HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Happiest of pub weeks to the brilliant–and incredibly hard-working and talented–Ryan Steck! You know him, of course, as The Real Book Spy, and all that info is below.
But he is also a fabulous author–and his own thrillers are taking the world by storm. (I know, climate change, but this is “by storm” in a good way.) His newest, LETHAL RANGE, is out this week, hurray. And his books are a wonderful combination of high-stakes and true emotions. They're fast-paced and heartstopping--and sometimes heartbreaking. And we're honored to host him today.
Today, darling Reds and Readers, he’s posing a very difficult but very important question.
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The Best Book-to-Film Thriller Adaptations
“The book was better!” C’mon, that’s a line we’ve all said multiple times, right? And for the most part, it’s always true. We could get into why that is, but the answer is fairly complex and time-consuming, so instead, I thought it might be more fun to concentrate on the best book-to-film thriller adaptations.
Right out of the gate, I’m going to mention Reacher on Prime Video because, for my money, that’s actually the best adaption of a mainstream action thriller yet. Now, it’s not a film, so this might be cheating, but I sincerely believe that the only way you can adequately adapt 100,000 words from a novel to the screen is to dedicate a whole season—or roughly ten hours of television—to covering that one book. And for proof of that concept, look no further than the Alan Ritchson–led series that follows Lee Child’s #1 New York Times bestselling novels.
Reacher has everything you want in a thriller series. Lots of action. A deep, twisting conspiracy. Bad guys you love to hate. And even a cast of memorable characters. It was perfectly done, in my opinion, and finding an actor big enough to portray America’s favorite nomad—which Ritchson fits to a T—was the key. If you haven’t watched it, you’re really missing out.
Another favorite adaptation of mine was Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl. Now, this one worked for a number of reasons. Yes, Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike both turned in brilliant performances as Nick and Amy Dunne, but the key, I think, was that Gillian Flynn wrote the screenplay.
Time and time again, we see film adaptations of hit thrillers miss the mark because Hollywood somehow managed to strip out everything we loved about the book. Well, not this time. There’s a comfort in knowing that any changes to the book were made by the same person who wrote the book to begin with. And Flynn was able to capture the same level of nail-biting suspense that readers first felt while flipping through her novel on the big screen. It all just worked so well, and Gone Girl might be the gold standard, as far as I’m concerned, for book-to-movie adaptations.
Tom Clancy is perhaps the most celebrated political thriller novelist of all time, and yet Hollywood has struggled mightily to bring his work to life on the screen. Not for lack of trying, mind you.
We’ve seen four actors play Jack Ryan across four movies and four seasons of Jack Ryan on Prime Video. Let’s just be honest: there are a lot of misses in there. While the Amazon-produced series features the name of Clancy’s beloved character, the show itself has almost nothing to do with any of Clancy’s books. That was a pretty bold decision, don’t you think?
But then again, that decision underscores how iconic Jack Ryan’s name is. The series could work because people knew who Ryan was, even if the writers created all new storylines around him. Now, in some ways, I could argue that John Krasinski is actually the best Jack Ryan to date. But the best adaptation of one of Clancy’s books? Not even close.
I know a popular pick here would be The Hunt for Red October, and believe me, if you lean that way, I totally get it. But to wrap this up, I’m going to finish my list with the 1994 film Clear and Present Danger.
First, I loved Harrison Ford’s portrayal of Jack Ryan. Moreover, Willem Dafoe’s John Clark is my favorite version of Clark too. The movie stayed fairly close to Clancy’s source material, and we even got to see Domingo Chavez (played by Raymond Cruz), a fan-favorite character in the books, finally make an appearance on screen. All in all, I think it’s one of the best book-to-film thriller adaptations—period.
What do you think? Love my picks? Hate ’em? Think Alec Baldwin was a better Jack Ryan than Ford or Krasinski? I’d love to hear your take, and I look forward to stopping by the comment section to discuss!
HANK: Oh, a tough one! I love Hunt For Red October, and thought that adaptation was terrific. The sound, especially. And yes, I could watch Clear and Present Danger a million times. How about the one with Kevin Costner and the fax machine, No Way Out. Was that from a book?
How about you Reds and readers? What’s your fave book to movie thriller?
About the Author
Ryan Steck is an editor, an author, and the founder and editor in chief of The Real Book Spy. Ryan has been named an “Online Influencer” by Amazon and is a regular columnist at CrimeReads. TheRealBookSpy.com has been endorsed by #1 New York Times bestselling authors Mark Greaney, C. J. Box, Kyle Mills, Daniel Silva, Brad Thor, and many others. Ryan's newest book, Lethal Range, released on August 8, 2023, from Tyndale Fiction. A resident of Michigan, along with his wife and their six kids, Steck cheers on his beloved Detroit Tigers and Lions during the rare moments when he’s not reading or talking about books on social media. He can be reached via email at ryan@therealbookspy.com.
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