The Future of Film: Novels
Just an FYI this is a tribute to the post I wrote that my website decided to delete… the actual post was brilliant and I’m devastated that it’s existence was denied.
I love to read. A well written book has the ability to absorb you into a very detailed new world, something that films can only do superficially (it’s the inevitability of time restrictions).
I probably don’t read enough, unless you include internet articles… which brings me to my next point:
You should read this interesting article about that states “novelists will be the new movie stars”. What I think it really means to say is that adaptations are the future of filmmaking.
But adaptations are already a major part of filmmaking, as evidenced by the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. You can pretty much guarantee that as soon as a book becomes an international best seller that there is someone vying for the film rights.
This is generally where I come in. Not in vying for film rights for international best sellers (I wish!), but this is where my interest is piqued. I want to know what all the fuss is about. Often it might even be a little later than this, after the adapted film has been released and is also a massive success.
I started reading the Harry Potter books after the release of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002), so unlike most die-hard fans I wasn’t outraged by what Dobby looked like.
Comparatively Twilight did annoy me, but it was the books that annoyed me. While they were easy to read, they were poorly written and poorly edited (yes, I am a grammar snob). And it was the choice to call *SPOILER* their child “Renesmee” that bugged me the most; it made it feel like it was written by an emotional pre-teen.
The Hunger Games came next and was a fresh alternative to the stuffy, Mormon pre-decessor. I actually read these books before the adaptations have come out and so far I have not disappointed (I’m still to watch the new Mockingjay – Part 1, but the reviews I’ve read so far haven’t been favourable).
Recently it’s been Divergent, and I’m really interested to see how they adapt these books because the next books need to be changed fairly significantly to work as films. In fact, the Insurgent trailer has just come out and you can see that they had to make changes. Changes that the die-hard fans don’t seem too happy with yet (at least the Facebook ones anyway – read the comments).
Those who have read the book, what do you think?
Anyway — I think I went off on a little tangent there — here’s something to leave you pondering about whether the future of films is adaptations…
These are just some of the adapted films from 2014:
- Winter’s Tale { trailer | IMDb | Wiki }
- Tracks { trailer | IMDb | Wiki }
- Vampire Academy { trailer | IMDb | Wiki }
- The Monuments Men { trailer | IMDb | Wiki }
- Divergent { trailer | IMDb | Wiki }
- The Fault in Our Stars { trailer | IMDb | Wiki }
- Edge of Tomorrow { trailer | IMDb | Wiki }
- The Giver { trailer | IMDb | Wiki }
- The Maze Runner { trailer | IMDb | Wiki }
- This Is Where I Leave You { trailer | IMDb | Wiki }
- Gone Girl { trailer | IMDb | Wiki }
- Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day { trailer | IMDb | Wiki }
- Mockingjay – Part 1 { trailer | IMDb | Wiki }
- Unbroken { trailer | IMDb | Wiki }
- In Secret { trailer | IMDb | Wiki }
- The Boxtrolls { trailer | IMDb | Wiki }
- The Hundred-Foot Journey { trailer | IMDb | Wiki }
- The Best of Me { trailer | IMDb | Wiki }
- A Long Way Down { trailer | IMDb | Wiki }
- Serena { trailer | IMDb | Wiki }
- The Imitation Game { trailer | IMDb | Wiki }
- If I Stay { trailer | IMDb | Wiki }
- Devil’s Knot { trailer | IMDb | Wiki }
- Wild { trailer | IMDb | Wiki }
- Trash { trailer | IMDb | Wiki }
- Life of Crime { trailer | IMDb | Wiki }
- Hector and the Search for Happiness { trailer | IMDb | Wiki }
- Every Secret Thing { no trailer | IMDb | Wiki }
- Love, Rosie { trailer | IMDb | Wiki }
- A Walk Among the Tombstones { trailer | IMDb | Wiki }
Enjoy.
