alien_yet_familiar Wrote:"Watchers" (the one with the smart dog, Einstein) was made into four movies ( I, II, III, and Reborn ) released in 1988, 1990, 1994, 1998, respectively, none of which do the book justice or are worth watching.
"Mr. Murder" was a TV mini-series in 1998. I think one of the Baldwins was the main character. Also not worth watching.
"Intensity" was also made into a TV mini-series in 1997. This one was spectacularly done. John C. McGinley's portrayal of Edgler Vess was chilling. Definitely worth watching if you can find it (I can't!).
"Hideaway" was done in 1995, and starred Jeff Goldblum and Alicia Silverstone. Not a bad jump from book to screen, but not the best.
"Phantoms" was released in 1998, starring Ben Affleck and Rose McGowan. Fairly true to the novel, not a bad movie.
"The Servants of Twilight" was released in 1991. Not a bad adaptation, but with a different (not entirely disappointing) ending.
"The Face of Fear" was released in 1990. I haven't seen this one.
"Sole Survivor" was a TV mini-series in 2000. Haven't seen this one either.
"Whispers" was released in 1989, and again, I haven't seen it.
If anyone knows any more (there are a few concepts and novellas listed at IMDb.com) let me know where to find them!
PS: Let's all hope to god that Kutcher isn't Jack!
The Koontz book that I'd go see as a movie would be
Dark Rivers of the Heart - kind of an antithesis of the
Mack Bolan series.
If Hollyweird does decide to make an RJ movie, they should pay FPW a million or three for an original script that stands on its own (and as a book, too). Otherwise the studio staff might be tempted to rewrite the story a bit.
For example, check out the two
Punisher flicks - Frank Castle was never a cop in any of the comics those two wastes-of-footage were based on, yet in the first one (with Dolph Lundgren), he starts off with a local PD. In the second one (with Thomas Jade), he starts off as some kind of fe(de)ral agent.
Other examples are the X-Men movies - the production crew crammed thousands of pages of backstory into ~ 30 minutes of story. Let's not even go into the botch job that Verhitler did with
Starship Troopers.
Probably the best movements from one medium to another were the way Star Trek and Firefly went from TV to feature films. The crews just picked up the stories where they left off at the end of the TV runs and started from there. They figured that a large portion of the audience was somewhat familiar with the backstory, and that the movie plot would be able to stand on its own.
- Mike Blessing