Adaptation film

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, Robert Stam conceptualizes film adaptation as a dialogic process.

A common form of film adaptation is the use of a novel as the basis of a film feature. Other works of art include non-fiction (including journalism), autobiography, comic books, scriptures, plays, historical sources, and even other films. From the earliest days of cinema, in nineteenth-century Europe, adaptation from such diverse resources has been a ubiquitous practice of filmmaking.

Elision and interpolation

In 1924, Erich von Stroheim attempted a literal adaptation of Frank Norris’ novel McTeague with his moving picture Greed , and the resulting film was 9½ hours long. It was cut, at studio insistence, to four hours, then without Stroheim’s input, cut back to two hours. The end result was a film that was largely incoherent. Since that time, a few directors have tried everything in a movie. Therefore, elision is all but essential.

However, 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 to be inserted into a single film. Additionally, and 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 to invent new characters. For example, William J. Kennedy’s Pulitzer Prize -winning novel IronweedHelen, a prostitute named. Because the film has been filmed for Meryl Streep for the role, Helen has become a part of the film. However, characters are also sometimes invented to provide narrative voice.

As Sergei Eisenstein pointed out in his landmark essay on Charles Dickens, the film is most easily adapted to a novel that has internal gold monologue, worse, stream of consciousness. When the source of the film has been published, it may be a film or film, or a film that may be a film or another film. Thus, in the adaptation of John Fowles’s The French Lieutenant’s Woman, the director created a contemporary Englishman in a novelty and a woman to the ironic and scholarly voice that Fowles provided in the novel, and the film version of Laurence Sterne’s “unfilmable” novel, Tristram Shandyhad the hand actor speak in his own voice, as an actor, to emulate the narrator’s ironic and metafictional voice in the novel. Early on, filmmakers would be able to rely on voice over, but some movies (eg Blade Runner ) may be self-consciously invoke the older era of film use. less with time.

Interpretation as adaptation

There have been several nominees for non-ultra- inventive adaptation, including the Roland Joffe adaptation of the Scarlet Letter with Hester Prynn and the Minister of Native American obscene puns into a major character and the movie’s villain. The Charlie Kaufman and “Donald Kaufman” penned Adaptation. , Credited as an adaptation of the novel The Orchid Thief , Was an intentional satire and commentary on the process of Itself movie adaptation. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s point. The creators of the Gulliver’s Travels miniseriesGulliver himself is one of the conclusions of Book IV. In these cases, adaptation is a form of criticism and recreation, as well as translation.

Change is essential and practically unavoidable, but it 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, while a film is a film, and the two works of art must be seen as separate entities. Since a film is impossible, even holding up a goal of “accuracy” is absurd. Others argue that what is a film adaptation is to change (literally, adapt), and the film must be accurate to the effect of a novel or the theme of the novel or the filmmaker In this case, it is necessary to introduce the requirements of one of these axes.

In most cases of adaptation, the films are required to create identities (for example, a characters’ suit or set decor) since they are not specified in the original material. In these cases, the influence of film-makers may be unrecognized because there is no comparison in the original material, and even though the new visual identity will affect narrative interpretation. Peter Jackson ‘s adaptations of The Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Hobbit by author JRR Tolkien. For the Harry Potter movie series , author JK RowlingWas étroitement Consulted by the movie-makers and she Provided production designer Stuart Craig with a map of Hogwarts ‘ grounds, and aussi Prevented director Alfonso Cuarón from Adding a graveyard szene 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 may be implied or specified by an event, but in the process of adaptation, the film-makers will have to determine specific sound characteristics which subliminally affects narrative interpretation. In some cases of adaptation, music may have been specified in the original material (usually diegetic music). In Stephenie Meyer’s 2005 Twilight novel, the characters Edward Cullen and Bella Swan both listen to Debussy’s Moonlight and Edward composes the piece Bella’s Lullaby for the character Bella Swan. While Moonlight was a pre-existing piece of music, Bella’s Lullaby was the original music for the 2008 movie adaptation . In the 2016 sci-fi movie 2BR02B: To Be or Nurtured by Kurt Vonnegut , the film-makers decided to give up Vonnegut’s choice of music, stating that they only worked in his prose actually heard. In the filmmakers ‘test screenings, they found that Vonnegut’ s style of music was confused and detracted from narrative comprehension. The film’s composer Leon Coward”You can not be as good as you can, but at the end of the day you’re working with the material that you’ve got a team generated, not just Vonnegut’s, and that’s what you’ve got to make work. ” [1] [2]

Theatrical adaptation

Movies sometimes use plays as their sources. William Shakespeare has been called the most popular screenwriter in Hollywood. citation needed ] There are many versions of many of the plays of the most of Shakespeare’s works. Numerous spinoffs adapt Shakespeare’s plays very loosely, such as West Side Story , Kiss Me, Kate , The Lion King , O , and 10 Things I Hate about You . Akira Kurosawa ‘s two epic films Throne of Blood (1957) and Ran(1985), and Eric Rohmer’ s Conte d’hiver (A Tale of Winter, 1992).

Similarly, hit Broadway plays are aptly adapted, whether from musicals or dramas. One-on-one adaptation, one-to-one adaptation, one-to-one adaptation, one-to-one, and one-to-one. 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 was a film that was adapted to a Broadway musical and then adapted to a film.

Television adaptation

Feature films are occasionally created from television series or television segments. In these cases, the film will be expanded in the format of the program. In the adaptation of the X-Files to film, for example, greater effects and a longer plotline were involved. Additionally, adaptations of television shows will be offered to view the possibility of television broadcasting. These additions (nudity, profanity, explicit drug use, and explicit violence) are only Rarely has featured Adaptive addition (movie versions of “procedurals” such as Miami Vice are MOST inclined to Such additions have 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 movies for television that they can adapt for time for theatrical release. Both Ingmar Bergman (notably with Fanny and Alexander but with other films as well) and Lars von Trier 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 Variety Show Saturday Night The beginning of a movie, beginning with The Blues Brothers, which began as a performance by Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi. Mr. Bean was adapted into Bean and the sequel, Mr. Bean’s Holiday .

Radio adaptation

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Narrative radio also provided the basis of film adaptation. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, for example, began as a radio series for the BBC and became a film. In the heyday of radio, radio segments, like television segments today, usually as shorts. Dialog-heavy stories and fantasy from radio also adapted to film (eg Fibber McGee and Molly and The Life of Riley ).

Comic book adaptation

See also: List of movies based on comics

Comic book characters, particularly superheroes , have long been adapted to film, beginning in the 1940s with Saturday movie. 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 (2000) and Spider-Man (2002) have led to dozens of superhero films. The success of These movies HAS aussi led to other comic books about superheroes not Necessarily being white adapté for the big screen, Such As Ghost World (2001), From Hell (2001), American Splendor (2003), Sin City(2005), 300 (2007), Wanted (2008), and Whiteout (2009).

The adaptation process for comics is different from that of novels. Many successful comic book series for several times. Films based on this type of storytelling. 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, such as Road to Perdition (2002) or V for Vendetta (2006). In particular, Robert Rodriguez did not use a screenplay for Sin City but uses actual panels from writer / artist Frank Miller’s series as storyboards to create what Rodriguez looks a “translation” rather than an adaptation.

Furthermore, some movies based on long-running franchises The second X-Men movie was loosely based on the novel X-Men: God Loves, Man Kills and the third movie on the storyline ” The Dark Phoenix Saga “. Spider-Man 2was based on the storyline ” Spider-Man No More! ” Likewise, Batman Begins owes many of its elements to Miller’s ” Batman: Year One ” and the film’s sequel, The Dark Knight , uses subplots from Batman: The Long Halloween .

The Marvel Cinematic Universe starting in 2008 is a shared universe with film-combining characters from different works by Marvel Comics . The DC Extended Universe starting in 2013 uses the same model for DC Comics .

Video game adaptation

See also: List of movies based on video games

These games were also adapted to the movies, beginning in the early 1980s, the films were more closely related to the computer and video game industries had previously been made, such as Tron and The Wizard , but only after the release of several films based on known brands has this genus become recognized in its own right.

Similar to comic book-based films in the past (especially from 1980’s), films based on video games. A number of films have been successful at the box office (such as Mortal Kombat , Lara Croft: Tomb Raider , Silent Hill , Resident Evil , and Prince of Persia ), but all critical of the film are mixed.

Some, such as Super Mario Bros. , were particularly negatively received and considered among the worst films ever made. The above mentioned was criticized for being too dark, violent and unfaithful (in plot) to the popular video game series. Many anime Original Video Animations (OVAs) Dead Space: Downfall , Halo Legends , Dante ‘s Inferno: An Animated Epic , and numerous films based on the video game series Pokémon .

The main cause of failure among video game adaptations is often cited as a genre of tendency for its films to drastically differ from source material, as producers, writers, and directors take many artistic liberties with the original games. Some notable examples include Doom , qui traded in religious Elements of the video games for scientific stud Elements Openly and parodied the game’s first-person shooter gameplay. Silent Hill radically altered the backstory of the game, replacing the game’s demonic cult with a pseudo-Christian witch-burning cult. While still a comedic feature, the setting of the film adaptation of Super Mario Bros.was Blessed Runner or Total Recall . The film also made several major alterations to the storyline of the game series, including the exclusion of regular series Princess “Peach” Toadstool, turning the villain Bowser into a human character King Koopa (despite the character being a large, tortoise- like creature in the games), and making the titular brothers into father / son figures, explaining that Mario raised a lot younger Luigi, unlike the game series.

Among the most well-known video-game filmmakers is Uwe Boll, a German writer, director, and producer who has become notorious among video-game fans and critics alike for making video games adaptations such as House of the Dead , Alone in the Dark , BloodRayne , In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale , Postal , and Far Cry , all of which were almost universally panned by audiences and film critics for their deviation from the source material and simply bad quality. Boll is often compared to cult filmmaker Ed Wood , who created such films as Plan 9 from Outer Space and Glen or Glenda .

Another possible reason for the failure of video game adaptations is that structural conversion from video game to film format can be challenging for filmmakers. As Nintendo video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto Said in a 2007 interview:

“I think that part of the problem is that the structure of what makes a good game is very different from the structure of what makes a good movie. Movies are a much more passive medium, where the movie itself is telling a story and you, are the viewer, are relaxing and taking that in passively. Video games are a much more active medium where you are playing along with the story. In some cases, you are progressing the story yourself, or perhaps you get to a point where it gets too difficult and maybe you give up. I think that people who like movies also have an interest in the creative work that goes into making a video game. So there is interactivity with the video game that you do not necessarily have with a movie. In that sense, I think the structures of the two are very different when you play video games. I think that video games, have a whole, have a very simple flow of what’s going on in the game. We make sure that we play video games to keep the player entertained. Movies have much more complex stories, or flow, to them, but the elements that affect them are limited in number. So I think that these are two different mediums, so much so that you will be able to go back to your problems. ” We make sure that we play video games to keep the player entertained. Movies have much more complex stories, or flow, to them, but the elements that affect them are limited in number. So I think that these are two different mediums, so much so that you will be able to go back to your problems. ” We make sure that we play video games to keep the player entertained. Movies have much more complex stories, or flow, to them, but the elements that affect them are limited in number. So I think that these are two different mediums vary so greatly, when you fail to take care of yourself. “

In an interview with Fortune in August 2015, Miyamoto has explained that Nintendo is planning to become an entertainment company rather than just the focus of game development, which includes potential partnerships with other studios than will be seen by Nintendo’s Software Planning & Development (SPD Division. As Miyamoto said:

“We’ve had a lot of things to do and we’ve made a movie and we’re going to make a movie same time? ‘ 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’m always feeling video games, being an interactive medium, and movies, being a passive medium, mean the two are quite different. ”

“As we look more broadly at what is Nintendo’s role in an entertainment company, we’re starting to think about more movies and movies.”

Adaptations from other sources

See also: Category: Films based on works .

While documentary films have often been made from journalism and reporting, 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’s film adaptation of his own Keynote multimedia presentation. The 2011 independent comedy movie, Benjamin Sniddlegrass and the Cauldron of Penguins was based on Kermode and Mayo’s Movie Review of Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief.

Movies adapted from songs include Coward of the County , Ode to Billy Joe , Convoy , and Pretty Baby (each from a song of the Sami name).

Movies based on toys include the Transformers franchise and the GI Joe movies; There is a long history of television series being created as a marketing tool. Hasbro’s plans for movies based on their board games started with 2012’s Battleship . Pirates of the Caribbean ride at 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 The Pier.

Many movies 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 the adaptation of de-emphasizing elements of suspense and concentrating instead on detail and phrasing. original research? ]


Many major film award programs for the screenplays.

In the case of a film which has been adapted from a published work, however, different awards have different rules. In 1983, the Canadian Genie Awards were awarded the Best Adapted Screenplay award when they had presented to the film Melanie when they learned that the original work had been unpublished; [3] and in 2017, the movie Moonlight , which was adapted from an unpublished theatrical play, was classified and screened by some of the original screenplay by others. [4]

Adaptation of movies

When a movie is screenplay is original, it can also be the source For example, movie studios will commission novelizations of their titles or sell their rights to their titles to publishing houses. These novelized films will be frequently written on the subject of an article by the author. Consequently, novelizations are quite often changed from the movies as they appear in theaters.

Novelization can build up characters and incidents for commercial reasons, to promote the publisher’s “saga” of novels, or to create continuity between movies 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, with The Third Man , Worked-have from Their Own movie ideas to a novel form (ALTHOUGH the novel release of The Third Man Was Written more to aid in the development of the screenplay for the purposes of being released as a novel). Both John Sayles and Ingmar Bergman write their film ideas as novels before they begin producing them.

Finally, movies have inspired and been adapted into plays. John Waters’s movies have been successfully mounted as plays; Both Hairspray and Cry-Baby have been adapted, and other films have subsequently adapted theatrical adaptations. Spamalot is a Broadway play based on Monty Python movies. 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 music based on Mel Brooks’ classic comedy film The Producers was released.

See also

  • Remake
  • Literary adaptation
  • Adaptation (arts)


  1. Jump up^ Black, Anna (2016). “ ” … for a father hear a child! “ Schubert’s Maria Ave and the movie 2BR02B”. The Schubertian . The Schubert Institute (UK). July (91): 16-19.
  2. Jump up^ Masson, Sophie (October 19, 2016). “2BR02B: the journey of a dystopian film-an interview with Leon Coward” . Feathers of the Firebird (Interview).
  3. Jump up^ “Melanie adaptation Genie returned”. Cinema Canada, No. 96 (May 1983). p. 12.
  4. Jump up^ “Oscars: Moonlight ineligible for Best Original Screenplay”. Entertainment Weekly , December 15, 2016.