Pretty much every published novelist I’ve met gets asked, “Do you have a movie deal yet?” I like to daydream about a goblin movie (animated) or a princess film, but as many of you know, authors usually have exactly zero control over whether or not a movie deal happens.
But would you really want one? Hollywood doesn’t have the best track record when it comes to movie adaptations. Read Ursula K. LeGuin’s piece How the SciFi Channel Wrecked My Books. The Onion’s AV Club has a piece on 20 Good Books Made Into Bad Movies, and there are plenty more films that could be added to their list.
Even knowing there’s a decent chance of disaster, I’d have very little hesitation about signing a movie deal (assuming a good offer were put before me).
1. Movies Sell Books. No matter how brilliant or how awful the movie, the fact is, it would increase sales of my books. Maybe not a lot, if the movie truly sucked, but even a horrendous film would increase awareness of the books and lead to a bump in sales.
2. Movies Are Not Books. I’ve already told my stories. The movie is not, cannot be the same story. Similar, yes (at least most of the time … I’m looking at you, I, Robot!) But my books are my books. The movies won’t change that. The movies aren’t mine. They belong to the director, the scriptwriters, the producers, the actors … and yes, some part of that movie is mine, but the thing as a whole is not my story. Nor would I expect it to be.
3. I Like Money. Crass commercialism? Sure. I have two kids to put through college, a mortgage, etc. A really good movie deal might even put me in a position where I could consider going full time as a writer. So yes, I would be willing to take Hollywood’s money.
It’s point #2 that sticks with me. I don’t necessarily expect the movie to be completely true to the book, and sometimes straying from the book makes it a better movie. Ever compared Shrek to the book it came from?
Or take Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. This is one of the most fun and underappreciated films I’ve seen in ages. Whoever did the original advertising campaign should be fired. Into orbit. The commercials were awful, but I love this film. Mister T plays a cop whose chest hairs tingle to warn him of danger. Neil Patrick Harris plays a monkey named Steve whose battle against the Gummi Bears is one of the best fight scenes of all time. This film revels in its ridiculousness, and I love it.
It is quite different than the book. The cast and crew made this story their own, and it worked.
Sure, when they do this, there’s a chance they’ll fail. The risk of failure exists with every movie, every TV show. Would I be disappointed if they turned Goblin Quest into the next Smurfs? Definitely. Would I be pissed if The Stepsister Scheme movie whitewashed or straightened Talia’s character? I’d be furious.1
But that wouldn’t change my story. It wouldn’t affect the books I had written. And while there’s always risk, there’s also the chance my book could become the next Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, with Neil Patrick Harris playing the voice of Smudge.
—
- If I knew for a fact that they were going to do this to Talia’s character, I wouldn’t take that deal. ↩
Mirrored from Jim C. Hines.
My Books
(August 2013)
Page Summary
grav_ity : (no subject) [+1] - ericcoleman : (no subject) [+2]
- autopope : (no subject) [+1]
- temporus : (no subject) [+1]
- snapes_angel : (no subject) [+4]
- funwithrage : (no subject) [+4]
- beccastareyes : (no subject) [+2]
- papersky : (no subject) [+1]
- huit : (no subject) [+4]
- azarsuerte : (no subject) [+2]
- firynze : (no subject) [+2]
- evewithanapple : (no subject) [+4]
- smiko : (no subject) [+6]
- starcat_jewel : (no subject) [+1]
- galeni : (no subject) [+0]
- thelauderdale : (no subject) [+0]
Comments
That said ... my brother was at the premiere for Even Cowgirls Get The Blues. Tom Robbins spent the evening wandering around with a fixed grin on his face repeating over and over "we're very proud".
And I so agree with Cloudy ... it was marvelous. I need to add that to the collection. Everyone in the family liked it, kids and all.
Wow, they are completely the opposite of my opinion on Stardust. The movie has its weaknesses, but was quite enjoyable in general and at times brilliant. The book was, imo, weak tea.
Edited at 2011-09-08 01:54 pm (UTC)
I wonder if Hollywood needs to come up with a clearer distinction between "based on" and "inspired by" for these things...
I think at least the first goblin movie would be good. I wasn't really much for the sequel Potter films, all things considered, but I loved the first one. When I was a child, come first Thanksgiving and then Christmas, they would air "holiday" movies on WWOR-9, like Yellow Submarine(!) and Miracle of 34th Street. The first Harry Potter film would have fit rather nicely in with them.
I see the Princess series as fitting in with a more mature audience than the goblin ones, because of some of the themes/ If they really did unrecognizably alter Talia, I would be well and truly pissed, because then she would not actually be Talia, would she? And I'm just a reader.
I mean, I expect some things will change, but if you're going to change an important subplot, well... That was one of M Knight's things with Avatar. THe racebending was one thing, but making it sound like no Avatar ever got married, well, that changes the story completely, ignores plot points like Zuko being Avatar Roku's great-grandson and Aang's budding relationship with Katara, and...
At least, I could live with Rickman softening up Snape a bit, because that really did not detract from the story. Maybe they could soften up Talia a bit, but if they made her something she isn't....that would completely bite, because that ends up being an integral part of the overall plot, too.
I missed that when I caught it on Netflix (I already paid for the download), but it was so damn hard to watch that I probably missed a lot more than just that.
I grew up on Disney, and...I dunno. Ninety percent of the time, I can think of any adaptations or expansions as existing in an alternate universe from the original. Disney takes on fairy tales? Sure. Secret of NIMH suddenly has a magic plot amulet? Fine by me! Brian Lumley's series where Cthulhu has a good twin brother? Entertaining, particularly as I've always been more a Lovecraft Lite girl myself. I adapt pretty easily. Even I, Robot didn't bug.
The other ten percent of the time, it's the Dark Is Rising, or it's Two Towers, and both of those pissed me off. I have my theories as to why--taking an awesome character and injecting him full of emo and fail like some kind of horrific Bane-style steroid is big on the list for both--but couldn't definitively explain it.
If someone offered me a movie deal for Hickey of the Beast or No Proper Lady , I'd totally take it. There are a couple things I'd want to insist on as far as possible--no whitewashing Connie, no chickifying either Connie or Joan--but by and large...money is good, the books are still there, and if the movie came out crap-tastic, I'd get some friends and some drinks and have a good time.
(Though I agree with you on the whitewashing and straightwashing. That's just not called for.)
Smart-ass response aside, I think I get what you're saying, and I respect where you're coming from.
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs is definitely a great stand out film. I loved the book as a kid, but it's mostly visual nostalgia for me. Since they referenced the original drawings in the movie that just made it three times better.
On the topic of LotR, I think the soundtrack is the best thing to come out of the movie deals. It makes great reading music. :)
::Blinks:: I hadn't even considered the soundtrack aspect. Dang it, now I want to hear a soundtrack for Goblin Quest! (Assuming they didn't completely screw it up, of course.)
"The Seeker" on the other hand, I refused to watch because I love The Dark is Rising and the movie makers clearly just wanted to bank off it without really *getting* what the book was about. (Of course, the fact that it was WALDEN making the movie and the series is deeply rooted in Pagan Celtic mythology probably made that inevitable. *sigh* Walden was the right choice for the Narnia films, even did pretty darn well with Bridge to Terabithia, but whoever let them get their hands on TDIR deserves to be paintballed. With really disgusting colors.)
One thing I've always found interesting is the case of Agatha Christie. Maybe it was being a mystery writer and liking to surprise her audience that made her so philosophical about it, but she always made changes to her OWN work when she adapted it for another medium. Sometimes major ones, like adding and deleting characters or even changing whodunnit.
Edited at 2011-09-08 04:32 pm (UTC)
I've been disappointed by the Narnia movies, and I'm still not 100% sure why they haven't worked. I wonder if they're trying too hard to match certain parts of the books, though...
On the other hand, I look at THE SEEKER I mean The Dark Is Rising, The Golden Compass, and to a lesser extent the Narnia movies (which never felt as convincing to me as the books or even the old animated film,) and sigh.
I watched Golden Compass, very pretty, but beneath the CGI shellac, rather empty of good stuff. Then I bought the whole Pullman series, prepared for it to be a good read to have the fan base to make the glossy movie possible, and... bleh. That's a whole other rant. :-/
Then there was the tie-in video game. And the book he wrote about the new character the script added.
The original book is still marvelous.
That said, I do keep a little log of movies that are as good or better than the books they were adapted from. (Wholly subjective, of course...)