wisdom from wikipedia

According to the book High Concept: The Life and Times of Don Simpson, screenwriter Larry Ferguson dictated the final draft of the script to a stenographer naked, carrying a loaded gun and swigging from a bottle of Wild Turkey bourbon in order to meet the tight deadline. When asked to comment, Ferguson said he had to do whatever worked for him.

ANd whilst I'm putting things on record as crap (because I am the arbiter, I know the score) :

(That's not an emoticon frowny face, by the way, but an unfortunate punctuation allignment that makes it SEEM AWFULLY as though I've made an emoticon smiley face. For this, I apologise)

The worst example I can call to mind of film-adaptations of printed material remains "At First Sight" which, when written, was:

The intriguing and complex case history written by Oliver Sacks (who is awesome) of a fat, middle-aged, black man blind named Virgil who underwent an operation at the age of about 55 that gave him back sight (which he lost at about the age of 5 due to cataracts or something like that). The case history is an interesting re-telling of Virgil's discombobulation and struggle with having a new sense this far into his development, how things like depth perception were completely beyond his comprehension, and the frustration it caused in his wife (a physical therapist) who thought, being sighted, that to have vision was the best thing ever. Over a period of time Virgil gradually looses all the sight he's gained, although there is no physiological reason for this, and it is surmised that he becomes physosomatically (that's not quite the correct word, but it eludes me at this point) blind again because he's far more comfortable that way. Its a really interesting case history (In Sacks' book, An Anthropologist on Mars, I think)
The film stars Val Kilmer as Virgil and details how he falls in love with a beautiful young physical therapist (Mira Sorvino), under-taking a dangerous operation so that he may look upon her beauty for the first time . . . but tragically in the last third of the movie he loses his sight again and is blind once more.

Worst. Adaptation. Ever.

(NB: I haven't actually seen the film version (for obvious reasons) and have only read film synopses so I may have the details wrong for the film, but the broad-strokes at least are accurate, and you get the idea)