Best known as the writer of the classic dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury was also responsible for writing the screenplay for John Huston’s 1956 film-adaptation of Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick. There have been numerous attempts made to adapt Melville’s novel to the big screen, but no adaptation has met with as much critical or commercial success as the one written by Bradbury. Bradbury gives a fictionalized account of his experience working on the film in his 1992 novel Green Shadows, White Whale.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda, and…James Bond. Given the number of Roald Dahl’s novels that have been successfully turned into films, it’s not surprising that the celebrated children’s author decided to try his hand at screenwriting. What is surprising is that he decided to take on a character like the martini-swilling, joke-cracking secret agent James Bond (did I mention that he’s a bit of a womanizer?). The producers of the film also thought that Dahl was a strange choice and may have only turned to him because of his friendship with James Bond creator Ian Fleming. Regardless, You Only Live Twice is now considered by some to be among the best Bond movies.

William Faulkner is best remembered as the chronicler of life in the fictional Yoknapatawpha County, but few are aware that the Mississippi-born Nobel Prize Winner was also a prolific screenwriter. Like many of the heroes of American modernism, William Faulkner despised film, declaring that “[It Wasn’t] Hollywood’s fault. The writer is not accustomed to money. It goes to his head and destroys him.” In his own case, Faulkner may have been right. Faulkner’s 1946 adaptation of Raymond Chandler’s noir classic The Big Sleep was one of his only films to meet with any critical success.

Martin Amis is considered by some to be one of the greatest living British novelists. A science fiction aficionado, he is not (or would not seem to be). That’s why it is so surprising that he produced the screenplay for the 1980 science fiction thriller Saturn 3. Apparently, screenwriting didn’t agree with Amis. Either that, or the failure of the movie scared him away. While Amis has not written another screenplay since, his experience working on the film provided him with some of the material for his critically-acclaimed 1984 novel Money.