From Page to Big Screen: the books we love become the movies we adore
More stories from Trinell Jones
The Hunger Games is one of the most popular book-to-movie adaptions of the 21st century.
Novels seem to have taken Hollywood by the storm recently. With the ongoing success of Suzanne Collins Hunger Games trilogy and the sequel to James Dashner’s Maze Runners novel the Scorch Trials coming out this Friday we decided to go to the public to see what makes novel to movie adoptions so popular.
This trend is quite prevalent in the Carlisle area.
Carlisle resident William James said, “ It’s always interesting to see directors take on the challenge of bringing these great works of literature to the big screen.”
“ It depends on how well the movie is,” said Carlisle student Evan Wallace.
Novel to movie adaptions are also known for the talented actors they have star in the roles. With Jennifer Lawrence playing the role of Katnissn Everdeen, the protagonist of Hunger Games and actor Dylan O’Brian currently playing the role of Thomas in the Maze Runner Franchise.
While the directors of Novel adapted films are usually capable of taking on the task of making the movie it is not unheard of the authors of the books themselves to work with the directors to help them bring their vision of the story to the big screen.
“The best film adoptions retain the spirit and themes of the books, but turns them into something uniquely cinematic” according to GamesRadar.com.
Most movies these days are not originally based and usually based on or burrow elements from a particular story. However it is the movie’s ability to stay unique and put its own fine touch on the story that has people coming to see it.
“The major difference between books and film is that visual images stimulate our perceptions directly while written words can do this indirectly” according to screenwriter Michael Hastings, as quoted by PBS.org.
While movies are known to be particularly faithful to the books most of the time not every scene from the book makes it into the film for a majority of reasons whether it be time constraints, low budget, or just to difficult to bring the scene to life visually.
While book to movie adaptations are very popular with the majority of the populace not everyone is a fan of them. According to Marta Bausells of The Guardian, “movies can be reminders of great Literature but can also ruin it.”
Many have criticized that movies haven been known to change the story completely to the point it only resembles the book in name and nothing else. This has been shown in films such as the movie Eragon which many fans of the novel noted that the movie eliminated many core essential characters fundamental to the story.
Still the trend of adapting well known works of literature to the big screen continues to dominate Hollywood and will seem to continue like that for the foreseeable future.
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Trinell is a writer of the Periscope staff. This is his first year on the Periscope staff and his first year a Carlisle High School. He is a comic book...
EmmaRose Atwood • Oct 19, 2015 at 7:42 pm
I also tend to see the movie adaptations of the books I read like “The Hunger Games” or “The Divergent Trilogy” and “Harry Potter”. I like to see what other people’s views of the places and people are and see if they match mine. I also like to see the actors and actresses and their portrayal of the characters I’ve fallen in love with. The best book to movie adaptation, in my opinion, is “Harry Potter” and “The Lord of The Rings Trilogy”. Granted, the “Lord of the Rings” movies were about three hours long each, but they had most of the detail and plot from the book as well as “Harry Potter”. Some things were left out, but there’s only so much time that an audience will sit and pay attention to the screen.