This weekend you can head to theaters to see director Ridley Scott's new crime thriller "The Counselor", starring Michael Fassbender, Javier Bardem, Brad Pitt, Cameron Diaz and Penelope Cruz. With that famous director and star-studded cast, you may not have noticed the name of the man who wrote the film: Cormac McCarthy. McCarthy is one of the most acclaimed American authors working today, having penned such modern classics as "No Country For Old Men", "The Road", "All The Pretty Horses" and "Blood Meridian". But while his books have often been the target of Hollywood adaptations (including the Best Picture-winning film version of "No Country For Old Men"), McCarthy himself has never written a screenplay. Until now.
So who are some other famous authors who made the transition from novels to movies? The following list may surprise you.
Although this beloved author is mostly widely known for his novel "Fahrenheit 451", his body of work actually consists largely of short story collections. It makes sense, then, that he would apply his creative science-fiction to another short form: television. Throughout the '50s and '60s, Bradbury wrote episodes for the likes of "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" and "The Twilight Zone". In the late '80s through the early '90s he even had his own anthology series, "The Ray Bradbury Theater", that ran for six seasons. He also contributed to several feature-length screenplays. He's given story credit for the 1953 3D sci-fi smash "It Came From Outer Space", and, most surprisingly, he personally adapted Herman Melville's impossible "Moby Dick" into a film starring Gregory Peck as Captain Ahab, which is largely considered the best film version of that famous tale.
Capote has a truly eclectic body of work. His most famous book is undoubtedly "In Cold Blood", the non-fiction story of the quadruple murder of the Clutter family in small town Kansas, which is considered to have singlehandedly started the "true crime" craze. But he also wrote "Breakfast At Tiffany's", the romantic story of Holly Golightly, which was adapted into one of the most iconic films of all time, starring Audrey Hepburn. His forays into film were equally diverse. He wrote 1953's "Beat The Devil", which was a thriller/comedy/film-noir-parody starring Humphrey Bogart (and directed by John Huston, who also directed Bradbury's "Moby Dick"). And in 1960, Capote adapted Henry James' ghostly short story "The Turn Of The Screw" into a film called "The Innocents", starring Deborah Kerr as a governess convinced her young wards are possessed by ghosts.
You might be surprised to find out the man that penned such acclaimed novels as "The Amazing Adventures Of Kavalier & Clay" and "The Yiddish Policemen's Union" is also responsible for such big-budget blockbusters as 2004's "Spider-Man 2" and 2012's vastly underrated "John Carter". Chabon's experiences in Hollywood have been frustrating and mired in difficulties, however. Despite interest from the likes of legendary producer Scott Rudin, adaptations of his works including "Kavalier & Clay" and "The Gentleman Host" have never gotten off the ground. His original pitches for "X-Men" and "The Fantastic Four" were both rejected. Though he wrote the original screenplay for "Spider-Man 2", the film underwent several rewrites and only about one-third of the final product is Chabon's work. And "John Carter" is one of The Walt Disney Company's all-time biggest financial failures.
Did you know that the author of "Charlie And The Chocolate Factory", "James And The Giant Peach" and "Matilda" wrote a James Bond movie? Most people don't. But he did, penning Sean Connery's fifth outing as the suave super-spy, 1967's "You Only Live Twice", which introduced the world to the iconic cat-stroking villain Blofeld. One year later, Dahl loosely adapted a children's novel by James Bond author Ian Fleming, which became the beloved musical-comedy "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang". Dahl himself is personally responsible for the creation of that film's terrifying villain, The Child Catcher. While he had success writing in Hollywood, he didn't have as much luck having his own work adapted. The adaptation of "Charlie" was renamed "Willy Wonka And The Chocolate Factory" and placed for too much emphasis on the chocolatier over the titular child for Dahl's liking; he was so infuriated by the liberties the studio took with his work that he refused to let any of his other books be adapted during his lifetime.
Eggers, the Pulitzer-finalist author behind the best-selling memoir "A Heartbreaking Work Of Staggering Genius" has recently made the transition to screenplays. His first film was 2009's acclaimed indie drama "Away We Go", which he co-wrote with his wife. The film was helmed by famous director Sam Mendes ("American Beauty", "Skyfall") and attracted an all-star cast including John Krasinski, Maya Rudolph, Allison Janney, Jeff Daniels, Catherine O'Hara and Maggie Gyllenhaal. That same year, his adaptation of Maurice Sendak's classic children's story "Where The Wild Things Are" was released. Eggers co-wrote that screenplay with director Spike Jonze. Finally, Eggers is given story credit for the 2012 drama "Promised Land", starring Matt Damon and John Krasinski (although the actual screenplay was written by the film's co-stars).
Ellis recently raised the hackles of Hollywood by tweeting about the Academy Award-winning director of "The Hurt Locker" and "Zero Dark Thirty": "Kathryn Bigelow would be considered a mildly interesting filmmaker if she was a man but since she's a very hot woman she's really overrated." But before he was stirring controversy on Twitter, he was stirring controversy in his novels such as "American Psycho" and "Glamorama". Considered to be part of the "transgressive" genre, his works are widely considered overly violent and misogynistic. Ellis brought this "transgressive" style to the movies this year in his already-notorious first screenplay, "The Canyons". The film starred perpetual punching-bag Lindsay Lohan and infamous porn star James Deen in a tale of Hollywood sex, betrayal and murder. He also recently expressed interest in writing the adaptation of mommy-porn novel "Fifty Shades Of Grey", although the job eventually went to Kelly Marcel (whose only credits are for FOX's short-lived sci-fi drama "Terra Nova" and the upcoming Tom Hanks film "Saving Mr. Banks").
Faulkner, author of such timeless classics as "The Sound And The Fury" and "As I Lay Dying", has the distinction of being one of only 11 American authors to have ever won a Nobel Prize for Literature (out of 110 total recipients). But that doesn't mean he wasn't above slumming it in Hollywood. In 1932, Faulkner was in such dire need of cash that he signed a contract with MGM, which had him churning out screenplays throughout the '30s and '40s. Five of the nine films that Faulkner worked on were directed by the legendary Howard Hawks, with whom the author had a good working relationship. The most classic film to emerge from their collaboration is unquestionably 1946's "The Big Sleep", starring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall. "The Big Sleep" is arguably the iconic film noir, with Bogart portraying a private detective embroiled in murder, blackmail and love.
Puzo wrote perhaps one of the most iconic American novels of all time, which was adapted into perhaps one of the most iconic American films of all time. You might think that the author of "The Godfather" would be the last person on earth to work on an effects-driven superhero film. But you'd be wrong. Apart from co-writing the screenplays for all three "Godfather" films with director Francis Ford Coppola, Puzo is also responsible for the mother of all superhero movies: 1978's "Superman" and its 1980 sequel, "Superman II". The plots of the two films were conceived as one big story, and Puzo wrote the screenplays for both simultaneously. The massive production for the films was notoriously plagued by problems, including studio meddling and the firing of the original director. Although "creative consultants" were brought on board to do rewrites of Puzo's script, the majority of the film remains Puzo's work. (He also wrote the screenplay for 1974's disaster blockbuster "Earthquake".) It is an indisputable fact that Puzo has had a lasting impact on Hollywood, as he is almost single-handedly responsible for kickstarting two well-loved genres: the mafia crime drama and the superhero action movie -- the latter of which is still in its heyday of popularity.
