Adapting books into films and television programs is all fine and dandy if the productions end up being high quality presentations that are mostly faithful to the book. But many of them suck...
I ate this up, very much in my wheelhouse of interests. Thanks for that!
I’m glad studios take bets on lesser known, less popular books that have never been best sellers. American Fiction just won a best adapted screenplay Oscar for Cord Jefferson, who adapted Percival Everett’s book Erasure (published in 2001 and, to my knowledge, never a best seller). That film being made on a low budget led me to the book which led me to the author and now I’m working through all his stuff and loving it. I may never have shown interest in Everett’s new book, James, had it not been for the movie American Fiction.
I echo what Jefferson said in his Oscar acceptance speech (paraphrased): “Hollywood should make 20 $10M budget movies rather than one $200M movie.” I personally enjoy blockbusters and large franchises but I also want more small movies based on lesser known books.
Buenísimo artículo que me demuestra que todavía hay esperanza para que la literatura (la buena) nos ilumine a través del papel y de la pantalla. Muchas gracias, Joel.
We ended up watching the Count of Monte Cristo last night as a family while eating burritos. My wife and I realized we hadn’t seen it nor read the Dumas classic. We were hooked, including our pre-teen daughter who wanted to stop watching and go upstairs, only to later ask us to stop pausing it to get a beverage from the other room.
And this is coming from a man who always prefers the book. Can’t wait to read it now.
Generally I enjoy book adaptations on TV, except when they deviate from the novel. Yesterday I watched a very old(1936) film version of the Mill on The Floss in which Maggie Tulliver and Philip Wakem died in the flood and Tom lived to repent his beastly ways. Ah me. And there have been some dire Agatha Christie TV makes fairly recently that have changed the murderer - no, no, no.
I quite enjoyed the LOTR but as others have said, more for the effects than anything else, and although he had the face for Aragorn, Viggo M was neither tall nor vigorous enough. So much personal investment in the well-loved characters often leaves adaptations wanting in the viewers' mind.
"Breaking Bad" and "Better Call Saul" are the finest ever, I'd add "Sopranos" and a fewothers but others loose the rhythm somewhat, then may pick up-or not. Limited series can be great-but yes if there was Nobel Price I'd be very much behind giving it to the creators of "Breaking Bad" and "Better Call Saul"
Once, I read, that's how many novels as we know them were born-a chapter with each magazine, and the reader waits for the next chapter. I'm unable to recall the source.
also, thank you for the memories-and for the great post
The gritty reboot of the author photo! It makes you look younger, actually.
"A book demonstrates that a story exists—an actual story—not just the idea or proposal for a story, which is helpful when you’re talking about gambling tens or hundreds of millions of dollars."
This is a good insight. It gives me hope that some older books will get turned into movies or TV shows. Some of the old-time science fiction could be done in a period look and be brilliant, e.g. Galactic Patrol, Slan, The Demolished Man.
Thank you for this. I love this topic so much. I was just thinking about how difficult it must be to write original screenplays (as I’m writing a future post about All the Light We Can Not See, which was also adapted into a Netflix mini series), so it makes sense to capitalize on already successful literary works. I’m always intrigued to see book-to-movie/TV adaptations, but I keep my expectations modest :)
Waiting for The Midnight Library and Project Hail Mary movies…
The British have been drawing from their literary classics for decades on television. I recently found a British TV adaptation of 'Pride and Predjudice' from 1967, which led to me discovering there was also a P&P adaptation done by the BBC in 1952, but, like the missing classic Doctor Who episodes [another screen to book phenomenon that preceded Star Wars], it didn't survive the BBC's habit of recycling film. My father is a fan of Dickens, and he has acquired at least one BBC adaptation of every completed Dickens novel.
Miniseries like the BBC literary adaptations are, with a couple of exceptions, the only form of television series that I can tolerate. There is no point in spending hundreds of hours watching a story that may or may not end. The exceptions are if the series is comprised of standalone stories that can be watched on their own with the series itself being tied together with recurring characters, i.e. British mystery series like Vera or Inspector Morse or the very unique Doctor Who, which is always ending and then beginning.
Adapting books into films and television programs is all fine and dandy if the productions end up being high quality presentations that are mostly faithful to the book. But many of them suck...
I ate this up, very much in my wheelhouse of interests. Thanks for that!
I’m glad studios take bets on lesser known, less popular books that have never been best sellers. American Fiction just won a best adapted screenplay Oscar for Cord Jefferson, who adapted Percival Everett’s book Erasure (published in 2001 and, to my knowledge, never a best seller). That film being made on a low budget led me to the book which led me to the author and now I’m working through all his stuff and loving it. I may never have shown interest in Everett’s new book, James, had it not been for the movie American Fiction.
I echo what Jefferson said in his Oscar acceptance speech (paraphrased): “Hollywood should make 20 $10M budget movies rather than one $200M movie.” I personally enjoy blockbusters and large franchises but I also want more small movies based on lesser known books.
Buenísimo artículo que me demuestra que todavía hay esperanza para que la literatura (la buena) nos ilumine a través del papel y de la pantalla. Muchas gracias, Joel.
We ended up watching the Count of Monte Cristo last night as a family while eating burritos. My wife and I realized we hadn’t seen it nor read the Dumas classic. We were hooked, including our pre-teen daughter who wanted to stop watching and go upstairs, only to later ask us to stop pausing it to get a beverage from the other room.
And this is coming from a man who always prefers the book. Can’t wait to read it now.
Generally I enjoy book adaptations on TV, except when they deviate from the novel. Yesterday I watched a very old(1936) film version of the Mill on The Floss in which Maggie Tulliver and Philip Wakem died in the flood and Tom lived to repent his beastly ways. Ah me. And there have been some dire Agatha Christie TV makes fairly recently that have changed the murderer - no, no, no.
I quite enjoyed the LOTR but as others have said, more for the effects than anything else, and although he had the face for Aragorn, Viggo M was neither tall nor vigorous enough. So much personal investment in the well-loved characters often leaves adaptations wanting in the viewers' mind.
television (books, IP in general) as religion. Spot on. Really enjoyed this post!!
"Breaking Bad" and "Better Call Saul" are the finest ever, I'd add "Sopranos" and a fewothers but others loose the rhythm somewhat, then may pick up-or not. Limited series can be great-but yes if there was Nobel Price I'd be very much behind giving it to the creators of "Breaking Bad" and "Better Call Saul"
Once, I read, that's how many novels as we know them were born-a chapter with each magazine, and the reader waits for the next chapter. I'm unable to recall the source.
also, thank you for the memories-and for the great post
The gritty reboot of the author photo! It makes you look younger, actually.
"A book demonstrates that a story exists—an actual story—not just the idea or proposal for a story, which is helpful when you’re talking about gambling tens or hundreds of millions of dollars."
This is a good insight. It gives me hope that some older books will get turned into movies or TV shows. Some of the old-time science fiction could be done in a period look and be brilliant, e.g. Galactic Patrol, Slan, The Demolished Man.
Thank you for this. I love this topic so much. I was just thinking about how difficult it must be to write original screenplays (as I’m writing a future post about All the Light We Can Not See, which was also adapted into a Netflix mini series), so it makes sense to capitalize on already successful literary works. I’m always intrigued to see book-to-movie/TV adaptations, but I keep my expectations modest :)
Waiting for The Midnight Library and Project Hail Mary movies…
The British have been drawing from their literary classics for decades on television. I recently found a British TV adaptation of 'Pride and Predjudice' from 1967, which led to me discovering there was also a P&P adaptation done by the BBC in 1952, but, like the missing classic Doctor Who episodes [another screen to book phenomenon that preceded Star Wars], it didn't survive the BBC's habit of recycling film. My father is a fan of Dickens, and he has acquired at least one BBC adaptation of every completed Dickens novel.
Miniseries like the BBC literary adaptations are, with a couple of exceptions, the only form of television series that I can tolerate. There is no point in spending hundreds of hours watching a story that may or may not end. The exceptions are if the series is comprised of standalone stories that can be watched on their own with the series itself being tied together with recurring characters, i.e. British mystery series like Vera or Inspector Morse or the very unique Doctor Who, which is always ending and then beginning.
Your column title made me think you might have something about us collectors of free bookmarks.