Recently when it comes to movies, original ideas have become few and far between. What we are constantly seeing out there are adaptations of almost anything from Video Games, Comics, even Anime series are being adapted to the big screen.
Certainly Books are not the exception , they are in fact one of the main sources to get stories from. Some have been without a doubt quite successful giving birth to franchises and such (Harry Potter, Twilight, The Hunger Games) while others not so much but even those have managed to be lucrative enough so that the adaptation fever continues.
But what makes an Adaptation a good one?
I’ve wondered about this often. Being the avid reader that I am, the idea of seeing my favorite characters and stories come to life should be a dream come true but to be honest it sometimes fill me with dread. Why? Many reasons..
- I fear that the storyline will be changed to fit the selling criteria (which it most likely happen, it’s a business after all and what you want is to sell a product)
- The Main characters will be portrait by Young actors (The Flavor of the Month sort of speak ) whom might or might not do justice to the work, they might even lack chemistry as a cast ensemble.
- If it’s a Book series that it’s being adapted well we know how it will go, it will get cut up into God knows how many parts (even if it’s not necessary) just to make money.
This are just a few of the reasons why I don’t jump in excitement when my favorite book is being adapted. I must confess that I do get curious, after all there have been great adaptations in movies and particularly on T.V. So, I always end up giving them the benefit of the doubt, I might find myself being surprised by how good it turn out.
I do understand that it’s really a very complicated process, you have to fit a 600 or more pages book into a two hour story, if we are talking about a T.V. Series this might be a bit easier in terms of time but you still have to decide how fast or slow you need to tell the story. What it’s relevant and what can be skipped all together.. This is particularly hard while dealing with fans, they will get mad no matter what, after all they want to see everything that they loved from the book portrait on the big screen. But let’s face it, we are talking about a business and as such you need to be able to sell your product to everyone and not just to the fans.
Nevertheless there are (as I mentioned before) some movies and T.V. Series that in my opinion have managed to achieved a perfect balance between the business and the story. Giving us great representations of the book world we loved and the characters that reside there. They have made them come alive, so, even if it hard it’s still achievable.
Some of my Favorite Book to Movie/T.V. Series Adaptations are:
- Lord of The Rings – This has been by far the best adaption I’ve seen of a Book Series. The world is beautifully represented, the cast is great, and the story truly comes to life.
- Pride and Prejudice – I’m biased with this one, the reason I love this movie so much is because of the characters and the cinematography of it. It’s a beautiful movie.
- Outlander – The best T.V. Series adaption of a series of books that I’ve seen. The story it’s faithful to what happens in the books, the cast is great and the sets are gorgeous as well as the costumes. So much attention to detail.
- The Hunger Games – Even if this fell on the franchise category of squeezing a story for money (it didn’t need to be a 4 part series) I think they did a good job when it came to presenting the story.
- Game Of Thrones – This is a hard one for me, because it’s an ongoing story that became different from the books..We all know why.. But I think that over all they did a great job in the beginning, I Actually liked the series better than the books (Please don’t kill me)
What do you think about Book to movie adaptations? Do you Love them or hate them? What are your favorites? Let me know all about it in the comments
As Always
Happy Reading
