10 Movie Adaptations That Should Have Been TV Shows

Taking a successful novel and adapting it for the big screen is a tried-and-tested formula. Indeed, it's no secret that some of the most successful movies of all time have arisen from the pages of exceptionally talented novelists.

However, not all movie adaptations manage to capture the brilliance of their source material. Many adaptations have even resulted in frustration from those who loved the book but were dissapointed by the movie.

A common problem with such adaptations is that they struggle to translate enough of the author’s work. Granted, not every line of dialogue from the book needs to be present in the movie, but certain adaptations are more than a little lacking.

Television shows, on the other hand, allow screenwriters to adapt novels with a greater level of depth and attention to detail.

Consequently, there have been many movie adaptations that would have been far more satisfactory if they had been fleshed out into television shows…

The Chronicles of Narnia holds a special place in the hearts of those who grew up reading this seven-part fantasy series. With their easy-to-follow storylines and heavenly environments, it's easy to see why so many children still read the books today.

The problem with the movie adaptations was that they took these small, quaint stories and attempted to make them bigger than they were meant to be. In particular, the large battle sequences felt completely out of kilter with the rest of the story.

Granted, there was actually a television adaptation of The Chronicles of Narnia by the BBC back in the late 1980s, but said adaptation – though not without merit – was more than a little dated by the turn of the century.

Hopefully the upcoming adaptations by Netflix will be able to combine the BBC’s faithfulness to the source material with the financial backing of the recent movies to create a television show worthy of C.S. Lewis’s fantasy classic.