Books have always been a major source of inspiration for movies. From classics to new favorites, book-to-movie adaptations are a great way to bring the world of a book to life on the big screen. While some books are popular both before and after their adaptations, such as the Hunger Games series or Jane Austen novels, other books have fared differently.

In fact, some books that led to great movies might be entirely unknown. In some cases, the book might have been overshadowed by the success of its movie counterpart. Other movies were based on lesser-known books that still remained so, even with a movie adaptation. Here are some movies you probably didn’t know were based on books, in no particular order.

Updated October 12, 2023: This article has been updated with even more great movies you didn't know were based on books.

12 Forrest Gump (1994)

Forrest Gump is the remarkable story of a man whose mother teaches him he has no limits despite being slow-witted. Thanks to her support and his compulsion to do the right thing, he discovered his skills for running, which led him to become a successful football star in college. Forrest decides to join the army and makes good on his word to build a shrimp business after the passing of his good friend Bubba.

At every stage in life, he encounters Jenny, the would-be love of his life, who leads a rebellious and troubled life. This fine masterpiece is an adaptation of a novel written by Winston Groom. The compelling book caught the attention of Warner Bros, who sought to make the movie after a fierce bidding war that Paramount Pictures eventually won. The screenplay by Eric Roth takes elements from the first eleven chapters of the book. The film was directed by Robert Zemeckis and stars Tom Hanks, Robin Wright, Gary Sinise, and Sally Field.

11 Mean Girls (2004)

By 2004, Tina Fey was on a roll as a longstanding member of SNL, where she was the lead on many skits along with multiple writing credits. The actress/writer/producer took an interest in the book Queen Bees and Wannabes by Rosalind Wiseman and wrote a pitch to Lorne Michaels, a longtime producer of SNL. Michaels contacted Paramount, and the studio got the ball rolling with this production.

Directed by Mark Waters, Mean Girls is a staple of the 2000s, starring Lindsay Lohan and Rachel McAdams. The movie tells the story of a girl named Cady who's been homeschooled most of her life until she returns to the USA and must face the dangerous environment of the American public education system, filled with tribes and social groups that are governed by implicit laws of popularity to keep them divided.

10 Stardust (2007)

Stardust is one of those films that should have a larger profile than it has in the pop culture zeitgeist. This fantasy movie is based on a book of the same name written by Neil Gaiman. The film, written and directed by Matthew Vaughn, features a roster of heavy hitters in the industry, such as Claire Danes, Charlie Cox, Sienna Miller, Ricky Gervais, Peter O'Toole, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Robert De Niro, who make a gracious turn by playing a rugged, but sensitive gay pirate in this movie. It's the story of a prince who ventures into the lands of the fairies to retrieve a fallen star, only to find the star is a girl who is in great danger as she's being chased by a coven of witches who need her power to secure their rule in a magical Kingdom.

9 The Shawshank Redemption (1994)

Stephen King is the only modern writer with the most books adapted into films in all of Hollywood, with 34 credits to his name. The Shawshank Redemption is not a book but part of a compilation of novellas contained as seasonal chapters in the book Different Seasons. Frank Darabont, a longtime friend of the writer, brought the rights to the story for 1$ and took the 96-page tale from a short story to a full-blown script he directed himself.

Starring Tim Robbins, Morgan Freeman, and Clancy Brown, the film tells the story of Andy Dufresne, a man sentenced to life in prison after supposedly killing his wife and her lover. The story explores the imprisonment of Andie over 19 years and how he finally manages to attain his freedom within a corrupted system meant to break him.

8 The Devil Wears Prada (2006)

Directed by David Frankel, The Devil Wears Prada stars Anne Hathaway as Andy, a young woman hired as an assistant to fashion magazine editor Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep). Miranda is a difficult boss, but Andy comes to navigate the high-pressure magazine world and earn her respect.

The movie is based on Lauren Weisberger’s bestselling 2003 novel of the same name. According to Entertainment Weekly, the studio purchased the film rights based on a partial manuscript in 2002, before the book was even published, and went through various script ideas until finalizing things in 2004. The Devil Wears Prada has been a favorite since its release, with great performances from the cast, a fun setting, and great fashion.

7 Jaws (1975)

Jaws is Steven Spielberg's second movie as a director, and it remains one of his best-known. The movie focuses on Martin Brody (Roy Scheider), police chief of Amity Island, which has had tragic deaths due to shark attacks. With no other options, he joins Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss) and Quint (Robert Shaw) to hunt down the shark.

Jaws began as a novel by Peter Benchley, written in 1974. The book received a lot of media attention and was a bestseller, with the rights quickly purchased by film producers and given to Spielberg. Spielberg eliminated most of the novel’s subplots, including an affair between Brody’s wife and Hooper, and instead focused on the suspense and the three leads. The movie is a tense, dramatic journey that pays off with a great ending.

6 Psycho (1960)

Psycho is a classic psychological horror movie directed by Alfred Hitchcock. It focuses on Marion Crane (Janet Leigh), who visits a motel and is killed by the proprietor, Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins). It originally received mixed critical reviews but had an outstanding box office reception and great reviews from audiences, and it has stood the test of time as one of the best horror movies ever. The movie is so distinct and iconic that many people don’t know it’s based on the 1959 book, Psycho, by Robert Bloch. The movie follows the plot closely and is an accurate adaptation. The book was well-received, but likely became overshadowed by the film, which later went on to inspire sequels and a TV series.

5 Blade Runner (1982)

Blade Runner, Ridley Scott’s futuristic sci-fi movie, is actually based on Philip K. Dick’s 1968 novel, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Though the movie made changes, it matches the general basis of the book, with detective Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) hunting down rogue android Replicants.

The novel often goes forgotten in the wake of the movie, but many directors wanted to adapt it after its publication, including Martin Scorsese. Interestingly, according to Vulture, the movie’s title comes from another novel: Alan E. Nourse’s The Bladerunner, which had plans to become a movie but never did. Screenwriter Hampton Fancher liked the title, and the studio bought the rights for the 1982 film. Regardless of its origins, Blade Runner has remained one of the best sci-fi movies ever.

4 Cabaret (1972)

Bob Fosse’s movie-musical Cabaret had many versions before becoming the well-known movie. The story started with Christopher Isherwood’s 1939 novel Goodbye to Berlin, covering his time in the Weimar Republic. Goodbye to Berlin was then adapted into the play I Am a Camera by John Van Druten in 1951, with the play becoming the basis for John Kander and Fred Ebb’s 1966 stage musical, Cabaret.

The movie draws inspiration from all three, and centers around Sally Bowles (Liza Minnelli), a singer in a Berlin cabaret engaged in a love triangle during the rise of the Nazi Party. Featuring many excellent songs, including “Wilkommen” and “Maybe This Time,” the movie was a commercial and critical hit and is considered one of the best movie-musicals.

3 Shrek (2001)

Shrek, directed by Andrew Adamson and Vicky Jenson, is a beloved animated movie about an ogre named Shrek (Mike Myers), who falls in love with the cursed princess Fiona (Cameron Diaz). However, not many people know that the movie is loosely based on the 1990 children’s book Shrek! by William Steig, about an ugly creature named Shrek who meets an ugly princess to live happily ever after with. Plans to adapt the book began shortly after publication, with Steven Spielberg purchasing the rights in 1991 before selling them to DreamWorks in 1994. The result was a massive success, with Shrek becoming one of the highest-grossing movies of the year and launching a successful franchise.

2 Freaky Friday (2003)

Freaky Friday has had several adaptations, with the best considered to be Mark Waters’ 2003 version, which critics and fans enjoyed. It stars Lindsay Lohan as Anna and Jamie Lee Curtis as her mother, Tess. Their fraught relationship changes when they swap bodies and learn a new understanding of what the other is going through.

This adaptation and the others, is based on Mary Rodgers’ novel of the same name, published in 1972. The book focuses mainly on Anna’s experiences, with her mother absent for most of the book. The film version explores Anna and Tess equally, with great characterization and performances from Lohan and Curtis that make it memorable.

1 Die Hard (1988)

Die Hard is an action movie directed by John McTiernan, starring Bruce Willis as John McClane, who must stop terrorists in a Los Angeles skyscraper. Despite low expectations, the movie was a giant success. Audiences enjoyed this new take on the action genre and how it showed the vulnerability of McClane as the hero.

Before this, however, it was a book called Nothing Lasts Forever, written by Roderick Thorp in 1979. The book had a darker tone, with a detective trying to stop terrorists holding his daughter hostage. The movie changed some of this and didn’t go quite as dark, but kept favorite action sequences of McClane crawling through the ducts and blowing up the elevator. All in all, the adaptation’s changes worked, as Die Hard launched a franchise and influenced many action movies after it.