Ten best film adaptations

David Nicholls' TV credits include the third series of Cold Feet, Rescue Me, and I Saw You, as well as adapting works for the screen, including Simpatico, Starter for Ten (from his own novel) as well as Tess of the D’Urbervilles for the BBC. His latest novel is One Day.

For the (London) Independent, he named his favorite film adaptations.

One item on the list:

The Big Sleep/The Long Goodbye

Two examples of how similar source material can be given remarkably different adaptations. The Huston* movie (adapted by Faulkner, Leigh Brackett and Jules Furthman) is classic Hollywood; witty, elegant, dark, sexy. Altman's is classic New Hollywood; cynical, rambling, mumbling, sunlit. Interestingly, the great Leigh Brackett worked on both movies.

Read about the other adaptations to make the grade.

[*Marshal Zeringue notes: The Big Sleep was directed by Howard Hawks, not John Huston.]

--Marshal Zeringue