10 Best Supposedly Unfilmable Books Brought to Life on Screen in 2023 Release Date

Many of the most popular and beloved movies of all time actually started as books. The Avengers, Gone with the Wind, The Godfather, and The Shawshank Redemption, among others, all began their journeys as literary works. However, not all books can easily make the jump to the big screen, and some are even considered “impossible to film.” Books and movies are different forms of art, and not every story can successfully transition between the two. Take Alfonso Cuarón’s Gravity or the classic musical Singin’ in the Rain, for example. They are best experienced as amazing cinematic experiences, while it’s hard to imagine the works of Kurt Vonnegut or David Foster Wallace being brought to life on screen. Yet, Hollywood has a knack for defying expectations and turning supposedly un-filmable stories into reality – sometimes with fantastic results.

Before Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy took over the world, Stanley Kubrick believed that Tolkien’s novels were impossible to adapt. Similarly, Dune was thought to be un-filmable, despite previous failed attempts, until Denis Villeneuve took on the challenge and transformed it into a hit both at the box office and with critics. However, regardless of reviews or financial success, whether a movie truly captures the spirit of its source material ultimately comes down to personal opinion. So, whether you’re a film fanatic or a book lover who thinks the book is always better, let’s celebrate and admire the books that surprisingly received successful adaptations against all odds.

1. Perfume: The Story of a Murderer

German author Peter Süskind had resisted selling the rights to his novel Perfume: The Story of a Murderer for nearly two decades. He firmly believed that capturing the essence of scent on film was an impossible feat. The story, set in 18th-century France, revolves around Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, an orphan from the slums of Paris with an extraordinary sense of smell. Grenouille’s animalistic understanding of the world and his obsession with preserving the natural scent of beautiful women drive him to commit serial murder. The book is filled with detailed descriptions of smell that transport the reader into Grenouille’s sensory experience. Süskind was convinced that only directors like Stanley Kubrick or Miloš Foreman could do justice to his work on screen. However, Kubrick declined, deeming the book unfilmable. Eventually, Süskind sold the rights to a producer friend who brought in director Tom Tykwer, known for his work on Run Lola Run, to adapt the novel. The resulting film was bold and divisive.

Tykwer, in contrast to Süskind, did not believe that the novel was unfilmable. He argued that books were no better at evoking scent than movies. To tackle this challenge, he employed various techniques. A voiceover by the velvety voice of John Hurt narrates Grenouille’s early life, while visual cues are also utilized. The camera swoops, races, and lingers over the objects that Grenouille smells – oysters, dancing feet in a puddle, plums, and hair. When Grenouille encounters the scent of a beautiful woman for the first time, only her neck and hair are shown, suggesting that he perceives people through their aroma rather than their expressions. Ben Whishaw’s portrayal of Grenouille highlights the character’s uniqueness in other ways. He is fidgety, aloof, and speaks in monosyllables, and his gruesome experiments on the corpses of his victims appear more scientific than predatory. The soundtrack adds another layer to the olfactory nature of the story. When Grenouille encounters the scent of young women or creates the perfect perfume formula, the music soars and becomes ethereal, as if he has unveiled the gates to heaven. Reviews for the film were mixed, but even the negative ones acknowledged Tykwer’s achievement in creating a fully immersive, multi-sensory experience.

2. The Orchid Thief (‘Adaptation’)

True crime stories are often a hit with Hollywood producers, and Susan Orlean’s 1998 book, The Orchid Thief, posed a unique challenge for filmmakers attempting to adapt it. Rather than the typical action-packed and suspenseful narrative found in most true crime movies, Orlean’s book offered a subjective and meandering exploration of the world of competitive orchid growing. Charlie Kaufman, tasked with adapting the book, found the process so difficult that he ended up writing a script about his own struggles instead of focusing on Orlean’s story. This unconventional approach opened up new possibilities for tackling supposedly ‘unfilmable’ books.

In the film Adaptation, we follow a fictionalized version of Kaufman, portrayed by Nicolas Cage, as he grapples with the daunting task of transforming Orlean’s novel into a movie script. Alongside his anxiety and the appearance of his deadbeat brother Donald (also played by Cage), Charlie confronts the pressure of following up his successful debut feature, Being John Malkovich. However, unexpected events provide him with blockbuster-worthy material for his script. Meryl Streep portrays Orlean, who engages in a secret affair with the Florida orchid thief, John Laroche, played by Chris Cooper. As the Kaufmans uncover that the couple is extracting a drug from the stolen orchids, the story takes a thrilling turn with an action sequence, murder, and ultimately a satisfying ending for Charlie.

Orlean initially experienced “complete shock” upon reading the script and even tried to prevent its production. However, her opinion gradually changed, and she grew to appreciate the finished product. She praised the film for remaining true to the book’s themes of life and obsession, while also offering nuanced insights into longing and disappointment. Kaufman took significant liberties with the source material, drawing broad parallels between Orlean, himself, and Laroche. This transformation turned a book centered around a peculiar subculture into a vivid depiction of passion, frustration, and the creative process.

3. Orlando

Virginia Woolf’s novel Orlando, despite being deemed “unfilmable,” is not overly complex in terms of style or language. The main reason people believed it could never be adapted for the screen is because the story spans 400 years, following the life of the ageless protagonist who undergoes a gender transformation from man to woman. Director Sally Potter, who helmed the 1992 adaptation, recalled the disbelief she faced, with many suggesting that two actors should play Orlando at different stages. However, Potter was determined to have one actor portray the character, and when she met Tilda Swinton, she knew she had found the perfect fit.

Swinton’s career has been marked by her ability to portray various genders, ages, and even species. When she met Potter, she was playing a woman disguised as a man in a play, but it was her role as an alien cyborg in the 1987 film Friendship’s Death that convinced Potter of her suitability for Orlando. Swinton flawlessly embodies both male and female versions of the character, aided by androgynous wigs reminiscent of those worn by nobleman in the 15th century. Potter strayed from the source material in certain aspects, aiming to remain faithful to the book’s essence and Woolf’s intentions while making necessary changes for cinematic effectiveness.

In the novel, Orlando’s gender transformation is left unexplained. However, in the film, the change occurs after Orlando experiences a crisis of masculinity during a battle. As a woman in 18th-century England, Orlando grapples with the limitations placed on femininity, such as being unable to inherit land or participate in literary salons. These alterations shift the character’s struggles with gender, framing them as a result of external circumstances rather than internal conflicts. This provides a sharper perspective than what Woolf could have depicted in 1928. Despite its unconventional storyline and indie origins, the film achieved international success, earning two Oscar nominations and propelling Swinton’s film career forward.

4. Watchmen

Comic book heroes used to be seen as the ultimate good guys, but Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons turned that notion on its head with their series Watchmen. They questioned the traditional “good vs. evil” dynamic of the superhero genre by delving into the risks and consequences of superhumans having unchecked power. Watchmen took place in an alternate reality where America had won the Vietnam War, Watergate remained hidden, and the US and Russia were on the brink of a superhero-driven nuclear apocalypse. It was a stark contrast to the escapist fantasy of earlier comics.

Despite challenging stereotypes, Watchmen didn’t shy away from embracing the comic book form. Moore had strong reservations about adapting his creation into a film. He believed that movies couldn’t capture the same level of detail and information that comics could provide. Moore said, “With a movie, you are being dragged through the scenario at a relentless 24 frames per second. With a comic book, you can dart your eyes back to a previous panel, or you can flip back a couple of pages. Even the best director could not possibly get that amount of information into a few frames of a movie.” Due to this sentiment, Terry Gilliam, a persistent and imaginative director, labeled Watchmen “unfilmable.” The rights to the series faced numerous development obstacles until Zack Snyder eventually took charge after over two decades.

Released in 2009, Snyder’s Watchmen film remains a point of contention even within his own DC filmography. Some fans argued that it was too faithful to the source material, with its unnecessarily dense exposition, while others claimed it wasn’t faithful enough, as it omitted the giant squid and undermined Moore’s philosophical take on superheroes. Critics were also divided, with some describing Snyder’s bombastic style as a 163-minute assault, while others considered it a testament to the talent within the genre. The Los Angeles Times even published a review simply titled “It was unfilmable.”

In 2019, Damon Lindelof approached the adaptation of Watchmen from a different angle. He demonstrated that one way to capture the spirit of Moore’s work might be to create an original sequel that spanned multiple episodes. This approach showcased a fresh perspective on the material and proved that faithfully translating Moore’s vision doesn’t necessarily mean sticking strictly to the source material.

5. Naked Lunch

William S. Burroughs was an incredibly avant-garde writer, whose work continues to be considered obscene, shocking, and on the fringes of society, even long after his death. As a member of the Beat Generation, he used his writing to critique and challenge the conservative values of the 1960s. However, even within this progressive literary movement, his work remained deviant and provocative.

Burroughs was known for his addiction to a wide variety of drugs and his open queerness, at a time when homosexuality was illegal in the United States. He fully embraced his transgressive persona, infusing his writing with explicit content. His 1959 novel, Naked Lunch, embodied his beliefs, exploring themes of sex, drugs, violence, and hallucinations. The novel followed a junkie on the run through South America and Tangier, with an intentionally fragmented structure that could be read in any order.

Adapting Burroughs’s work proved to be a challenging task, given the intentional lack of plot and structure in Naked Lunch. However, filmmaker David Cronenberg took on the challenge and surprisingly received acclaim for his adaptation. Cronenberg, known for his contributions to the body horror genre, decided not to include some of the more controversial elements from Burroughs’s book in order to avoid it being banned worldwide. Instead, he focused on the author’s life as a writer and created a linear movie that could secure an R rating.

The film revolves around Bill Lee, an exterminator addicted to bug poison. In his delirium, Lee encounters a talking beetle who convinces him that his wife is a secret agent. In his distorted state, he ends up killing her. The movie features normal-sized cockroaches and human-sized mugwumps, immersing Bill in a nightmarish world of paranoia and slimy substances. While the movie did not resonate with everyone, some critics hailed it as a masterpiece.

Janet Maslin, writing for the New York Times, emphasized the significance of Cronenberg’s decision to deviate from Burroughs’s novel. By transforming the explicit violence and depravity into more metaphorical elements, Cronenberg created a daring and disturbing cinematic adaptation that captured the essence of Burroughs’s work without resorting to excessively off-putting imagery that could alienate audiences.

6. If Beale Street Could Talk

James Baldwin is best known for his essays and his writing style, which is both vibrant and evocative. One of his notable works is the 1974 novel, If Beale Street Could Talk, which showcases his unique voice. The story revolves around the love between childhood friends Tish and Fonny. However, their lives take a turn when Fonny is wrongly accused of sexual assault and imprisoned. Tish discovers that she is pregnant and fights to free Fonny before their baby arrives. Throughout the book, Tish’s close-knit family plays a crucial role in supporting their relationship, going to great lengths to help release Fonny from prison and reunite the young couple.

Baldwin’s storytelling in If Beale Street Could Talk is non-linear and poetic, narrated from Tish’s perspective. The book features vivid descriptions that almost feel like music, allowing readers to delve into the couple’s romance and the depths of the protagonist’s thoughts. Due to the unique narrative style, Baldwin’s work was often deemed “unfilmable.” However, in 2018, Barry Jenkins released the first English-language feature film adaptation of the novel.

Jenkins faithfully captured Baldwin’s voice by using voiceovers extensively and maintaining the slow pace of the source material in lingering shots. Although not all scenes from the book made it into the final cut, Jenkins remained committed to presenting the story in a cinematic rather than literary manner. He skillfully employed music and cinematography to evoke the dreamlike romance and intensity of Baldwin’s words. From the rich color palette to the mesmerizing overhead camera angles in the film’s opening, these cinematic techniques beautifully complement the characters’ experiences.

The film received high praise from critics, earning three Oscar nominations, including one for best adapted screenplay. Regina King won the award for best supporting actress for her portrayal of Tish’s fiercely loving mother. Critics described the film as “gorgeous” and “enveloping,” emphasizing its immersive and mesmerizing quality. The fact that these accolades could be equally applied to Baldwin’s novel is a testament to the success of Jenkins’s adaptation.

7. Lolita

When Vladimir Nabokov’s novel Lolita was published in 1955, it caused quite a stir among readers and critics. The story follows a middle-aged professor who becomes infatuated with a child, taking her on a cross-country journey of sexual assault in run-down motel rooms. The shocking content of the book led to its rejection by every major publisher in the US. In fact, one rejection letter described it as “overwhelmingly nauseating, even to an enlightened Freudian,” suggesting that it should be buried for a thousand years.

Despite the initial resistance, Lolita eventually received a limited release in France and made its way to America, where it garnered praise from renowned writers like Graham Greene and Dorothy Parker. They admired its layered and satirical portrayal of the protagonist and American culture. Prior to Lolita, Nabokov was already a celebrated writer and translator who taught Russian Studies at Cornell University. Although the novel explores taboo subject matter, it maintains the high-mindedness and complexity characteristic of his previous works. It cannot be easily dismissed as smut or solely embraced by academics.

Considering the controversial nature of the material, many believed that Lolita was unfilmable. However, director Stanley Kubrick saw it as a masterpiece and took on the challenge. In order to comply with the Motion Picture Production Code, which imposed strict guidelines on film content, Kubrick had to make significant alterations. He removed the explicit sexual relationship between the protagonist, Humbert Humbert, and Lolita, as well as any reference to her age. Instead, he employed double entendres to imply what was happening between scenes. This approach heightened the comedic element of Nabokov’s novel and lessened the darkness of the subject matter. Kubrick also made the bold decision to open the film with Humbert murdering his rival, suggesting that he is an unreliable and deranged narrator.

The 1962 film adaptation starred James Mason as Humbert and 14-year-old Sue Lyon as Lolita. It received positive reviews from critics, who appreciated its darkly comedic tone. However, some critics took issue with the changes Kubrick made to the source material. Thirty-five years later, director Adrian Lyne, known for erotic thrillers such as Fatal Attraction and 9 ½ Weeks, made another adaptation featuring Jeremy Irons as Humbert. This version stayed closer to the book’s explicit sexuality, although it omitted Nabokov’s humor. Unfortunately, it faced censorship issues and backlash from fans of the novel.

8. Cloud Atlas

David Mitchell’s 2004 novel Cloud Atlas is a wild mix of different genres, characters, time periods, and writing styles. It’s a massive book, spanning over 500 pages, and tells six different stories that take place in vastly different settings, ranging from a 19th-century Pacific slave ship to a post-apocalyptic Hawaii in the future. Mitchell cleverly connects these stories by embedding each one within the previous story through letters, books, and manuscripts that are read by the main characters. The book is divided into two halves, with an isolated story in the middle that starts in chronological order and then goes in reverse.

Mitchell himself didn’t think the book could ever be turned into a film. He once said, “My only film-related thought when I was writing the book was what a shame that no one would ever, ever film this. I was quite convinced it would never happen.” But, surprisingly, less than a decade later, the Wachowskis, the duo behind The Matrix series, teamed up with German director Tom Tykwer to prove him wrong.

The Wachowskis and Tykwer had an ambitious plan for the movie adaptation. They wanted to shoot the film on two full-scale locations simultaneously. Unfortunately, all the major film studios turned them down, but they didn’t give up. They managed to secure a staggering $100 million from independent financiers and assembled an impressive cast including Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, and Jim Sturgess for the lead roles.

The movie takes a different approach from the book’s nesting doll structure. Instead, it introduces all the characters upfront in a montage and weaves the stories together in a more traditional cinematic style, similar to the alternating structure often used in movies. The filmmakers also utilized the same actors to play multiple characters, enhancing the visual element of the film and emphasizing Mitchell’s theme of interconnectedness in a way that the book couldn’t.

The result was a divisive three-hour film that garnered mixed reactions from audiences. Some critics panned it, criticizing the wigs, prosthetics, and the grand scope of the film, while others praised it for its stunning imagery and thought-provoking exploration of humanity and spirituality. And for Tom Hanks, just seeing Hugh Grant play a cannibal made the whole experience worth it.

9. Solaris

Stanisław Lem, a Polish author known for his intellectually-driven science fiction, wrote novels that are both enlightening and challenging. One of his most notable works is Solaris, published in 1961. The story takes place on a space station orbiting the planet Solaris, where psychologist Kris Kelvin is sent to investigate disturbing reports from the crew. The planet’s surface is covered by a gelatinous ocean believed to be a sentient alien life form. However, the scientists’ attempts to understand it have reached an impasse, as the ocean seems to retaliate by creating hallucinations and manifestations from their subconscious.

Upon Kelvin’s arrival, he encounters apparitions of his deceased partner, Harey, who appears to be both a victim and servant of the mysterious ocean. Lem’s novel delves into complex themes such as the limitations of knowledge, the contradictions of space exploration, and the technical challenges of communicating with Solaris. This complexity makes it difficult to interpret and adapt, but in 1972, Andrei Tarkovsky, a highly acclaimed Russian filmmaker, attempted to bring the story to the big screen.

Tarkovsky’s meeting with Lem to discuss the film adaptation was marked by hostility, and Lem later described their encounters as unemotionally as possible. Disagreements arose from Tarkovsky’s intention to use the planet Solaris as a means to explore the characters’ inner thoughts rather than as a platform for examining knowledge and human failings. Tarkovsky’s motivation for making the film was not rooted in science fiction, but in the ethical dilemmas posed by scientific discoveries. The resulting film is unmistakably Tarkovsky’s creation rather than a faithful representation of Lem’s novel. It is deliberate in its pacing, almost painfully slow, and deviates from the source material by focusing on Kelvin’s life on Earth. Even when Kelvin finally reaches space, science takes a backseat to his emotional journey as he falls in love with Harey’s clone, confronts his guilt over her death, and confronts memories of his mother.

In 2002, Steven Soderbergh released his own adaptation of Lem’s novel, starring George Clooney in the role of Kris Kelvin (renamed Chris Kelvin in this version). Soderbergh’s film, much shorter than Tarkovsky’s nearly three-hour epic, did not fare well at the box office, likely due to its lack of action, emphasis on science, or futuristic technology. Nevertheless, renowned critic Roger Ebert praised Soderbergh’s adaptation, stating that it felt like the same story liberated from the weighty solemnity of Tarkovsky’s interpretation.

10. White Noise

Don DeLillo’s 1985 novel White Noise, a significant work in Postmodern literature, garnered critical acclaim by winning the National Book Award. The story takes place in a fictional college town in the Midwest and revolves around Jack Gladney, a professor specializing in “Hitler Studies.” Jack’s encounter with a railway collision, causing the release of harmful gases, forces him to confront his fear of death. Meanwhile, his wife Babette harbors a secret addiction to a new drug that helps her cope with existential dread. Their family, consisting mostly of Jack’s brilliant children from previous marriages, engage in heated discussions about global catastrophes while remaining glued to their radios and televisions.

White Noise is primarily written in dense dialogues and scattered lists of objects and brands, providing ample academic satire and social commentary. Its complex nature led many to consider it unfilmable for years. However, as time went on, the novel’s commentary on media saturation and consumerism only grew more relevant. In 2022, Noah Baumbach took on the difficult task of adapting it for the screen.

Baumbach’s film adaptation remained faithful to the source material but faced mixed reviews. The director attempted to capture the novel’s wide-ranging shifts in tone through a combination of high-speed car chases, apocalyptic panic, elements of domestic melodrama, and madcap comedy. While some appreciated the film’s ambition in bringing the previously deemed unfilmable to life, others noted that Baumbach struggled to achieve the same tonal changes as DeLillo. Certain critics pointed out that the dialogue, directly derived from DeLillo’s writing, occasionally felt forced and grandiose within the movie’s context. Additionally, the film garnered attention for its lighthearted tone, including an eight-minute dance sequence, which contrasted with the novel’s darker undertones.