A film adaptation is the transfer of a work or story, in whole or in part, to a feature film. Although often considered a type of derivative work, film adaptation has been conceptualized recently by academic scholars such as
Robert Stam Robert Stam (born October 29, 1941) is an American film theorist working on film semiotics. He is a professor at New York University, where he teaches about the French New Wave filmmakers. Stam has published widely on French literature, comparativ ...
as a dialogic process.
While the most common form of film adaptation is the use of a novel as the basis, other works adapted into films include non-fiction (including journalism), autobiographical works, comic books, scriptures, plays, historical sources and even other films. Adaptation from such diverse resources has been a ubiquitous practice of filmmaking since the earliest days of cinema in nineteenth-century Europe. In contrast to when making a remake, movie directors usually take more creative liberties when creating a film adaptation.
Elision and interpolation
In 1924, Erich von Stroheim attempted a literal adaptation of
Frank Norris
Benjamin Franklin Norris Jr. (March 5, 1870 – October 25, 1902) was an American journalist and novelist during the Progressive Era, whose fiction was predominantly in the naturalist genre. His notable works include '' McTeague: A Story of San ...
's novel ''
McTeague
''McTeague: A Story of San Francisco'', otherwise known as simply ''McTeague'', is a novel by Frank Norris, first published in 1899. It tells the story of a couple's courtship and marriage, and their subsequent descent into poverty and violence ...
'' with his film ''
Greed
Greed (or avarice) is an uncontrolled longing for increase in the acquisition or use of material gain (be it food, money, land, or animate/inanimate possessions); or social value, such as status, or power. Greed has been identified as und ...
.'' The resulting film was 9½ hours long, and was cut to four hours at studio insistence. It was then cut again (without Stroheim's input) to around two hours. The result was a film that was largely incoherent. Since that time, few directors have attempted to put everything in a novel into a film. Therefore, elision is all but essential.
In some cases, film adaptations also interpolate scenes or invent characters. This is especially true when a novel is part of a literary saga. Incidents or quotations from later or earlier novels will be inserted into a single film. Additionally and far more controversially, filmmakers will invent new characters or create stories that were not present in the source material at all. Given the anticipated audience for a film, the screenwriter, director or movie studio may wish to increase character time or to invent new characters. For example, William J. Kennedy's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel '' Ironweed'' included a short appearance by a prostitute named Helen. Because the film studio anticipated a female audience for the film and had Meryl Streep for the role, Helen became a significant part of the film. However, characters are also sometimes invented to provide the narrative voice.
Interpretation as adaptation
There have been several notable cases of massive inventive adaptation, including the Roland Joffe adaptation of ''
The Scarlet Letter
''The Scarlet Letter: A Romance'' is a work of historical fiction by American author Nathaniel Hawthorne, published in 1850. Set in the Puritan Massachusetts Bay Colony during the years 1642 to 1649, the novel tells the story of Hester Prynne, ...
'' with explicit sex between Hester Prynn and the minister and Native American obscene puns into a major character and the film's villain. The Charlie Kaufman and "Donald Kaufman" penned '' Adaptation'', credited as an adaptation of the novel ''
The Orchid Thief
''The Orchid Thief'' is a 1998 non-fiction book by American journalist Susan Orlean, based on her investigation of the 1994 arrest of horticulturist John Laroche and a group of Seminoles in south Florida for poaching rare orchids in the Faka ...
'', was an intentional satire and commentary on the process of film adaptation itself. All of those are cases of Nathaniel Hawthorne's point. The creators of the ''Gulliver's Travels'' miniseries interpolated a sanity trial to reflect the ongoing scholarly debate over whether or not Gulliver himself is sane at the conclusion of Book IV. In those cases, adaptation is a form of criticism and recreation as well as translation.
Change is essential and practically unavoidable, mandated both by the constraints of time and medium, but how much is always a balance. Some film theorists have argued that a director should be entirely unconcerned with the source, as a novel is a novel and a film is a film, and the two works of art must be seen as separate entities. Since a transcription of a novel into film is impossible, even holding up a goal of "accuracy" is absurd. Others argue that what a film adaptation does is change to fit (literally, adapt), and the film must be accurate to the effect (aesthetics), the theme, or the message of a novel and that the filmmaker must introduce changes, if necessary, to fit the demands of time and to maximize faithfulness along one of those axes.
In most cases adaptation, the films are required to create identities (for example, a characters' costume or set decor) since they are not specified in the original material. Then, the influence of film-makers may go unrecognized because there is no comparison in the original material even though the new visual identities will affect narrative interpretation. Peter Jackson's adaptations of ''The Lord of the Rings'' trilogy and ''
The Hobbit
''The Hobbit, or There and Back Again'' is a children's fantasy novel by English author J. R. R. Tolkien. It was published in 1937 to wide critical acclaim, being nominated for the Carnegie Medal and awarded a prize from the ''N ...
'' by author
JRR Tolkien JRR may refer to:
* J. R. R. Tolkien (1892–1973), English writer, poet, philologist and university professor
* Jaime Robbie Reyne (born 1985), Australian singer
* Jay Robinson Racing, a racing team
* Jiru language
Jiru is a Jukunoid language ...
represent an unusual case since many visual and stylistic details were specified by Tolkien. For the ''Harry Potter'' film series, author
JK Rowling
Joanne Rowling ( "rolling"; born 31 July 1965), also known by her pen name J. K. Rowling, is a British author and philanthropist. She wrote ''Harry Potter'', a seven-volume children's fantasy series published from 1997 to 2007. The ser ...
was closely consulted by the filmmakers, and she provided production designer Stuart Craig with a map of
Hogwarts
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry () is a fictional Scotland, Scottish boarding school of Magic in Harry Potter, magic for students aged eleven to eighteen, and is the primary setting for the first six books in J. K. Rowling's ''Harry Pot ...
' grounds and also prevented director Alfonso Cuarón from adding a graveyard scene because the graveyard would appear elsewhere in a later novel.
An often overlooked aspect of film adaptation is the inclusion of sound and music. In a literary text, a specific sound effect can often be implied or specified by an event, but in the process of adaptation, filmmakers must determine specific the sound characteristics that subliminally affects narrative interpretation. In some cases of adaptation, music may have been specified in the original material (usually
diegetic
Diegesis (; from the Greek from , "to narrate") is a style of fiction storytelling that presents an interior view of a world in which:
# Details about the world itself and the experiences of its characters are revealed explicitly through narra ...
music). In
Stephenie Meyer
Stephenie Meyer (; née Morgan; born December 24, 1973) is an American novelist and film producer. She is best known for writing the vampire romance series ''Twilight'', which has sold over 100 million copies, with translations into 37 differ ...
's 2005 ''
Twilight
Twilight is light produced by sunlight scattering in the upper atmosphere, when the Sun is below the horizon, which illuminates the lower atmosphere and the Earth's surface. The word twilight can also refer to the periods of time when this i ...
'' novel, the characters
Edward Cullen
Edward Cullen ( né Edward Anthony Masen, Jr.) is a character in the ''Twilight'' book series by Stephenie Meyer. He is featured in the novels ''Twilight'', ''New Moon'', ''Eclipse'' and ''Breaking Dawn'', and their corresponding film adapta ...
and
Bella Swan
Isabella Marie Swan-Cullen (née Swan) is the protagonist character of the ''Twilight'' book series by Stephenie Meyer. She is initially an ordinary teenage girl, but during the series, Bella marries vampire Edward Cullen, with whom she has a hu ...
both listen to Debussy's ''Clair de lune'' and Edward composes the piece ''Bella's Lullaby'' for Bella. While ''Clair de lune'' was a pre-existing piece of music, ''Bella's Lullaby'' was not and required original music to be composed for the 2008
movie adaptation
A film adaptation is the transfer of a work or story, in whole or in part, to a feature film. Although often considered a type of derivative work, film adaptation has been conceptualized recently by academic scholars such as Robert Stam as a dia ...
Kurt Vonnegut
Kurt Vonnegut Jr. (November 11, 1922 – April 11, 2007) was an American writer known for his satirical and darkly humorous novels. In a career spanning over 50 years, he published fourteen novels, three short-story collections, five plays, and ...
, the film-makers decided to abandon Vonnegut's choice of music. They stated that they felt that it worked in his prose only because it was not actually heard. Filmmakers' test screenings found that Vonnegut's style of music confused audiences and detracted from narrative comprehension. The film's composer, Leon Coward, stated, "You can try to be as true to Vonnegut's material as possible, but at the end of the day also you’re working with the material that you as a team have generated, not just Vonnegut's, and that’s what you've got to make work."
Theatrical adaptation
Stage plays are frequent sources for film adaptations.
Many of
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...
's plays, including ''
Hamlet
''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...
'', '' Romeo and Juliet'', and '' Othello'', have been adapted into films. The first sound adaptation of any Shakespeare play was the 1929 production of ''The Taming of the Shrew'', starring
Mary Pickford
Gladys Marie Smith (April 8, 1892 – May 29, 1979), known professionally as Mary Pickford, was a Canadian-American stage and screen actress and producer with a career that spanned five decades. A pioneer in the US film industry, she co-founde ...
and
Douglas Fairbanks
Douglas Elton Fairbanks Sr. (born Douglas Elton Thomas Ullman; May 23, 1883 – December 12, 1939) was an American actor, screenwriter, director, and producer. He was best known for his swashbuckling roles in silent films including '' The Thi ...
. It was later adapted as both a musical play called ''
Kiss Me, Kate
''Kiss Me, Kate'' is a musical written by Bella and Samuel Spewack with music and lyrics by Cole Porter. The story involves the production of a musical version of William Shakespeare's ''The Taming of the Shrew'' and the conflict on and off-stag ...
'', which opened on Broadway in 1948, and as the 1953 Hollywood musical of the same name. ''The Taming of the Shrew'' was again retold in 1999 as a teen comedy set in a high school in ''
10 Things I Hate about You
''10 Things I Hate About You'' is a 1999 American teen romantic comedy film directed by Gil Junger and starring Julia Stiles, Heath Ledger, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Larisa Oleynik. The screenplay, written by Karen McCullah Lutz and Kirs ...
'', and also in 2003 as an urban romantic comedy, ''
Deliver Us from Eva
''Deliver Us from Eva'' is a 2003 American romantic comedy film starring LL Cool J and Gabrielle Union, revolving around LL's character Ray being paid to date a troublesome young lady named Eva (Union). It is considered by many as a modern update ...
''. The 1961 musical film ''
West Side Story
''West Side Story'' is a musical conceived by Jerome Robbins with music by Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, and a book by Arthur Laurents.
Inspired by William Shakespeare's play '' Romeo and Juliet'', the story is set in the mid ...
'' was adapted from ''Romeo and Juliet'', with its first incarnation as a Broadway musical play that opened in 1957. The animated film ''
The Lion King
''The Lion King'' is a 1994 American animated musical drama film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures. The 32nd Disney animated feature film and the fifth produced during the Disney Renaissance ...
'' (1994) was inspired by ''Hamlet'' as well as various traditional African myths, and 2001's '' O'' was based on ''Othello''.
Film adaptations of Shakespeare's works in languages other than English are numerous, including Akira Kurosawa's films ''Throne of Blood'' (1957, an epic film version of ''Macbeth''), ''
The Bad Sleep Well
is a 1960 Japanese crime mystery film directed by Akira Kurosawa. It was the first film to be produced under Kurosawa's own independent production company. It was entered into the 11th Berlin International Film Festival.
The film stars Toshiro ...
'' (1960, inspired by ''Hamlet'') and ''Ran'' (1985, based on ''King Lear''); and
Vishal Bhardwaj
Vishal Bhardwaj (born 4 August 1965) is an Indian film director, screenwriter, producer, music composer and playback singer. He is known for his work in Hindi cinema, and is the recipient of seven National Film Awards and a Filmfare Award.
Bha ...
's "Shakespearean trilogy" consisting of '' Haider'' (2014, a retelling of ''Hamlet''), '' Omkara'' (2006, based on ''Othello'') and ''
Maqbool
''Maqbool'' is a 2004 Indian crime drama film directed by Vishal Bhardwaj and starring Irrfan, Tabu, Pankaj Kapur, Naseeruddin Shah, Om Puri, Piyush Mishra, Murali Sharma and Masumeh Makhija in an adaptation of the play ''Macbeth'' by Shakesp ...
'' (2003, based on ''Macbeth'').
Another way in which Shakespearean texts have been incorporated in films is to feature characters who are either actors performing those texts or characters who are somehow influenced or effected by seeing one of Shakespeare's plays, within a larger non-Shakespearean story. Generally, Shakespeare's basic themes or certain elements of the plot will parallel the main plot of the film or become part of a character's development in some way. Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet are the two plays which have most often been used in this way.
Éric Rohmer
Jean Marie Maurice Schérer or Maurice Henri Joseph Schérer, known as Éric Rohmer (; 21 March 192011 January 2010), was a French film director, film critic, journalist, novelist, screenwriter, and teacher.
Rohmer was the last of the post-World ...
's 1992 film '' Conte d'hiver'' (''A Tale of Winter'') is one example. Rohmer uses one scene from Shakepeare's '' A Winter's Tale'' as a major plot device within a story that is not based on the play at all.
In Britain, where stage plays tend to be more popular as a form of entertainment than currently in the United States, many films began as a stage productions. Some British films and British/American collaborations that were based on successful British plays include ''
Gaslight
Gas lighting is the production of artificial light from combustion of a gaseous fuel, such as hydrogen, methane, carbon monoxide, propane, butane, acetylene, ethylene, coal gas (town gas) or natural gas. The light is produced either direct ...
Rope
A rope is a group of yarns, plies, fibres, or strands that are twisted or braided together into a larger and stronger form. Ropes have tensile strength and so can be used for dragging and lifting. Rope is thicker and stronger than similar ...
'' (1948), ''
Look Back in Anger
''Look Back in Anger'' (1956) is a realist play written by John Osborne. It focuses on the life and marital struggles of an intelligent and educated but disaffected young man of working-class origin, Jimmy Porter, and his equally competent yet i ...
'' (1959), ''
Oh! What a Lovely War
''Oh! What a Lovely War'' is a 1969 British comedy musical war film directed by Richard Attenborough (in his directorial debut), with an ensemble cast, including Maggie Smith, Dirk Bogarde, John Gielgud, John Mills, Kenneth More, Laurence Ol ...
'' (1969), ''
Sleuth
Sleuth may refer to:
* Detective
*Sleuth, collective noun for a group of bears
Computing
* The Sleuth Kit, a collection of forensic analysis software
*SLEUTH assembler language for the UNIVAC 1107
Entertainment and media
*Cloo
Cloo (stylized ...
'' (1972), ''
The Rocky Horror Picture Show
''The Rocky Horror Picture Show'' is a 1975 musical comedy horror film by 20th Century Fox, produced by Lou Adler and Michael White and directed by Jim Sharman. The screenplay was written by Sharman and actor Richard O'Brien, who is also ...
'' (1975), ''
Shirley Valentine
''Shirley Valentine'' is a one-character play by Willy Russell. Taking the form of a monologue by a middle-aged, working class Liverpool housewife, it focuses on her life before and after a transforming holiday abroad.
Plot
Wondering what has ...
'' (1989), ''
The Madness of King George
''The Madness of King George'' is a 1994 British biographical historical comedy-drama film directed by Nicholas Hytner and adapted by Alan Bennett from his own 1991 play '' The Madness of George III''. It tells the true story of George III of G ...
'' (1994), ''
The History Boys
''The History Boys'' is a play by British playwright Alan Bennett. The play premiered at the Royal National Theatre in London on 18 May 2004. Its Broadway debut was on 23 April 2006 at the Broadhurst Theatre where 185 performances were staged be ...
The Lady in the Van
''The Lady in the Van'' is a 2015 British comedy-drama film directed by Nicholas Hytner, and starring Maggie Smith and Alex Jennings, based on the memoir of the same name created by Alan Bennett. It was written by Bennett, and it tells the (most ...
'' (2015).
Similarly, hit Broadway plays are often adapted into films, whether from musicals or dramas. Some examples of American film adaptations based on successful Broadway plays are '' Arsenic and Old Lace'' (1944), '' Born Yesterday'' (1950), ''
Harvey
Harvey, Harveys or Harvey's may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
* ''Harvey'' (play), a 1944 play by Mary Chase about a man befriended by an invisible anthropomorphic rabbit
* Harvey Awards ("Harveys"), one of the most important awards ...
'' (1950), ''
A Streetcar Named Desire
''A Streetcar Named Desire'' is a play written by Tennessee Williams and first performed on Broadway on December 3, 1947. The play dramatizes the experiences of Blanche DuBois, a former Southern belle who, after encountering a series of pers ...
'' (1951), ''
The Odd Couple Odd Couple may refer to:
Neil Simon play and its adaptations
* ''The Odd Couple'' (play), a 1965 stage play by Neil Simon
** ''The Odd Couple'' (film), a 1968 film based on the play
*** ''The Odd Couple'' (1970 TV series), a 1970–1975 televisi ...
Real Women Have Curves
''Real Women Have Curves'' is a 2002 American comedy-drama film directed by Patricia Cardoso, based on the Real Women Have Curves (play), play of the same name by Josefina López, who co-authored the screenplay for the film with George LaVoo. Th ...
Fences
A fence is a barrier enclosing or bordering a field, yard, etc., usually made of posts and wire or wood, used to prevent entrance, to confine, or to mark a boundary.
Fence or fences may also refer to:
Entertainment Music
* Fences (band), an Amer ...
'' (2016).
On one hand, theatrical adaptation does not involve as many interpolations or elisions as novel adaptation, but on the other, the demands of scenery and possibilities of motion frequently entail changes from one medium to the other. Film critics will often mention if an adapted play has a static camera or emulates a proscenium arch. Laurence Olivier consciously imitated the arch with his ''Henry V'' (1944), having the camera begin to move and to use color stock after the prologue, indicating the passage from physical to imaginative space. Sometimes, the adaptive process can continue after one translation. Mel Brooks' ''The Producers'' began as a film in 1967, was adapted into a Broadway musical in 2001, and then adapted again in 2005 as a musical film.
Television adaptation
Feature films are occasionally created from television series or television segments, or vice versa, a television series will derive from a film, such as in the case of '' Bates Motel'' and ''
Chucky
Chucky may refer to:
*Chucky (name)
*Chucky (character), a fictional character in the ''Child's Play'' franchise
**'' Chucky: Slash & Dash'', a 2013 video game
** ''Chucky'' (TV series), a 2021 TV series
*Chucky madtom (''Noturus crypticus''), en ...
''. In the former, the film will offer a longer storyline than the usual television program's format and/or expanded production values. During the 1970s, many UK television series were turned into films including ''
Dad's Army
''Dad's Army'' is a British television sitcom about the United Kingdom's Home Guard during the Second World War. It was written by Jimmy Perry and David Croft, and originally broadcast on BBC1 from 31 July 1968 to 13 November 1977. It ran fo ...
'', ''
On the Buses
''On the Buses'' is a British television sitcom that was broadcast on ITV from 1969 to 1973. It was created by Ronald Chesney and Ronald Wolfe, who wrote most of the episodes. It spawned three spin-off feature films and a stage version. Desp ...
'', ''
Steptoe and Son
''Steptoe and Son'' is a British sitcom written by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson about a father-and-son rag-and-bone business in 26a Oil Drum Lane, a fictional street in Shepherd's Bush, London. Four series were broadcast by the BBC in black and w ...
The Muppet Movie
''The Muppet Movie'' is a 1979 American musical road comedy film directed by James Frawley, produced by Jim Henson, and the first theatrical film featuring the Muppets. A co-production between the United Kingdom and the United States, the fil ...
'' was a big success. In the adaptation of ''
The X-Files
''The X-Files'' is an American science fiction drama television series created by Chris Carter. The series revolves around Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Special Agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson), who ...
'' to film, greater effects and a longer plotline were involved. Additionally, adaptations of television shows will offer the viewer the opportunity to see the television show's characters without broadcast restrictions. These additions (nudity, profanity, explicit drug use, and explicit violence) are only rarely a featured adaptive addition (film versions of "procedurals" such as ''
Miami Vice
''Miami Vice'' is an American crime drama television series created by Anthony Yerkovich and produced by Michael Mann for NBC. The series stars Don Johnson as James "Sonny" Crockett and Philip Michael Thomas as Ricardo "Rico" Tubbs, two M ...
'' are most inclined to such additions as featured adaptations) – '' South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut'' is a notable example of a film being more explicit than its parent TV series.
At the same time, some theatrically released films are adaptations of television miniseries events. When national film boards and state-controlled television networks co-exist, filmmakers can sometimes create very long films for television that they may adapt solely for time for theatrical release. Both Ingmar Bergman (notably with ''
Fanny and Alexander
''Fanny and Alexander'' ( sv, Fanny och Alexander) is a 1982 period drama film written and directed by Ingmar Bergman. The plot focuses on two siblings and their large family in Uppsala, Sweden during the first decade of the twentieth century. ...
'' but with other films as well) and
Lars von Trier
Lars von Trier ('' né'' Trier; 30 April 1956) is a Danish filmmaker, actor, and lyricist. Having garnered a reputation as a highly ambitious, polarizing filmmaker, he has been the subject of several controversies: Cannes, in addition to nomina ...
have created long television films that they then recut for international distribution.
Even segments of television series have been adapted into feature films. The American television sketch comedy show ''
Saturday Night Live
''Saturday Night Live'' (often abbreviated to ''SNL'') is an American late-night live television sketch comedy and variety show created by Lorne Michaels and developed by Dick Ebersol that airs on NBC and Peacock (streaming service), Peacock. ...
'' has been the origin of a number of films, beginning with ''
The Blues Brothers
The Blues Brothers are an American blues and soul revivalist band founded in 1978 by comedians Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi as part of a musical sketch on ''Saturday Night Live''. Belushi and Aykroyd fronted the band, in character, respecti ...
'', which began as a one-off performance by Dan Aykroyd and
John Belushi
John Adam Belushi (January 24, 1949 – March 5, 1982) was an American comedian, actor, and musician, best known for being one of the seven original cast members of the NBC sketch comedy show ''Saturday Night Live'' (''SNL''). Throughout his c ...
.
Radio adaptation
Radio narratives have also provided the basis of film adaptation. In the heyday of radio, radio segments were often translated to film, usually as shorts. Radio series turned into film series include '' Dr. Christian'', '' Crime Doctor'' and ''
The Whistler
''The Whistler'' is an American radio mystery drama which ran from May 16, 1942, until September 22, 1955, on the west-coast regional CBS radio network. The show was also broadcast in Chicago and over Armed Forces Radio. On the west coast, it w ...
''. Dialog-heavy stories and fantastic stories from radio were also adapted to film (e.g. ''
Fibber McGee and Molly
''Fibber McGee and Molly'' (1935–1959) was a longtime highly popular husband-and-wife team radio comedy program.
The situation comedy was a staple of the NBC Red Network from 1936 on, after originating on NBC Blue in 1935. One of the most p ...
'' and ''
The Life of Riley
''The Life of Riley'' is an American radio situation comedy series of the 1940s that was adapted into a 1949 feature film, a 1950s television series, and a 1958 comic book.
Radio
The radio program initially aired on the Blue Network (later kn ...
''). ''
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'' (sometimes referred to as ''HG2G'', ''HHGTTG'', ''H2G2'', or ''tHGttG'') is a comedy science fiction franchise created by Douglas Adams. Originally a 1978 radio comedy broadcast on BBC Radio 4, it ...
'' began as a radio series for the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
Comic book
A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are of ...
characters, particularly superheroes, have long been adapted into film, beginning in the 1940s with Saturday movie serials aimed at children. '' Superman'' (1978) and '' Batman'' (1989) are two later successful movie adaptations of famous comic book characters. In the early 2000s, blockbusters such as ''
X-Men
The X-Men are a superhero team appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics, first appearing in ''The X-Men'' #1 by artist/co-plotter Jack Kirby and writer/editor Stan Lee in 1963. Although initially cancelled in 1970 due to lo ...
'' (2000) and '' Spider-Man'' (2002) have led to dozens of superhero films. The success of these films has also led to other comic books not necessarily about superheroes being adapted for the big screen, such as '' Ghost World'' (2001), ''
From Hell
''From Hell'' is a graphic novel by writer Alan Moore and artist Eddie Campbell, originally published in serial form from 1989 to 1998. The full collection was published in 1999 by Top Shelf Productions.
Set during the Whitechapel murders of ...
'' (2001), ''
American Splendor
''American Splendor'' is a series of autobiographical comic books written by Harvey Pekar and drawn by a variety of artists. The first issue was published in 1976 and the last one in September 2008, with publication occurring at irregular interv ...
'' (2003), ''
Sin City
''Sin City'' is a series of neo-noir comics by American comic book writer-artist Frank Miller. The first story originally appeared in ''Dark Horse Presents Fifth Anniversary Special'' (April 1991), and continued in ''Dark Horse Presents'' #51 ...
'' (2005), ''
300
__NOTOC__
Year 300 ( CCC) was a leap year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Constantius and Valerius (or, less frequently, year 1053 ''Ab ...
'' (2007), '' Wanted'' (2008), and '' Whiteout'' (2009).
The adaptation process for comics is different from that of novels. Many successful comic book series last for several decades and have featured several variations of the characters in that time. Films based on such series usually try to capture the back story and “spirit” of the character instead of adapting a particular storyline. Occasionally, aspects of the characters and their origins are simplified or modernized.
Self-contained graphic novels, and miniseries many of which do not feature superheroes, can be adapted more directly, such as in the case of ''
Road to Perdition
''Road to Perdition'' is a 2002 American crime drama film directed by Sam Mendes. The screenplay was adapted by David Self from the graphic novel of the same name written by Max Allan Collins and illustrated by Richard Piers Rayner. The film ...
'' (2002) or ''
V for Vendetta
''V for Vendetta'' is a British graphic novel written by Alan Moore and illustrated by David Lloyd (with additional art by Tony Weare). Initially published between 1982 and 1985 in black and white as an ongoing serial in the British anthol ...
'' (2006). In particular, Robert Rodriguez did not use a screenplay for ''Sin City'' but utilized actual panels from writer/artist Frank Miller's series as storyboards to create what Rodriguez regards as a "translation" rather than an adaptation.
Furthermore, some films based on long-running franchises use particular story lines from the franchise as a basis for a plot. The second X-Men film was loosely based on the graphic novel '' X-Men: God Loves, Man Kills'' and the third film on the storyline "
The Dark Phoenix Saga
"The Dark Phoenix Saga" is an extended X-Men comic-book storyline published by Marvel Comics, focusing on Jean Grey and the Phoenix Force. It was written by Chris Claremont with art by John Byrne.
The Dark Phoenix Saga commonly refers to the ...
". ''
Spider-Man 2
''Spider-Man 2'' is a 2004 American superhero film directed by Sam Raimi and written by Alvin Sargent from a story by Alfred Gough, Miles Millar and Michael Chabon. Based on the fictional Marvel Comics character of the same name, it is the ...
'' was based on the storyline "Spider-Man No More!" Likewise, ''
Batman Begins
''Batman Begins'' is a 2005 superhero film directed by Christopher Nolan and written by Nolan and David S. Goyer. The film is based on the DC Comics character Batman, it stars Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne / Batman, with Michael Caine, ...
'' owes many of its elements to Miller's " Batman: Year One" and the film's sequel, ''
The Dark Knight
''The Dark Knight'' is a 2008 superhero film directed by Christopher Nolan from a screenplay he co-wrote with his brother Jonathan Nolan, Jonathan. Based on the DC Comics superhero, Batman, it is the sequel to ''Batman Begins'' (2005) and t ...
Marvel Cinematic Universe
The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) is an American media franchise and shared universe centered on a series of superhero films produced by Marvel Studios. The films are based on characters that appear in American comic books published by ...
starting in 2008 is a
shared universe
A shared universe or shared world is a fictional universe from a set of creative works where more than one writer (or other artist) independently contributes a work that can stand alone but fits into the joint development of the storyline, chara ...
with films combining characters from different works by
Marvel Comics
Marvel Comics is an American comic book publishing, publisher and the flagship property of Marvel Entertainment, a divsion of The Walt Disney Company since September 1, 2009. Evolving from Timely Comics in 1939, ''Magazine Management/Atlas Co ...
. The
DC Extended Universe
The DC Extended Universe (DCEU) is an American media franchise and shared universe centered on a series of superhero films and television series produced by DC Studios and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures. It is based on characters that ...
starting in 2013 uses the same model for
DC Comics
DC Comics, Inc. (doing business as DC) is an American comic book publisher and the flagship unit of DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery.
DC Comics is one of the largest and oldest American comic book companies, with thei ...
Video games have also been adapted into films, beginning in the early 1980s. Films closely related to the computer and video game industries were also done in this time, such as ''
Tron
''Tron'' (stylized as ''TRON'') is a 1982 American science fiction action- adventure film written and directed by Steven Lisberger from a story by Lisberger and Bonnie MacBird. The film stars Jeff Bridges as Kevin Flynn, a computer programmer ...
'' and '' Cloak & Dagger'', but only after the release of several films based on well-known brands has this genre become recognized in its own right. Video game films can take several forms, such as live-action works like ''
Super Mario Bros.
is a platform game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). The successor to the 1983 arcade game '' Mario Bros.'' and the first game in the ''Super Mario'' series, it was first released in 1985 for ...
'', traditionally animated such as films based on the '' Pokémon'' franchise, or computer-animated such as '' Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within''. There also exist original video animations (OVAs) based on popular games, such as '' Street Fighter Alpha: The Animation''.
Similar to comic book-based films in the past (especially from 1980s), films based on video games tend to carry a reputation of lackluster quality and receive negative reaction from both film critics and fans of the source material. This is generally due to difficulties in adopting a story meant to be played interactively into a linear movie-going experience. Some, such as ''Super Mario Bros.'', were particularly negatively received and are considered among the worst films ever made. ''Super Mario Bros.'' was criticized for being too dark, violent and unfaithful (in plot) to the popular video game series.
Another likely reason for the failure of video game adaptations is that structural conversion from video game to film format can be challenging for filmmakers. Shigeru Miyamoto, creator of Nintendo franchises including ''
Mario
is a character created by Japanese video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto. He is the title character of the ''Mario'' franchise and the mascot of Japanese video game company Nintendo. Mario has appeared in over 200 video games since his cre ...
'' and '' Zelda'', said in a 2007 interview:
In an interview with '' Fortune'' in August 2015, Miyamoto said, "Because games and movies seem like similar mediums, people’s natural expectation is we want to take our games and turn them into movies. … I’ve always felt video games, being an interactive medium, and movies, being a passive medium, mean the two are quite different."
Until 2019, no video game film - live-action or animated - had received a
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
"fresh" rating, with a score over 60%. Three films since, '' Detective Pikachu'', ''
The Angry Birds Movie 2
''The Angry Birds Movie 2'' is a 2019 computer-animated action comedy film based on Rovio Entertainment's '' Angry Birds'' video game series, produced by Columbia Pictures, Sony Pictures Animation, and Rovio Animation, and distributed by Sony Pi ...
'', and '' Sonic the Hedgehog'' have been able to break into the "fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Both ''Detective Pikachu'' and ''Sonic the Hedgehog'' have posted better-than-expected domestic takes, with ''Sonic'' having the highest domestic opening through 2020. ''Sonic'' success led to its sequel ''
Sonic the Hedgehog 2
is a 1992 platform game developed by Sega Technical Institute (STI) for the Sega Genesis. It follows Sonic as he attempts to stop Doctor Eggman from stealing the Chaos Emeralds to power his space stationnamed The Death Egg. Like the first ''S ...
'' releasing in April 2022 and beating the first film's domestic opening, and also receiving a slightly higher score on Rotten Tomatoes.
Though video game films are critically panned, they tend to do well from the international take at box offices. ''
Warcraft
''Warcraft'' is a franchise of video games, novels, and other media created by Blizzard Entertainment. The series is made up of five core games: '' Warcraft: Orcs & Humans'', '' Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness'', '' Warcraft III: Reign of Chao ...
'', based on the ''
World of Warcraft
''World of Warcraft'' (''WoW'') is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) released in 2004 by Blizzard Entertainment. Set in the ''Warcraft'' fantasy universe, ''World of Warcraft'' takes place within the world of Azeroth ...
'' game, holds the highest take of any video game adaptation with , while the six ''
Resident Evil
''Resident Evil'', known in Japan as is a Japanese horror game series and media franchise created by Capcom. It consists of survival horror, third-person shooter and first-person shooter games, with players typically surviving in environments ...
'' films hold the highest take for a series of on an average production budget between . Other financially successful video game films include: '' Mortal Kombat'', ''
Ratchet and Clank
''Ratchet & Clank'' is a series of action platformer and third-person shooter video games. The franchise was created and developed by Insomniac Games and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment for PlayStation consoles, such as PlayStation ...
Silent Hill
is a horror anthology media franchise centered on a series of survival horror games created by Keiichiro Toyama and published by Konami. The first four video games in the series, '' Silent Hill'', ''Silent Hill 2'', ''Silent Hill 3'' and '' ...
Uwe Boll
Uwe Boll (; born June 22, 1965) is a German filmmaker. He came to prominence during the 2000s for his adaptations of video game franchises which often starred international stars like Jason Statham, Burt Reynolds, Ray Liotta, Christian Slater, ...
BloodRayne
''BloodRayne'' is a media franchise that originated with an action-adventure video game series originally developed by Terminal Reality and published by Majesco Entertainment which began with the game of the same name in 2002.
The franchise ...
Far Cry
''Far Cry'' is an anthology franchise of first-person shooter games, all of which have been published by Ubisoft. The first game, '' Far Cry'', was developed by Crytek to premiere their CryEngine software, and released in March 2004. Subsequen ...
'', all of which were almost universally panned by critics. In 2016, he retired from filmmaking, citing market failures and funding difficulties. Similarly,
Paul W. S. Anderson
Paul William Scott Anderson (born 4 March 1965) is an English filmmaker who regularly works in science fiction films and video game adaptations.
Anderson made his feature film debut with the British independent film '' Shopping'' (1994), a ...
has gained a reputation for his panned video game adaptations, particularly the first Mortal Kombat (despite positive reviews), the ''Resident Evil'' series and most recently ''
Monster Hunter
is a Japanese media franchise centered on a series of fantasy-themed action role-playing video games that started with the game '' Monster Hunter'' for the PlayStation 2, released in 2004. Titles have been released across a variety of platforms ...
''.
Adaptations from other sources
While documentary films have often been made from journalism and reportage, so too have some dramatic films, including: ''All the President's Men'' (1976, adapted from the 1974 book); ''Miracle,'' (2004, from an account published shortly after the 1980 "miracle on ice"); and ''Pushing Tin'' (1999, from a 1996 ''New York Times'' article by Darcy Frey). ''An Inconvenient Truth'' is
Al Gore
Albert Arnold Gore Jr. (born March 31, 1948) is an American politician, businessman, and environmentalist who served as the 45th vice president of the United States from 1993 to 2001 under President Bill Clinton. Gore was the Democratic no ...
's film adaptation of his own Keynote multimedia presentation. The 2011 independent comedy film, ''Benjamin Sniddlegrass and the Cauldron of Penguins'' was based on ''Kermode and Mayo's Film Review'' of ''Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief''.
Films adapted from songs include ''Coward of the County'', ''Ode to Billy Joe'', ''Convoy'', and ''Pretty Baby'' (each from a song of the same name).
Films based on toys include the Transformers franchise and the G.I. Joe films; there is a longer history of animated television series being created simultaneous to toy lines as a marketing tool. Hasbro's plans to for films based on their board games began with 2012's ''Battleship''. While amusement park rides have often been based on action movies, conversely the 1967 Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyland was adapted into ''Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl'' in 2003.
Remakes and film sequels are technically adaptations of the original film. Less direct derivations include ''The Magnificent Seven'' from ''The Seven Samurai'', ''Star Wars'' from ''The Hidden Fortress'', and ''Twelve Monkeys'' from ''La Jetée''.
Many films have been made from mythology and religious texts. Both Greek mythology and the Bible have been adapted frequently. Homer's works have been adapted multiple times in several nations. In these cases, the audience already knows the story well, and so the adaptation will de-emphasize elements of suspense and concentrate instead on detail and phrasing.
Awards
Many major film award programs present an award for adapted screenplays, separate from the award for original screenplays.
In the case of a film which was adapted from an unpublished work, however, different awards have different rules around which category the screenplay qualifies for. In 1983, the Canadian
Genie Awards
The Genie Awards were given out annually by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television to recognize the best of Canadian cinema from 1980–2012. They succeeded the Canadian Film Awards (1949–1978; also known as the "Etrog Awards," for scul ...
rescinded the Best Adapted Screenplay award they had presented to the film ''
Melanie
Melanie is a feminine given name derived from the Greek μελανία (melania), "blackness" and that from μέλας (melas), meaning "dark". and in 2017, the film '' Moonlight'', which was adapted from an unpublished theatrical play, was classified and nominated as an adapted screenplay by some awards but as an original screenplay by others."Oscars: Moonlight ineligible for Best Original Screenplay" ''
Entertainment Weekly
''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cu ...
'', December 15, 2016.
Adaptation of films
When a film's screenplay is original, it can also be the source of derivative works such as novels and plays. For example, movie studios will commission novelizations of their popular titles or sell the rights to their titles to publishing houses. These novelized films will frequently be written on assignment and sometimes written by authors who have only an early script as their source. Consequently, novelizations are quite often changed from the films as they appear in theatres.
Novelization can build up characters and incidents for commercial reasons (e.g. to market a card or computer game, to promote the publisher's "saga" of novels, or to create continuity between films in a series)
There have been instances of novelists who have worked from their own screenplays to create novels at nearly the same time as a film. Both Arthur C. Clarke, with '' 2001: A Space Odyssey'', and
Graham Greene
Henry Graham Greene (2 October 1904 – 3 April 1991) was an English writer and journalist regarded by many as one of the leading English novelists of the 20th century. Combining literary acclaim with widespread popularity, Greene acquir ...
, with ''
The Third Man
''The Third Man'' is a 1949 British film noir directed by Carol Reed, written by Graham Greene and starring Joseph Cotten, Alida Valli, Orson Welles, and Trevor Howard. Set in postwar Vienna, the film centres on American Holly Martins (Cotten ...
'', have worked from their own film ideas to a novel form (although the novel version of ''The Third Man'' was written more to aid in the development of the screenplay than for the purposes of being released as a novel). Both
John Sayles
John Thomas Sayles (born September 28, 1950) is an American independent film director, screenwriter, editor, actor, and novelist. He has twice been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, for ''Passion Fish'' (1992) and '' ...
and Ingmar Bergman write their film ideas as novels before they begin producing them as films, although neither director has allowed these prose treatments to be published.
Finally, films have inspired and been adapted into plays.
John Waters
John Samuel Waters Jr. (born April 22, 1946) is an American filmmaker, writer, actor, and artist. He rose to fame in the early 1970s for his transgressive cult films, including '' Multiple Maniacs'' (1970), '' Pink Flamingos'' (1972) and '' Fe ...
's films have been successfully mounted as plays; both ''
Hairspray
Hairspray may refer to:
* Hair spray, a personal grooming product that keeps hair protected from humidity and wind
* ''Hairspray'' (1988 film), a film by John Waters
** ''Hairspray'' (1988 soundtrack), the film's soundtrack album
** ''Hairspray ...
'' and ''
Cry-Baby
''Cry-Baby'' is a 1990 American teen musical romantic comedy film written and directed by John Waters. It was the only film of Waters's over which studios were in a bidding war, coming off the heels of the successful '' Hairspray''. The film s ...
'' have been adapted, and other films have spurred subsequent theatrical adaptations. ''
Spamalot
''Spamalot'' (also known as ''Monty Python's Spamalot'') is a musical comedy with music by John Du Prez and Eric Idle, and lyrics and book by Idle. It is adapted from the 1975 film ''Monty Python and the Holy Grail''.
Like the motion pictu ...
'' is a Broadway play based on Monty Python films. In a rare case of a film being adapted from a stage musical adaptation of a film, in 2005, the film adaptation of the stage musical based on
Mel Brooks
Mel Brooks (born Melvin James Kaminsky; June 28, 1926) is an American actor, comedian and filmmaker. With a career spanning over seven decades, he is known as a writer and director of a variety of successful broad farces and parodies. He began ...
' classic comedy film '' The Producers'' was released.
Literary adaptation
Literary adaptation is the adapting of a literary source (e.g. a novel, short story, poem) to another genre or medium, such as a film, stage play, or video game.
It can also involve adapting the same literary work in the same genre or medium ju ...
*
Adaptation (arts)
An adaptation is a transfer of a work of art from one style, culture or medium to another.
Some common examples are:
* Film adaptation, a story from another work, adapted into a film (it may be a novel, non-fiction like journalism, autobiography ...
*
AACTA Award for Best Adapted Screenplay
The AACTA Awards, AACTA Award for Best Adapted Screenplay is an award presented by the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA), for an Australian screenplay "based on material previously released or published". Prior to the establ ...
*
Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay
The Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay is the Academy Award for the best screenplay Film adaptation, adapted from previously established material. The most frequently adapted media are novels, but other adapted narrative formats include st ...
*
BAFTA Award for Best Adapted Screenplay
The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) Award for Best Adapted Screenplay has been presented to its winners since 1968, when the original category (BAFTA Award for Best Screenplay) was split into two awards, the other being the BA ...
*
César Award for Best Adaptation
The César Award for Best Adaptation (french: César de la meilleure adaptation) is an award presented by the Académie des Arts et Techniques du Cinéma. It was initially awarded from 1983 to 1985, and then awarded again in 2006, when the origin ...
*
Golden Horse Award for Best Adapted Screenplay
The Golden Horse Award for Best Adapted Screenplay () is given at the Golden Horse Film Awards.
Winners and nominees
2000s
2010s
2020s
References
External links
*
*
{{Golden Horse Film Awards
Golden Horse Film Awards ...
*
Goya Award for Best Adapted Screenplay
The Goya Award for Best Adapted Screenplay (Spanish ''Premio Goya al mejor guión adaptado'') is one of the Goya Awards, Spain's principal national film awards.
For the first two editions of the Goya Awards, only one award for screenplays was pre ...
Writers Guild of America Award for Best Adapted Screenplay
The Writers Guild of America Award for Best Adapted Screenplay is one of the three screenwriting Writers Guild of America Awards, focused specifically for film. The Writers Guild of America began making the distinction between an original screenpl ...
References
Further reading
* Eisenstein, Sergei. "Dickens, Griffith, and the Film Today." ''Film Form'' Dennis Dobson, trans. 1951.
* Literature/Film Quarterly, journal published by Salisbury University
Journal of Adaptation in Film and Performance published by Intellect
Adaptation journal published by Oxford University Press
* Movie Adaptation Database, UC Berkeley Media Resources Center
* The history of Erich von Stroheim's ''Greed'', from welcometosilentmovies.com
* The Art of Adaptation from hollywoodlitsales.com
* Hutcheon, Linda, with Siobhan O’Flynn. ''A Theory of Adaptation.'' 2nd ed. London: Routledge, 2013.
* Leitch, Thomas (ed.) ''Oxford Handbook of Adaptation Studies.'' Oxford: OUP, 2017.
* Murray, Simone. ''The Adaptation Industry: The Cultural Economy of Contemporary Adaptation.'' New York: Routledge, 2012.
* Sanders, Julie. ''Adaptation and Appropriation.'' London: Routledge, 2006.
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Film and video terminologyFilmsScreenwritingAdaptation (arts)