The Best Book-to-Film Adaptations

Behind every great movie, there’s a great script. And behind so many great scripts, there’s an even better book. The Independent’s David Nicholls picks the best on-screen adaptations, from A Philadelphia Story to Trainspotting. His favorite is All the President’s Men, adapted from the Woodward and Beinstein book by William Goldman, which “succeeds in making journalism seem heroic.” Then there’s Jaws, adapted from Peter Benchley’s novel, which became “so iconic and influential that people barely remember it as a bestselling novel.” L.A. Confidential, by James Ellroy, is a movie that retains the labirynthine quality of the original book, and, of course, no list of adaptations would be complete without Breakfast at Tiffany’s, the Truman Capote book brought to glorious life by Audrey Hepburn. But Nicholls says it comes in at No. 10 for a reason: “Whenever I see a poster of this,” he writes, “I want to take her cigarette holder and snap it across my knee.”