I was channel surfing last night, and I came across a movie that instantly caught my attention–Loving Evangeline. I immediately hit the “info” button and discovered that, yep, just as I’d suspected, the movie was a remake of a romance book. And not just any romance–Loving Evangeline is one of my favorite books by the truly awesome Linda Howard. So, when I saw the movie version on Lifetime (I think that was the channel), I was excited…at first.

And then I realized that the writers had–for some reason that I just can’t understand–changed the story. The heroine’s past changed (and her past was dang important to the story) and the hero suddenly got a missing/dead brother. Huh? Why, oh, why were these changes made?

The hero in the book was described as “Seductive, passionate and charming.” Well, somebody needs to shake the casting agent on this movie cuz the actor just came across as seriously um, dorky (and so not in a good, sexy dorky way!). Every time I saw him, I winced. So. Not. Sexy.

Now, I have to re-read the book again, just so I can get those horrible scenes out of my mind.

I don’t understand–why would you mess with a good thing? I’ve seen this happen before, of course. A few years ago, Julie Garwood‘s For the Roses was made into one of those movie-of-the-week flicks. Yep, I was super-excited over that–until the thing aired. I can’t remember the specifics on that one, but I feel like the heroine might have fallen for a character who was actually her brother in the book. Sigh. The story was very much not as I remembered.

I think it’s great that romance novels are being made into movies–the stories get more attention, more fans, and the authors get more money. But when the books are turned into screenplays, I wish those new writers would not hack the story! Please, oh, please, don’t ruin a good thing!

This entry was posted on Saturday, May 20th, 2006 at 9:48 pm and is filed under Romance. You can follow any comments to this entry through the RSS feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.