Why do Filmmakers attempt unfilmable books ?

Some of the attempts at unfilmable books we have had are Battlefield Earth, Bonfire Of The Vanities and Naked Lunch. Have any of these movies succeeded ? I would argue that they haven't. So why do people keep trying when they know they are up against it and all the fans are just waiting to shoot them down for ruining their favourite book? Hell I don't know I'm not a moviemaker.

This movie is based on Kurt Vonnegut's novel. Bruce Willis plays Dwayne Hoover, a suicidal car salesman. Bruce's character is pretty geeky and he even has a lovely comb over haircut. The last time he had a haircut like that was in Death Becomes Her and that was awful too. Hey that might be a new trend, awful haircut = awful movie. Or maybe not.

The plot , what there is of one, consists of Bruce's character meeting a science fiction writer who is played by Albert Finney and the ramifications of their meeting.

Now this is where the movie starts to fall to pieces badly. Kurt Vonnegut's novels have never been about plot or mechanics of a story. No, it's always been Vonnegut's descriptive fullsome prose that has held an appeal for so many.

To succeed in converting the book the director would have had to been able to emulate that feeling. But guess what ? The movie singularly fails to capture the feeling that his writing engendures.

I can honestly say that this is the worst movie that Bruce Willis has ever been involved in, and considering some of the turkeys he has been in that is really stating how bad this movie is.

Tall Guy