10 Young Adult Novels We Wish Had Never Been Made Into Movies
10 Young Adult Novels We Wish Had Never Been Made Into Movies
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We all love seeing our favorite novels make it to the silver screen, but sometimes incredible young adult novels fall terribly flat in theaters.
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Young adult novels have spawned some of the greatest franchises in movie history, from Harry Potter to Twilight to The Hunger Games. But book adaptations are rarely good, and the gold rush of teen flicks in Hollywood has led movie studios to give the green light to some real duds, costing millions in box office revenue and disappointing young readers the world over.
Executives and fans alike often wish that they could turn back time and prevent horrible adaptations from ever getting made. But they can’t. So, for your viewing pleasure (or displeasure), here are 10 YA novels we wish had never been made into movies.
10 Vampire Academy
Based on the Vampire Academy series of novels by Richelle Mead, this film stars Zoey Deutch and Lucy Fry as students at St. Vladimir’s Academy for vampire teens. It’s directed by Mark Waters, master of girly high school comedies (Mean Girls, Freaky Friday), but only grossed $15 million at the box office against a $30 million budget.
Though a sequel, entitled Frostbite, made it all the way to the script phase, it was canceled after the film’s poor showing at the box office. Perhaps a blessing in disguise, as moviegoers will no longer have to endure material that should never have been adapted in the first place.
9 The Lightning Thief
Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson & the Olympians series has sold more than 69 million copies in 35 countries to date. In book form, it got a spinoff series, The Heroes of Olympus, but, in movie form, Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief only earned one sequel, Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters, which was released to poor reviews in 2013.
The first film was a box office success, earning $226 million against a $95 million budget, but it was panned by fans worldwide for its massive deviation from the books. Logan Lerman’s career has only just started to rebound, as he now has a starring role in the Amazon original series Hunters.
8 Maximum Ride
This film is a bit of an odd bird—no pun intended. Based on James Patterson’s book series of the same name, Maximum Ride was produced on a minimal budget by YouTube personality Jenna Marbles and went straight to video with absolutely no marketing or fanfare.
Most critics ignored this film entirely, but those who saw it gave it overwhelmingly negative reviews. Fans agreed, overall dismissing this adaptation of a waste of a promising property. The only positive is that the movie flew so far under the radar that it’s likely any other adaptation would start with a clean slate.
7 The Host
The Host was released in 2013 during the height of Twilight fever. It’s based on another young adult novel by Stephanie Meyers, author of the Twilight series, and takes place on a future Earth which has been invaded by a parasitic alien race known as “Souls,” who take over human bodies. The conflict comes when the main character, a teenage girl, refuses to give up her body.
The film adaptation starred Saoirse Ronan and Max Irons and made $63 million on a $40 million budget. Not great, but not awful. The real damage came from the critical response. The Host was panned by critics and holds only a 9% score on Rotten Tomatoes to this day.
6 The Mortal Instruments
Cassandra Clare’s series of supernatural romances, The Mortal Instruments, began in 2007 with the book City of Bones and ended in 2014 with City of Heavenly Fire. It follows Clary Fray, who discovers that she’s a “Shadowhunter,” a human with angelic traits who must hunt demons.
The film The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones came out in 2013 and starred Lily Collins as Clary. It was as unpopular with fans as it was with critics, earning only a 13% on Rotten Tomatoes. However, the book series has since been adapted for television by Freeform. The series, Shadowhunters, seems to have done much better in the fan-approval department.
5 The 5th Wave
The novel The 5th Wave, written by Rick Yancey and published in 2013, follows 16-year-old Cassie Sullivan as she tries to survive a world that’s been devastated by an alien invasion. Critics predicted that it would “do for aliens what Twilight did for vampires,” so it’s no surprise that it was picked up for adaptation.
Tobey Maguire was a producer of the adaptation, which starred Chloë Grace Moretz and Nick Robinson (Love, Simon). Though the film grossed $109 million on an estimated $54 million budget, it was almost universally panned by critics, who thought it was too much a patchwork of other YA science fiction series.
4 I Am Number Four
Alex Pettyfer has starred in a number of awful YA adaptations, including Beastly, Stormbreaker, and this clunker. Though I Am Number Four did better than The 5th Wave with critics, garnering a 33% score on Rotten Tomatoes, it was deemed an “ultimately forgettable sci-fi thriller,” with performances that weren’t worth commenting on.
The novel I Am Number Four, written by Pittacus Lore (pseudonym of James Frey and Jobie Hughes), was the first in a series of six published books known as the Lorien Legacy series. But the film, despite its respectable earnings, never got a sequel. Probably for the best.
3 Eragon
Based on the popular epic fantasy book by Christopher Paolini, Eragon was one of the worst-reviewed films of 2006. Called “silly,” “lifeless,” “generic,” and even “wooden,” Eragon disappointed moviegoers and fans of the novel alike and seems to have harpooned the career of its star, Ed Speelers, who’s remained under Hollywood’s radar since its release.
The film was supposed to be the start of a franchise, with the second and third movies—based on Eldest and Brisingr respectively—scheduled to be shot simultaneously. Fans will be forever grateful that the planned Inheritance Cycle film series was killed early on, as they must suffer no more.
2 Alex Rider
The Alex Rider series follows a teenage spy who works for MI-6. The series comprises 11 novels so far, with more on the way, but it has only ever been adapted for the silver screen once, and for good reason. Alex Rider: Stormbreaker, based on the first book in the series, was released in 2006 and starred Alex Pettyfer as the titular character. The film was a box office bomb, losing upwards of $20 million, and was called a “lame and disappointing affair” by critics.
However, the series has since been picked up for adaptation into a TV series, with author Anthony Horowitz executive producing. Perhaps fans will find what they’re looking for on the small screen.
1 Artemis Fowl
Though the Artemis Fowl movie hasn’t yet been released, there seems to be no reason to reserve judgment. Fan response to the trailer has been overwhelmingly negative, especially with respect to the main character. Though the Artemis of the book is a conniving little brat, the Artemis of the trailer is an angelic boy who knows nothing of his father’s criminal empire.
Fans will have to wait and see on May 29, 2020, but it seems Eoin Colfer’s beloved series will go the way of Eragon and Percy Jackson when it hits the big screen. Then again, maybe Disney will work some sort of miracle between now and then, and the film won’t be so bad after all.
Link Source : https://screenrant.com/worst-young-adult-novel-movie-adaptations/
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