Books into Films

I have mixed feeling about the idea of one of my favourite books, Memoirs of a Geisha, being turned into a film. Most films just do not live up to the book, and the lead characters just do not look like their descriptions. Take, for example, the film The Witches of Eastwick, in the book the character played by Cher was described as short and dumpy. Hello? Short and dumpy? So you cast Cher?? I read the book because I had quite liked the film, but could just not match up the image in my mind's eye of the author's 'short and dumpy' description and the image I had seen in the movie.

Films that are based on books have two options:

1. Keep it as true to the book as possible so die hard fans are not disappointed
2. Change the ending, so that people familiar with the story have a new ending to follow.

Perhaps there is a third option - leave the damn thing alone!

As far as Memoirs of a Geisha is concerned, I will probably base my decision to go and see it at the cinema on the reviews at the time, telling me if it is a worthwhile adaptation or not. However, even if it is slated, I expect I will be unable to resist it when it comes around on TV.

The book is very detailed about the Geisha learning process and I cannot expect the film to cover all of her life, but I hope they keep in the Geisha rivalry and her relationships. I just hope the film makers are big fans of the book, and are not doing this as a commercial venture.