12 Movies You Didn’t Realise Were Originally TV Shows

By Jay Anderson /

2. State Of Play

Upon its release, very little mention was made of the fact that this Russell Crowe-starring political thriller from 2009 was actually based on a BBC miniseries of the same name from 2003, which meant that only British film fans really recognised that it was a two-hour adaptation of a six-hour series already shot. The setting of the film was changed from Britain to the U.S., and concepts like Homeland Security were brought in, but much of the basic plot actually remains the same. As far as adaptations go, this one was actually pretty decent (with an 84% on Rotten Tomatoes), but American readers would likely be surprised that they were, essentially, watching a remake. Maybe it's all the Ben Affleck distracting them.