Book to Film Adaptation: Discussion

This year there are so many book to film adaptations marked on my calendar. Beautiful Creatures and Warm Bodies have already had their release dates but others I am looking forward to are The Host, The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones and of course, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. Recently, there has been so much success for book adaptations, with Jennifer Lawrence's role in Silver Linings Playbook winning her an Oscar.



When I first hear about my favourite book being adapted, The Fault in Our Stars is in the process of   casting as I write this, I'm always excited. That is my thought, just to look forward to seeing my favourite book come alive but also, to have more people reading it. If there's one thing that is good about book adaptations is that more people pick up the book. The Hunger Games, Beautiful Creatures, The Twilight Saga and Divergent are all books that I have read because I've heard about the movie. Without them, it's unlikely I would have seen the excitement and decided to read them. Another thing I love about book adaptations is getting to see the world brought to life(As long as it's not awful).  Most live up to expectations and have such detailed sets and costumes that bring the book to life. One thing I always watch out for is my favourite scene, who can't help wondering how it's going to look when it's brought to life? And, I'm always one to be involved with the excitement: seeing the characters be cast and knowing they are the one bringing your best-friend, or book-boyfriend to life, the first look at the trailer and stills, seeing it in the cinema for the first time. I'm constantly discussing the build-up and how it may turn out over Twitter. I'm the person posting day by day countdowns, screaming when the adverts appear, it's all part of being in love with a book. I think it's made books more popular over the years and let's confess, they are never going to be 'cool' but it's improved. People just openly discuss books now because of the movies. The Harry Potter films are just one look at how big books can be.

But then it can all go wrong. You can spend months worrying or saying that the book is ruined because they have cast the completely wrong person(Everyone has done it). Or thinking 'Please don't adapt this book, you're just going to ruin it'. As much as I love book adaptations I sometimes feel like they are trying to adapt every single book. There are books, there are films. They are two different things. Not every book series or stand-alone that is successful needs to be adapted. I feel like producers are no longer just doing it because they see this amazing story in the material, but just because it's got followers and can make money. The worst thing for me is when they cut out some characters. If they are going to adapt the book they need to keep all the characters there. At times, this is really frustrating because it takes away the meaning of things or completely changes the plot and leaves you confused in the cinema. Luckily for me, I mostly find the films are great anyway and despite missing the character as I read about them, the film is a true adaptation. What more would you want? When they change the plot though, that is when I tend to hate them. They ruin the book and tear apart what was an amazing book for it just to be remember as 'a ruined book' or 'the worst book adaption I have ever seen'. I hate when 'Hollywood' decide to do this, try to improve it without even thinking about what the readers will think. This happened in Beautiful Creatures and I admit, I was slightly annoyed. They changed a main part of the story that confused me. Why do that?  Do it the way fans would like to see them because that's the best way to see things. I always think I could do a much better job but despite complaining, most book adaptations I've seen, I have loved. My favourites are, The Hunger Games, Now Is Good(even though I haven't read the book yet) and The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2- it shocked me in a good way. It was the twist! I haven't read the books but I really enjoyed The Chronicles of Narnia and since I have read the first two Harry Potter's, I thought the films were good too.

It's just so easy for books to be ruined when they are adapted although it's very hard to please everybody. If I had to pick a book I'd love to see My Sister Jodie by Jacqueline Wilson adapted. This year though, I'm very excited to see Catching Fire as well as The Fault in Our Stars grow and Divergent.

What are you anticipating this year?
Are there any book adaptations that let you down?