A Film By Any Other Name Trivia Quiz

Answer: Heart of Darkness

Filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola made more changes to Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" than just the title when he created "Apocalypse Now". He moved it from the 19th century to the 20th and from Central Africa to Vietnam, for example. But the essence of the movie is the same, with an outsider sent upriver to check on a rogue leader who's gone insane and made himself a crazed despot among a community of native people.

Answer: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

English filmmaker Ridley Scott had already had success with the science fiction movie "Alien", but he solidified his career when he adapted of Philip K. Dick's story "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" into 1981's "Blade Runner". The futuristic film followed the story of a police officer, Rick Deckard, as he was pulled out of retirement to track down and a group of rebellious human-looking androids.

Answer: The Body

When the film "Stand By Me" was released in 1986, viewers may have been surprised to learn that the film with its cheery 1950's rock-and-roll soundtrack and the friendly chemistry among the main cast members was actually based on a novella by Stephen King, a writer mostly known for his horror stories.

The studio behind the movie, Columbia Pictures, didn't want the name of the story, "The Body", for the movie and went with the more welcoming title, "Stand By Me", after a song of the same time by Ben E. King which played over the movie's closing credits.

Answer: My Posse Don't Do Homework

In 1992, LouAnne Johnson, a Marine-turned-teacher, published "My Posse Don't Do Homework" about marginalized high school students in California. Three years later, Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer produced the movie version, "Dangerous Minds", starring Michelle Pfeiffer as a teacher trying to reach her gang-affiliated students.

Answer: The Short-Timers

In 1979, retired U.S. Marine Gustav Hasford published "The Short-Timers" based on his deployment in Vietnam. Eight years later, Stanley Kubrick produced a movie version of the story, "Full Metal Jacket". The movie merged several characters from the book but the intensity and pressures of combat remained.

Answer: Push

"Push" was the debut novel of American author and poet Sapphire. The book and the 2009 movie centered on the transformation of Precious, an illiterate teenager about to give birth to her second child after suffering years of abuse from her father.

The title was changed to "Precious" to avoid confusion with the action movie "Push" that came out the same year. But the full title of the film pays homage to the book's title; its full title is "Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire".

Answer: Q & A

In 2005, Indian foreign minister Vikas Swarup wrote his first novel, "Q & A", about an impoverished orphan from Mumbai who was accused of cheating after he beat out all his competitors on a major television quiz show. The story was adopted into a screen play by British screenwriter Simon Beaufoy, who wrote "The Full Monty" (1997), "Salmon Fishing in the Yemen" (2011), and "The Hunger Games: Catching Fire" (2013). "Slumdog Millionaire" was nominated for 10 Academy Awards, and won eight of them, including Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay.

Answer: Queen Bees and Wannabes

In 2002, Rosalind Wiseman published a nonfiction book, "Queen Bees and Wannabes: Helping Your Daughter Survive Cliques, Gossip, Boyfriends, and Other Realities of Adolescence", about cliques and other social pressures teenage girls face. Two years later, "Saturday Night Live" writer and actress Tina Fey used elements from the book as well as her own life to create the movie "Mean Girls".

The movie follows 16-year-old Cady Heron as she joins a new high school and navigates cliques, jealousies, and friendships.

Answer: Rhapsody, a Dream Novel

"Rhapsody, a Dream Novel", also known as "Dream Story", was published in 1926, written by the Austrian physician named Arthur Schnitzler. When Stanley Kubrick released his film adaptation in 1999, he set the story in modern New York City and titled it "Eyes Wide Shut".

But he kept many elements of the original, including marital strife and infidelity, secret taboo societies, and a night that felt like a nightmare.

Answer: Shoeless Joe

In 1982, Canadian author W. P. Kinsella wrote "Shoeless Joe", about a modern-day baseball fan who builds a baseball field after he seems to receive advice from Joe Jackson, a long-ago baseball hero. The movie based on the story was called "Field of Dreams" to emphasize that the film was less about the professional sport and more about hope.

Answer: Wiseguy

New York City native Nicolas Pileggi was a crime writer whose fascination with the Mafia motivated him to write a book about it; he teamed up with a former Mafia associate, Henry Hill, to write the book "Wiseguy", about Hill's rise and fall with organized crime. When director Martin Scorsese read the book, he called Pileggi directly to express interest in making the story into a movie. They collaborated to create "Goodfellas" (1990). The name was likely changed because of a television show and a movie with similar titles in the same time period.

In 2007, film critic Roger Ebert called the film "the best mob movie ever".

Answer: The Greatest Gift

In 1943, Pennsylvanian author Philip Van Doren Stern published a short story, "The Greatest Gift". It was adapted by Frank Capra and released as "It's a Wonderful Life" in 1946 and became an iconic holiday-time film about a suicidal man, George, given the chance to see what the world would have been like had he never been born.

There were several differences in the two versions; in the book, for example, there's a mysterious man who sets George on his way to re-imagine his life; in the movie, this stranger is clearly identified as an angel.

In the book, George's wife would have married another man, while in the movie, she would have remained unmarried. Both versions have a happy ending appropriate to the season.

Answer: Red Dragon

In 1981, American author published "Red Dragon", about an FBI profiler, Will Graham, who consulted with an imprisoned serial killer, Hannibal Lecter, for advice on tracking down another serial killer. In 1986, a film version was released with the title "Manhunter".

Although director Michael Mann had wanted to keep the original title, greater powers made the change to "Manhunter", possibly to avoid confusion with other Dragon-themed movies made by Bruce Lee in the same era.

Answer: Rapunzel

"Tangled" was based on the classic fairy tale "Rapunzel" by the Brothers Grimm. Both stories are about a young girl trapped in a high tower who used her long hair to facilitate her escape. According to the Los Angeles Times (3/9/2010), Disney changed the name of the movie to "Tangled" to lure in male viewers as well as female, fearing "Rapunzel" would only appeal to half the potential audience.

Answer: Nothing Lasts Forever

In 1979, Roderick Thorp published "Nothing Lasts Forever", a novel about a New York detective fighting off German terrorists in a skyscraper where his daughter was attending a workplace holiday party. In the movie version, "Die Hard", it was the detective's wife who was in peril, not his daughter.

The role of the policeman, John McClane, launched actor Bruce Willis's movie career, as well as the "Die Hard" franchise.