Book-to-Screen Name Change Quiz

Question: Which movie was inspired by the 1985 book Wiseguy?

Answer: Written by journalist Nicholas Pileggi, the biography Wiseguy follows Henry Hill’s 25 years inside the Lucchese crime family. Released one month prior to GoodFellas, the movie My Blue Heaven is an upbeat comedy starring Rick Moranis and Steve Martin that depicts Hill’s time in a witness protection program. It was written by Pileggi’s wife, Nora Ephron.

Question: Which movie was adapted from the book Shoeless Joe?

Answer: Author J.D. Salinger is a prominent character in the book Shoeless Joe. Fearing a lawsuit from the real Salinger, movie producers changed the character to fictional writer Terence Mann, played by James Earl Jones.

Question: Which movie was adapted from the short story “The Greatest Gift”?

Answer: Philip Van Doren Stern originally wrote “The Greatest Gift” as a Christmas card he sent to 200 friends and family members.

Question: Which movie dropped Rita Hayworth and from the title of the novella it was adapted from?

Answer: Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption by Stephen King was first published in a collection called Different Seasons. Another novella from that collection, The Body, was adapted into the film Stand by Me.

Question: Trading the original African setting for Southeast Asia, which movie is loosely based on the 1899 novella Heart of Darkness?

Answer: Eleanor Coppola, the wife of the film’s director, Francis Ford Coppola, shot a documentary of the chaotic production of Apocalypse Now titled Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse.

Question: Which film comedy is based on the noncomedic novel Red Alert, also known as Two Hours to Doom?

Answer: Although many aspects of the film, such as the war room and the doomsday machine, appear in the book, the character Dr. Strangelove was invented for the film.

Question: Which movie is an adaptation of the Upton Sinclair novel Oil!?

Answer: Upton Sinclair’s novel Oil! is loosely based on the life of Edward L. Doheny, who was accused of bribing U.S. Pres. Warren Harding’s secretary of the interior for rights to federal oil reserves during the Teapot Dome Scandal.

Question: Which 1990s teen movie has a title that rhymes with the title of the Shakespeare play it was adapted from?

Answer: The tumultuous romance of Kat and Patrick in 10 Things I Hate About You mirrors that of Katherine and Petruchio in Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew.

Question: Hoping to promote a new product line, Quaker Oats requested that the title of which movie be changed from its source novel?

Answer: Quaker Oats fronted the money for the first big-screen adaptation of Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory but insisted that Charlie be swapped with Willy Wonka to better match the company’s new line of candy.

Question: Which movie was inspired by the book Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

Answer: Though frequently used in the 1982 film, the terms blade runner and replicant do not appear in the original Philip K. Dick novel.

Question: Winner of eight Oscars, including those for best picture and best original song, which movie is loosely based on the novel Q & A by Vikas Swarup?

Answer: In the film version, the hero plays on the game show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, whereas his book counterpart tries his luck at Who Will Win a Billion? (in this case, rupees). Vikas Swarup was an Indian diplomat when he wrote Q & A, his first novel.

Question: Which movie was adapted from the nonfiction book Queen Bees & Wannabes?

Answer: First published in 2002, Queen Bees & Wannabes is a parenting guide that aims to help people with daughters navigate social hierarchies and bullying in school. Many of the themes in the book were used in Mean Girls.

Question: Named for a mythological sculptor who falls in love with his own creation, the play Pygmalion was the original source material for which film?

Answer: The play Pygmalion was first produced in 1913, followed by the stage musical My Fair Lady in 1956, which was made into the film of the same name in 1964. In 1999 the same basic story was retold in the film She’s All That.

Question: Featuring a one-eyed antagonist and tempting sirens, the movie O Brother, Where Art Thou? is loosely based on which epic poem?

Answer: Much like the hero of Homer’s Odyssey, the character Ulysses in O Brother makes a long trek home to prove himself to his estranged wife, named Penny in the movie. Homer was given a writing credit for O Brother.

Question: A book about overpopulation and overcoming food shortfalls, Make Room! Make Room! inspired which movie?

Answer: In Make Room! Make Room! “soylent” is a meat substitute made from soy and lentils, but in the film, soylent is…well, we won’t spoil it.