Reading a book and then seeing it come to life on the screen is something I really enjoy. But what really makes a good adaptation?
Keeping fans happy is tricky stuff, and filmmakers always have to keep the audience reaction in mind at every stage of production. Most avid readers tend to prefer films that use the method of adhering to close fidelity and reconstruction in the adapted versions, (in other words staying true to the original book and changing as little as possible) but sometimes thiscan be an almost impossible task. For example, can you imagine just how difficult it must’ve been for film producer David O. Selznick to adapt Gone With the Wind from page to screen and condense a book of one thousand and thirty pages into a manageable script that eager fans would still love?
I mention Gone With the Wind due to the huge success of the 1939 film version of the already hugely popular novel by Margaret Mitchell. It’s a great book & one I highly recommend if you haven’t already given it a go!
“The book is a film that takes place inside the mind of the reader.” - Paulo Coelho
In recent years, Netflix has undoubtedly become the definitive media company of the 21stcentury, and the streaming giant has achieved great success in transforming words to screen, with more than a dozen of its original productions being inspired by books or graphic novels.
With this in mind, is television the perfect medium to bring a book to screen? With a longer running time than a film, a Netflix series can convey a novel's rich details without sacrificing plot line, as well as having more time to strongly develop character identity and backstories. I’ve definitely enjoyed many shows that have drawn inspiration from books I’d already read, and not all of these have come from just Netflix. For example, in 2017 Maraget Atwood’s 1985 novel The Handmaid’s Tale was adapted for the small screen by another streaming service named Hulu. In the UK, Channel 4 (a British public-service television channel) picked up the series and aired the episodes weekly. We’ve just finished season 3 over here and it’s for sure my favourite show on television right now.
In late 2018 the BBC created a new epic mini series of Les Miserables, the latest adaptation of Victor Hugo's classic story of love, injustice and redemption. This was a fantastic series, and it was wonderful to see the BBC really rising up to hold their own alongside other big budget productions from Netflix, Amazon and other award-winning TV shows, movies, documentaries, and more. Another great example is Killing Eve, a drama television series produced by BBC America which draws inspiration from Luke Jennings’ Killing Eve novels.
Keeping fans happy is tricky stuff, and filmmakers always have to keep the audience reaction in mind at every stage of production. Most avid readers tend to prefer films that use the method of adhering to close fidelity and reconstruction in the adapted versions, (in other words staying true to the original book and changing as little as possible) but sometimes thiscan be an almost impossible task. For example, can you imagine just how difficult it must’ve been for film producer David O. Selznick to adapt Gone With the Wind from page to screen and condense a book of one thousand and thirty pages into a manageable script that eager fans would still love?
I mention Gone With the Wind due to the huge success of the 1939 film version of the already hugely popular novel by Margaret Mitchell. It’s a great book & one I highly recommend if you haven’t already given it a go!
“The book is a film that takes place inside the mind of the reader.” - Paulo Coelho
In recent years, Netflix has undoubtedly become the definitive media company of the 21stcentury, and the streaming giant has achieved great success in transforming words to screen, with more than a dozen of its original productions being inspired by books or graphic novels.
With this in mind, is television the perfect medium to bring a book to screen? With a longer running time than a film, a Netflix series can convey a novel's rich details without sacrificing plot line, as well as having more time to strongly develop character identity and backstories. I’ve definitely enjoyed many shows that have drawn inspiration from books I’d already read, and not all of these have come from just Netflix. For example, in 2017 Maraget Atwood’s 1985 novel The Handmaid’s Tale was adapted for the small screen by another streaming service named Hulu. In the UK, Channel 4 (a British public-service television channel) picked up the series and aired the episodes weekly. We’ve just finished season 3 over here and it’s for sure my favourite show on television right now.
In late 2018 the BBC created a new epic mini series of Les Miserables, the latest adaptation of Victor Hugo's classic story of love, injustice and redemption. This was a fantastic series, and it was wonderful to see the BBC really rising up to hold their own alongside other big budget productions from Netflix, Amazon and other award-winning TV shows, movies, documentaries, and more. Another great example is Killing Eve, a drama television series produced by BBC America which draws inspiration from Luke Jennings’ Killing Eve novels.