ī[dropcap]B[/dropcap]ook to film and book to TV adaptions have their highs and lows, with some of the best films and TV shows being produced based on a book, alongside those that simply flop.
There are a lot of great, successful films that have come from a book like The Godfather, The Help, The Hunger Games, The Fault in our Stars, Harry Potter and many more. These films all come from a long list that has been able to adapt to the big screen and bring the narrative of the book to life.
There are many challenges with this as with a film you have to keep the audience entertained and gripped for that hour and a half to two hours. Many people in the audience would also have read the book beforehand and are hoping for it to be just as good as the book.
This forms one of the cons of book to film adaptions as with film there is a lot to be shown and proved in such a short space of time and there can be many comments such as “it didn’t live up to the book’s standards” or “the book was better”.
For many there is the excitement of their favourite book being made into a film and getting to see the characters come to life. This can sometimes be an issue as the casting has to reflect what the book describes the characters as and getting the right people to play them is difficult.
Also many things have to be chopped and changed to make the movie more of a spectacle to see and this doesn’t always work in their favour. Some films do the complete opposite of what is in the book and this throws the audience off altogether.
Many films have fallen due to the director not being able to display the story as good as the book. Examples of these are Paper Towns, Beautiful Creatures, and The Mortal Instruments etc. Some of these were meant to go on to be a trilogy but did not do well enough with their audiences and ultimately flopped.
A lot of the TV shows that are on today have come from a book. There is Game of Thrones, 13 Reasons Why, Orange is the New Black, The Handmaid’s Tale, Big Little Lies and many more. All of these shows have been able to catch people’s eyes and become very popular.
They have been able to convey the story in such a way that it connects with people and they are unable to stop watching it.
These TV shows have all been renewed for new seasons and have gone on to win awards and have become binge-worthy shows.
Not all shows are as lucky with their viewers. Trying to adapt the story to the screen doesn’t always work well as trying to stretch a story out to a full season can sometimes fall apart as the audience gets bored.
Book to film and also book to TV adaptions have many of the same problems involving the story and casting and trying to make it as good as the book.
With all of the good and bad mentioned on both of these it shows that book to TV has more of a chance of doing better adaptions.
There have been many good films made but also many that didn’t live up to much. There are TV shows that have gone on and will continue to have more and more seasons that all started with a book and this keeps the audience hooked.
Caitlin Laird
Image Credit: theindependent.co.uk