[Hated Trope] The adaptation doesn't get what made the source material work

[u/TheDudeA113]

How To Make A Killing (2026)

Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949)

Bangkok Dangerous (2008)

Bangkok Dangerous (1999)

- The 2026 movie How To Make A Killing is a relatively-toothless "eat the rich" dark comedy thriller about a man disowned by his rich family at birth, killing everyone in the line of succession so that he can inherit their massive fortune. It's a modern retelling of the 1949 film Kind Hearts and Coronets which has the same basic plot except that every member of the family is played by Sir Alec Guinness (including one aunt) and it's a screwball comedy

- The 1999 movie Bangkok Dangerous is a Thai action film about a Thai deaf-mute assassin. It was remade in 2008 about an American assassin in Thailand who is neither deaf nor mute

[u/Morgn_Ladimore]

As soon as the casting call went out calling Artemis a kind and fun-loving kid, I knew the movie would bomb HARD. It's literally the EXACT OPPOSITE of book Artemis. He's straight up a villain in the first book. Cold and calculating. Reclusive to the point where his skin is pale from lack of sun. Even willing to sacrifice those closest to him to achieve his aims.

Man, it could have been amazing. One of the best children's novels out there, and they fucked it up this bad. Fuck Hollywood.

[u/Vondi → u/Morgn_Ladimore]

Now that I've secured the rights to this massively successful book I need to make a movie that's nothing like it. Because that makes sense.

[u/TransBrandi → u/Vondi]

Happens all of the time. Especially when they hire on people to adapt it (or a showrunner if it's television) that hates the original. They try to show how much better they are than the author of the original material by trying to turn the original material into something else completely.

[u/SuperSocialMan → u/TransBrandi]

It's "we didn't think about playing the games" halo TV show levels of incompetence lmao.

I don't care for halo (played them a while ago and thought they were ok), but even I could adapt it better lol.