fine’s young adult novel </span><span style="font-weight: 400;"><em>Alias Madame Doubtfire</em></span><span style="font-weight: 400;">. Both share a similar plot, where a man who has gone through a messy divorce and has limited time with his family, dresses like an old woman and takes a job as his kids’ nanny.</span></p>
<p><strong>5. Psycho to Psycho</strong></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">After paying $9,500 for the film rights to Robert Bloch’s novel </span><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">Psycho </span></em><span style="font-weight: 400;">in 1959, Alfred Hitchcock even bought every available copy of the book in the US to keep the general public in the dark. The studio was against the adaptation, feeling its source material was highly offensive, so Hitchcock used his own money to finance the film, his own crew to make it, and decided to shoot it in black-and-white to keep costs down.</span></p>
