The Acting Troupe of Lambert will be putting on a full performance of Roald Dahl’s James and the Giant Peach on Thursday, February 2nd; Friday, February 3rd; and Saturday, February 4th. The show time will be 7p.m. for Thursday and Friday, while Saturday will have two showings at 2p.m. and 7p.m.

With the Lambert Acting Troupe’s upcoming performance in mind, I realized that Roald Dahl has had several film interpretations made of his writings, including James and the Giant Peach.

Often times, though, people will see a movie instead of reading a book because they find film to be a more entertaining medium. Author’s hard works are being looked over because a film adaptation might get far more fame than their novel ever did.

So, I did some research about what movies were based off of literature and I created my list of the top 3 film adaptations made from a novel or short story that a lot of people might not know about.

My number 3 choice is Million Dollar Baby, a Clint Eastwood directed film from 2004 that won 4 Oscars. But while the movie received all the press and fame, the framework for the box-office hit was left behind. The story for the movie was adapted from Rope Burns: Stories from the Corner by F.X. Toole. The collection of short stories was released in 2000, drawing on the author’s own experience as a trainer.

My second favorite choice also happens to be the most scientific contribution to my list. Contact, a movie starring Jody Foster and Matthew McConaughey, debuted in 1997 and can still be seen on TV many times a year. The novel, also titled Contact, is famous in its own right, but in a group of my peers none of them are familiar with the book. Some, however, are familiar with the movie. Carl Sagan, a famous scientist, wrote Contact and released it in 1997. The book goes into much greater detail than the movie about the alien contact and the journey taken by the main character, but the film is what remains as a topic of conversation.

The last and most prestigious spot on my list goes to an old classic. Most people probably know It’s a Wonderful Life from the constant airtime the movie sees during the holiday season. It’s been a hit since it was first released in 1946 with James Stewart as the star of the screen. What most people probably don’t know about the film is that the story is based off of The Greatest Gift by Philip Van Doren Stern. The book was released in 1943 and deserves credit as the origin of one of the greatest holiday movie’s ever and yet the novel flies completely under the radar

I know that movies are exciting and require little real concentration, but it’s important to take the time to appreciate the authors, like Roald Dahl, who make the movies, plays, and other adaptations we love possible. So come see James and the Giant Peach as a tribute to Roald Dahl’s hard work and know that, while he might’ve enjoyed fame, many authors are left in the shadows where nobody knows who they are. The hard work that they do to entertain the masses deserves more credit than it will probably ever recieve.