Photo by Gage Skidmore
Christina here. Authors are often asked if we’d like our books made into film or a TV series. (Anne discussed this in one of her posts here). Silly question – of course we would! We can spend hours imagining exactly which actor we’d like to play our heroes (Chris Hemsworth usually for me, in case you were wondering) or actresses for the leading lady role. But personally, I’d rather see some of my favourite books by other authors being turned into movies. There are so many that would make absolutely wonderful viewing!
It's rare though that when it happens, it is done right. And by right, I mean that the film actually turns out to be as amazing as the story it’s based on. I am always very reluctant to watch adaptations because I’m invariably disappointed. The producer and/or screen writer often leave out details I consider crucial, or they invent some new sub-plot – or even major plot point – that wasn’t in the book to begin with. I find that infuriating because it’s not what I want to see!
Some films can actually be better than the original book, at least in my opinion. Take Inkheart by Cornelia Funke for instance – although I liked reading this story, it had an unhappy ending which as you’ve probably gathered by now, is not my cup of tea. In fact, it makes me very upset. The film, however, was not only a great adaptation, but it had the added benefit of a HEA. A win/win situation!
Another one that was a triumph IMO was Emma Thompson’s version of Jane Austen’s Sense & Sensibility. It’s a lovely book obviously, but Ms Thompson really added something special to the screen play and emphasised the humour in a way I loved. The actors were brilliant as well and perfectly fit their roles. Before seeing that, I would have said that Pride & Prejudice was my favourite Austen book (and TV series – the one with Colin Firth, not because of the famous ‘shirt scene’, but because it was faithful to the original story), but now I’ve changed my mind. And on the subject of Austen, as I think we’ve complained about before on this blog, I was horrified by what the screen writers did to Sanditon. There is another series of it coming up, but I’m not sure I can bring myself to watch. The ending of series 1 made me feel extremely let down.
Some of the classics can be tricky to turn into a film or TV series that will hold the viewer’s attention. I would imagine Charles Dickens’ books are difficult, as many of them start with long convoluted introductions that can go on and on. One I found very good, however, was the 2005 BBC adaptation of Bleak House. I became so engrossed in the story that I went out and bought the book (which I hadn’t read previously) because I couldn’t wait for the following week to find out what was going to happen next. I needed to know instantly.
A classic that has appeared on screen in numerous guises is, of course, Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë. I love the book and it’s one of the few classics I’ve reread over the years, but some of the screen adaptations have been less successful. My favourite is the TV series starring Toby Stephens and Ruth Wilson. Mr Stephens really fit my idea of what Mr Rochester was like and because it was a series in several episodes, there was time to fully incorporate every nuance of the story.
I’ve recently watched the Bridgerton series on Netflix. (Yes, I know I’m very late to this, but I only recently got Netflix). I enjoyed it very much, but there were some new and/or deleted plot details that irritated me. That said, I am still looking forward to series 2 and I hope that Netflix will decide to adapt an awful lot more romance novels (both historical, contemporary and fantasy) for the small or large screen.
Late last autumn, I saw the new film adaptation of Frank Herbert’s Dune. As I mentioned previously, it was extremely well made and I liked it, apart from the fact that it was part one of two and the viewer is left hanging. The first time film makers tried to turn this book into a movie in 1984, however, they were less successful. (See here). That’s probably an understatement – the result was a disaster IMO. I remember sitting in the theatre thinking that if I hadn’t read the book first, I wouldn’t have had a clue what was going on. Never a good thing!
Sometimes watching a film adaptation will make you want to read the books if you haven’t already. For me, that happened when I went to see the first of the Lord of the Rings trilogy in the cinema. I was intrigued by J R R Tolkien’s story and didn’t want to have to wait two years for the next instalments. I then found that I enjoyed the others much more because I’d read the books by then. And by watching the film first, I didn’t have the usual disappointment of the characters not looking the way I’d imagined them because I had already seen them first and had them in my head. (That is usually a bugbear of mine – that the filmmakers don’t cast actors who suit the role or look the way I want them to. I have to admit that Jamie Fraser in Outlander is one such for me – yes, Sam Heughan is a good-looking man, but he is not how I’d imagined the hero described in the books).
There are so many more we could talk about, like the Brother Cadfael series by Ellis Peters, which was marvellously brought to life by the UK's ITV, but finally, I must mention the 2002 film version of Possession by A S Byatt. I don’t know what the author herself thought about it, but I loved it! Obviously, the novel was a lot more complicated and not as light-hearted, but somehow it still gelled for me. I think the director managed to include all the most important parts and to make a dual time narrative work on film is no mean feat! If anyone ever buys the rights to my timeslip novels, I hope they hire this director and screen writer as they did a fabulous job!
How about you – what are your favourite book to screen adaptations or alternatively, which ones do you want to throw rotten tomatoes at?
