9 Authors Who Made Terrible Films Of Their Own Books

8. Ethan Hawke - The Hottest State

The Hottest State was Ethan Hawke€™s debut novel, and told a story of young love and heartbreak; so standard procedure for Gen X. The book received decent reviews and Hawke eventually mounted a film version a decade later, and he really shouldn€™t have bothered. The film version is Hawke€™s attempt at a Richard Linklater movie, but he doesn€™t have the sensibility to pull it off. The main actor has all the charisma of a soggy plate of noodles, and watching him spend half the runtime moping and whining doesn€™t make for compelling cinema. He doesn€™t have a lot of chemistry with his love interest either, meaning the romance doesn€™t connect either. Hawke himself shows up towards the end, playing the father of the lead €“ despite only being ten years older in real life. He espouses rote life philosophies that sound like they were written by a pretentious film nerd; probably because they were. Hawke has proven to be both a great actor and screenwriter in his later work, but directing wasn't his forte.
Contributor
Contributor

Handsome. Charismatic. Intelligent. Noble. Witty. I'm none of these things, but I'm a half decent writer, I guess.