1. Dr. Strangelove (1964)
In what has to be one of the downright strangest book-to-movie adaptations of all time, Stanley Kubrick took Peter George's 1958 novel "Red Alert" and made it into the massively iconic Dr. Strangelove. So what's strange about that, you ask? Well, the fact that George's novel is totally serious and non-comedic in every way, and Dr. Strangelove is considered to be one of the most absurd and deranged movie satires ever, speaks volumes. Fact is, Kubrick built up a reputation for his incredibly lose "adaptations" - emphasis strongly on those quotation marks. So aside from "the threat of nuclear war," George's novel bears almost no relation to its subsequent adaptation, given that Kubrick emphasised those elements which he deemed suitable for farce, and downplayed the serious military plot points. It didn't start out that way, though: Kubrick originally intended to make a straight adaptation of "Red Alert," but decided that the idea of nuclear annihilation was actually rather funny. As a result, it's entirely possible to read "Red Alert" from cover to cover without realising that Dr. Strangelove has anything to do with it at all. Like this article? Which adaptations have we missed? Let us know in the comments section.