It's difficult to say. Jan de Bont can be either very good or very bad. As cinematographer he worked on some very good stuff. As a producer of director it's not very impressive. Speed and Twister was very good work but Speed 2 was a total flop and I have mixed feelings about Lara Croft.
I haven't read the book but I don't think it really makes any difference now. Hollywood seems to be over creative with "creative licenses", I read Hannibal and I was quite surprised when I saw the movie, there was many big differences. The end for instance is completely different, MEG could be very different than the book as well.
