Books are today’s fashion. They capture
your imagination for hours and steal away an entire day without you realising
what’s happened. Movies continue to stand the test of time, bringing a simple
story to life before your eyes with explosive CGI and incredible settings. As
of late combining these two medias to create a box office hit appears to be
‘the next big thing’ those conglomerate moguls have stumbled upon. Developments
of a vet’s story in a circus to young adult zombies who fall in love have been
a great success in the box office lately and the adaptations just keep coming;
‘The Mortal Instruments’, ‘The Host’, ‘The Great Gatsby’ – there are even talks
of a ‘50 Shades of Grey’ motion picture in the near future.
My question is what is it exactly that
makes for such a huge success in a literary adaptation? Is it the ease of not
having to develop a whole new original story that doesn’t, ironically, imitate
an already written piece? Or perhaps the instant audience the film will have
before it has even started post production? Everywhere you look nowadays there
is a poster for a movie that has a book behind its name. Even movies like
Apocalypse Now took its inspiration from Joseph Conrad’s ‘Heart of Darkness’!
I, personally, am loving these adaptations. As a huge book-nerd myself – and proud to admit it – it’s my dream to see novels come to life. These adaptations take your favourite characters and bring them to life in front of your eyes. Sometimes they are wrong, yes – they have the wrong hair colour or the wrong colour Converse – but ultimately those directors have reached into your mind and slapped onto the screen your dreams for you to adore and display forever on your shelf.
My current favourite adaptations that I am
awaiting the release of are ‘The Host’ by Stephenie Meyer, ‘The Mortal
Instruments’ and ‘Warm Bodies’. Now yes, I am well aware that all these ring
the a similar bell of being Young Adult novels, but Young Adult is on the rise
in book charts and statistically 18-25 year olds are the biggest movie goers
around! All have interesting premises; one about aliens invading earth, the
other Demon Hunters – even Zombies falling in love features in the last! But
what makes me look forward to them most is how they will be transferred from
screen to book. Creating an alien that resembles a glowing centipede appear
realistic is one that I am highly intrigued by.
Books are apparently not the only things
being adapted though. Lately there have been rumours of ‘Halo’ and ‘Assassin’s
Creed’ movies in pre-production. These games are encrypted with not only hours
of entertainment, but back stories worth paying attention to. The popularity of
the product appears to increase the likelihood of its success in other fields.
So get creative people, you never know who could be next…
