60 Screen Adaptations Superior to the Original Books

Even the most accurate movie adaptation is always different from the book. If only because the reader uses his imagination, imagining characters, situations, atmosphere. And the movie imposes already fixed images, in addition, the screenwriter and director often cut or change the moments that exist in the book, put other accents. And so the debate about what is better – a book or a movie, will never subside, because each person has his own vision.

We have collected in one list (far from complete) outstanding film adaptations that are (probably!) better than the fiction books they are based on, including novelties and classic films of the past, and arranged them in descending order of rating. Keep in mind that this is a subjective opinion, and tell us about those movies that you found more interesting than their printed originals.

The Green Mile

• IMDB Rating – 8.6
• Genre: Drama, Fantasy, Crime
• Production: USA / 1999
• Budget: $60,000,000
• Worldwide Box Office: $286,801,374
• Director: Frank Darabont
• Starring: Tom Hanks, David Morse, Bonnie Hunt, Michael Clarke Duncan, James Cromwell, Michael Jeter, Graham Greene, Doug Hutchison, Sam Rockwell, Barry Pepper.

This adaptation of Stephen King’s mystical novel of the same name by Frank Darabont, starring a young actor Tom Hanks, earned a huge number of rave reviews, awards and nominations, and even King himself to this day considers it the best film adaptation of his work.

In a nursing home, Paul Edgecombe tells an elderly friend about what happened in his youth when he worked as a senior warden on the death row block of a federal prison during the Great Depression. “The Green Mile” is the name given to the green-painted corridor through which condemned criminals are sent to execution.

But one day a real black giant John Coffey is brought to the cell with supernatural powers, and the lives of all the block’s inhabitants are forever changed.

By the way, Tom Hanks was chosen by Darabonta for the role of Dufresne in “Escape from Shawshank”, but was forced to refuse because of the schedule. And actor Michael Clarke Duncan for the role of Coffey was suggested by Bruce Willis. Duncan, having read the script, said “yes, it’s definitely me.”

The Shawshank Redemption

• IMDB Rating – 9.3
• Genre: Drama
• Production: USA / 1994
• Budget: $25,000,000
• Worldwide Box Office: $28,418,687
• Director: Frank Darabont
• Starring Tim Robbins, Morgan Freeman, Bob Ganton, William Sadler, Clancy Brown, Gil Bellows, Mark Ralston, James Whitmore, Jeffrey DeMunn, Larry Brandenburg.

Once again, it’s a prison movie and an adaptation of Stephen King’s book. What can you do, it is the screen adaptations of the American master of horror that have earned the highest ratings. His relatively small and quickly forgotten novella “Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption” in 1982 turned into a priceless masterpiece of cinematic art, again thanks to Frank Darabont, director and screenwriter, who gave the world an impeccable movie for the second time.

It’s hard to imagine a man farther removed from the underworld than Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins). But he finds himself behind bars on false charges of murdering his wife and her lover. Realizing that the justice system is in no hurry to get to the truth and review his case, Eddie gracefully escapes from prison, leaving behind an incredible trail of events and turmoil. The story is narrated by prison “longtime resident” Red (Morgan Freeman), who watches Eddie admiringly.

This is the first of Darabont’s three Stephen King movies. The other two are 2007’s The Green Mile and The Darkness.

Forrest Gump

• IMDB Rating – 8.8
• Genre: Drama, Comedy, Melodrama, History, Military
• Production: USA / 1994
• Budget: $55,000,000
• Worldwide Box Office: $677,387,716
• Director: Robert Zemeckis
• Starring: Tom Hanks, Robin Wright, Sally Field, Gary Sinise, Mykelti Williamson, Michael Conner Humphrey, Hannah R. Hall, Sam Anderson, Siobhan Fallon, Rebecca Williams.

If you look for reviews of Winston Groom’s 1986 book, you can find out a lot of funny things about Forrest Gump. For example, that the hero is impenetrably stupid, and the book is so disgusting that it went straight to the trash after the first pages. True, in defense of the writer, we can say that the novel was extremely popular for a while. It all depends on subjective perception, doesn’t it?

Director Robert Zemeckis and his favorite actor Tom Hanks have it pretty cool with perception. They’ve created an epic movie that will bring tears to the eyes of a cynic. Forrest is mentally challenged but empathetic, kind, trustworthy, human and selfless, living in a dense historical context. It’s incredible. It needs to be seen. But you don’t have to read the book!

After the novel’s release, Warner Bros. bought the screen rights, quickly abandoning filming due to murky financial prospects. The rights went to Paramount, Zemeckis became interested, Barry Sonnenfeld recommended an aspiring Tom Hanks for the lead role and the movie won 6 Oscars, beating Pulp Fiction and Shawshank Redemption.

Schindler’s List

• IMDB Rating – 9.0
• Genre: Drama, Biography, History, Military
• Production: USA / 1993
• Budget: $22,000,000
• Worldwide Box Office: $321,306,305
• Director: Steven Spielberg
• Starring: Liam Neeson, Ben Kingsley, Rafe Fiennes, Caroline Goodall, Embeth Davidtz, Yonatan Segal, Malgosha Goebel, Shmuel Levy, Mark Iwanir, Beatrice Macola.

The novel “Schindler’s Ark” by Australian Thomas Keneally, based on real events, is a book that can stun for several days, during which you can remember and go over the details of the plot, thinking about many important things. The book makes a huge impression, like any good literature.

But Steven Spielberg’s movie starring Liam Neeson is something else. Without deviating from the plot, the great director was able to make a great story alive and real. Oskar Schindler, a German factory worker who rejoices in war as a means of profit, is gradually reincarnated as a savior of the victims of fascism. Trust in him gradually grows, morphing into admiration and inspiration. And the Oscars of this movie, not counting the main character, seven more. Gold statuettes. 🙂

By the way, the Russian dubbing was checked personally by Steven Spielberg and thanked the team of Yaroslava Turylyova, who worked on dubbing 12 hours a day for two months.

Fight Club

• IMDB Rating – 8.8
• Genre: Thriller, Drama, Crime
• Production: USA, Germany / 1999
• Budget: $63,000,000
• Worldwide Box Office: $100,853,753
• Director: David Fincher
• Starring: Edward Norton, Brad Pitt, Helena Bonham Carter, Mit Loaf, Zack Grenier, Holt McKellany, Jared Leto, Eion Bailey, Richmond Arquette, David Andrews.

The first rule of “Fight Club” is not to mention… that the movie is exactly a head above the book it’s based on. David Fincher gathered the essence, smeared in a thin layer on the typical Chuck Palanick’s boring and bloody novel about drugs, perversion and madness, into a tough, dynamic, cult, unforgettable and timeless thriller. And changed the ending slightly.

The narrator of the story is a work-weary yuppie who one day meets the charming Tyler Durden and makes a friend, with whom he creates an anarchic “Fight Club” and gets into all sorts of adventures. The ending is astonishing, completely changing the meaning of what’s going on.

The 20th Century Fox studio bought Palanick’s screen rights even before the book was published for only $10,000. Of the four directors who were offered the book, only David Fincher was interested in it. As a result, the movie is still one of the 20 best movies of all time, according to many ratings.

The Godfather

• IMDB Rating – 9.2
• Genre: Drama, Crime
• Production: USA / 1972
• Budget: $6,000,000
• Worldwide Box Office: $243,862,778
• Director: Francis Ford Coppola
• Starring: Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, Robert Duvall, Richard S. Castellano, Diane Kian. Castellano, Diane Keaton, Talia Shire, John Cazale, Al Lettieri, Sterling Hayden.

A great example of how adaptation becomes necessary in order to perpetuate a story. Mario Piuso himself wrote the screenplay of The Godfather based on his novel in collaboration with Francis Ford Coppola, who turned a quite banal crime fiction book into a cinematic classic. This is perhaps the best example of a screen adaptation that did not replace the original, but became its development.

The plot centers on a Sicilian Mafia clan living in New York by its own laws and traditions. Patriarch Don Vito Corleone is preparing for his daughter’s wedding, and at this time Michael, the don’s favorite son, returns from the war. The godfather dreams that it is he who will continue the family business, but Michael himself does not want to connect his future with crime.

This movie is considered the most important milestone of the gangster genre and one of the best works of all time, ranking second on the list of “Greatest Movies” (with 1941’s Citizen Kane in first position).

Shutter Island

• IMDB Rating – 8.2
• Genre: Thriller, Detective, Drama
• Production: USA / 2009
• Budget: $80,000,000
• Worldwide Box Office: $294,804,195
• Director: Martin Scorsese
• Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Ruffalo, Ben Kingsley, Max von Sydow, Michelle Williams, Emily Mortimer, Patricia Clarkson, Jackie Earle Haley, Ted Levine, John Carroll Lynch.

This story can be recommended in two versions at once: screen and print. They are very different, starting with the description of the characters and ending with dialogues. The book by the popular and extraordinary detective Dennis Lehane is more thorough, more deeply worked out in detail, the characters have more social ties. Martin Scorsese’s movie is more compact, brighter and more spectacular. The ending in the novel is more concrete than in the movie, where it is shocking and remains open.

So, in the windy fall of 1952 on the secluded island of Shutter, where there is a mental hospital for dangerous criminals, come two: Marshal Daniels (DiCaprio) with his partner Owl (Ruffalo) to investigate the mysterious disappearance of a woman-child killer. Literally “from the doorstep” the strangeness begins, and it seems like it’s about to get mystical. But no, this is an incredibly original detective with a surprising denouement.

The movie became the highest-grossing of Scorsese’s career, and was later surpassed only by The Wolf of Wall Street, another, incidentally, adaptation of the book.

This is one of the best movies in our selection of mental hospital movies.

The Prestige

• IMDB Rating – 8.5
• Genre: Thriller, Fiction, Drama, Detective
• Production: UK, USA / 2006
• Budget: $40,000,000
• Worldwide Box Office: $109,676,311
• Director: Christopher Nolan
• Starring: Hugh Jackman, Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Piper Perabo, Rebecca Hall, Scarlett Johansson, Samantha Mahurin, David Bowie, Andy Serkis, Daniel Davis.

The British Christopher Priest’s sci-fi drama of the same name is not bad, maybe a bit overloaded and quickly forgotten after reading. Christopher Nolan, taking in his favorite actor Christian Bale and inviting Hugh Jackman, twists, so to speak, the contrast to the maximum, creating for this story dynamics and bright, spectacular atmosphere with a peculiar to the director a touch of attractive gloom.

The action unfolds in Victorian London, where two great illusionists – Alfred Borden under the pseudonym “The Professor” and Robert Engier, the so-called “Great Danton” – are competing for the public’s attention. They both try to learn the other’s secrets and outdo their rival in spectacle. But one day Danton is found dead and the Professor is blamed for his death. And then something incredible happens. Trick or magic?

Incidentally, this movie is the unconscious debut of Christopher Nolan’s son, who played the infant Alfred Borden.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

• IMDB Rating – 6.7
• Genre: Drama
• Production: USA / 1975
• Budget: $3,000,000
• Worldwide Box Office: $109,099,044
• Director: Milos Forman
• Starring: Jack Nicholson, Louise Fletcher, Will Sampson, Brad Dourif, William Redfield, Danny DeVito, Christopher Lloyd, Sidney Lassick, Nathan George, Vincent Schiavelli.

Ken Kesey’s 1962 novel, a verbose description of the patients, the set-up and the walls of an Oregon mental institution, abounded with vivid characters and still makes many “most favorite books” lists. And much of the action and thought takes place inside the Chief’s head.

The 1975 movie, with an amazing performance by Jack Nicholson as petty criminal McMurphy, who feigns insanity to avoid jail time and ends up in an asylum, is much better. Director Milos Forman has shifted the focus from the thoughts of the Native American narrator to the confrontation between McMurphy and the cruel overbearing nurse Mildred Ratchet, giving the story a real rebirth.

This movie became the second movie in cinematic history to win 5 major Oscar statuettes: best film, actor, actress, director and screenplay.

Dog’s heart

• IMDB Rating – 8.6
• Genre: Fantastic, Drama, Comedy
• Production: USSR / 1988
• Worldwide Box Office: $14,640
• Director: Vladimir Bortko
• Starring: Vladimir Tolokonnikov, Evgeny Evstigneev, Boris Plotnikov, Roman Kartsev, Nina Ruslanova, Olga Melikhova, Alexei Mironov, Angelika Nevolina, Natalia Fomenko, Ivan Ganja.

If you haven’t seen this Russian masterpiece yet, be sure to take the time to watch it, you won’t regret it! Bulgakov’s famous story about how a kind dog was transplanted with an alcoholic’s pituitary gland and transformed into a scandalous marginal, despite all the genius of the writer, is a bit stuffy and reads rather boring.

Director Vladimir Bortko changed the focus of the narrative from Preobrazhensky to Sharikov, added a subtle love line between Bormental and Vasnetsova, put a great scene with balalaika and strengthened the impression of Shvonder, who is almost invisible in the book. The audience rating on Kinopoisk and IMDb speaks for itself. This is a cult masterpiece, firmly embedded with its quotes and recognizable situations.

On the role of Poligraf Poligrafovich Sharikov director has long selected an actor, hesitated between eight candidates, but when in Alma-Ata saw the Kazakh Tolokonnikov, approved immediately.

The Silence of the Lambs

• IMDB Rating – 8.6
• Genre: Thriller, Detective, Crime, Drama, Horror
• Production: USA / 1990
• Budget: $19,000,000
• Worldwide Box Office: $272,742,922
• Director: Jonathan Demme
• Starring: Jodie Foster, Anthony Hopkins, Brooke Smith, Scott Glenn, Ted Levine, Anthony Heald, Casey Lemmons, Diane Baker, Charles Napier, Roger Corman.

What writer Thomas Harris is trying to tell in his second novel in the bestselling Hannibal Lecter series, Jonathan Demme’s film does a decidedly better job, not least because of the talented work of actress Jodie Foster, who creates the iconic Clarissa Starling, and, of course, Anthony Hopkins, who is impeccably creepy as Lecter. Although the book itself is one of the hundred best detective novels of all time, but the movie ranks 5th in the list of the hundred sharpest films in 100 years.

On assignment from her boss Jack Crawford, Clarissa, a young cadet in the FBI’s psychology department, tries to make contact with Hannibal, an intelligent, insightful forensic psychiatrist and serial killer, who is in custody. This is necessary to catch an active maniac nicknamed “Buffalo Bill” who is skinning his victims. Lecter knows the killer’s name, and Clarissa is drawn into a strange psychological game with Hannibal to accomplish her goal.

This movie became the third in the history of cinema to win 5 most prestigious Oscars. Previously, only the 1975 drama “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” and the 1934 retro romcom “It Happened One Night” managed to do so.

The Notebook

• IMDB Rating – 7.8
• Genre: Drama, Melodrama
• Production: USA / 2004
• Budget: $29,000,000
• Worldwide Box Office: $115,533,700
• Director: Nick Cassavetes
• Starring: Ryan Gosling, Rachel McAdams, James Garner, Gina Rowlands, Sam Shepard, Joan Allen, David Thornton, James Marsden, Kevin Connolly, Tim Ivey.

American author Nicholas Sparks is known for his sweet and sad stories on the themes of love and Christianity. Almost every book of his has become a bestseller for housewives around the world. Nick Cassavetes’ screen adaptation managed to turn an uncomplicated sob story into a drama with an impressive scope of events and a good dose of hard-hitting morality. Though the movie is still painful to watch with emotions running high.

Every day an old man reads his diary to his elderly companion, telling of the love of a young man and a young woman from different backgrounds. He is a poor man and a vagabond, she is a promising rich girl. They can’t breathe without each other, but part once, only to endure painful trials and meet again.

The elderly Ellie was played by director Cassavetes’ mother. The project was in development for seven years.

The Help

• IMDB Rating – 8.1
• Genre: Drama
• Production: USA, India / 2011
• Budget: $25,000,000
• Worldwide Box Office: $216,639,112
• Director: Tate Taylor
• Starring: Emma Stone, Viola Davis, Bryce Dallas Howard, Octavia Spencer, Jessica Chastain, Ana O’Reilly, Allison Janney, Sissy Spacek, Cicely Tyson, Mary Steenbergen

Catherine Stockett’s scandalous novel about rich ladies abusing their own maids in the 60s was rejected 60 times before it was dared to be published in 2009. The story centers on Skeeter, who decides to become a writer and wants to begin by describing the role of maids. The theme of racism, of course, is raised here, but it is far from the main one, more important is the snobbery of the rich, who do not know how to respect those who provide their comfort.

A little after the publication of the novel for his screen adaptation took a childhood friend Stokett, director Tate Taylor. The story benefited greatly from the visuals, plus the film has a simply incomparable female cast that looks perfect in retro outfits. The movie won a lot of movie awards and is considered the best in the director’s career.

Writer Kathryn Stockett admitted that the book character Minnie was inspired by actress Octavia Spencer, who played Minnie in the movie.

You wouldn’t dream of it…

• IMDB Rating – 7.8
• Genre: Drama, melodrama
• Production: USSR / 1980
• Director: Ilya Frez
• Starring: Tatiana Aksyuta, Nikita Mikhailovsky, Elena Solovey, Irina Miroshnichenko, Lidia Fedoseyeva-Shukshina, Albert Filozov, Tatiana Peltzer, Rufina Nifontova, Yevgeny Gerasimov, Ekaterina Vasilieva.

Galina Shcherbakova’s charming and slightly rebellious story of teenage love in Soviet realities was born almost spontaneously. Up until the 70s, she wrote more serious, philosophical prose, which was published rather reluctantly, and here I wanted something sentimental. So was born a story, which, to the amazement of the writer herself, had a resounding success.

In 1980, Shcherbakova turned to director Ilya Frese, wishing to screen the love story of two young people who dream of separating their parents because of long-standing love differences. True, the main character had to be renamed Katya because of the nagging question of imitating Shakespeare (in the story, the lovers are called Roman and Julka), but the movie was a resounding success, not least because of the more positive ending than in the book. By the way, this movie is on our list of the best Soviet love movies.

In March 1981, the movie also premiered in New York City under the title “Love & Lies” and on IMDb the movie’s rating is almost 8 out of 10.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

• IMDB Rating – 7.8
• Genre: Drama, Fantasy
• Production: USA / 2008
• Budget: $150,000,000
• Worldwide Box Office: $333,932,083
• Director: David Fincher
• Starring: Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, Julia Ormond, Taraji P. Henson, Jason Fleming, Jared Harris, Tilda Swinton, Mahershala Ali, Elle Fanning, Elias Koteas.

Few people know that the beautiful, long and impressive movie story of Benjamin Button was born from a simple story by the author of The Great Gatsby, Francis Scott Fitzgerald. Once again, David Fincher confirmed his reputation as a director who turns books into visual and semantic masterpieces.

In the dull story, Benjamin, a strange child born old and growing younger over time, lives with his parents, marries, has a son with whom he later attends kindergarten and eventually loses his memory as fate reels back his years.

A lot has changed in the movie. Benjamin’s mother died in childbirth, his father abandoned him, and the strange boy was raised by a poor black woman. An amazing story of contemplative life, travel, adventure and a single love through the years.

The movie was nominated for 11 Oscars, of which it won three statuettes.

The Reader

• IMDB Rating – 7.6
• Genre: Drama, melodrama
• Production: USA, Germany / 2008
• Budget: $32,000,000
• Worldwide Box Office: $108,901,967
• Director: Stephen Daldry
• Starring: Rafe Fiennes, Kate Winslet, David Cross, Bruno Ganz, Burghart Klaussner, Lena Olin, Caroline Herfurth, Hanna Herzsprung, Jeanette Hein, Susanne Lothar.

One of the strongest, most candid and painful dramas about the aftermath of World War II, the film features brilliant acting by Rafe Fiennes, David Cross and a mesmerizing Kate Winslet. The movie was based on the best-selling novel by German writer Bernhard Schlink. The book made a real sensation, was translated into dozens of languages, progressed in the world, but the movie by Stephen Doldry was no worse.

This is the story of Michael Berg, which unfolds over forty years. The beginning – in 1958, when 15-year-old Michael begins an affair with a mysterious adult woman Hannah. Together with her he learns the joys of sex and reads the classics aloud to her, as this sympathetic, kind and beautiful woman is illiterate. The boy is madly in love, and the more bitter will be the disclosure of his beloved’s secrets, an event that will subject Michael’s fate to a monstrous metamorphosis and will remain a sore wound for the rest of his life.

In selling the screen rights, Schlink demanded that the film be made in English and it was he who chose Kate Winslet for the lead role, simply not seeing any other actress in the character of Hannah.

A violent romance

• IMDB Rating – 7.9
• Genre: Drama, Melodrama, History
• Production: USSR / 1984
• Director: Eldar Ryazanov
• Starring: Larisa Guzeyeva, Andrei Myagkov, Alisa Freindlikh, Nikita Mikhalkov, Alexei Petrenko, Viktor Proskurin, Georgy Burkov, Tatiana Pankova, Borislav Brondukov, Alexander Pankratov-Chorny.

We recall another Soviet classic. Alexander Ostrovsky was a great playwright who almost single-handedly created almost the entire theatrical repertoire of his time. Until 1850, he served as a court clerk, and the plot of “Bespridannitsa” was born out of one criminal case of murder because of jealousy.

In 1984, the third screen adaptation of this play was released, far surpassing its adaptation from Eldar Ryazanov, where the still unknown actress Larissa Guzeyeva made her debut in the title role. A wonderful acting ensemble, heartfelt romances on the verses of classical poets and great dialogues made this melodrama a real sensation all over the world. And the plot is simple – an impoverished noblewoman, widow Ogudalova, tries to marry off her three daughters, charming young ladies, around whom deadly passions begin to boil.

Romances to poems by Akhmadulina, Tsvetaeva and director Ryazanov himself are performed by Nikita Mikhalkov and Veronika Ponomaryova, and the film’s soundtrack was released as a separate album and became incredibly popular.

Die Hard

• IMDB Rating – 8.2
• Genre: Action, Thriller, Crime
• Production: USA / 1988
• Budget: $28,000,000
• Worldwide Box Office: $140,767,956
• Director: John McTiernan
• Starring: Bruce Willis, Alan Rickman, Bonnie Bedelia, Reginald VelJohnson, Paul Gleason, William Etherton, Hart Bockner, James Shigeta, Alexander Godunov, Robert Davi.

Roderick Thorpe’s 1979 bestseller “Nothing Lasts Forever” was reissued with the title “Die Hard” after the success of the movie, echoing the title of the cult action movie. The original plan was to make a sequel to 1985’s “Commando” with Schwarzenegger from the book, after the rejection of Arnie called for a variety of actors. But it was Bruce Willis who brought in the plot of his dimensionless charisma, and the audience received a cult action movie.

“Die Hard” – the perfect Christmas movie for real men! The script generally repeats the book, except that there Joe Leland saves his daughter, and in the movie – his wife, and even the main villain changed his name from Anton to Hans. The movie is more energetic and less nihilistic than the source material, and it looks in one breath.

Contrary to initial predictions and harsh criticism, “Die Hard” quickly collected a huge box office, becoming the most successful action movie of all time and making Willis a major star.

Cidade de Deus

• IMDB Rating – 8.6
• Genre: Drama, Crime
• Production: Brazil, France / 2002
• Budget: $3,300,000
• Worldwide Box Office: $30,641,770
• Director: Fernando Meirelles, Katja Lund
• Starring: Alexandre Rodrigues, Leandro Firmino, Fellipe Haagensen, Douglas Silva, Jonathan Haagensen, Mateus Nashtergaeli, Seu Jorge, Jefesander Suplinu, Alici Braga, Emerson Gomes.

In 1997, an international bestseller by Paulo Lins was published. A neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro called Cidade de Deus (“City of God”) was intended as an escape from the criminal slums, but as a result it has become a hellish place filled with crime. It was here that Paulo Lins grew up and then spoke candidly about life in this insanely grim favela.

Two Brazilian directors, Fernando Meirelles and Katia Lund, based on the excellent work of screenwriter Braulio Mantovani, adapted the book into an incredible film (4 Oscar nominations) that tells the story of three teenagers growing up in one of Brazil’s most crime-ridden neighborhoods, now known to the world. The action unfolds between the 60s and 80s of the last century. It is a dark and impressive tour through the darkest places of the “city of God”, where He does not exist and everything is allowed….

Almost all of the actors were recruited from the slums of Rio de Janeiro, and two of the lead actors, Leandro Firmino (Ze) and Alexandre Rodrigues (Rocket) – from Cidade de Deus. After filming, Meirelles admitted that if he had known in advance how dangerous it would be to shoot in the slums, he would have abandoned the project.

Atonement

• IMDB Rating – 7.8
• Genre: Drama, Melodrama, Detective, Military
• Production: UK, France, USA / 2007
• Budget: £20,000,000
• Worldwide Box Office: $129,266,061
• Director: Joe Wright
• Starring: Keira Knightley, James McAvoy, Saoirse Ronan, Harriet Walter, Romola Garay, Brenda Blethyn, Patrick Kennedy, Benedict Cumberbatch, Juno Temple, Daniel Mays.

British playwright Ian McEwan began sketching Atonement when he was half a century old and had already won every prestigious literary award. It is a story of love, cruelly broken by a crushing deception, which unfolds against a backdrop of world upheaval. The novel was called the most significant book of the XXI century.

It is difficult to screen such masterpieces, there is always a risk of failure. But the Englishman Joe Wright was not afraid to take risks. Especially when at hand such wonderful actors as Keira Knightley and James McAvoy, and the script is created by the author of the novel in collaboration with the mastodon of literature Christopher Hampton.

In the story, the young fictional Briony in 1935 accuses Robbie, the fiancé of her sister Cecilia, of raping her cousin. This begins Robbie and Cecilia’s arduous, painful and trying journey, and many years later the writer-turned-repentant Briony, who ruined two lives just as surely if she had simply killed them, tries to find redemption.

By the way, it was Hampton who created most of the script, because Ian McEwan admitted that he was bored with remaking his book and kept his participation to a minimum.

Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles

• IMDB Rating – 7.5
• Genre: Drama, Horror, Fantasy
• Production: USA / 1994
• Budget: $60,000,000
• Worldwide Box Office: $223,664,608
• Director: Neil Jordan
• Starring: Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, Stephen Rea, Antonio Banderas, Christian Slater, Kirsten Dunst, Domitiana Giordano, Thandiwe Newton, Roger Lloyd Peck, George Kelly.

It’s amazing how director and producer Neil Jordan turned Anne Rice’s multi-part and rather wimpy tale into a mind-blowingly beautiful gothic story with Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise and a very young Kirsten Dunst. The 1975 book Interview with a Vampire is the first in a lengthy series about a variety of vampires, a kind of fantasy for gloomy girls.

Tom Cruise in the movie is unrecognizable as the ancient Lestat, who one day turns the young aristocrat Louis (Pitt) and tries to make a predator out of him. But the latter remains a good calf with principles, suffering from his new position and gastronomic predilections. The only time he breaks down and drinks the blood of a terminally ill girl, Lestat turns her into a vampire to keep Louis close to him.

Another adaptation of Anne Rice’s book, also far from the original and beautiful, is 2002’s “Queen of the Damned” from director Michael Rymer. The movie was conceived as a sequel to “The Interview”, but none of the actors of the original did not agree to star, and this movie is, in general, an independent story.

Gone Girl

• IMDB Rating – 8.1
• Genre: Thriller, Drama, Detective
• Production: USA / 2014
• Budget: $61,000,000
• Worldwide Box Office: $369,330,363
• Director: David Fincher
• Starring: Ben Affleck, Rosamund Pike, Neil Patrick Harris, Tyler Perry, Carrie Coon, Kim Dickens, Patrick Fugit, David Clennon, Lisa Baines, Missi Pyle

It’s safe to admit that director David Fincher is a master at adapting even unassuming books. And the funniest thing about it is that the writer of “Vanished”, Gillian Flynn, awarded for her earlier works, became world-famous after Fincher’s adaptation. Read the novel “Disappeared” as a quality, but quite standard detective with a rather blurred ending. But you can’t tear yourself away from the movie.

Of course, much of the success of the screen “Disappeared” contributed to the brilliant work in the movie Rosamund Pike and played her husband Ben Affleck. So, on the eve of the wedding anniversary of Nick Dunne’s wife Amy disappears in circumstances very similar to a kidnapping or murder. The police suspect her husband, and he tries to make sense of the situation, which is rapidly turning into something strange, dangerous and terrifying.

The rights to adapt the novel were acquired immediately after its publication, and the first draft of the script was written by Flynn herself. After several rejected directors, 20th Century Fox decided on Fincher. And soon the magnificent psychological thriller with an unexpected ending graced the world cinema.

Big Fish

• IMDB Rating – 8.0
• Genre: Fantasy, Drama, Melodrama, Adventure
• Production: USA / 2003
• Budget: $70,000,000
• Worldwide Box Office: $122,919,055
• Director: Tim Burton
• Starring: Ewan McGregor, Albert Finney, Billy Crudup, Jessica Lange, Helena Bonham Carter, Alison Lohman, Robert Guillaume, Marion Cotillard, Matthew McGrory, David Denman.

A perfect example of how the shortcomings of a book story can be turned into the virtues of a great movie. In Daniel Wallace’s novel, the father-son relationship is rather unpleasant. Edward is a pathetic dying old man, unable to raise his son Will and a lifelong teller of tall tales. Will, on the other hand, is a vindictive, irritable man who can’t forgive.

In the movie, however, we see each of Edward’s stories from his point of view. Beautiful, rich storylines that turn the movie into an absolutely charming, wise and heartfelt story with a sad but inspiring ending that makes you love your loved ones more and trust them more.

The beautiful setting of Spectre City from the movie “Ghost Town” is still preserved on the Alabama River, near the town of Millbrook, and is frequented by fans of director Tim Burton and fans of the movie.

Requiem for a Dream

• IMDB Rating – 8.3
• Genre: Drama
• Production: USA / 2000
• Budget: $4,500,000
• Worldwide Box Office: $7,390,108
• Director: Darren Aronofsky
• Starring: Jared Leto, Marlon Wayans, Jennifer Connelly, Ellen Burstyn, Christopher McDonald, Louise Lasser, Marcia Jean Kertz, Janet Sarno, Suzanne Shepherd, Joanne Gordon.

American Hubert Selby Jr.’s groundbreaking 1978 work about the depths of the abomination of drug addiction was certainly a literary discovery of those years, but it was extremely difficult to read. The adaptation by the unique director Darren Aronofsky has taken this dark tragedy to new heights. First of all, of course, the game of the excellent acting ensemble is impressive: Marlon Wayans, Jared Leto, Ellen Burstyn, Jennifer Connelly.

The movie, which tells about the dramatic rapid plunge into the hell of addiction and vice, tearing people away from normal life, about incredible loneliness and its horror, is filled with an amazing soundtrack and heartbreaking details. Each of the characters dreams of something different, but addiction sings an eerie requiem to any bright desires. And this story is much deeper and more emotional than the book.

Producer Eric Watson had dreamed of making a movie adaptation of the book for years and had even written a screenplay. When he approached Aronofsky, they worked together to finalize the story, struggled to find financing, and made one of the best addiction movies ever made.

Green van

• IMDB Rating – 7.4
• Genre: Drama, adventure
• Production: USSR / 1983
• Director: Alexander Pavlovsky
• Starring: Dmitry Kharatyan, Alexander Demyanenko, Borislav Brondukov, Alexander Soloviev, Regimantas Adomaitis, Konstantin Grigoriev, Eduard Martsevich, Victor Ilyichev, Ekaterina Durova, Armen Dzhigarkhanyan.

An adventurous detective drama directed by Alexander Pavlovsky and starring young actor Kharatyan, set in post-revolutionary Odessa at the beginning of the 20th century to the music of Maxim Dunayevsky. Volodya Patrikeev, the son of a professor, becomes a policeman, dreaming of solving cases like Holmes and confronts the city’s most brutal criminal mastermind. A great scrap of strong nostalgia for fans of good Soviet movies.

And few people know that this wonderful movie is based on the only book by Alexander Kozachinsky, who had time to be a simple Odessa policeman, a security inspector, a soccer player, and then – the head of an anti-Soviet gang.

Miraculously avoided being shot and released under amnesty in 1925, Alexander got a job at a newspaper and wrote the story “Green Van” at the request and insistence of Yevgeny Kataev, known under the pseudonym “Petrov” in the creative duo of Ilf and Petrov. The book is much drier and more down-to-earth than the movie, which is not surprising given the author’s turbulent fate.

Kozachinsky’s grave was long considered lost and was only found in 2019 at the Zaeltzovsky cemetery in Novosibirsk.

Belle et Sébastien

• IMDB Rating – 6.9
• Genre: Drama, Adventure, Family
• Production: France / 2013
• Budget: €10,430,000
• Worldwide Box Office: $205,435
• Director: Nicolas Vanier
• Starring: Félix Bossuet, Chequi Cario, Margot Chatelier, Dimitri Storozh, Urbain Cancellier, Andreas Pichmann, Mehdi El Glaoui, Paloma Palma, Karine Adrover, Loïc Varraud

The wonderful adventure story of the same name by Frenchwoman Cécile Aubry has been screened before by herself as a TV series. Simple and sweet, the story gained wide popularity, but it became a high-profile movie phenomenon only in the hands of the famous French director Nicolas Vanier.

This movie will be good to watch with children. The action takes place in 1943 against a backdrop of lush Alpine scenery and a frightening Nazi occupation. The inhabitants of the small village where the main character, 7-year-old Sebastian, lives, illegally escort Jewish refugees through their land to Switzerland. Sebastian longs for his mother and is frankly bored in the mountains, until he meets an intelligent huge white dog, who has become a terrible legend for the locals. Thus begins a friendship that can melt any heart.

Curiously, writer Cecile Aubry’s son, Mehdi El Glaoui, played Sebastian himself in her ’60s TV series, and in this movie he portrays the villager Andre.

L.A. Confidential

• IMDB Rating – 8.2
• Genre: Detective, Crime, Drama, Action
• Production: USA / 1997
• Budget: $35,000,000
• Worldwide Box Office: $126,216,940
• Director: Curtis Hanson
• Starring: Russell Crowe, Guy Pearce, Kevin Spacey, Kim Basinger, James Cromwell, Danny DeVito, David Strathairn, Ron Rifkin, Matt McCoy, Paul Guilfoyle.

James Ellroy is a master noir detective who wrote the Los Angeles Quartet series. “Secrets” is the third book of the cycle, which was screened by Hollywood director Curtis Hanson. Brilliant visualization of glamorous noir with a detective component, played by excellent actors (Kevin Spacey, Russell Crowe, Kim Basinger, etc.), which received two “Oscars” and a lot of other prizes, became the reason for the popularity of the book quadrology.

The action takes place in the Los Angeles of the 50s. Three policemen investigate a mass murder, quickly solve it, and the criminals are killed in a shootout with the cops. And then all three main characters begin to have doubts that they have found the real culprits. Digging further, each of the cops comes upon a carefully organized network of blackmailers.

The script was rewritten seven times before the director dared to show it to Ellroy. And by the way, the film probably has no bigger fan than the author of the original novel, who is delighted with the visualization of his work.

A Clockwork Orange

• IMDB Rating – 8.3
• Genre: Fantastic, Crime
• Production: UK, USA / 1971
• Budget: $2,200,000
• US box office: $26,589,355
• Director: Stanley Kubrick
• Starring: Malcolm McDowell, Patrick Magee, Michael Bates, Warren Clarke, John Clive, Adrienne Corrie, Karl Duhring, Paul Farrell, Clive Francis, Michael Gower.

In 1962, British Anthony Burgess published a scandalous book in which he vented all the anger, frustration and pain of the past, at the same time gloomily predicting a terrible, violent future for British youth. The novel is considered one of the most influential dystopias. It is the story of an antisocial teenager, Alex, who, along with a gang of buddies, uses milk and drugs, and then engages in ultra-violence.

The novel interested the great Kubrick, who caught fire with the idea to screen a complex satire. He created a movie that exceeded the book by an order of magnitude in terms of brutality, sociopathy and disgusting scenes, which caused a slight righteous anger of the author of the original book, who, however, then defended Kubrick in numerous disputes and scandals around the adaptation.

The movie was banned in several countries, received a rare “C” rating (forbidden to Catholics) and a host of awards and nominations, including three Oscar nominations.

In 2020, the American National Council added A Clockwork Orange to its roster as a culturally significant movie. Which doesn’t negate its shocking content. Only watch it if you have strong nerves.

The Painted Veil

• IMDB Rating – 7.4
• Genre: Drama, Melodrama
• Production: USA, Canada, China / 2006
• Budget: $34,000,000
• Worldwide Box Office: $26,522,838
• Director: John Curran
• Starring: Naomi Watts, Edward Norton, Liev Schreiber, Diana Rigg, Toby Jones, Catherine En, Li Bin, Bin Wu, Alan David, Marie-Laure Dikuru.

Director John Curran and screenwriter Ron Niswioneer take the rather one-dimensional and uninteresting characters from W. Somerset Maugham’s 1925 book and infuse them with life, emotion, redemption, and stunning imagery, with gorgeous music by Alexandre Desplat. The output is a brilliant cross-cultural drama in a superbly recreated setting of China and Britain in the 1920s.

Bacteriologist Walter Fane (Edward Norton), working in Shanghai, during his visit to London, meets a charming socialite Kitty (Naomi Watts) and takes her to his fiefdom as his wife. However, the girl is not interested in the activities of her spouse, she tries to find some entertainment for herself and, finally, has an affair with a married employee of the British Embassy. But one day Kitty goes with her husband to a remote village where Walter is going to fight a cholera epidemic, and this journey will turn their lives upside down.

The script of the movie was remade several times. The final version belongs to Ron Nisuoner, working in collaboration with actor Edward Norton. Filming of the Chinese backwater was carried out on location, in the old neighborhoods of Huangyao town.

The English Patient

• IMDB Rating – 7.4
• Genre: Drama, Melodrama, Military
• Production: USA, UK / 1996
• Budget: $27,000,000
• Worldwide Box Office: $231,976,425
• Director: Anthony Minghella
• Starring: Rafe Fiennes, Kristin Scott Thomas, Juliette Binoche, Colin Firth, Willem Defoe, Naveen Andrews, Julian Wadham, Jurgen Prochnow, Kevin Whatley, Clive Merrison.

This movie, which won British director Anthony Minghella (who also wrote the screenplay) 9 Oscars, is based on the Booker Prize-winning novel by Canadian teacher, poet and writer Michael Ondaatje. The book is for lovers of unhurried, meticulous reading.

In places, it is dragged out, boring and very slowly immersed in its story. The writer constantly jumps from one character to another across time and distance, which is uncomfortable. The movie, on the other hand, is more linear, dynamic and packed with good acting.

Toward the end of World War II, a young sister of mercy in an Italian hospital is in the care of a man burned beyond recognition, who has lost his memory and is nicknamed “the English patient” for his accent. Gradually his backstory unfolds before the viewer, in which there is room for amazing adventures and great love.

Minghella read the novel literally sweat and was very impressed, immediately began looking for people who will help him to realize the book on the screen. From the initial drafts of the script to the approval of the final version took 4 years.

Into the Wild

• IMDB Rating – 8.1
• Genre: Drama, Adventure, Biography
• Production: USA / 2007
• Budget: $15,000,000
• Worldwide Box Office: $56,255,142
• Director: Sean Penn
• Starring: Emile Hirsch, Hal Holbrook, Marcia Gay Harden, William Hurt, Jena Malone, Brian H. Dierker, Catherine Keener, Vince Vaughn, Kristen Stewart, Jim Galyen.

One of the best films of 2007, this Oscar-winning drama about the search for the meaning of life directed by Sean Penn and based on the novel by mountaineer and writer Jon Krakauer. In the print version, the story is structured in the style of an interview conducted by a journalist with people who know the protagonist, with almost all of the interviewees often repeating the same things. But the movie is a different matter, a fascinating road-movie with beautiful landscapes and an interesting, and most importantly, lively visualized character, played by Emile Hirsch.

Christopher McCandless, conflicted with his family and those around him, gives away money to charity after university and goes on a great search for himself, determined to survive alone in absolutely wild conditions. Taking a pseudonym, he hitchhikes and simply travels on foot, heading for Alaska.

By the way, it was after the movie that actor Emile Hirsch became a star, and the whole world learned about Krakauer’s book.

Limitless

• IMDB Rating – 7.4
• Genre: Thriller, Drama, Fantastic
• Production: USA / 2011
• Budget: $26,000,000
• Worldwide Box Office: $161,849,455
• Director: Neil Burger
• Starring: Bradley Cooper, Robert De Niro, Abbie Cornish, Andrew Howard, Anna Friel, Johnny Whitworth, Thomas Arana, Robert John Burke, Darren Goldstein, Ned Eisenberg.

One of the best sci-fi movies of the 2010s, directed by Neil Burger and starring Bradley Cooper, is an adaptation of the 2001 novel of the same title by Irishman Alan Glynn. The book did not enjoy much success, but after the premiere of the movie, its popularity skyrocketed. By the way, in both cases it is quite a controversial story, claiming that a special drug can guarantee success. Fundamentally wrong, of course. Neil Burger changed a number of events and the ending of the story, but generally stayed true to the original plot.

Exploiting a silly and a thousand times debunked myth about the inferiority of the brain in its normal state, the plot tells about an unsuccessful American writer Eddie Morra, who one day takes an innovative drug and his brain begins to work in full force, literally rewarding the bearer with improved feelings, reaction, speed of thinking. He promptly redoes all the pending cases, and then tries to find where to bribe more of these magic pills, getting involved in a dangerous story with the drug mafia.

The success of the movie led to the creation of a TV series of the same name, which aired on CBS in 2015.

The Basketball Diaries

• IMDB Rating – 7.3
• Genre: Drama, Crime, Biography, Sports
• Production: USA / 1995
• Worldwide Box Office: $2,381,087
• Director: Scott Calvert
• Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Wahlberg, Ernie Hudson, Lorraine Bracco, James Madio, Patrick McGaw, Bruno Kirby, Juliette Lewis, Michael Imperioli, Marilyn Sokol.

Many readers who have read the autobiographical novel of the same name by American writer, poet and punk musician Jim Carroll have been left disappointed. The original book is heavy blackness. But what about the movie?

Scott Calvert’s movie, based on a screenplay by Brian Goluboff, is a sumptuous drama starring a young Leonardo DiCaprio about a teenage Jim Carroll who is into basketball and drugs. Gradually his successes dissolve and his addiction begins to threaten the future, health and mind of the young addict.

The songs in the movie are performed by the original Jim Carroll and his punk band.

No Country for Old Men

• IMDB Rating – 8.2
• Genre: Thriller, Drama, Crime, Western
• Production: USA / 2007
• Budget: $25,000,000
• Worldwide Box Office: $171,627,166
• Director: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen
• Starring: Tommy Lee Jones, Josh Brolin, Javier Bardem, Kelly McDonald, Woody Harrelson, Beth Grant, Garrett Dillahunt, Tess Harper, Barry Corbin, Stephen Root.

Cormac McCarthy’s writings are not for readers who appreciate detail and literacy. The book reads like a storyboard, but among these unsophisticated lines without commas lies a dark and compelling story that the Coen brothers were able to discern.

With terrific acting from Javier Bardem as a violent and deranged killer on the run and Tommy Lee Jones as the pursuing killer, the elderly Sheriff Bell of a small Texas town, the movie immerses the viewer in a fascinating story of greed, cruelty and powerlessness. The sheriff tries to curb crime and remembers his father and grandfather who served the law and did not live to see retirement.

The film shares the No. 5 spot with 2007’s “Zodiac” on the Los Angeles Film Critics’ list of “Best Movies of the First Decade of the 21st Century.”

The Shining

• IMDB Rating – 8.4
• Genre: Thriller, Drama, Horror, Detective
• Production: USA, UK / 1980
• Budget: $19,000,000
• Worldwide Box Office: $44,035,750
• Director: Stanley Kubrick
• Starring: Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall, Danny Lloyd, Scatman Crothers, Barry Nelson, Philip Stone, Joe Turkel, Ann Jackson, Tony Burton, Leah Beldam.

The Shining is an excellent supernatural ghost novel by Stephen King, a story about a boy with a special talent that scares him himself and the evil forces to which a person can be helpless. Mesmerizing doom, stubborn resilience, and mysticism in every page.

Kubrick’s The Shining is a cult classic that changed the entire horror genre. It is an impressive story of a man going insane in isolation and becoming a danger to his family. Mysticism in the eyes of the boy, a child with a good imagination, in the movie is also present, but it recedes into the background before the nightmare of the rabbit hole of despair and aggression, where Jack Nicholson’s character is rapidly plunged into. “The Shining” can be revisited many times, finding all new nuances and nightmarish details in the narrative, and this movie is scarier and deeper than the original book.

In 2018, the film was added to the roster of movies preserved at the Library of Congress.

The Bourne Identity

• IMDB Rating – 7.8
• Genre: Action, Thriller, Detective
• Production: USA, Germany, Czech Republic / 2002
• Budget: $60,000,000
• Worldwide Box Office: $214,034,224
• Director: Doug Lyman
• Starring: Matt Damon, Franka Potente, Chris Cooper, Clive Owen, Brian Cox, Adewale Akinnoye-Agbaje, Gabriel Mann, Julia Stiles, Tim Dutton, Walton Goggins.

The works of Robert Ludlam, an American actor and writer, were translated into many languages and almost always became bestsellers. “The Bourne Identity” – a book that brought the author world fame and became a turning point in his career. On the wave of this success, he continued the series about a CIA agent who was found at sea, lost his memory, and then tried to remember and find out his past, discovering shocking details and discovering amazing fighting skills.

Doug Lyman created a thrilling movie that became a box office hit and spawned 4 sequels. At the same time, the script was written by several people, and the director himself considered the book so inept that he forbade the actors to read it until the end of filming.

This is the second film adaptation of the book, the first one took place in 1988 (in Russia it was released under the title “The Secret of the Bourne Identity”) and went completely unnoticed.

Stardust

• IMDB Rating – 7.6
• Genre: Fantasy, Adventure, Melodrama
• Production: UK, USA / 2007
• Budget: $70,000,000
• Worldwide Box Office: $135,560,026
• Director: Matthew Vaughn
• Starring: Charlie Cox, Claire Danes, Michelle Pfeiffer, Robert De Niro, Mark Strong, Jason Fleming, Rupert Everett, Kate Magowan, Sienna Miller, Nathaniel Parker.

Neil Gaiman is a wonderful modern fantasy writer whose works are willingly adapted into movies. “Stardust” – a unique novel for the writer, created in the style of Tolkien fantasy, reads easily, captures seriously, but not for long.

In 2007, a film adaptation premiered from British director Matthew Vaughn, who significantly expanded the events of the book and slightly rewrote the ending, winning a Hugo for Best Production. The basic plot is pretty much unchanged. Country boy Tristan Thorne goes to a magical land to get a star for his beloved Victoria, but instead experiences incredible adventures, finds his roots and finds his purpose.

The screen rights were first owned by Miramax, which didn’t scratch to create an adaptation. When the contract expired, Neil Gaiman gave the rights to his friend Matthew Vaughn for free.

Minority Report

• IMDB Rating – 7.6
• Genre: Fantasy, Action, Thriller, Crime, Detective
• Production: USA / 2002
• Budget: $102,000,000
• Worldwide Box Office: $358,372,926
• Director: Steven Spielberg
• Starring: Tom Cruise, Max von Sydow, Samantha Morton, Colin Farrell, Kathryn Morris, Tim Blake Nelson, Peter Stormare, Steve Harris, Neil McDonough, Patrick Kilpatrick.

Once again, let’s talk about the film adaptation of Philip K. Dick’s short stories. Dick. This writer brilliantly knew how to briefly outline a story, which a talented director can turn into a terrific sci-fi movie. This time the object of adaptation was a short story “Minority Report” in 1956, the plot of which is accurately reflected in the screen adaptation by Steven Spielberg.

The events unfold in the not-too-distant future, where the police are practicing Precrime, a new technology to catch criminals before they commit an atrocity with the help of three mutants’ foresight.

But one day, the main character, John Enderton, is predicted to become the killer of a man he’s never even heard of. John (played by Tom Cruise) goes on the run to uncover the plot, clear his name and prove that Precrime technology is flawed and should not be implemented.

In 2015, a TV series of the same name based on the movie was released on Fox.

The Social Network

• IMDB Rating – 7.8
• Genre: Drama, Biography
• Production: USA / 2010
• Budget: $50,000,000
• Worldwide Box Office: $224,920,315
• Director: David Fincher
• Starring: Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield, Justin Timberlake, Armie Hammer, Max Minghella, Rashida Jones, Brenda Song, Rooney Mara, Brian Barter, Joseph Mazzello.

The real story of the creation of Facebook, rather artlessly described in the book by Harvard graduate Ben Mezrich, known for his historical and biographical novels, was turned into a wildly entertaining tale of ups and downs by screenwriter Aaron Sorkin, and director David Fincher brought the adaptation to the screen, creating one of the major biographical films of the XXI century.

The action begins in 2003, when student Mark Zuckerberg has an idea to create a website with a rating of the attractiveness of local female students. The shrewd Mark attracts several gifted students to his project, and then, together with his friend Eduardo Saverin, secretly begins to exploit other people’s ideas, creating a social network.

Mark Zuckerberg was adamant that he would never watch this movie, but he couldn’t stand it. And then seriously said that the clothes for his character in the movie were chosen correctly.

1408

• IMDB Rating – 6.8
• Genre: Horror, Thriller
• Production: USA / 2007
• Budget: $25,000,000
• Worldwide Box Office: $132,033,383
• Director: Mikael Hofström
• Starring: John Cusack, Mary McCormack, Jasmine Jessica Anthony, Samuel L. Jackson, Tony Shaloub, Benny Urquidez, Andrew Lee Potts, Len Cariou, Isaiah Whitlock Jr.

One of the most mesmerizing, terrifying and penetrating horror films of the 2000s is the film adaptation of Stephen King’s short, short, hastily written story of the same name, which contains almost nothing but a schematic description of the plot. King didn’t even plan to finish the story, having sketched it out as an example for his autobiographical essay “How to Write Books,” but then he got carried away and finished it.

Director Mikael Håfström showed the world what a vast imagination he has! The movie with John Cusack as Mike Enslin, an exposer of paranormal phenomena in houses and hotels, who once encountered absolute evil and fell into a personal hell of insane suffering, became a classic of horror and earned unusually high ratings for the genre.

Incidentally, King based the story on the true story of the Hotel Del Coronado in California.

Total Recall

• IMDB Rating – 7.5
• Genre: Fantastic, Action, Adventure
• Production: USA, Mexico / 1990
• Budget: $65,000,000
• Worldwide Box Office: $261,299,840
• Director: Paul Verhoeven
• Starring: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Rachel Ticotin, Sharon Stone, Ronnie Cox, Michael Ironside, Marshall Bell, Mel Johnson, Jr.

Another adaptation of Philip K. Dick, this time from the legendary Paul Verhoeven, an adaptation that won an Oscar for visual effects. True, the 1966 story itself (“We Can Remember It for You Wholesale”) was significantly revised, for example, the reason why Douglas Quaid was implanted with an alien memory was completely changed in favor of a more acutely social one. So we recommend reading the literary source material as well.

Douglas Quaid (played by Arnold Schwarzenegger) is an ordinary worker who lives peacefully with his caring wife and dreams of visiting Mars. He is sometimes overcome by strange dreams, and one day he discovers that his life – a fake, and everything he knows about himself – the result of transplantation of carefully constructed memories. Douglas begins to uncover his past and uncovers a vast, cruel conspiracy.

A remake of the movie starring Colin Farrell was released in 2012, but fell short of the highly rated original.

Agassi

• IMDB Rating – 8.1
• Genre: Melodrama, Thriller, Drama, History
• Production: Korea South / 2016
• Budget: $8,800,000
• Worldwide Box Office: $37,692,886
• Director: Park Chang-wook
• Starring: Kim Min-hee, Kim Tae-ri, Ha Jong-woo, Jo Jin-un, Kim Hae-sook, Moon So-ri, Lee Young-nyeo, Lee Dong-hwi, Kwak Eun-jin, Jo Eun-hyun.

An impeccably beautiful South Korean erotic thriller directed by Park Chan-wook, based on the book “The Thin Work” by British author Sarah Waters. The action shifts from Victorian England to early 20th century Korea when it was a Japanese colony. By changing the cultural accents and significantly reworking the second half of the novel, the director created a true three-part masterpiece that far outstripped the original book in popularity.

The thief Sook Hee is employed in the house of a wealthy Japanese woman Hideko as a maid at the request of an acquaintance of a swindler who calls himself Count Fujiwara. The rogue wants to seduce Hideko, marry her, and then send her to an insane asylum to seize her fortune. And then a story filled with passion, lust and cruelty unfolds.

In Russia, the movie collected more than 11 million rubles, and in Korea, after the premiere, an album with photos from the movie and explanations by the director was published.

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

• IMDB Rating – 7.5
• Genre: Drama, comedy
• Production: USA / 1998
• Budget: $18,500,000
• US box office receipts: $10,680,275
• Director: Terry Gilliam
• Starring: Johnny Depp, Benicio Del Toro, Tobey Maguire, Christina Ricci, Michael Jeter, Gary Busey, Ellen Barkin, Mark Hearmon, Craig Bierko, Katherine Helmond.

The crazy drug comedy starring Benicio del Toro and Johnny Depp about a wacky journalist and his buddy, a lawyer and apparent psychopath, traveling to Las Vegas on business and committing a series of crazy acts has become a cult favorite, which is not the case with the book.

The novel by journalist and author Hunter Thompson is called Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, which is true. The unseemliness and nastiness in the book is enough to make you quickly become disgusted. And the movie has the charisma of the actors and excellent camerawork with rousing music. And the characters no longer seem like pathetic moral underachievers.

By the way, Hunter Thompson liked the adaptation and appeared in a small cameo.

Just Like Heaven

• IMDB Rating – 6.7
• Genre: Fantasy, Drama, Melodrama, Comedy
• Production: USA / 2005
• Budget: $58,000,000
• Worldwide Box Office: $102,854,431
• Director: Mark Waters
• Starring: Reese Witherspoon, Mark Ruffalo, Donal Logue, Dina Spidey, Ben Shankman, John Heard, Ivana Milicevic, Rosalind Chao, Caroline Aaron, Ron Canada.

In 2000, a French author of light popular novels published the book “What if it’s true?”, and soon Hollywood director Mark Waters became interested in it. He sent the producers a rough outline of the plot, and they bought the rights to screen adaptation, without even reading the original.

A tender and beautiful movie about a ghost, the romcom with Mark Ruffalo and Reese Witherspoon earned high ratings and became a hit in its genre. Ruffalo plays David, a recently widowed landscaper who moves into a new apartment with the former owner’s murky history. He soon discovers that the place is haunted by the ghost of the energetic, active and extremely irritable Elizabeth, who, by the way, is in no hurry to believe that she is dead, and harshly reprimands David for sloppiness in her apartment!

Elizabeth’s apartment, which David moves into, is owned by co-screenwriter Leslie Dixon.

Water for Elephants

• IMDB Rating – 6.9
• Genre: Drama, Melodrama
• Production: USA / 2011
• Budget: $38,000,000
• Worldwide Box Office: $117,094,902
• Director: Francis Lawrence
• Starring: Reese Witherspoon, Robert Pattinson, Christoph Waltz, Paul Schneider, Jim Norton, Hal Holbrook, Mark Povinelli, Richard Brake, Steven Monroe Taylor, Ken Foree.

Sarv Gruen is an American-Canadian writer who supports numerous conservation organizations and creates fairly popular, unpretentious novels about animals. Her circus drama “Water for Elephants!” was rejected by a publisher and she had to find another company to publish the novel. As a result, the book became a bestseller and was adapted for the screen by Francis Lawrence, making the story deeper, more complex and thoughtful, shifting the focus to human relationships and assembling a good cast.

The action takes place in the 1930s. Jacob, a veterinarian, joins a traveling circus, falls in love with Marlena, the wife of the cruel manager Augustus, rescues an elephant mauled by Augustus and wins Marlena’s heart.

Richard LaGravenese wrote the screenplay for the movie back in 2009, and since then it has been on the “Black List” of good but not taken into development scripts.

P.S. I Love You

• IMDB Rating – 7.0
• Genre: Drama, Melodrama, Comedy
• Production: USA / 2007
• Budget: $30,000,000
• Worldwide Box Office: $156,835,339
• Director: Richard LaGravenese
• Starring: Hilary Swank, Gerard Butler, Kathy Bates, Gina Gershon, Lisa Kudrow, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, James Marsters, Harry Connick Jr, Nellie McKay, Dean Winters

Comparing the screen heartbreaking, powerful, heartfelt drama about love by Richard Lagravenese and the novel by the Irish author of love novels Cecilia Ahern, it is impossible not to notice the key difference: a dose of manipulative sentimentality. Tender, bitter and very sad, the book will make any member of the weaker sex choke in tears, which is a bit tiresome. Carefully balanced movie remains in the soul forever.

Hilary Swank and Gerard Butler play loving spouses Jerry and Holly. They quarrel, reconcile, endure hardships and joys together. And only after the death of her husband from an incurable disease Holly realizes how deeply she loved him. She falls into the blackest depression and sinks, and then suddenly begins to receive letters from Jerry, who foresaw her despair and prepared a handful of messages that will allow her beloved to accept his departure.

Although the action takes place entirely in Ireland, some of the movie’s scenes were filmed in New York City.

The Adjustment Bureau

• IMDB Rating – 7.0
• Genre: Fantastic, Thriller, Melodrama
• Production: USA / 2011
• Budget: $51,000,000
• Worldwide Box Office: $127,869,379
• Director: George Nolfi
• Starring: Matt Damon, Emily Blunt, Anthony Mackie, John Slattery, Terence Stamp, Michael Kelly, Anthony Ruivivar, David Bishins, Johnny Chicko, Brian Haley.

George Nolfi’s sci-fi love thriller with music by Thomas Newman is a breathtaking story about a secret organization wielding almost magical technology that changes the fate of the world.

The plot centers on David Norris, a promising young politician who one day falls in love with ballerina Eliza. Despite David’s best efforts, fate divorces them, as if some forces are stubbornly resisting the union of two hearts. And David finds these mysterious forces by discovering the “Changers of Reality” and manages to influence their plans.

The plot is based on the short story “Adjustment Team” by one of Hollywood’s most screened sci-fi writers, Phillip K. Dick. Dick. George Nolfi developed the idea himself, wrote the screenplay, cast Matt Damon and Emily Blunt in the lead roles, and created one of the best sci-fi movies of our time.

This movie is George Nolfi’s directorial debut.

Jaws

• IMDB rating – 8.1
• Genre: thriller, horror, adventure
• Production: USA / 1975
• Budget: $7,000,000
• Worldwide Box Office: $470,653,000
• Director: Steven Spielberg
• Starring: Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw, Richard Dreyfuss, Lorraine Gary, Murray Hamilton, Carl Gottlieb, Jeffrey Kramer, Susan Beckline, Jonathan Feeley, Ted Grossman.

This movie is one of the greatest cinematic works of all time. Everything about it is perfect for the time, from the direction by Steven Spielberg and the screenplay by Peter Benchley (author of the original book) and Carl Gottlieb, to the editing by Verna Fields and the music by John Williams. In the book, on which the cult masterpiece was created, a lot of time is devoted to the romance between the wife of the leader and a marine biologist, and the White Shark, which inspires terror in the audience today, generally hangs on the backside.

The movie, on the other hand, is simple and effective. Police officer Martin Brody of the fictional resort town of Amity wants to close the beach to stop deaths from shark teeth. Mayor Larry Vaughan, backed by the city council, rejects the proposal, which could hurt the town’s tourist business. That’s when Brody hires biologist Hooper and underwater hunter Quintus to stop the monster.

The picture earned three Oscars and confidently holds good places in the lists of the best films of all time (for example, 2nd place in the ranking of “100 sharpest films in 100 years” according to AFI)

The Ninth Gate

• IMDB Rating – 6.7
• Genre: Thriller, Detective, Fantasy
• Production: France, Spain, USA / 1999
• Budget: $38,000,000
• Worldwide Box Office $58,401,898
• Director: Roman Polanski
• Starring: Johnny Depp, Frank Langella, Lena Olin, Emmanuelle Seigner, Barbara Jefford, Jack Taylor, Jose Lopez Rodero, Tony Amoni, James Russo, Willy Holt.

This delightful mystical detective was based on the gothic adventure novel The Dumas Club or The Shadow of Richelieu by Spanish journalist, historian and detective Arturo Perez-Reverte. The book is an amazing experience, exciting with the head, but the movie from the brilliant Roman Polanski – no worse, and in some ways even superior to its source material, although the director excluded the second storyline, concerning the club Dumas, and almost completely removed the mystical component. But he has generously thrown in suspense and impressive shots.

Dean Corso (Johnny Depp) is a hunter for rare books, who gets a few copies of the book “The Ninth Gate” published in 1666. He must find the original among them, because according to legend, the encrypted text of the book was created by Lucifer himself. From that moment on, ominous events begin to take place around Corso.

Despite the mystical-religious motifs often appearing in his films, Roman Polanski is a convinced agnostic.

The Zookeeper’s Wife

• IMDB Rating – 7.0
• Genre: Drama, Military, Biography, History
• Production: USA, UK, Czech Republic / 2017
• Budget: $20,000,000
• Worldwide Box Office: $26,152,835
• Director: Niki Caro
• Starring: Jessica Chastain, Johan Heldenberg, Daniel Brühl, Timothy Redford, Efrat Dor, Iddo Goldberg, Shira Haas, Michael McElhatton, Val Maloku, Marta Issova

One of the best war dramas of the XXI century is based on the book of the same name based on real events from a major American writer Diane Ackerman. And if the book is difficult to read, reminding dry documentary literature, excessively studded with remote information and trivia, the movie by New Zealand director Nina Karo is a spectacular and emotional story about living people who made their choice in a critical situation and did the right thing, despite the mortal risk.

A zoo keeper and his wife, Jan and Antonina Zabinskie, live in Nazi-occupied Prague. Their former close friend Lutz Heck is in love with Antonina, and is constantly hanging around. The couple hides fugitive Jews in empty cages, helping them move to safety, and Lutz, who has defected to the invaders, poses a serious threat to their cause.

An entire zoo was lined up for the movie and then populated with a variety of animals.

99 francs

• IMDB Rating – 7.2
• Genre: Drama, comedy
• Production: France / 2007
• Budget: €12,500,000
• Worldwide Box Office: $13,189,281
• Director: Yann Kunen
• Starring: Jean Dujardin, Jocelyn Kivren, Patrick Millet, Vaina Jocante, Elisa Tovati, Nicolas Marieux, Dominique Bettenfeld, Antoine Basler, Fosco Perinti, Sandrine Orsier.

This movie is a powerful satire on the advertising business, chronicling the life of Octave Parango, a fictional advertising executive and manipulator who first appeared in a book by French critic and writer Frederic Begbeder. On paper, Parango is an annoying whiner who you quickly lose interest in. In the movie, he is the cool anti-hero of our time.

Octave, a successful advertising man, sees people as a kind of product that is sold, bought and consumed. It’s important to sell him something that will make money for Octave himself. But one day a sudden crush changes something in Parango’s soul and he decides to sabotage his own advertising campaign.

American Psycho

• IMDB Rating – 7.6
• Genre: Drama, Crime, Thriller
• Production: USA, Canada / 2000
• Budget: $7,000,000
• Worldwide box office receipts: $34,266,564
• Director: Mary Harron
• Starring: Christian Bale, Willem Defoe, Josh Lucas, Reese Witherspoon, Cara Seymour, Justin Theroux, Jared Leto, Chloe Sevigny, Samantha Mathis, Matt Ross.

From the beginning, Bret Easton Ellis’s satirical thriller about Patrick Bateman, a young investment banker with a penchant for murdering and torturing women, sparked intense debate and controversy. Critics rated the book quite highly, feminists hated it, and some retailers found it so disturbing that they refused to sell it. Incidentally, Ellis himself thought the novel was impossible to screen.

The cult adaptation from female director Mary Herron managed to smooth out the sharp edges of the work, keeping and balancing the narrative and black humor, but softening the sociopathy and removing the extra blood. And, of course, the sight of Christian Bale pretending to love Reese Witherspoon, chopping Jared Leto with an axe, and criticizing Huey Lewis is a win.

In 2002, a sequel, American Psycho 2, was released, which discarded the principle of the original story and failed at the box office. Writer Ellis also condemned this movie.

The Glass Castle

• IMDB Rating – 7.1
• Genre: Drama, Biography
• Production: USA / 2017
• Worldwide Box Office: $22,088,533
• Director: Destin Daniel Cretton
• Starring: Brie Larson, Woody Harrelson, Naomi Watts, Ella Anderson, Chandler Head, Max Greenfield, Josh Barclay Karas, Charlie Shotwell, Ian Armitage, Sara Snook

In 2005, journalist Jeannette Walls’ autobiographical book was published and became a bestseller. Few people dare to expose their childhood traumas to the public and make a good living out of it. It takes courage and acceptance of one’s destiny. In 2007, Walls announced that her book was awaiting a film adaptation and she was looking for a director, but it took a long decade before director Destin Cretton became interested in the project.

It’s the story of a girl named Jeannette, who lived in a large family of poor, hippie marginalized people who roamed America without a care for their children. She escaped this vicious cycle and fled to the big city, where she became a successful journalist desperately ashamed of her past. The movie pulls the book story out of the gloom and disgust, making it an inspiring tale of forgiveness, acceptance and success.

For the most part, critics condemned the movie, calling it a weak adaptation of Walls’ best-selling novel. But the audience, for the most part, expressed the opposite opinion.

High-security vacation

• IMDB Rating – 6.2
• Genre: Drama, comedy, adventure
• Production: Russia / 2009
• Budget: $5,000,000
• Worldwide Box Office: $19,487,557
• Director: Igor Zaitsev
• Starring: Sergei Bezrukov, Dmitry Dyuzhev, Sabina Akhmedova, Alyona Babenko, Vladimir Menshov, Kirill Pletnyov, Lyudmila Polyakova, Timur Bokancha, Andrei Kivinov, Fyodor Krestovy.

A light Russian comedy for connoisseurs of blackmail romance and fans of actors Sergei Bezrukov and Dmitry Dyuzhev. The movie is based on the book, which Fyodor Krestovy wrote in co-authorship with St. Petersburg intellectual Kivinov, whose “blatnye” novels formed the basis of “Streets of Broken Lights”.

The eponymous printed primary source of “Vacation” more rigid, saturated with jargonisms and adult situations “by the book”. The movie came out more lamplike, one could say, heartfelt, and supplemented with lyrical music by Ruslan Muratov. In the story, penalized and sat “on the zone” cop Koltsov (Dyuzhev) escapes from there, taking with him “pahana” Sumrak (Bezrukov). To hide from persecution they pretend to be new teachers in a children’s camp. By the way, there is no “Hannamity” in the book at all.

Bezrukov complained that he spent three weeks learning “blatnaya fenya”, but it almost did not enter the movie.

Brooklyn

• IMDB Rating – 7.5
• Genre: Drama, Melodrama
• Production: UK, Canada, Ireland / 2015
• Budget: $11,000,000
• Worldwide Box Office: $62,076,141
• Director: John Crowley
• Starring: Saoirse Ronan, Emory Cohen, Donal Gleeson, Jim Broadbent, Julie Walters, Brid Brennan, Jane Brennan, Fiona Glascott, Jessica Paré, Eileen O’Higgins

Perhaps, in this case, we should be careful to say what is better, the movie or the book it is based on. On the one hand, the novel by Irishman Colm Toibin is a poignantly dramatic story of emigration, filled with religious and ecclesiastical motifs important to the writer. The movie lacks this background. And the movie also fails to convey the moral torment of the protagonist, her “inner dialog” which is an important part of the story.

On the other hand, John Crowley very vividly transferred to the screen the story of an Irish girl (played by the incredible Sirsha Ronan), who leaves her native land in the 50s and moves to New York to pursue her dream. The screenplay was written by Brit Nick Hornby, who won an Oscar for it, and overall the movie is much more universal and heartfelt than the rather specific (and really great) book. The ending in the movie is different from the printed original.

The movie, of course, became a box office hit in Ireland, and Sirsha Ronan received a total of 51 nominations for various film awards. The story is a very personal one for her: her Irish parents were married in a church in Brooklyn, just like the actress’ character, and she herself grew up in Ireland.

The Wings of the Dove

• IMDB Rating – 7.1
• Genre: Drama, melodrama
• Production: USA, UK / 1997
• US box office receipts: $13,692,848
• Director: Ian Softley
• Starring: Helena Bonham Carter, Lynas Roach, Alex Jennings, Charlotte Rampling, Ben Miles, Philip Wright, Michael Gambon, Alexander John, Alison Elliott, Elizabeth McGovern.

The movie Wings of the Dove is based on the 1902 Gothic novel from a major literary figure of the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, Henry James. The book is a rather bombastic bore with pretentious characters and a messy narrative. The movie is a tender, romantic, sophisticated and emotional story with characters you can’t help but fall in love with.

Kate is a poor young aristocrat who lives in the care of her wealthy Aunt Maud and is sincerely in love with Merton Densher, a simple reporter. Maud does not approve of her niece’s hobbies and plans to arrange her marriage to the wealthy Lord Mark. In desperation, the young lovers find an unorthodox way out of the situation, which will seriously test their conscience and sense of decency.

The script moved the action from 1902 to 1910 at the request of costume designer Sandy Powell, which earned the movie an Oscar nomination for costumes (lost to Titanic).

Adaptation.

• IMDB Rating – 7.7
• Genre: Drama, comedy
• Production: USA / 2002
• Budget: $19,000,000
• Worldwide Box Office: $32,801,173
• Director: Spike Jones
• Starring: Nicolas Cage, Meryl Streep, Chris Cooper, Brian Cox, Tilda Swinton, Cara Seymour, Judy Greer, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Jim Beaver, Ron Livingston.

Based on the bestselling novel The Orchid Snatcher by American author Susan Orleans, the quirky and bizarre movie Adaptation is impressively better and clearer than the book in every way. Nicolas Cage plays a dual role in the movie, twin brothers Charlie and Donald Kaufman.

Charlie is struggling to write a screenplay based on Susan’s book, but he’s having a creative crisis. His idiot brother also wants to be a screenwriter, and ironically finds success. Charlie decides to visit Susan herself (Meryl Streep), but due to his indecisiveness, the place is once again taken by Donald. Meanwhile, Susan is hiding her secret affair with a character in her book, and soon absolute madness ensues because of all the misunderstandings.

All the characters in the movie are real people (Charlie Kaufman, for example, wrote the script), but the story itself is pure fiction.

Beoning

• IMDB Rating – 7.5
• Genre: Detective, Thriller, Drama
• Production: Korea South / 2018
• Worldwide Box Office: $7,578,063
• Director: Lee Chang-dong
• Starring: Yoo Ah-in, Jeon Jeong-soo, Steven Yang, Kim Soo-kyung, Choi Seung-ho, Moon Sung-geun, Min Bok-ki, Pan Hye-ra, Lee Bong-nyoung, Park Seung-tae

South Korean director Lee Chang-dong’s penetrating thriller is a film adaptation of the story “Burn the Barn” by legendary Japanese classicist Haruki Murakami. In the film adaptation, the characters are more deeply revealed, details for drama are added, and the atmosphere slowly builds up, creating a veil of mystery and mystery around the main characters. The movie is also good because it’s not a short story, but a full-fledged epic.

Jung-su is an aspiring writer who is in love with Hae-mi, a girl from his village. One day after traveling to Africa, Hae-mi brings along a new friend, an American named Ben, who is used to a life of luxury. This carefree guy tells Jung about his secret hobby, which causes the protagonist to become obsessed.

Lee Chang-dong was asked to screen one Murakami story by Japanese broadcaster NHK, which owns the rights to all of the writer’s works.

The Woman in Black

• IMDB Rating – 7.1
• Genre: Horror, Detective
• Production: Great Britain / 1989
• Director: Herbert Wise
• Starring: Adrian Rawlins, Bernard Hepton, David Daker, Pauline Moran, David Ryall, Claire Holman, John Cater, John Franklin-Robbins, Fiona Walker, William Simons.

A terrific mystical horror movie about ghosts and curses, it seems to be inspired by the directors of the original classic horror films “The Call” and “The Curse”, the Japanese Nakata and Shimizu. At least the images and techniques are very similar. And the movie is based on Susan Hill’s 1983 novel, which outlines a more general ghost story that could take place anywhere. A little scary only at the end of the book, but the adaptation scares you from the first frames and keeps you in suspense until the finale.

Arthur, a young London lawyer, arrives at the remote estate of the recently deceased Lady Ellis Drablow to sort through her papers and begins to see the figure of a black-clad woman everywhere. The lawyer tries to make sense of the phenomenon, plunging into a desperate nightmare.

A Hollywood remake of the same name was released in 2012 from director James Watkins, and it is arguably much weaker than the original.

Nightwatch

• IMDB Rating – 6.4
• Genre: Fantasy, Thriller, Horror, Action Movie
• Production: Russia / 2004
• Budget: $4,200,000
• Worldwide Box Office: $33,951,015
• Director: Timur Bekmambetov
• Starring: Konstantin Khabensky, Vladimir Menshov, Valery Zolotukhin, Maria Poroshina, Galina Tyunina, Gosha Kutsenko, Alexei Chadov, Zhanna Friske, Ilya Lagutenko, Viktor Verzhbitsky.

By the admission of Sergei Lukyanenko himself, the author of the Russian bestseller on which the film is based, the action of the film adaptation unfolds in the universe of “Dozor”, but in an alternative reality. Thanks to the actors, the director and the meticulously crafted script, the movie is at least as entertaining as the book. A huge share of drama and charm brought, of course, playing the main character in the movie actor Konstantin Khabensky.

His character is a simple guy Anton Gorodetsky, who once in his youth came to the witch to return his cheating wife. Who knew that the witch would turn out to be real, dark and evil, and Anton himself would have supernatural abilities that determined his fate?

This movie by Timur Bekmambetov is often called “The First Russian Blockbuster”.