But Hollywood has been doing since before this need for all inclusiveness became prevalent. Starship Troopers is a good example of a book that was butchered when made into a movie and that was before inclusiveness and everyone is special really became a thing.
They do it, because some pencil pushing marketers in a room at corporate did "tests" and decided that these changes would make the film the most profitable. For example, changing everything about Artemis so that he's the star and the fairies aren't. Some hack in marketing told Disney dept. execs that making the kid the star would make the movie more marketable, and so the execs decided that was the direction they were going to go. In the end, it's all about money, not about soul or story. I was a fan of the books as a kid, and turned the movie off at about the time the fairies first contacts Artemis with the ransom call. I was disgusted. This wasn't Artemis Fowl, this was a corporate controlled marketing piece with the name Artemis Fowl slapped on it. What an absolute waste of potential and time.
It was really bad
And it's not even the fan bases being let down this time. I see many people who claim to have never read the books finding the movie just poorly made with little entertainment value. This one is a real stinker. Disney definitely dodged a bullet sending it straight to VOD.
Yeah, as a personal fan of the books, not having them be like the books alone would have been disappointing. But it would have been fine if it could even be called a movie. It’s just awful.
I honestly think Starship Troopers is the most egregious offender I've ever run across in this sort of matter. The book is a dated, but well-thought-out libertarian (small 'L') thinkpiece, wrapped in the setting of the late preamble and onset of interstellar war. The movie I have just referred to as "Johnny and the Bug-Men" since it came out, as it has zero to do with the book except characters' names. Casper van Dien is not my first casting pick for a Filipino. Johnny did not go to school with Ace or Dizzy. Dizzy was a guy. Carmen shaved her head, as most star pilots did -- for convenience, and she and Johnny were only ever affectionate acquaintences, though Johnny would have liked more. He wasn't from Buenos Aires, had never been to Buenos Aires. The only significance was that his family was there on business when the Bugs destroyed it. Carl was killed during the war. His high school History & Moral Philosophy teacher did not come out of retirement to lead his platoon. The bugs were tool users with technological weapons. An entire other alien race was in and relevant to the story in the book, but omitted from the film. They didn't have the budget to do both the bugs and the power armor justice, so opted for the bugs (the Mobile Infantry are supposed to look more like a cross between the Terran Marines in StarCraft and Space Marine Assault Marines from Warhammer 40K). And that was a bad cover of David Bowie's "I Have Not Been to Oxford Town".
