Inspired by a discussion to an answer on this question, has a movie which was explicitly adapted from a novel (regardless of how faithful the adaptation was) received an official novelisation based solely, or even primarily, on the movie?

  • 1
    Obviously yes, in that almost all G/PG-rated movies in the 1980s/1990s received some form of "Junior Novelization" treatment. I owned a copy of Gail Herman's Jurassic Park, for example (as well as the Return of the Jedi Storybook and Honey, I Blew Up the Baby and probably many more). Are you asking to exclude specifically "children's" movie novelizations? Jul 28 '20 at 20:22
  • 1
    Unfortunately, because there's not much chance that such books are pieces of art, but also that it makes the topic too broad and question, now with 6 answers (and I was told there's no practical limit, so this number can become much bigger) should be already closed (and my flag not declined).
    – Mithoron
    Jul 28 '20 at 23:46
  • 3
    I’m voting to close this question because the answer is 'yes' but this will just attract hordes of answers with a single example - as it already did.
    – Luciano
    Jul 29 '20 at 13:30
  • But judging the closing of a question based on answers is bad policy, isn't it? Why can't a moderator simply lock it?
    – Joachim
    Aug 5 '20 at 8:12


I think the answer to this is probably many

After a short think, the first example I was able to find was:

Philip K. Dick approved of the movie despite the differences in the adaptation, but refused to write the novelization and is quoted as saying


  • 5
    he probably wouldn't have gotten to finish it either since he passed away three months before the movie's release
    – DForck42
    Jul 27 '20 at 18:22
  • 6
    I similarly recall that there was a Total Recall novelization, written by Piers Anthony, and of course Total Recall was based on Dick's story "We Can Remember It For You Wholesale". But this was originally a short story rather than a novel, of course.
    – alfvaen
    Jul 28 '20 at 15:40
  • 1
    I think you could say "everything by Dick". Impostor, Paycheck, Next, Screamers and everything that was a few page story. Jul 29 '20 at 9:32


Planet Of The Apes (1968) was based on French author Pierre Boulle's 1963 novel La Planète des Singes. After becoming a movie and additional sequels, it was further developed into cartoons, TV series and comic books.

Additionally, all of the original sequels spawned novelizations by established science fiction writers of the day, each of which went through multiple reprintings of their own.

  • Michael Avallone wrote the novelization for Beneath the Planet of the Apes in 1970.
  • Jerry Pournelle, who later co-authored Lucifer's Hammer and The Mote in God's Eye, wrote the Escape from the Planet of the Apes novelization.
  • John Jakes, former Science Fiction Writers of America president, wrote Conquest of the Planet of the Apes.
  • David Gerrold, scriptwriter for the Star Trek episode "The Trouble with Tribbles", novelized Battle for the Planet of the Apes.

Novelizations of the live action and animated television series were also produced. William T. Quick novelized the 2001 Planet of the Apes; he also wrote two prequel novels, and several other book tie-ins were published.

Source: Planet Of The Apes Wiki


If you consider a graphic novel to be a novel, then the graphic novel V for Vendetta (written by Alan Moore and illustrated by David Lloyd) was adapted as a film (directed by James McTeigue and written by the Wachowskis), which was in turn novelized by Steve Moore (no relation to Alan Moore).

The film had a number of differences from the graphic novel, and these differences are carried through to the novelization.

  • 2
    I most certainly consider graphic novels to be novels, especially when they are written by someone of Alan Moore's calibre. Great catch on this one. Jul 28 '20 at 5:49
  • 1
    In that case, most of the MCU movies have had novelizations (of varying quality - mostly just adaptations of the film scripts), so they'd all qualify for the same reason. Probably the DCU movies as well. Jul 28 '20 at 14:41

In 1992 Francis Ford Coppola did his version of Dracula, released under the title "Bram Stoker's Dracula". Apparently the original novel was not adequate so a novelization was published (by James V. Hart and Fred Saberhagen).

Another example, years ago someone showed me a copy of H. Rider Haggard's "King Solomon's Mines" with a picture of Stewart Granger and Deborah Kerr from the 1950 movie on the cover. I know Haggard's writing; I read several of his books. He showed me the first page - it certainly was not Haggard. The cover and spine say Haggard. On the title page at the bottom it gives the movie director credit, the producer credit, screenplay credit and "Fictionized by Jean Francis Webb". I found the book on eBay so I could report this.

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  • 2
    "Fictionalized"? Really? Wow. Jul 28 '20 at 16:38
  • 5
    Actually, "Fictionized," as copied correctly by OP from the book. I had to look twice too. Jul 28 '20 at 17:41

One relatively clear-cut example is The Wicker Man, which "is a 1978 horror novel written by Robin Hardy and Anthony Shaffer. It was based on the 1973 cult horror film The Wicker Man, directed by Hardy and written by Shaffer. [..] The film itself is loosely based on the 1967 novel Ritual by the actor and novelist David Pinner."

If you'll expand your question to accept "Novels based on movies starring characters who originated in print" then The 2011 Conan the Barbarian Novel is 'Based on the Movie', and there are several James Bond novels based on the movies, and lots of the Marvel universe movies have been subsequently novelised.


An early almost-example is the novel The Circular Staircase, which was adapted into the play The Bat, which was separately adapted into novel The Bat and movie The Bat.



As no-one seems to have mentioned them yet, James Bond, The Spy Who Loved Me and James Bond and Moonraker are novelisations of the relevant Bond films, which have no resemblance to the original novels by Ian Fleming whose titles they bear.

(well, the OP did say "regardless of how faithful the adaptation was")


Another example: Snow White and the Huntsman.
Loosely based on the original fairy tale, which has been novelized many times (a.o. the brothers Grimm.)
The 2012 movie got is own novel, written by Lily Blake.



Another example to the great ones given previously:

  • In 1937, Frederic Dannay and Manfred Lee (writing as Ellery Queen) released The Door Between.

  • In 1940, it was adapted as Ellery Queen, Master Detective, directed by Kurt Neumann and written by Eric Taylor.

  • Finally, in 1941 the novelization of the movie was published as Ellery Queen Master Detective (sometimes reissued as Vanishing Corpse). The ghostwriter was Laurence Dwight Smith, but the cover credited Ellery Queen only.

Hence, this is an example where both the source and the novelization were published with the same name of the author on the cover.

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