Adaptations have been a huge part of Hollywood from the very beginning. Plays, books and – lately – comics have been fertile ground for spinning into movies.
And while we know they're never going to please everyone, there are some times when filmmakers just completely miss the point of our favourite characters.
Named and shamed:
1. Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) – X-Men Origins: Wolverine
The first, much-derided Wolverine solo film got off to an acceptable start establishing Ryan Reynolds's fast-talking Wade Wilson, but by the end of the movie had transformed him into a mindless killbot without a mouth.
The irony of how the famously smart-mouthed assassin was treated certainly hasn't been lost on Reynolds. Thank God for second chances, eh?
2. Daisy Buchanan (Carey Mulligan) – The Great Gatsby
Carey Mulligan is a fine actor but we just weren't convinced by her Daisy in Baz Luhrmann's The Great Gatsby. Too modern, not cut-glass fragile enough in demeanour. We struggled to feel sympathy for her or the girl she once was.
We weren't totally convinced by Leonardo DiCaprio as Gatsby either, though. Sorry old sport, nothing 'great' about it.
3. The Cat in the Hat (Mike Myers) – The Cat in the Hat
Dr Seuss's mischief-making Cat in the Hat is one of those perennially beloved figures in children's literature, although Mike Myers did his best to undo that with his creepy, nightmare-fuel performance as an anthropomorphic monstrosity who really wants to screw your mum.
4. Emma Frost (January Jones) – X-Men: First Class
X-Men villain (and sometime member) Emma Frost wears ridiculous outfits. There is no denying this. But any comic book fan will know that she has a vulnerable beating heart concealed by a ruthless streak and some of the most scorching one-liners ever committed to the page.
Unfortunately, Matthew Vaughn seemed to get stuck on the revealing costume, and thus January Jones became nothing but a clothes-horse draped across the various X-Men: First Class sets. When the source material is this strong, we call that a criminal waste.
7. Cathy Earnshaw (Juliette Binoche) – Wuthering Heights
Juliette Binoche looks totally right for the tragic windswept heroine of Emily Brontë's doomed romance. She does not sound right. At all. Hardly Binoche's fault but she is French, and 'eazcliff, I long for ze moors' doesn't cut it.
8. Carrie White (Chloë Grace Moretz) – Carrie
[asset removed due to syndication rights]Poor old Chloë Grace Moretz. She's one of the most talented performers of her generation, already more accomplished and with a heftier CV than many actors can boast in an entire lifetime. She is also incredibly wealthy, self-assured and drop dead gorgeous.
Which is why she was totally wrong for Carrie White in Kimberly Peirce's remake. Mussing up her hair a bit cannot turn shining beacon of confidence and loveliness Moretz into troubled, tortured outsider dweeb Carrie.
9. Jack Reacher (Tom Cruise) – Jack Reacher
No offence to anyone of a shorter stature, but Lee Child's military-policeman-turned-drifter Jack Reacher is specifically written to be a giant of a man – a fact that often leads him unwittingly into trouble with the kind of people who are looking for a fight.
Tom Cruise may have the right laconic charisma, but he would have to jump up and down on a sofa to attract the bad guys' attention.
