By Aaron Cole
I sincerely apologize for the prolonged absence. I didn’t even really realize how long it had been since Tamara and I posted. Long story short we both started school last August (right after our last blog post) and summer started a few days ago for us. In that time We worked on writing a few things ( 2 collabs and 2 solo projects).I’ll do a proper update in another post and hope to start blogging more frequently.
I sincerely apologize for the prolonged absence. I didn’t even really realize how long it had been since Tamara and I posted. Long story short we both started school last August (right after our last blog post) and summer started a few days ago for us. In that time We worked on writing a few things ( 2 collabs and 2 solo projects).I’ll do a proper update in another post and hope to start blogging more frequently.
Today’s post is an age old question asked by TCWT
“What are your thoughts on book-to-movie adaptions?”
I personally am all for book -to-movie adaptions.
People always say Hollywood is running out if ideas, so
it turns to books and remakes for adaptions, but that’s just not the truth. The
truth is, book to film adaptions are nothing new. Think back to some of the greatest
movies of our times ex. the Wizard of Oz, Gone with the Wind, Breakfast at Tiffany’s,
The Outsiders. Hollywood has been adapting books to film for generations. It's
not a fad, and it won't be stopping any time soon.
Recently, the adaptation I have been obsessed with (as my
mom, dad and siblings will tell you with a sigh and an eye roll) is The Fault
in Our Stars. I know, I know. There were some changes made and some differences
in the movie, but I think that when adopting a book to a film, change is something
to be expected. There were some small things that I thought didn’t need to be
changed (like Augustus being 18 in the film, even though he was 17 in the book)
but I assumed everything must have been thought out by the people behind it.
Regardless I think the film was amazing, and so realistic. Not to mention
it was emotion and I cried like 694835934534 times. Even considering the
changes, I’d see it again in a heartbeat. Scripts and novels are designed
differently and have completely different structures. It is impossible to
think every single detail from the book can make it into the movie.
A movie has to flow a certain way to get a plot across,
just like a book. Most of the times book adoptions are two hours. Think about
how long it takes you to read. For me, if a book is amazing I can finish it in
around six hours. That would be ALOT of unnecessary detail if an entire
book was formed into a movie. As a fan of books, I appreciate when a book gets
a movie adoption because it bring a whole new set of readers to the community.
(Even though, I'll admit it does make you feel a little less hipster
when a book you love becomes mainstream.)
Now onto the next question.
“Would you one day want your book made into a movie, or
probably not?”
It would be really awesome if one day someone wanted to
turn my book it a movie. For my current WIP, I think it seems more like a miniseries,
but I would be up for an adaption of any kind. I think that if that ever did
happen, I'd want to be as involved as I possibly can. Being an assistant
director (who just runs errands for the director and crew) would be amazing and
if it was approved I'd would want an opportunity to help with a script. My
reason being, I write YA and most of the time in movies the dialogue sounds
like it was written by a middle aged person trying to sound like a teenager,
not an actually teenager, I think I’d want to help make the dialogue sound real.
(NOTE: I do not have anything against middle aged people, I actually live with
a lovely middle age couple who are nice to me most of the time, my parents).
Even though I am studying theatre (acting professionally is another one of my dream jobs), I
also would love to get a screenwriting degree (USC is literally my dream
college).
The first time I ever attempted to write anything I was
around seven years old. It was actually a script, not a book. The said script was
almost a direct rip off of the movie ‘Spy Kids’. (Don't act like you weren't a
fan). After that script, all of the things that I wrote were directly influenced
by the movies I watched or from the books I read. It wasn't until I got high
school (maybe a little bit before that) that I started to create my own
original ideas. So movies really influenced what I wrote, whether I chose to
recognize it or not.
Even though I would love to be involved so I can learn more
about the film world, I'd want the people who are involved in the making of the
film to be in charge. I wouldn't want to be that pesky person who demands for
everything to be perfect. (I’m not sure I’ve ever heard of a writer like
that).
Usually, I've noticed that whenever the writer of the
book responsible for the book adaption is involved or constantly visits the set
of their movie, the movie is always really good.
Ex. Suzanne Collins wrote the first Hunger Games script,
John Green was present on TFIOS set, Veronica Roth was present on the Divergent
set and Louis Sachar wrote the script of Holes. So I think that when the writer
of the novel gets involved the movie, for the most part the movie ends up
better.
All in all, as long as the book to film adaption looks
good, sign me up and I’ll see it.
Side note: Some of
the adoptions I'm looking forward to are Paper Towns, Grasshopper Jungle, Winger,
and The Giver. I wish someone would attempt to do the phantom tollbooth
again. I LOVED that book.
Don't forget to check out everyone else's blog for the June Chain!
****
June 2014 blog chain prompt/schedule:
Prompt: “What are your thoughts on book-to-movie adaptions? Would you one day want your book made into a movie, or probably not?”
20th – http://miriamjoywrites.com/
28th – http://teenscanwritetoo.wordpress.com/ – The topic for July’s blog chain will be announced.
