Has “now a major motion picture” become the author’s worst nightmare? Books have been inspirations for live performances since Shakespeare, with Hollywood being no exception. However, movie adaptations can jeopardize the integrity of the original story to ensure the film runtime is under two and a half hours.
Authors take
Many authors see adaptations of their work as a catalyst for a wider audience to experience their stories. For example, John Green‘s New York Times Best Selling novel “The Fault In Our Stars” has sold over 23 million copies. The film made over $307 million in revenue, as well as international acclaim.
“Crazy Rich Asians” author Kevin Kwan emphasized how he encouraged the filmmakers to have “plenty of creative license.” His philosophy is that an adaptation should be exactly that, not an exact retelling of the novel, but an inspired lovechild of it.
Red, white and who?
Casey McQuiston‘s novel “Red, White & Royal Blue” was recently turned into a film adaptation this summer on Amazon Prime Video. However, there are blatant discrepancies from the page to the screen. The premise is that the first son of the United States and the Prince of England fall in love. They then face the international consequences of their relationship as the news leaks about their situation.
In the book, the president is a single mother who divorced another politician before running for office. Thus, the female president winning re-election by turning Texas blue, as a divorced single mother, running as a Democrat, makes her win that much more surprising because it is so unfeasible. Whereas, in the movie, the president is still happily married. Her only scandal is that of her son’s entanglement.
In the novel, the president’s opposition leaks the relationship. However, in the movie, it is a journalist. Though the result is the same, the intention and reasoning behind leaking the news was a major plot point of the book that didn’t translate to the film.
The movie is still receiving rave reviews, being the number one movie on Prime globally after its release. Thus, there are pros and cons of straying away from the original text and not. The real goal at the end of the day is to create a product that is still widely well-receivable for the audience, by the average watcher and the die-hard book fans.
Poorly translated
Not all adaptations become successful. The third movie of the “Divergent” series, “Allegiant,” was a complete flop. After the success of the first two films, the third performed so poorly that the final book in the series never even made it to the silver screen. Due to the consequences of hurried production and a vast departure from the original story, fans despised the film.
“The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” will be the next major adaptation release. It began showing in theaters Nov. 17. The franchise is known for its successful translations from book to film. Fans are excited to see if the next edition will be no different.
