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To Adapt or Not to Adapt


Photo by Jakob Owens on Unsplash


By: Leila Mankowski


Growing up an avid reader, I have been obsessed with my fair share of book series, and just as equally disappointed by their movie adaptations. I still vividly remember the huge rush of excitement I would get when I heard my new favourite book was getting a movie made; I would think about it for months, count down the days until it was released in theatres, and drag my parents to see it with me on the day it premiered. And then...two hours later, I would sit there slouched in my seat as the credits rolled, staring blankly ahead and asking myself the exact same question that every other fan in the theatre was thinking: “that was it?”


This is of course not to say that all book-to-movie adaptations are bad, in truth many are quite successful. In fact, 70% of the world’s top 20 grossing movies are films based on books. On average, adaptations are typically more successful than original screenplays, bringing in 53% more revenue worldwide (Rothwell 2019). Indeed, there are lots of pros for creating book-to-movie adaptations. Adapting a successful book means that you already have the novel’s dedicated fanbase interested in seeing your movie, and depending on the book’s popularity, this can be quite a sizable audience, almost guaranteed. Furthermore, successful book-to-movie adaptations can benefit not only the director but the original author as well, as movie adaptations can be a way to reach new potential fans and bring in new readers to the series who will now go out and buy the books.




However, just as a successful adaptation can turn viewers onto a series, a bad adaptation can just as easily turn people off of it, giving viewers who haven’t yet read the book a bad image of the series, discouraging them from reading the books themselves. Adapting a book into a movie is, in short, a delicate task. In taking on a book, you are also taking on its fan expectations, bringing their favourite characters and worlds to life. One of the biggest threats to a book-to-movie adaptation’s success is disappointing the fanbase- when the fan expectations are not met, the results can be disastrous.


One example of this is of course the wildly infamous Percy Jackson and the Lighting Thief movie. Based on the first book in a popular young adult series with the same title, the original series had a massive fanbase -myself included- who were ecstatic when they heard that their favourite novel was getting a movie adaptation. However, not only was the movie a massive disappointment to its fans, but it strayed so far from the canon that it was actually offensive to loyal fans of the series. Outraged at how inaccurate the movie was to its source material, the Lightning Thief movie was quickly immortalized as the laughing stock of the fanbase for years to come, destroying any and all potential for a future movie franchise.


And so, how can a book-to-movie adaptation minimize its risk and avoid disappointing the fanbase? As a fan myself, I can attest that there is one massive trick in winning us over, ensuring that your adaptation gathers a loyal movie fanbase, leading to a lucrative movie franchise for years to come: stick to the source material! Though this should go without saying, too often I notice movie adaptations taking their own creative liberties that are not only unnecessary but downright insulting to fans of the series. Not only is it less effort on the part of the writing staff to use what is already given to them, but it’s also what the fans want to see. Fans already know the story that happened. They like the story that happened. That’s why they’re here watching the film adaptation. From the most successful book-to-movie adaptations, with the likes of Harry Potter or The Hunger Games- to the least successful, with the likes of Percy Jackson or The Mortal Instruments, here are some of the main components that -from a fan’s perspective- can either make or break a film.



1. Characters



One big part in remaining loyal to the source material lies in casting the actors, as fans tend to prefer when characters match their descriptions in the book as closely as possible. In fact, a huge part of the Percy Jackson movie outrage was that the characters’ ages were bumped up to 17 while they were only 12 in the original novel, this in an attempt to appeal to older audiences. Not only did this attempt fail, but it also sparked massive outrage in fans, as they knew that Percy began the series as a child and grew up throughout the course of the books. Making Percy 17 completely destroyed the major coming-of-age theme of the series. Another great outrage in the adaptation was that one of the main characters and fan-favourite, Annabeth, who had been described in the books as a grey-eyed, curly-haired blonde, was changed to be a blue-eyed, straight-haired brunette for no apparent reason. Even changing something as simple as hair colour can be enough to spark public outcry.


2. The Canon


Photo by Dollar Gill on Unsplash


Movie viewers want their beloved stories to remain as similar to the novel as possible. It is inevitable that some of the smaller plot points will have to be left out due to time constraints- but this should be done carefully, with as little change to the Canon as possible. To fans of the series, the canon is sacred; something they are already extremely faithful to. It is obviously important to prioritize keeping in the biggest plot points, but this does not mean simply writing off the smaller plotlines altogether. Be mindful of what aspects of the novel are most popular in the fanbase, and make sure you’re not not compromising aspects of the story that fans are particularly attached to, such as writing off popular minor characters or excluding beloved scenes.



3. Tone



This should again go without saying, but it is vital to understand the tone and major themes of the novel you’re adapting. Don’t try to make the movie into something that the book is not. Once again drawing on the Percy Jackson film as an example, what was a young adult coming-of-age novel about heroism and comradery was altered into a movie full of cheap slapstick humour, bland commercialization and sexualization. Though the novel itself is quite humorously written, it was humour that still had a clever wit to it. The movie meanwhile based its laughs almost entirely on crude language despite the fact that there is little to no swearing in the original books at all, needlessly upping the film’s rating so that many of the original fans were not even able to see it.


In short, it’s important to know your audience and who you need to appeal to. Take the time to learn what your potential fan base likes about the series, and make sure that your adaptation is true to these elements. Not only will this please loyal fans of the series, but it may even help you garner a fanbase of your own. Every director has their own creative vision, but they must never forget that the story will always belong, first and foremost, to the fans.


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