Hollywood loves adaptations - indeed, sometimes adapting books, plays, and musicals work extremely well (like Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter and countless others). Sometimes they fail (I'm looking at you, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen).
Sometimes, these adaptations are very, very strange. Here's a compilation of 10 of the strangest film and TV adaptations to ever happen by Geekscape. For example, take "Rubik, The Amazing Cube" (1983):
You remember the toy. It's still in wide use today. A cubic puzzle with six sides, nine square facets on each side, was to be twisted an manipulated until all the colored sides matched. It is notoriously difficult, and remains a top-seller in toyshops nationwide. How can we base a TV show on this puzzle? Hm...
So, get this: A magician loses his enchanted Rubik's Cube. A quartet of children finds the cube, solve it, and, voila!, a small elf-like blue face appears on the cube, and squat blue feet grow out of its base! Holy shit! That thing is flipping terrifying! But no! It's your friend! It will cast spells and aid you in your adventures! But when it's dropped, it gets all mixed up again, and you have to solve it to get your monstrous little imp back!
I'm going to pass on my complaints about adapting an effing toy into a TV show for the time being, just so I can rant about how scary the cube monster is, and how unsettling the premise. Rubik looks like a mutated dwarf cemented into a box, and his little kid voice only adds to the fright. Watching the show only made me glad that I wasn't very good at solving Rubik's Cubes. I wouldn't want that thing to aid me on my adventures.
Link - Thanks Marcus!