Where the Wild Things Are

Over the weekend I saw the movie Where the Wild Things Are, which as you all probably know is based off the popular childrens book. Because the book is so short (only 338 words), the director Spike Jonze was forced to take some creative leaps in the film. As a result the movie ends up conveying deeper messages about love and fear and in addition is somewhat dark. It is definitely not a cutesy kids movie. Max, the main character, learns valuable lessons about his actions from his experiences with the wild things. An interesting blog on NPR reports that the movie received mixed reviews; it received a horrible review from the Los Angeles Times whereas the Chicago Tribune review gave it four stars. These different interpretations are mainly the result of Jonze's reconstruction of the novel.
The way this movie was constructed made me think about the way most movies are created these days: from books. It seems like the ideas for new movies are always somehow based off of a book. This is definitely saying something about American culture. Apparently, the greatest source of creativity in entertainment comes from books. However from what I've observed, books don't get the credit they deserve. I bet more people first saw the Twilight movie, for example, before reading the book. Because this is a common occurrence, usually movies influence the way people read.

Has this ever happened to you? Or maybe the opposite scenario occurred. Did a book ever influence the way you saw a movie? Which form of entertainment has the greatest impact on you? Share some stories.