No, I'm not talking about a typical novelization. I mean you take an original movie, and "adapt" it to be a book, like the opposite of going from a book to a movie. Elements can change, the story can diverge, characters added, etc, just as it would if you adapted a book to a movie.

What inspired this for me was Groundhog Day. That movie just seemed like it's based on something even though it's not. People involved in the movie said that they tinkered with the idea of Phil being in the loop for thousands of years. I would definitely read a book that goes into detail about what he does, and what's going on in his head at the time.

Any movies that you feel similarly about?

Hmm, maybe Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

Elmore Leonard's Mr. Majestyk was a screenplay first before becoming a novel. Arthur C. Clarke's 2001: A Space Odyssey was based on the screenplay he'd written with Kubrick. Erich Segal's Love Story began as a screenplay. Rod Serling turned several of his "Twilight Zone" episodes into short stories for a book.

Not sure if that's what you had in mind.

Closer, I think, to what you had in mind: when I saw John Sayles' LONE STAR (1996), I felt it would have been more effective in another form: novel, play, classroom lecture, documentary...something like that, but not a movie.

Not a movie... but the Fallout games.

Typically when a movie makes changes adapting a book, it's due to timing or pacing issues, or possibly budget. Books don't have these hindrances, so adapting a movie script to a book doesn't really require many changes to the actual stories or characters. That said, a number of them are expanded, typically because they're based on the original shooting script, and not the final cut. Both the original Star Wars and Episode I novelizations are notable for changes and expansions of the films:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wa...Luke_Skywalker
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wa..._Menace_(novel)

For the novelization of Neverwhere, Neil Gaiman was able to restore and expand on characters and settings he had to change for the miniseries due to time and budget:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neverwhere_(novel)


Over on the thread for the Thing prequel, someone linked to this story, which tells the 1982 movie from the creature's point-of-view. It's more of a companion piece to the movie (i.e. see the movie first), but it expands the universe:
http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/watts_01_10/


Often, films and TV shows inspire a spin-off series of novels. Typically a lot of these are rubbish, but they do often expand upon the world and characters created in the film.

The Heir to the Empire trilogy of Star Wars novels are a much better follow-up to the original Star Wars trilogy than the prequel trilogy ended up being.

Totally agree. I'd love to read a Fallout novel (or series of novels).

I would have prefered Stephen King mini-series like Storm of the Century, Golden Years, Rose Red had been novels instead.

On the subject of novels based on games, are the Mass Effect novels any good. I know at least one character who first appeared in Mass Effect 3 is actually a protagonist in one of the novels so I was curious if they're worth reading.

I haven't read them, but apparently the 4th one has problems:


http://penny-arcade.com/comic/2012/02/03

The Matrix.

Avatar.

Avatar is based on thousands of pulp stories from the 1890s to the 1930s. So you could say that it already is a book.

Thunderball is another example of a script that was turned into a novel.

Spirited Away would make a great book.