Gladiator. Poster of the 2000 movie and cover of the 1958 book, Those About to Die
VS3
Those About to Die
Daniel P. Mannix, 1958
movie vs book
Ridley Scott, 2000

In AD 180, Hispano-Roman General Maximus Decimus Meridius intends to return to his home after he leads the Roman army to victory against the Germanic tribes near Vindobona on the Limes Germanicus. Emperor Marcus Aurelius tells Maximus that his own son, Commodus, is unfit to rule and that he wishes Maximus to succeed him, as regent, to help save Rome from corruption and restore the Roman Republic.


Gladiator. Poster of the 2000 movie and cover of the book novelization
VS3
Gladiator
Dewey Gram, 2000
movie vs book   [NOVELIZATION]
Ridley Scott, 2000

In AD 180, Hispano-Roman General Maximus Decimus Meridius intends to return to his home after he leads the Roman army to victory against the Germanic tribes near Vindobona on the Limes Germanicus. Emperor Marcus Aurelius tells Maximus that his own son, Commodus, is unfit to rule and that he wishes Maximus to succeed him, as regent, to help save Rome from corruption and restore the Roman Republic.


The King's Speech. Poster of the 2010 movie and cover of the 2010 book
VS3
The King's Speech
Mark Logue, 2010
movie vs book
Tom Hooper, 2010

At the official closing of the British Empire Exhibition at Wembley Stadium, Prince Albert, Duke of York, the second son of King George V, addresses the crowd with a strong stammer. Bertie, as he is called by his family, believes the first session is not going well, but Lionel, who insists that all his patients address him as such, has his potential client recite Hamlet’s To be, or not to be soliloquy while hearing classical music played on a pair of headphones.


The Day of the Jackal. Poster of the 1973 movie and cover of the 1971 book
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The Day of the Jackal
Frederick Forsyth, 1971
movie vs book
Fred Zinnemann, 1973

On 22 August 1962, an assassination attempt is made on French President Charles de Gaulle by the militant underground organisation OAS in anger over the French government granting independence to Algeria. The remaining OAS leaders, now hiding in Austria, decide to make another attempt and hire a professional British assassin, who chooses the code name Jackal.


Hamlet. Poster of the 1996 movie and cover of the 1603 book
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Hamlet
William Shakespeare, 1603
movie vs book
Kenneth Branagh, 1996

The film follows the plot of the original play, and is the first adaptation to have the complete original text. Hamlet, son of the King of Denmark, is summoned home for his father’s funeral and his mother Gertrude’s wedding to his uncle Claudius. In a supernatural episode, he discovers that his uncle, who he hates anyway, murdered his father.


The Secret of NIMH. Poster of the 1982 movie and cover of the 1971 book, Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH
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Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH
Robert C. O'Brien, 1971
movie vs book
Don Bluth, 1982

Mrs. Brisby, a widowed field mouse, lives in a cinder block with her children in a field on the Fitzgibbons’ farm. She prepares to move her family out of the field as plowing time approaches, but her son Timothy has fallen ill. She visits Mr. Ages, a friend of her late husband, Jonathan. Mr. Ages diagnoses Timothy with pneumonia, provides her with medicine, and warns her that Timothy must stay inside for at least three weeks or he will die.


Little Dorrit. Poster of the 1987 movie and cover of the 1855 book
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Little Dorrit
Charles Dickens, 1855
movie vs book
Christine Edzard, 1987

Since her birth in 1805, twenty-one years prior, Amy Dorrit has lived in the Marshalsea Prison for Debt, caring for her father, William, who now enjoys a position of privileged seniority as the Father of the Marshalsea. To help her family, Amy works as a seamstress for Mrs. Clennam, a cranky, cold and forbidding semi-invalid living in a crumbling home with servants, the sinister Jeremiah Flintwinch and his bumbling wife, Affery.


Breaking the Code. Poster of the 1996 movie and cover of the 1983 book, Alan Turing: The Enigma
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Alan Turing: The Enigma
Andrew Hodges, 1983
movie vs book
Herbert Wise, 1996

The story focuses on the life of the English mathematician Alan Turing, who helped decode the Enigma code, used by the Germans to send secret orders to their U-boats in World War II. He also was one of the key contributors to the development of the digital computer. Turing was also a homosexual in Britain at a time when it was illegal.


Breaking the Code. Poster of the 1996 movie and cover of the 1986 book
VS3
Breaking the Code
Hugh Whitemore, 1986
movie vs book
Herbert Wise, 1996

The story focuses on the life of the English mathematician Alan Turing, who helped decode the Enigma code, used by the Germans to send secret orders to their U-boats in World War II. He also was one of the key contributors to the development of the digital computer. Turing was also a homosexual in Britain at a time when it was illegal.


The Odessa File. Poster of the 1974 movie and cover of the 1972 book
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The Odessa File
Frederick Forsyth, 1972
movie vs book
Ronald Neame, 1974

On 22 November 1963, Peter Miller, a young freelance reporter in Hamburg, West Germany, follows an ambulance and discovers it is en route to pick up the body of an elderly Jewish Holocaust survivor who had committed suicide, leaving behind no family. The reporter obtains the diary of the man, which contains information on his life in the Riga Ghetto during World War II, including the name of the SS officer who ran the camp, Eduard Roschmann.


Cinderella. Poster of the 2015 movie and cover of the 1812 book
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Cinderella
Charles Perrault, 1812
movie vs book
Kenneth Branagh, 2015

Ella and her parents live happily in a large house with a few servants, until her mother falls ill. Ella promises to follow her mother’s dying wish: to have courage and be kind. Years later, Ella’s father marries recently-widowed Lady Tremaine, who has two unpleasant daughters, Drizella and Anastasia. Ella’s father leaves on business, and Lady Tremaine reveals her cruel and jealous nature.


Underworld: Evolution. Poster of the 2006 movie and cover of the book novelization
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Underworld: Evolution
Greg Cox, 2006
movie vs book   [NOVELIZATION]
Len Wiseman, 2006

In 1202, an army led by the three vampire elders arrives at a village full of Werewolves. In the present day, vampiress Selene takes Michael to a safe house so that she can confront the vampire regent Kraven; she knows that Kraven intends to kill Markus and plans to stop him.