When a movie comes out based on a bestselling mystery book, do you read the book first? Or do you watch the movie first? Or do you not read the book? Do you never watch the movie, thinking it’ll never be as good as the book? I’ve never been one to watch mystery movies based on books. One instance where I think the TV movie is superior to the book is “Nemesis,” based on Agatha Christie’s book of the same name. The TV movie to which I’m referring was part of BBC’s series of Agatha Christie stories starring Joan Hickson as Miss Marple. They aired in the mid 1980s through the early 1990s.
Has anyone watched the movies based on Gone Girl, by Gillian Flynn, or The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson? Or read the books? How about the movie Presumed Innocent based on the book by Scott Turow?
I’ve neither seen the movies nor read the books I’ve mentioned above, so I might set myself a project for the coming summer of watching movies based on mystery books. Plus, I’ll read the books. This would be a monumental project, since I have tons of reading already scheduled and other books beckoning me.
I’ve seen the old, black-and-white Perry Mason TV series. But I have never read any of the books by Erle Stanley Gardner. Not reading the books, either before or after, did not lessen my enjoyment of watching the series and, later, some of the movies in which Raymond Burr reprised his role as the Los Angeles attorney.
Let me know your thoughts in the comments about whatever books-to-movies you’ve read and/or watched?