Don’t judge a book by its movie cover #1

 

The film was based on the best-selling book, and now the book is sold with images of the adaptation emblazoned on its the cover. It’s an endless cycle of one capitalizing on the success of the other.

Here are some examples of original book covers, and the replacement movie poster versions. What are your views? Does the movie poster demonstrate what the book is all about? Does the new art do the original story justice? 

Can adaptations ever be seen as a unique art form?

In October I wrote a review of the TV miniseries of The Thorn Birds. In response to my post, Lori from What Remains Now made a very interesting comment:

“I did enjoy the mini-series, but only because I viewed it as separate from the book. In fact, that's the way I typically enjoy any film adaptation...if I can separate the book and the film into "related" but not the "same" works of art.”

Lori makes a very good point. So often we over-analyze every detail of film adaptations and criticize the filmmakers for each oversight or omission, when perhaps we should allow the film to stand on its own.

Having said this, studios are very quick to capitalize on the popularity of bestselling books. Through their marketing strategies, we are given the impression that that the film will be true to the original. We are told that by watching the film we can relive our experience of reading the book, when in reality there is no guarantee that we will get this experience at all.

Filmmakers shouldn’t be able to have it both ways. They should not have the luxury of the additional revenue that comes with recreating a story that already has an established fan base, whilst at the same time imploring us to treat their creations as independent works of art.

On the other hand, publishers play the same game. I always find it a little disconcerting when a new edition of an old favourite is released with a movie poster emblazoned on the front cover. Even if the characters and plots of the film are completely different, publishers jump onto the Hollywood bandwagon and badge the original with images of the new.

Standing in my local Dymocks, I am drawn to the ‘Booklovers’ 101 Best Books’ section. A majority of the books have movie posters as their covers. I often wonder which came first. Did the film studios fight over the rights to a best-selling book, or did the book sales only reach their height after the release of the film adaptation?

I’ll do some investigating and will get back to you.

The many faces of: Keira Knightley

We know that Hollywood studios love film adaptations – but so do Hollywood’s biggest stars.

Keira Knightley is one actress whose face has brought some of the world’s most famous literary characters to life. Here are some promo shots that show Keira’s penchant for film adaptations - in particular those that involve period costumes.

Elizabeth Bennet in Pride and Prejudice

Cecilia Tallis in Atonement

Helene Joncour in Silk

Georgiana Cavendish in The Duchess

Charlotte in London Boulevard

Ruth in Never Let Me Go

Sabina Spielrein in A Dangerous Method

And… of course we don’t have a picture yet, but don’t forget that Keira will also soon star in the title role of Anna Karenina.

Nicholas Sparks, the king of film adaptations

Nicholas Sparks was at my local Dymocks today, signing copies of his new book The Best of Me.

“…the heart-rending story of two small-town former high school sweethearts from opposite sides of the tracks. Now middle-aged, they’ve taken wildly divergent paths, but neither has lived the life they imagined . . . and neither can forget the passionate first love that forever altered their world.”

I was walking by on the upper level of the shopping complex when I noticed a usually large gaggle of schoolgirls below. The line of uniforms stretched past the ‘Build-A-Bear’ workshop and all the way down to the escalator in front of ‘Lush’.

According to his website, Nicholas Sparks is the author of 17 novels – 7 of which are now major motion pictures, starring some of Hollywood’s biggest stars:

·      Message in a Bottle (1999), starring Kevin Costner and Robin Wright Penn

·      A Walk to Remember (2002), starring Mandy Moore and Shane West

·      The Notebook (2004), starring Rachel McAdams and Ryan Gosling

·      Nights in Rodanthe (2008), starring Richard Gere and Diane Lane

·      Dear John (2010), starring Channing Tatum and Amanda Seyfreid

·      The Last Song (2010), starring Miley Cyrus and Liam Hemsworth

And, the latest cab off the rank…

·     The Lucky One (2012), starring Zac Efron and Taylor Schilling

Film studios have also optioned three more novels – True Believer, At First Sight and Safe Haven – although production has not begun on any of these projects. Sparks obviously has a knack for dreaming-up Hollywood-style content.

Sparks is also, very obviously, a prolific author. The Notebook was first published in 1996 and his other 16 novels have all been churned out in the years since. (17 published novels in fifteen years isn’t bad at all – and that’s not even counting the novels that he hasn’t finished.)

On his website, Sparks links to a Newsweek article entitled ‘My Favourite Mistake’, in which he recounts the process of struggling to write a novel that was never meant to be.

“It’s a strange thing, because most novels take me five months to write. If I’m four months in and only two thirds of the way through, there’s a problem."

At five months a pop, you can hardly expect his books to be literary marvels. Each of his books has come straight from the production line of the hopelessly in love – the unrequited, tragic romantics. Girl meets boy, boy is cute yet slightly troubled, they fall in love; insert seemingly insurmountable obstacles, etc etc.

But, like it or not, Sparks has found a winning formula and he’s sticking to it – teenage girls don’t just line up for anyone, after all – and with Hollywood so ready to jump on the bandwagon, who can blame him?