The Art of Adaptation

[Rodney Petrie]

What is the consensus on this forum as to how the adapting of a particular source material into a screenplay, should or could be tackled?

I guess it depends on what form the source material has taken - novel, comic book, video game, theme park ride etc.

So depending on the form of the source material, how would you go about making a successful adaptation for a screenplay, or what do you think may possibly contribute to its success?

 

[Gonzo_Entertainment]

Don't be a slave to the page. Know the story inside and out, and what the story MEANS (at least to you) then tell that story. If the source material's dialogue or settings fit that, and work in a film, fine. if not, who cares, tell the story.

 

[Alcove Audio]

An adaptations success starts with the script, but as with most endeavors what looks good on paper...

"Contact" was a great adaptation, although it was quite different than the book (brilliant sound design too, but that's another topic). The LOTR trilogy was successful, but purists disliked some of the discrepancies. I personally didn't like the recent adaptation of "The Day The Earth Stood Still"; I though that it lost the spirit and the meaning of the original and was more of an excuse for excessive CGI. I could go on, but you get the point.

Gonzo has it right, the spirit must be maintained; that's what made the book/movie/game/whatever attractive in the first place. The problem is that we all find different things in the same material.

 

[Rodney Petrie]

I think to do Lord of the Rings justice as a 100% adaptation you needed to split each film into two parts, the same way each of the books are split into two parts. I'm one of those fans of the Lord of the Rings that is impressed with what Peter Jackson and his team managed to pull off considering the immense source material.

I think that one of the most challenging forms to adapt into a screenplay are video games. Since it is an interactive form that relies on the player causing events to occur based on their actions, when translating to film you can't have that same thing going on with the audience.

But I think you're right about the spirit of the source material being maintained because if you respect it then you can make something out of it that people will enjoy. Of course like anything you aren't going to please everyone and there are going to be people who would have done things differently.