Feature: Turning Books into Movies Recent Adaptations
Published: 6 October, 2011
Upon finishing a good book it is often the first response for you to say "someone should make a movie of this book!" and with movie adaptations of best-selling booking being the staple of the movie industry for the last few years, maybe we should be asking the question, should all good books be made into films?
Reviewing the "Harry Potter" and "Twilight" franchises, as well as two much loved books, "One Day" and The Help" the Camden New Journal looks into film adaptation.
When discussion film adaptations, it is impossible not to be begin with the largest book and film franchise in the world, "Harry Potter". With eight multi-award winning movies which have made an astonishing $7.7 billion worldwide, it is not surprising that other film companies want to join the crowd.
Of course, the "Harry Potter" franchise is helped by the phenomenal success of the books which have made their author JK Rowling one of the richest women in the world. Despite, their mind boggling success, the first few "Harry Potter" movies are deemed by fans to be awful, badly bad and equally badly acted, it wasn't until the fourth and fifth movies, that they actually began to grown their own fan base outside of the book fans.
Following in the trail of the "Harry Potter" success is the "Twilight" series. With three movies already making a staggering $790k , "Twilight" is not even in the same universe as "Potter" however, these movies have a much small audience base.
For their genre, the "Twilight" movies are well acted and made, in comparison to the original "Potter" movies, and also have a very committed fan base, if somewhat limited.
The success of "Twilight" has also inspired some more adult television series to turn main stream, improving the offering on all our televisions.
Moving away from the teenage inspired movies, one of the bestselling books of 2009, which received the Galaxy Best Book of the year in 2010, "One Day" was made into a movie which was recently released in the UK. With mostly mixed to negative reviews, "One Day" is an excellent example of Hollywood taking a book beloved to many because of its hard hitting, emotive storyline, and trying to change it into a movie.
Although an entertaining and enjoyable movie for thoses who have not read the book, "One Day" was a disappointment for fans of the book Looking across the Atlantic to top selling American books,"The Help" movie, adapted from Katherine Stockett's best-selling book, opened in the US to unexpected success.
With three weekends at the top of the box office, the first movie since "Inception" to generate as much success, "The Help" will be hitting UK cinemas on 26th October 2011. Reviews for "The Help" have been overwhelmingly positive, surprising for such a well loved book.
DreamWorks seems to have created the right balance of emotion and storyline in this much loved movie. Watch The Help trailer to see what you think.
It's difficult to decide which books should be made into movies and which should be left alone, suffice to say, don't let bad Hollywood movies ruin your favourite books, remember them as you want to, and love them always.