I’ve been collecting movie/tv novelizations lately, particularly horror, but I’m curious which of them are considered the best of the best or are especially worth reading even if you’ve seen their respective media. I’m not asking about books set in a movie or tv universe, like the Firefly or Psych books, for this I’m looking specifically for things that are explicit novelizations of an existent movie or tv episode.
by Thissnotmeth
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Alien, probably. The description of the xenomorph in it is different because it was never specified in the screenplay and the author didn’t get to watch the movie.
My favorite is Orson Scott Card’s The Abyss. The first three chapters are backstories for Linsdey, Bud, and Coffey. And Card was given video of the production, not just the screenplay. He describes every flinch and compromise that registers on Ed Harris’s face, trying to be in command and cooperative under a staggering amount of literal and metaphorical pressure.
The “Once Upon A Time in Hollywood novelization written by Quentin Tarantino is excellent. It overlaps the movie about 50%, so it has a lot of stuff involving that characters that isn’t in the movie.
Also, the “2001, A Space Odyssey” novel is a great companion to the movie. The novel was written in parallel with the screen play.
Revenge of the Sith
The Abyss. Written by Orson Scott Card
Neil Gaiman’s “Neverwhere”, the book came after the British tv series, because Neil wanted to make it better than his screenplay.