20 Things You Didn't Know About A Clockwork Orange

5. Kubrick Originally Hated The Book

Yep. Despite how dearly he would come to live it, Kubrick really didn't like Anthony Burgess' novel the first time he read it. The Nadsat language that the author created - comprised of Russian and Cockney rhyming slag - was apparently too confusing for him, and he turned down suggestions to adapt it into a film

It was only years later, when his attempts to get a Napoleon biopic greenlit fell through did he reconsider the idea after protagonist Alex had stuck with him as a Richard III-type protagonist.