I've read "King Solomon's Mines" several times and the story has no girl in it at all. And in all of the movies based on H. Rider Haggard's novel there is a lady who hires Allan Quatermain to find her father. In the book Sir Henry Curtis hires Quatermain to hind his long-lost brother. Does someone have an answer for me?
shareI think you don't understand the industry of cinema. They are not interested in telling the original story. They are interested in making money. And if there is no girl (and attractive, of course) they think people won't like the movie. And they are right. The sexual component is necessary, they think. Did you know, they will make "Basic Instinct 2"? and Sharon Stone has forced to have a younger screen-partner "just because that way it is funnier" she says. Of course, sex will be omnipresent again. Who cares the story? Thousands of people will go to watch Sharon's or her stunt's naked body.
Now they are going to release "I robot", based, they say, on Isaac Asimov's stories. Those were mostly detective stories where someone tried to discover the misbehaviour of a robot through the three laws of robotics. And instead of making an intelligent film they organize another action, explosions, shots, destruction, Independence-day-alike espectacle.
That's entertainment!!!!!!
luis_de_pedro sums it up nicely. Audience's these days like romance and cinima usually caters to base desires rather than faithfulness to books.
It should be noted however that the book does have a quasi-love interest. After Quartermain and his party arrive at the native village and become involved in the power struggle they manage to save a native girl from human sacrafice. As a result she becomes entirely devoted to the party and falls in love with one of them. She later accompanies them into the mines and sadly dies when they become trapped there.