Opinion Piece- Book to Film adaptations
This week's post was going to be another big double review of Gone Girl and The Maze Runner but due to me being on my Duke of Edinburgh all last weekend, that will be delayed to sometime soon. Instead, I decided to just natter on about books being adapted to films due to all sorts of things that have occurred over the the past weeks and in general to Hollywood over the last few decades. Also, it just kind of feels right, talking about book to film adaptations instead of reviewing two book to film adaptations.
Before I start, I will say that this is a subject that I am of many minds about this subject because it's got so many sides. For a start, it's worth mentioning that there are tons of brilliant films adaptations. For example, the Lord of the Rings trilogy, Godfather films and Forrest Gump are all excellent and incredibly critically acclaimed films. And if we put Comic Books into this category as well, we have some of the highest grossing films ever in here as well. It's a huge spectrum of films where we have some of the highest grossing films and best films ever made (case in point, the top 4 films on IMDB are book to film adaptations) but on the other side, we have garbage like Where The Wild Things Are. It's difficult.
The thing is, book to film adaptions, when done well, can be damn near perfect. I recently finished the book Fight Club and looking back, I'm astounded how well the themes, quotes and general feel were translated from the book to the silver screen. I would read lines and go "hey, that line was definitely in the film" or "I remember that character who was in one scene and never seen or mentioned again". It's a perfect adaptation. And others exist. Few (that I've seen) but they exist. One other perfect adaptation is The Fault In Our Stars. Yes, it's basically a book written for teenage girls but god damn it, I loved it. I loved it so much that I went to the special, week early, fan premiere. Yup. I'm that guy. Anyway, it captured the feel of the book, it was sweet and funny and sad but most of all, it was a great adaptation. I came away from it going "That felt like The Fault in our Stars". And there's no better compliment than that. The other "perfect" adaption I'm aware of is Scott Pilgrim vs The World. It works for a few reasons. The first is the magic touch of Edgar Wright and his directing skill. The second is that it took six books and made one film, so as to not cash grab, all while leaving very little out. The third is the totally incredible soundtrack. It's a film that's attained a worthy cult following and birthed an equally great game. And it is perfect for fans of the books.
We then have the problem that it is becoming the only thing Hollywood is willing to push out money on. It's this and films from already existing franchises that make up most big budget releases. There is a reason for this, but that's for another rant. It's clear if you read my list about stuff coming out this year that there is also a market of people willing to see these films. All three of my most anticipated films were based on books, two of which I wanted to see because of the book. This shows that it's a problem with the industry that won't be going away. There's also the fact that adapting from source material is easier than doing a whole script because most of it's already there. There is one more fairly substantial reason these keep happening: they make a LOT of money. Who doesn't want to be the person responsible for the next Harry Potter or Hunger Games? They gross billions of dollars almost without fail. It's like printing money, but with more angry fan girls. Speaking of which...
One of the biggest problems that book to film adaptations have is disappointing huge fan bases. More and more nowadays, films are coming from books with HUGE established fan bases, like Divergent, The Maze Runner and The Fault in our Stars. While these will mean instant money, it also means you have to do a good job or risk upsetting tumblr. A dangerous move in this day and age. It gives you a dilemma because you either please fans and piss off general audience (twilight) or please the general audience but piss off the fans, the people who made all this possible. For the big suits, looking at the stats, it's clear which to choose. Which is a shame for the fans and even the executives because it means the movie will suck or be disappointing and will often not make the money it was meant to, even leading future sequels to be cancelled. Fans are also difficult because they can never be totally pleased. Case in point, the Paper Towns casting. It was announced who the actress playing the female lead would be and (as a huge fan of the book) I was disappointed. She looked nothing like what the lead should have looked like. Also, the film will be set in North Carolina instead of Florida which is also disappointing because a lot of plot points center around it being set in Florida. Anyway, it'll probably be quite good but I'm worried about the film and a worried fan is bad for movie producers.
Book to film adaptations are by no means a bad thing. It can just reek a bit of laziness and can contain more risks than benefits. And while I still watch them and often want these adaptations to occur, it's something Hollywood should become less dependent on. Make some new IPs. Be creative. And please, lets try and branch out into some of the ideas that indie film makes still keep having. They are the future, invest in them.
Before I start, I will say that this is a subject that I am of many minds about this subject because it's got so many sides. For a start, it's worth mentioning that there are tons of brilliant films adaptations. For example, the Lord of the Rings trilogy, Godfather films and Forrest Gump are all excellent and incredibly critically acclaimed films. And if we put Comic Books into this category as well, we have some of the highest grossing films ever in here as well. It's a huge spectrum of films where we have some of the highest grossing films and best films ever made (case in point, the top 4 films on IMDB are book to film adaptations) but on the other side, we have garbage like Where The Wild Things Are. It's difficult.
The thing is, book to film adaptions, when done well, can be damn near perfect. I recently finished the book Fight Club and looking back, I'm astounded how well the themes, quotes and general feel were translated from the book to the silver screen. I would read lines and go "hey, that line was definitely in the film" or "I remember that character who was in one scene and never seen or mentioned again". It's a perfect adaptation. And others exist. Few (that I've seen) but they exist. One other perfect adaptation is The Fault In Our Stars. Yes, it's basically a book written for teenage girls but god damn it, I loved it. I loved it so much that I went to the special, week early, fan premiere. Yup. I'm that guy. Anyway, it captured the feel of the book, it was sweet and funny and sad but most of all, it was a great adaptation. I came away from it going "That felt like The Fault in our Stars". And there's no better compliment than that. The other "perfect" adaption I'm aware of is Scott Pilgrim vs The World. It works for a few reasons. The first is the magic touch of Edgar Wright and his directing skill. The second is that it took six books and made one film, so as to not cash grab, all while leaving very little out. The third is the totally incredible soundtrack. It's a film that's attained a worthy cult following and birthed an equally great game. And it is perfect for fans of the books.
We then have the problem that it is becoming the only thing Hollywood is willing to push out money on. It's this and films from already existing franchises that make up most big budget releases. There is a reason for this, but that's for another rant. It's clear if you read my list about stuff coming out this year that there is also a market of people willing to see these films. All three of my most anticipated films were based on books, two of which I wanted to see because of the book. This shows that it's a problem with the industry that won't be going away. There's also the fact that adapting from source material is easier than doing a whole script because most of it's already there. There is one more fairly substantial reason these keep happening: they make a LOT of money. Who doesn't want to be the person responsible for the next Harry Potter or Hunger Games? They gross billions of dollars almost without fail. It's like printing money, but with more angry fan girls. Speaking of which...
One of the biggest problems that book to film adaptations have is disappointing huge fan bases. More and more nowadays, films are coming from books with HUGE established fan bases, like Divergent, The Maze Runner and The Fault in our Stars. While these will mean instant money, it also means you have to do a good job or risk upsetting tumblr. A dangerous move in this day and age. It gives you a dilemma because you either please fans and piss off general audience (twilight) or please the general audience but piss off the fans, the people who made all this possible. For the big suits, looking at the stats, it's clear which to choose. Which is a shame for the fans and even the executives because it means the movie will suck or be disappointing and will often not make the money it was meant to, even leading future sequels to be cancelled. Fans are also difficult because they can never be totally pleased. Case in point, the Paper Towns casting. It was announced who the actress playing the female lead would be and (as a huge fan of the book) I was disappointed. She looked nothing like what the lead should have looked like. Also, the film will be set in North Carolina instead of Florida which is also disappointing because a lot of plot points center around it being set in Florida. Anyway, it'll probably be quite good but I'm worried about the film and a worried fan is bad for movie producers.
Book to film adaptations are by no means a bad thing. It can just reek a bit of laziness and can contain more risks than benefits. And while I still watch them and often want these adaptations to occur, it's something Hollywood should become less dependent on. Make some new IPs. Be creative. And please, lets try and branch out into some of the ideas that indie film makes still keep having. They are the future, invest in them.
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