rogerd - 3:17 pm on Nov 4, 2002 (gmt 0)

Book/movie conversions are often pretty dicey. Last year had two reasonably faithful adaptations, Harry Potter and LOTR, both of which seemed to appeal to loyal readers as well as new fans. That's tough to do, IMO, as readers almost always want every detail of the book included (e.g., all the people who couldn't imagine why the movie left out Tom Bombadil), while moviegoers expect a couple of hours of fast-paced entertainment. Occasionally someone gets the great idea to turn a book into a mini-series, allowing a lot more detail, but often the result is a plodding series that only a true fan could love.

Going way back to Dune - that movie was relatively faithful to the book, which probably made it incomprehensible to the average guy who stumbled into the theater...