book/film adaptations

[therealanimator]

the film industry has been making a lot of films adapted from popular novels such as lord of the rings watchmen battle royale. NG do you think that the film industry has become so desperate that they are using popular novels as ideas for films?

[RubberTrucky]

It's not so much desperation as marketing...

[therealanimator]

At 8/8/09 05:54 PM, RubberTrucky wrote: It's not so much desperation as marketing...

thats true.

[MegamanZero360]

How else are they supposed to make money. People want to see the actual things happening instead of picturing it in their own mind.

[Lucy]

I dont see it as desperation, I see it as taking an amazing book and having the director create his own visual take on it. Which of course often leads to lots of incorrect plots.

[TheMaster]

What the fuck are you talking about? Books have been being adapted into films since film began. It happens no more now than it ever has. Adaptations of books have always been almost, if not equally common, as original scripts.

This is by no means a new way of finding ideas for film-making. Some of the earliest films made were adaptations of works of literature. I'm not going ot go and find any more examples, but I can tell you now the earliest film version of Twelfth Night was filmed in 1912 or there abouts. Some genres have relied on this too, horror for example: Frankenstein and Dracula were both nineteenth century novels, and the same goes for many other staples of the genre. Hell, even The Exorcist was a novel before it got the film treatment. There are few too many examples for me to even both listing a few more.

Is it an unoriginal phenomena? Perhaps. Will it result in the film being of poor quality? Sometimes, yes; I think that's pretty inevitable. Some just might decay the actual adaptation so much it becomes independant, and some will just end up bad. Let's keep in mind though, that some films have reworked works of literature so well. Look at the English filmmaker David Lean. He's widely regarded to have brought his own style of film into screen versions of classic works of literature. I think that's the best thing about it, when the original remains respected, but the film manages to look at things in an interestingly different way... and since I haven't linked it in yet, I'd love to see this with the (hopefully) upcoming literature portal here on Newgrounds. An artist/filmmaker may not need to use previous ideas, but they can still make a pretty independant work out of it.

[TheMaster]

Also, book adaptations often end up awesome anyway.

[therealanimator]

i am not going to say anything negative here but there have been some good adaptations for example the warriors and battle royale.

[Deadchick]

Well, I wouldn't say desperate, just running out of ideas I suppose. But I gotta tell you, some of them turned out great actually. And I really got high hopes for the next film based on a book, The Road. I saw the trailer, they really added lots of action on it, when it was suppose to be about suspense. But movies and books are different from one another. And also, thats Hollywood.

[Sensationalism]

I don't think that is something new. I think that's been going on since movies have been being made.
You've never read a book and wished you could see it on film as well?

[TiredPaperBoy]

Some books you read and think "Make that a story" because they just seem like they would go so well.

Unfortunatly, in the process it generally fucks up the plot and every other aspect of the film.

(E.G. Twilight.)

[AlphaCentauri]

No, I don't think so, I for one wish almost every book would be made into a movie, its cool to compare and contrast the way you saw things and the way a director did.

Not to mention a lot of my favorite moves were based off of books.

[Idiot-Finder]

At 8/8/09 06:00 PM, TheMaster wrote: What the fuck are you talking about? Books have been being adapted into films since film began. It happens no more now than it ever has. Adaptations of books have always been almost, if not equally common, as original scripts.

Don't forget what "Best Adapted Screenplay" is for on Oscars, one of the big 4.

[Idiot-Finder]

At 8/8/09 07:19 PM, CrazedKiller-X wrote: the Harry Potter books transformed into movies have become really dumb.

I felt bad for Peeves, seriously.

[technomancer13]

Yes. While I appreciate a well made adaptation of a book, there are simply not enough original ideas coming out of Hollywood. Everything coming out today seems to be a sequel or based on something that came before. I wish there were more good original movies.

[therealanimator]

though there are some good original books being adapted into films for example scott pilgrim vs the world and weirdly enough the time travellers wife (wtf).

[Jarvid]

SCREENPLAY WRITERS ARE FUCKING AWFUL AT MAKING PLOTS

Thats why... lol its true

[therealanimator]

At 8/8/09 09:19 PM, Jarvid wrote: SCREENPLAY WRITERS ARE FUCKING AWFUL AT MAKING PLOTS

Thats why... lol its true

not john hughes he did give us ferris bueller's day off. too bad hes dead...

[RaptorJesus]

I always thought novels were always a main sources for movie ideas.... The problem is they come out with such shitty adaptations like I Am Legend.

3 Times (by my count) that novel (which happens to be a fav of mine) has been made into film, The Omega Man, Last Man on Earth, I Am Legend (Will Smith).

And the crappy Will Smith one was the furthest from the novel of any of them. I don't mind novel adaptations but ones like that should not have the same title as the novel if they deviate from the original so far.