Books to movies is an age old debate which doesn’t look to be going anywhere soon and the number of screen adaptations seems to be on the rise. This is a debate which has evolved into so much more than just books or movies as the nature of the industries changes.
My simple answer is always BOOKS! but just recently I find myself thinking about the relationships between the two more than I ever had.
I am a voracious reader, actually to be completely honest I am a voracious reader at heart and only an avid reader in practice. Life has gotten the better of my reading habits and limits my opportunities.
Many people, I would like to say most but that’s probably a huge generalisation, get up and leave when the credits start or switch channels but I sit glued. I always have, I don’t know what the attraction is but I just need to check out all the information – even though half the time they scroll so quick you can’t absorb any of it. This is where I often spot the small print ‘based on the book…..’.
That sentence would always send me scrambling for pen and paper to take note so I could go searching for the book. Admittedly there are too many books and not enough hours so often I didn’t actually get to reading them but the intention was always there in that moment.
Never once though did I give any thought to the process of turning books into movies, short stories into TV series, books into TV series and all that goes along with that. Never once did I think of the author and how they felt.
Just recently I finally got around to watching Saving Mr Banks which is based on the true story of how Mary Poppins came to be made.
So it has left me wondering about the relationships between authors and the screen adaptations of their books.
Until the release of Saving Mr Banks I was not aware that Mary Poppins was based on a book – clearly the first times I watched this I was too young to be a major book lover. Now I know, I feel I need to chase down these books and add them to my collection.
What else were you surprised to find was based on a book? I have quite a few.
Do you feel the need to chase down the book if you love the movie? I have done that a few times too. It’s the way I was introduced to one of my favourite vampires.
Surprisingly this also sometimes works in reverse, and I’m not so sure about that genre. There are also novelisations of movies and books based on TV series. I have read a couple of novelisations and seen their movies and it’s just not the same.
I guess the big question is which do you think is most important to do first, given the choice. You see that there’s a movie coming that you like the sound of and it’s based on a book you haven’t read. Do you race out and get your hands on the book to make sure you’ve read it before you see the movie or do you wait until after you’ve seen the movie to read the book? Yes, I am assuming here that you are at least a little like me and would love to do both.
I devour books, vampires and supernatural creatures are my genre of choice but over the past couple of years, I have broadened my horizons considerably. In a nutshell – I love to write! I love interacting with a diverse range of artists to bring you interviews. Perhaps we were perfect before – I LOVE WORDS!