That was done for at least one song by The Jams that was forced out of stores due to use of samples (the same group that used the name The Timelords for the song Doctorin' The Tardis). They released their vocals and such, with instructions on what sampled clips to insert where.

The sad thing is, it could have been worse. Quite a bit more was filmed, before it was decided to cut it down to 90 minutes, and your first thought is, "well, that's the problem! Too much was cut!" Then you watch the two deleted scenes on the DVD and see they're as bad as the rest. So, at least we didn't see the Kioshi Warriors fucked up as well.

I remember when I use to watch Space: Above and Beyond. About two thirds way into the season, there were sudden changes to the show incorporating all the stuff we'd been bitching to the creators about in the AOL forums. No idea what the hell was going on in the war? They showed us maps. The whole stupidity of having fighter pilots act as Grunts? An officer made a speech that tried to at least justify this, as it was too late to change that aspect of the show. This was all too late to save the series, as due to the cost I assume it was doomed regardless, but I always respected the fact they tried.

Movies you have to do:

The Cowboys (best John Wayne movie ever)
A Bridge Too Far (I love it, but something is wrong with it and I don't know WHAT)
Metropolis, complete version (you can put all your silent film comments into that one)
Primer (I dare you!)

Maybe they were just caught up how magic/religion has ALWAYS turned out to be real in the Indy universe, so take any claims in that department at face value. In other words, there's no reason for a psychic to BE fake in the film!

The Hobbit is one of those stories I'm so familiar with that I won't have much problem with bastardizations. It's just always been there, like the Bible, and not to be treated like gospel The Rankin/Bass TV movie came out when I was in 4th or 5th grade, and the teachers showed it to us in class at some point (home VCRs were nonexistent in my world, so this was all still magic). At some point I picked up a two record album with the complete soundtrack, dialog and all, which I still have. A year later the elementary school play was a teacher written adaptation of the book, with fun new songs- the battle of five armies was done to the tune of "10 little indians" as the dwarves got killed off.

All I'll ask from the film is that they keep the sense of wonder. It's a KIDS story, about leaving home for the first time and seeing the wonders of the world... then coming home again.

Given a copy of the movie isn't included in the episodes, I don't see the problem. If anything, it gets you to rent movies you wouldn't otherwise want to see.

You could also talk about how they used to do adaptations compared to today. Looking at the credits of old films, it's amazing how few times they actually kept the book's title...

In the 80's, iirc, there was a local uproar from the mental health community over a radio station ad that said about listening to the station, "Nuts if you do, Nuts if you don't". Some groups are very thin skinned.

Using the "found story" format, the literary version of "found footage", in a movie would seem to me rather tricky. All you get out of it is excuses to do lots of narration, and you're probably cutting back to people reading the diaries to get in and out of scenes. It may be after the first act they figured out it wasn't going to keep working so sort of eased out of it.

I don't think I've read the book since the 80's. Is anyone actually reading the letters and such we're presented with in it, or in the world of the book are they just sort of scattered all over the place and nobody there has all the dots connected (unlike the reader)?

The concept is also silly, so you have to watch it like a fairytale and not a SF movie (I'll admit not having seen it in a decade or two). The ending of the classic anime movie Castle in the Sky Laputa actually reminds me of Silent Running, with a robot taking care of a floating garden now safe from humans.

From fan commentaries on Thor and Captain America, it is somewhat, given what the movies are trying to do. Is this the first time a studio has tried to create a coherent, multi-film universe? They gave lots of mention to things put in that only make sense if you see earlier or later films. Not pointless things for fanboys, but important details that you're just not going to understand unless fully committed to what Marvel was doing. Now, the example you give probably is just bad writing, but I'm kind of looking at all these as "experimental" movies. They're trying to do something new-ish, and while the results may end up sucking I'm very curious to see how it turns out.