So something that has become more popular lately is tv shows or movies that were originally books or books series or comics. Prime examples would be anything released by Marvel or DC. But there are some that are smaller scale (perspective in some cases) like Game of Thrones or Harry Potter. So I want to talk a little about books that became a media franchise.
Now the thing with transferring mediums like books to screen is that
there is a lot of material to work with and utilize. One of the things
as a show writer they have to consider is where to cut content. You will
not always be able to completely transfer information and make it work. A scene in the book may take up an entire chapter (which can be anywhere from 2 to I've seen chapters that are 30-some pages long) may only take up about 4 minutes when done for the show or movie. Ultimately, depending on where the writers for the show/movie want that medium to go, they can either scrap the idea as unnecessary or say that it would contradict what they aim to head towards. This is seen more in movies, where they really have to condense the material down into anywhere between an hour and a half to 2.5 hours, because for some reason a 3+ hour long movie is too damn long. With shows there is a little bit more leeway, because you can stretch the arc for a few episodes or even the season if that is the way the writers choose.
The first literary series that became a media franchise (that I'm gonna talk about at least) would be The Vampire Diaries. Originally a book series that the first set, which were books 1 through 4, were released between September of 1991 and 1992. Which means this series is older than I am. Books 5 through 13 were published later, from February 2009 through May 2014. I'm not sure the exact work around, but the CW network got the green light to take this series (by author L.J. Smith) to make into a show. The show, which was franchised under the same name aired its pilot episode on September 10, 2009 and aired its finale on March 10, 2017 after 8 seasons. I read the first four books of the series before then. I'm not sure exactly when, probably around 2007 or 2008, but before the show was set to release. I never got to reading the later books, and I don't intend to, but from what I can remember the early seasons of the show stuck pretty close to the books.
I enjoyed the show when I finally got into it, around 2012-ish, up until the actress playing Elena decided to leave the show. For me, the story revolved around Elena, so without Elena the show was not what I wanted. I could be completely wrong about how true to the books they were, considering I haven't re-read the books and have become more familiar with the show.
The next series I want to talk about is The Southern Vampire Mysteries or The Sookie Stackhouse Novels by Charlaine Harris. The books were released from 2001 to 2013, with a total of 13 books. In 2008, HBO released a show titled True Blood (based on component in the books) that ran until 2014. After the airing of the show, the book series was revamped (see what I did there?) as the True Blood Series to connect the two back. Now having watched the show first, there were moments when I read the book that I had to keep reminding myself that they change stuff when adapting a novel into a movie or a show. Having the show air on HBO meant that they could get away with a bit of a darker edge to the story, because the books where pretty clean in comparison. Like sex scenes. Racy sex scenes. I have read all the books and have seen every episode and will say this: neither is better than the other. They both had their positives and negatives, and in the end the show differed pretty greatly from the books.
I have many examples that I can talk about, I actually pulled information about a lot of them so I could talk about them (I'll list them below) but now I want to switch gears slightly otherwise this post is going to be unbearably long. Not all adaptions are great.
Take The Vampire Academy for example. This book series was released from 2007 to 2010 as a young adult paranormal book. I've read the books, and they actually are pretty good. There is two series that are tangent to them, and I'm working on reading them. In 2014 a movie was released under the same name (with a secondary title of Blood Sisters) that was a box office flop. And I mean that literally. It had a box office profit of $15.4 million which was nowhere close to the budget of $30 million. They did not attempt to make a second movie. I have not watched the movie so I cannot say if they did a good job on it or not, but I have no interest in seeing it....
Another book series that didn't do well as a movie was The Mortal Instruments. The book series written by Cassandra Clare from 2007 to 2014 was turned into a movie in 2013. Named The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones (which is the first book of the series) it did slightly better than Vampire Academy. Box office profit of $91 million against a $60 million budget meant that it did make a profit, but not enough to warrant a second movie. However, in 2015 ABC family gained the rights to make the book into a show, which was called Shadowhunters. It has done pretty well, but as per a previous post, when Netflix pulled funding for the show it was cancelled. It still has 12 episodes to air next year (2019) so there is that.
Another book series turn movie turn tv show is A Series of Unfortunate Events. Book series by Lemony Snicket from 1999 to 2006. A total of 13 books that the content doesn't span a large amount of time. The movie, under the same name, was released in 2004 which was an adaption of the first three books. It was successful, but ultimately they didn't continue. However, in 2017 Netflix released the show version of it, with a from the get go a three season order. Season one encompasses books 1 through 4, season 2 encompasses books 5 through 9 and season 3 (which has yet to be released, looking at 2019) which will encompass 10 through 13. This one has been considered very successful, however it is pretty difficult to measure success on something from Netflix, just because of the nature of the streaming service.
Ok. I'm gonna stop there otherwise I'm going to be writing for hours. So the list that I mentioned above:
Harry Potter series (JK Rowling): books from 1997 to 2007; films (under same name as books) from 2001 to 2011.
A Song of Ice and Fire (George RR Martin): books started in 1996, but six and seven are still forthcoming/ no official release date; HBO's Game of Thrones released in 2011 and will end next year.
Midnight, Texas (Charlaine Harris): books released 2014 to 2016; tv show on NBC under same name with second season set to air tomorrow.
The Sword of Truth (Terry Goodkind); first book released in 1994 with the most recent released this year, it made it sound like there was more in the works. A short 2 season show on ABC aired from 2008 to 2010 under the name of Legend of the Seeker.
Hunger Games (Suzanne Collins): book trilogy released 2008 through 2010 was split into four moives (the third book split into two movies) that were released 2012 through 2015.
There were obviously more, but those are ones that I enjoyed, either reading or watching or both. And that is where I'm leaving this post.
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