I can understand why the studios would pass on the movie. While it definitly had a likelyhood of producing a very good return, it had an even greater risk than other movies. Good old risk vs. return.

In terms of soaking in, I still don't think I really liked it as a movie goes. Not because what they did was bad, but because I still feel it was missing some things. Granted, I wouldn't expect nor would it be possible to explain the whole story, that's what the book is for afterall. But, I feel as thou more explaination, not necessarily a lot more, but some more along the way would have been good - would have made people thirst to know even more.