I think some of them intentionally model themselves after the evil characters in fiction. I remember seeing Musk talk one time about how he loves the game Deus Ex. And there's an almost uncanny resemblance between his actions and Bob Page's.

The other canonical example of this is the naming of Palantir, of course.

In many cases I think it's less that they misread the fiction, and more that they intentionally model themselves after the villains in fiction.

Of the 5 users of the Palantirs that we know of 2 are good, 2 are evil, and one is tragic.