SYWTBAW Movie

[Dragon Writer]

They better not mess it up. Or the plot goes into effect (mousey can have a good part, and first class tickets to the U.S., and i'll make whoever's in charge foot the bill for this site for the next twenty years just as a penalty for annoying us)

But we shouldnt't have tow rory (I hope not...i don't even remember what my plot WAS at the moment!)

[wolf_wizard]

Good idea YR, foot the bill upon the person in charge, and then use the forum a lot, complaining about the movie, and using only one-lined posts, and continously double-posting. I hope you're right and they don't ruin it to much...

[Clara]

Yah, if they mess it up! Now on the bright side, they can't make it as bad as Eragon! That one got the worlds worst movie award from me! Did any of you give it that award too??? AND WOLF WIZARD the Golden Compass was really good, you should go watch it! It was really well made, and Pan does not sound like a girl, just like a young boy, which he is, so....

[wolf_wizard]

Yes, I was REALLY unhappy about the turnout of Eragon. OK, I'll see it already. And, as i've already stated (Itmight have been in the other thread, I don't know) IT WAS THE TRAILER THAT I SAW. I guess it will be good as a movie, but I still can't place it on the same level as the book. Book are always better than the movies.

[vashmata]

Of course books are always better than movies! Theres just so much you can put in a movie. All the description is only possible if you scrutinize the whole room. And anime and cartoons are the only place I've ever heard a character actually thinking inside their head.

[wolf_wizard]

Yes, I know that, but I can still wish they were as good, can't I? Anyway, I guess that if they were as good not as many people would read, and I wouldn't (sometimes) re-read really good books. I already object to re-reading books unless they are the Harry Potter(31 times) or YW books(8 times). And I'm not saying I like HP more than YW, I've just been reading HP longer. A lot longer.

[Kathy Li]

Guys, the tail end of this conversation diverted off into book and book recommendations, so I moved those posts into the Books thread. Please remember to try an stay on topic, or to move to appropriate existing threads if there's a large topic shift. Thanks!

My personal take is that an adaptation of a movie can't actually mess up a book, because the book hasn't changed. It's still there on the shelf, all its words unaltered. The only thing that can be ruined is the general public's perception of the book--but even that may not be so bad because non-reading folks are (strangely) more likely to read a book if they've seen the movie and found something intriguing in it.

I doubt that the YW movie will be bad, since DD is the current screenwriter for it. And even the studio wrests all control of the property from her, and screws up the movie big time, at least DD will see a Brinks truck or three of money for it and there will be a renewed publicity push behind the books, so it won't be all bad.

[Dragon Writer]

It's my oppinion that if you're going to completely change the book, then you shouldn't name it after the book...Just say that it's loosely based on the book.
The book gets publicity, the movie gets more people to come and see it, the movie industry doesn't have to pay as much money, and the author doesn't have to tear his/her hair out at what they're doing with the movie. (Just at their bills)

[Kathy Li]

Well, that's pretty much what happened to Susan Cooper's The Dark is Rising, but the movie crashed and burned at the box office, iirc. And the problem is if the title changes, the book doesn't get the publicity, because nobody makes the connection. To this day, I can still say Richard Matheson's Bid Time Return and nobody knows I'm talking about Somewhere in Time.

Which is probably why they haven't changed the title on I Am Legend; and they didn't on I, Robot (now there's a movie that had nothing to do with the book it was based on).

The thing is that if the book is strong enough and has enough integrity on its own, a bad movie adaptation is merely going to make people scorn the bad movie, not the book. It's one of those triusms: the book is always better than the movie.

Admittedly, we'd all prefer it if the movie adaptation was terrific, too. But the nature of an adaptation is that things have to be cut and moved and changed. Just looking at the snippets of YW screenplay that DD's posted on her blog bear testament to that. In addition to moving from verbal to visual with YW, there's also the matter of updating it for a period of 20 years. Not to mention the thorny thorny problem of what do we do about the World Trade Center towers?

What, to me, marks a successful adaptation from an unsuccessful one isn't faithfulness to word and deed. It's faithfulness to spirit. Does the story hit the same emotions, the same thoughts? Is it in the same character as the source material? Events, settings, characters, dialogue--it can all be marvelously malleable, if the spirit remains the same.

And if you don't get what made the original work so appealing, then you don't have a hope in hell of making a decent adaptation.

[Dragon Writer]

That's why, with my idea, they'd say, loud and clear, at the begginning of the movie, that it was loosely based on the book. This way, the connection is made for them...If it's a good enough book, it doesn't need too much added publicity anyways, and it stops us from scorning the movie! Hadn't considered the World Trade Center...they are featured in the first book, arne't they? Maybe another building?

[wolf_wizard]

Hmmm, I don't know what she could do about the World trade centers... they may pose a problem- maybe in the next chat we can aske her... I saw I Am Legend, and I thought it was good, though I didn't evn know there was a book, otherwise I would have read it.

[vashmata]

I have thought up the two most obvious ways of solving that.
1:use another building
2lace the story afterwards.

Edit:

2: place the story around, let's say, 2001.

[wolf_wizard]

I know to use another building, but which other building?

What do you mean by placing the story afterwards? afterwards what?

[Kathy Li]

Well, it's not like the Empire State Building or the Chrysler Building wouldn't make decent substitutes. But DD has pretty much said she's just going to dodge the issue, when I've asked her in chat.

[wolf_wizard]

Ohh, OK, but I was wondering (i'm not just trying to increase my post #, I'm actually curious) how she's going to dodge it. I mean, is she going to just get them transported there somehow?