The book makes a lot of things clearer than the film.
Interestingly the book and the film were developed together by Kubrick and Clarke as a collaborative process.
Usually the book comes before the film, but occasionally it comes after.
I can't think of other examples where the novel was developed alongside the film but I expect there are!
The Third Man is another example. Graham Greene wrote a treatment before he wrote the screenplay. The treatment, which wasn't written with publication in mind, was later published as a novella, and it differs from the film in several notable ways, because Greene and the directors changed things during the writing of the screenplay and the principal making of the film.
> I can't think of other examples where the novel was developed alongside the film but I expect there are!
Game of Thrones?
That was a television series that should've waited. They needed the books to be finished.
Because it's either:
A) regular Hollywood schlock that ruined the last seasons; or (worse)
B) that was his actual direction for the book series and now he knows that it's not good.
Either way, I believe we will never get the final books in that series due to the television series.
I definitely agree the show influenced the books. Not sure that’s better or worse. I didn’t hate the ending as much as everyone else. It made sense. Maybe it would be more palatable with a subsequent series.
Counterpoint - the books will never be finished, so waiting would make no sense.
However, they should hire writers that can actually write characters and plots other then simplest ones. The writing quality was indeed horrible by the end.
And interestingly Clarke set the destination as Saturn, whereas Kubrick made it Jupiter. In the sequel book, 2010, Clarke used Jupiter as in the movie.