It’s the clarion cry we all hear (or say) as we’re leaving the theater. “The book was better,” “Oh, well, in the comics this character…” and “What did that even have to do with the game?” It’s all summed up by the old adage: “The book is always better”.
Just a small budget adaptation of a little-known book
Of course, it’s not so simple as all that, otherwise we wouldn’t live in an age where almost all successful movies are adaptations of something. I pulled up this list of movies adapted from books (just books, not comics or anything else) coming out this year alone, and there were thirty-five of the damn things.
So why are adaptations so prevalent? Well, money, obviously, but there’s more to it than that. I would like to take a moment to delve into what makes an adaptation good, where they tend to fall flat, and why certain things work better than others. Not necessarily in that order.
writingwiththorn.com 