History InNameOnly / LiveActionFilms

* The [[Film/WarOfTheWorlds 2005 movie adaptation]] of ''Literature/TheWarOfTheWorlds'' features Earth being attacked by hostile aliens in three-legged "tripod" machines. After the human military's attempted counterattacks are ineffective, the aliens are ultimately defeated by illness due to their immune systems not being able to cope with Earth's bacteria. Beyond that, it has nothing in common with Creator/HGWells's original novel. Most notably, the movie is set in the United States [[SettingUpdate in the early 21st century]] instead of the novel's late 19th century England and the aliens are never stated to be Martians in the movie as they are in the novel (the latter change is at least excusable, as by the time the film was made it was known that there was no life on Mars).

* Done on purpose by the Cinemax "Creature Features" film series, which share their names (but nothing else) with earlier low budget movies: ''Film/SheCreature'' is a mermaid story PlayedForHorror while [[Film/TheSheCreature the original]] is a reincarnation/de-evolution tale, ''How To Make a Monster'' says NewMediaAreEvil when a video game A.I. goes rogue while [[Film/HowToMakeAMonster the original]] deals with actors being brainwashed via their monster makeup, ''Earth Versus the Spider'' [[SuperheroHorror plays superhero tropes for horror]] while [[Film/EarthVsTheSpider the original]] is a GiantSpider movie, and ''Teenage Caveman'' has the titular character clearly living AfterTheEnd from the very start while [[Film/TeenageCaveman the original]] seemingly takes place in OneMillionBC (with the post-apocalyptic setting being a TwistEnding).

*** Ironically enough, a true sequel titled "Beast" was supposed to be released around the same time as Millionaire Boyz Club and was meant to follow up on the two main characters since the last film. This was either scrapped or put on the shelf. The main cause was of course the many legal troubles of one of its main actors, Music/{{DMX}}.

* ''Film/BirdsOfPrey2020'' largely features Harley Quinn as main protagonist, and a version of the titular [[ComicBook/BirdsOfPrey comic team]] (which does not include Barbara Gordon, traditionally considered the single most important member) only forms at the very end of the film. In character terms, the film features a character called Cassandra Cain. Her [[ComicBook/Batgirl2000 comic version]] is a totally heroic and utterly moral teenage girl who, thanks to TrainingFromHell from her villainous father, has [[CharlesAtlasSuperpower awesome combat skills]] but, at least initially, is [[SacrificedBasicSkillForAwesomeTraining illiterate and unable to speak or understand human language]]. Her film version is an amoral preteen [[TheArtfulDodger Artful Dodger]] with no special abilities beyond sleight-of-hand, who spends most of the film as a menaced LivingMacGuffin. The only thing the characters have in common is their residence in Gotham City and Asian-American ethnicity.

* The ''Film/SuperMarioBros'' movie is infamous for this. Beyond the broadest characterization (Mario and Luigi are human good guys, King Koopa is an inhuman bad guy) the dark and gritty sci-fi dystopian universe comedy film is basically unrecognizable from the light-hearted, cartoony, fantasy-based, child-centric source material, even after conceding that the games (and comics and animated series) didn't exactly establish the deepest universe to begin with.

* ''Film/MazeRunnerTheScorchTrials'' is radically different from ''Literature/TheScorchTrials'', with only a few key elements and themes remaining. Wes Ball, the director, likened it to using the same ingredients to make a different recipe.

* ''Film/Catwoman2004'': Go read a ''ComicBook/{{Catwoman}}'' comic. '''Any''' ''Catwoman'' comic. Then compare it to the movie. Other than the main character being a cat-themed antiheroine who dresses in black leather and wields a whip, there's almost no resemblance. The closest this film gets to having anything in common with the source material is an off-hand comment about "other people who have had such abilities", and one of the photos on the table is Selina from ''Film/BatmanReturns''.

** ''Fast Food Nation'' is a fictional story that conveys the original book's argument that fast food is bad for your health and America!

* Before its release, the [[Film/WorldWarZ movie adaptation]] of ''Literature/WorldWarZ'' [[http://io9.com/5830389/world-war-z-movie-synopsis-is-nothing-like-the-book-internet-melts-down was shaping up to be this]]. WordOfGod [[http://www.giantfreakinrobot.com/scifi/max-brooks-calls-world-war-adaptation.html confirmed it.]] As Webvideo/HonestTrailers put it, "Get ready for the big screen adaptation of [[Literature/WorldWarZ the best-selling novel]] that's got everything you loved about... the title. And nothing else." Later on in the video, they show a scrolling list of all the book's awesome moments that were left out of the film.

** ''Under the Seas'' is sometimes called ''20,000 Leagues Under the Sea'', but it takes only two things from [[Literature/TwentyThousandLeaguesUnderTheSea the book]]: the submarine and the fish. (No, seriously. The cutout fish Méliès made for the movie were closely based on the original book illustrations; Wiki/TheOtherWiki [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Under_the_Seas says so]].)

** The original script was closer to the game, ''Doom 3'' at least, but the idea of opening a gateway to Hell was not considered acceptable for a mainstream film, so it was hastily {{retcon}}ned to be genetic engineering gone wrong.

* The "remake" ''Film/DayOfTheDead2008'' is nothing like [[Film/DayOfTheDead1985 the original]] except for being a zombie movie. Except for the setting, the monsters, the downbeat ending and the dying hero turning plot.

* Done on purpose by the Cinemax "Creature Features" film series, which share their names (but nothing else) with earlier low budget movies: ''She-Creature'' is a mermaid story PlayedForHorror while [[Film/TheSheCreature the original]] is a reincarnation/de-evolution tale, ''How To Make a Monster'' says NewMediaAreEvil when a video game A.I. goes rogue while [[Film/HowToMakeAMonster the original]] deals with actors being brainwashed via their monster makeup, ''Earth Versus the Spider'' [[SuperheroHorror plays superhero tropes for horror]] while [[Film/EarthVsTheSpider the original]] is a GiantSpider movie, and ''Teenage Caveman'' has the titular character clearly living AfterTheEnd from the very start while [[Film/TeenageCaveman the original]] seemingly takes place in OneMillionBC (with the post-apocalyptic setting being a TwistEnding).

* Creator/TimBurton's ''Film/AliceInWonderland2010'':
** Despite being named for the shortened title of the first book, the movie is actually a sequel of sorts. The Red Queen shares only her title with the chess piece from ''Through the Looking Glass'', and is in every other respect based on the Queen of Hearts from ''Alice in Wonderland'', presumably so that the film could feature a "good" White Queen as well as an "evil" Red Queen - but there again, the White Queen, aside from the name, is also a pretty different character compared to the original. The book followed mostly episodic structure where Alice is going from one character to another, the movie, however, introduces epic scale conflict of TheChosenOne for Alice to defeat the Red Queen, who conquered Wonderland, imprisoning several characters, it is the structure of the classic Good vs. Evil story. The book did not have any visible conflicts of that scale whatsoever, where nearly all of the characters are merely insane rather than good or evil.
** The sequel, ''Film/AliceThroughTheLookingGlass'', follows very much in the same vein as the first one did. The movie does very briefly feature some characters from the original novel, such as the living chess pieces and Humpty Dumpty (who has no real plot importance), but the main focus and plot centers around Alice travelling through time to look for the Hatter's family, whereas in the book, the Hatter only had a very brief appearance. Also there was no time travel.

*** Ironically enough, a true sequel titled "Beast" was supposed to be released around the same time as Millionaire Boyz Club, and was meant to follow up on the two main characters since the last film. This was either scrapped or put on the shelf. The main cause was of course the many legal troubles of one of its main actors, Music/{{DMX}}.

* The 1934 movie ''Film/TheBlackCat'' starring Creator/BorisKarloff and Creator/BelaLugosi has nothing to do with the Creator/EdgarAllanPoe story of that title.
** "The Black Cat" got this a lot: see also the 1941 film ''The Black Cat'' starring Bela Lugosi with Basil Rathbone; Roger Corman's "The Black Cat" segment from his 1962 anthology ''Tales of Terror''; 1972's awesomely-named ''Your Vice Is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key''; Lucio Fulci's 1981 ''The Black Cat''; and Dario Argento's "The Black Cat" segment from the 1990 anthology ''Two Evil Eyes''. All of these at least bother to include a black cat at some point in the narrative; other than that, anything goes.

* The only thing that ''Film/BlackChristmas2019'' has in common with the original ''Film/BlackChristmas1974'' is that it's a SlasherMovie set in a girl's sorority house at Christmas. [[spoiler:The 2019 version replaces the single psychotic but cunning human murderer who relies on stealth to pick off his victims one by one with an entire fraternity possessed by some sort of demonic black ooze that gives them superhuman physical might, but also makes them murderously oppressive towards women.]]
* ''Blue Lagoon: The Awakening'' is supposedly a retelling of ''Literature/TheBlueLagoon''. Yes, there is an island, and the two teenage castaways learn to survive and fall in love. But it's set in the modern day with two American high schoolers, who get stranded on the island after fleeing the Tobagoan police during a senior trip. They only live on the island for a few months before getting rescued, and in the meantime they have lots of casual sex knowing full well what it is that they're doing (and she doesn't even get pregnant).

* In the ''Comicbook/CaptainAmerica'' Republic serial (1944), Captain America is the secret identity of District Attorney Grant Gardner. There is no mention of any SuperSerum, and he appears to be a BadassNormal. He also doesn't use a distinctive shield, but does use a gun. And despite the fact it's 1944, he's not even fighting the Nazis! The name and costume is about it. Some film historians believe this to be a DolledUpInstallment that was originally intended as featuring another character (which one varies) before they got the Captain America rights.
* ''[[Film/HoratioHornblower Captain Horatio Hornblower, R. N.]]'': Comprising ''The Happy Return'', ''Ship of the Line'' and ''Flying Colours'', the film takes the bare plotline and ignores everything else. Several major elements and subplots are removed or replaced entirely and characterizations are radically changed.

* ''Series/{{Creature}}'' is almost completely different from the book its based on. Several characters have the same names from the book, but there is no guarantee that they will have the same personality, {{race|Lift}}, or role. It has a completely different setting and backstory. Even the titular creature is completely different (the only similarities they have are that they are humanoid amphibious creatures, but [[spoiler:one is a scientifically modified human with steel claws and teeth and one is a genetically engineered shark with human DNA.]]) While some scenes from the book survived for the adaptation (often heavily edited), they are spliced in all over the place and interspersed with completely made up subplots. To top it all off, it really doesn't even share the name. The original novel was called ''Literature/WhiteShark'', but was renamed for TheMovie. The original novel was retroactively renamed ''Literature/PeterBenchleysCreature''. Although, that said, it wasn't really that bad of a movie...
* [[InvokedTrope Invoked]] by the Cinemax "Creature Features" film series, which share their names (but nothing else) with earlier low budget movies: ''She-Creature'' is a mermaid story PlayedForHorror, instead of an alien attack movie, ''How To Make a Monster'' says NewMediaAreEvil when a videogame AI goes rogue, instead of a ''Literature/{{Frankenstein}}'' ripoff, ''Earth Versus the Spider'' plays superhero tropes for horror, while the original was a [[BigCreepyCrawlies giant bug]] movie, and ''Teenage Caveman'' has the titular character living AfterTheEnd, rather than during OneMillionBC
* ''Film/{{Creepshow 3}}'' is a much lambasted example, which is rather remarkable since like its namesakes it's a horror anthology movie. But unlike the other ''Creepshow'' movies it had no involvement from Creator/GeorgeRomero or Creator/StephenKing and, even more damning, had no homages to the EC horror comics of the past. Of course, it helps (or doesn't help) that ''Creepshow'' and ''Creepshow 2'' are considered classics, while ''Creepshow 3'' is as widely disliked as any work can be. Creator/TomSavini has been quoted as saying that ''Film/TalesFromTheDarksideTheMovie'' is the real ''Creepshow 3''.

* ''Film/WhoFramedRogerRabbit'' bears very little resemblance to its original source, ''Literature/WhoCensoredRogerRabbit''. Only five characters, the premise of human beings and cartoon characters[[note]] And even then, in the film, animated characters replace comic strip characters.[[/note]] co-existing, and the murder plot are there.

* ''Film/WhoFramedRogerRabbit'' changes a lot from the original book, [[Literature/WhoCensoredRogerRabbit including the title]]. The only things the two have in common are the basic set up (a classic FilmNoir story featuring humans and cartoons), the racism allegory, two lines, [[spoiler: TheReveal that the seemingly human antagonists are in fact toons]], and containing 4 characters who also go by the names of Eddie Valliant, Roger Rabbit, Jessica Rabbit, and Baby Herman. ''That's it''.

* ''Film/DoubleDragon'' takes the names of the main characters and their status as martial artist brothers, the idea of them being opposed to gangs, the fact that they fight at some point, and the names of Marian being applied to a woman and Abobo to a tall guy, and that's about it. Everything else in the film, from every other character in name and concept (including the main antagonist) to the post-apocalyptic setting to the central plot of the film being about an ancient prophecy and a magical Double Dragon medallion, is solely its creation. By the account of the film's creators, very few of them were actually given meaningful information on the franchise, and Technōs, the owners, never bothered to send any representatives to cross-check what they were doing.

* ''Film/DoubleDragon'' takes the names of the main characters and their status as martial artist brothers, the idea of them being opposed to gangs, the fact that they fight at some point, and the names of Marian being applied to a woman and Abobo to a tall guy, and that's about it. Everything else in the film, from every other character in name and concept (including the main antagonist) to the post-apocalyptic setting to the central plot of the film being about an ancient prophecy and a magical Double Dragon medallion, is solely its creation.

* Beyond the title, ''Film/Alien2OnEath'' has virtually nothing in common with the [[Film/{{Alien}} film it's posing as a sequel to]]. Most notably, while the plot of ''Alien'' took place in the 22nd century, this one appears to take place in the present day. And while the rock creatures share the Xenomorphs' key trait of gestating inside a human host, each stage of their life cycle is otherwise quite different.

* ''Film/WhoFramedRogerRabbit'' changes a lot from the original book, [[Literature/WhoCensoredRogerRabbit including the title]]. The only things the two have in common are the basic set up (a classic FilmNoir story featuring humans and cartoons), the racism allegory, two lines, and containing 4 characters who also go by the names of Eddie Valliant, Roger Rabbit, Jessica Rabbit, and Baby Herman. ''That's it''.

* ''Film/WhoFramedRogerRabbit'' changes a lot from the original book, [[Literature/WhoCensoredRogerRabbit including the title]]. The only things the two have in common are the basic set up (a classic FilmNoir story featuring humans and cartoons), the racism allegory, and containing 4 characters who also go by the names of Eddie Valliant, Roger Rabbit, Jessica Rabbit, and Baby Herman. ''That's it''.

* ''Film/WhoFramedRogerRabbit'' changes a lot from the original book, [[Literature/WhoCensoredRogerRabbit ''including'' the title]]. The only things the two have in common are the basic set up (a classic FilmNoir story featuring humans and cartoons), the racism allegory, and containing 4 characters who also go by the names of Eddie Valliant, Roger Rabbit, Jessica Rabbit, and Baby Herman. ''That's it''.

* ''Film/WhoFramedRogerRabbit'' changes a lot from the original book, [[Literature/WhoCensoredRogerRabbit ''including'' the title]]. The only connections the two have are the basic set up (a classic FilmNoir story featuring humans and cartoons), the racism allegory, and containing 4 characters who also go by the names of Eddie Valliant, Roger Rabbit, Jessica Rabbit, and Baby Herman. ''That's it''.

* ''Film/WhoFramedRogerRabbit'' changes a lot from the original book, [[Literature/WhoCensoredRogerRabbit ''including'' the title]]. The only connections the two have are the basic set up (a classic FilmNoir story featuring humans and cartoons), the racism allegory, and containing 4 characters who also go by the names of Eddie Valliant, Roger Rabbit, Jessica Rabbit, and Baby Herman. ''That's it''.

* The only thing ''Film/PeterRabbit'' seems to have in common with the original book series is that the characters share the same names and looks as their original counterparts from the books. Other than that, there's no other resemblance between the movie and the books.

*** A notable aspect is the complete reinvention of one character in particular, Azazel. Azazel in the comics is an immortal mutant/demon warlord who was banished to another dimension because he looked and acted like the devil and got many women pregnant to have an army of children to free him...somehow. In the film, he's a Russian KnifeNut who looks like the devil but other than killing a few people, doesn't act like it. He instead appears more like his son, Nightcrawler, only red and evil. [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools This is not a bad thing]], and as he originally was [[TheScrappy so despised]], the film [[RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap gave the character a well welcomed overhaul]].

* ''Film/TortureGarden'', a 1967 Amicus AnthologyHorror film, is presumably titled after the English title of Octave Mirbeau's Decadent novel ''The Torture Garden'', but none of its sections have any similarity to the novel.