I am most emphatically NOT someone who believes the oft-repeated claim, “books are better than movies,” or thinks “the movie can never live up to the book.” I think a small but critical number of movies based on books have improved greatly on the source material.
And, for the record, here’s my final word on adaptations as a writer: any time someone wants film rights to one of my works, they can have them for the right price, and I’ll cheerfully wash my hands.
I’ve written scripts and I love writing scripts. I’ve written novels and I love writing novels. They’re two completely different experiences. I don’t have much desire to do adaptations, especially of my own work. Anyone who wants to adapt my work can have carte blanche to bugger it once my agent gets the briefcase of money, or better yet the duffel bag. Thereafter, I won’t badmouth you in the press. I won’t even visit the set so I can meet Kate Winslet and C. Thomas Howell. As a writer, on the adaptation of my work, I have no opinion.
But as a fan, on the adaptation of other people’s work, I have lots of opinions.
The rest of this column is written from the point of view of a very cranky reader and a very cranky film viewer. I am a bitch when it comes to movies, as all my friends will tell you. I love films but I hate almost all the films I see. So take it with a grain of salt.
At its best, a film adaptation finds the central narrative of the novel and streamlines it. It takes away sub-plots, diversion, a certain amount of leisurely character development and certain other potentially confusing elements, in order to come up — ideally — with the simplest narrative possible, one that can be delivered in 90 to 120 minutes.
In my opinion that’s not about the audience being stupid, or “most people” being stupid, as I often hear book-writers saying about movies. I consider the view that “movie audiences” are “stupid” to be kinda classist and just plain snooty. Maybe they are, maybe they aren’t. But movies and books are different art forms, and have different needs for satisfying the audience. I’ve read far too many books to pretend that books are, by their nature, “smart.” Most books are f*$#*@ing stupid, period. (more…)
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When I think about movie adaptations, I can’t help but think of Allen Moore. He’s had more than a few of his graphic novels adapted for the big screen, including Watchmen, V for Vendetta, From Hell, Constantine, and League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. I was a fan of his writing back in the ’80s, especially Watchmen, and when the movie was set to come out, I remember poking around to see what he thought of the production (this was before the movie came out). Lo and behold, he said he wasn’t going to see it. Further, he said if you’d been inflicted with the kind of adaptations he’s been inflicted with, you wouldn’t go see them, either.
Thanks to John for forging the way and my apologies to the rest of the gang. I’ve been trying to write something coherent but I’ve got two kids with some sort of unholy evil infesting their digestive tracts for the last week. The washing machine broke five days ago and everything I own is covered in vomit. And by vomit, I mean ‘fluids of bodily origin.’ Let’s just leave it at that. I haven’t slept in a fuzzy hazy amount of time. The local exorcist is dodging my calls and I think I may be possessed of the demons now too. Just in time to get in the car and drive four hours to the beach for my little brother’s wedding. Great. Really fan-frickin’-tastic. 
When I hear that a favorite book is being made into a movie, my first reaction is often “Oh, no” instead of “Oh, yay!”. Mostly because it’s really damn hard to adapt a story to a different media and make it even half as good as the original. If the adapting writer slavishly follows the source material, then all too often you end up with something lifeless and boring, because the strengths of one media don’t translate well to another. (E.g. novels can portray the rich inner lives of characters with ease, but movies? You’re heavily dependent on the skills of the actors, and even then, scenes that work beautifully in a book can come across as flat and dead slow on screen.) But if you try to take the story and truly adapt it, changing it to fit the new medium – you risk losing the heart of the tale, and pissing off everyone who loved the original.