Morphing Best-Sellers Into Oscars.Since the beginning of filmmaking film·mak·ing n. The making of movies. , books have been an auspicious aus·pi·cious adj. 1. Attended by favorable circumstances; propitious: an auspicious time to ask for a raise in salary. See Synonyms at favorable. 2. Marked by success; prosperous. source for scripts. From classics like Mildred Pierce to the Mafia God father series to the very-English Bridget Jones's Diary, literary adaptations have imported literacy to movie houses. Taking advantage of cross-promotions between books, movie premieres and television ads, recent adaptations have scored more bucks than ever before. According to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. Trevor Walton, Lifetime TV's senior vp of Original Movies, there are a myriad of reasons for this trend. "There is built-in recognition. Some of our audience has read the book. Then there are some who saw the promotions when the book was released and said 'I want to read that. It looks good, but I don't have the time. Now I don't have to read it."' Recently, the network aired Midwives, an Oprah's Book Club bestseller, to respectable ratings. Another Oprah Book Club top dog soon coming to the airwaves airwaves Noun, pl Informal radio waves used in radio and television broadcasting is Joyce Carole Oates' We Were the Mulvaneys, currently in development. But the question remains -- why are adaptations being made when stacks of original material brush the ceilings of studio execs? Walton explained, "A good story is a good story. We are always in search of stories, and making movies from books is just a bonus to a good piece of literature .... I would love to say that I have the creative ability to come up with great stories but I don't and there are a lot of great books out there." According to Miramax's executive vp of Development Colin Vaines, "There used to be the saying 'the better the book, the harder it is to adapt,' because the two mediums are so different. I don't think that is necessarily true. Great books can be adapted into great movies. Obviously one of the big problems that you wrestle with is the length factor. In the case of most movies,. you're talking about one-and-a-half hours to two hours maximum. That means you're going to have to work on elements of the story and develop those elements accordingly." However, he insisted that in the right hands a lengthy book can be transformed into a concise screenplay. "I recently read an adaptation of one of John Irving's [author of Cider House A cider house is an establishment, often little more than a room in a farmhouse or cottage, selling cider only, for consumption on the premises. The cider sold is usually brewed on the premises, from apples grown in a local cider orchard. Rules] other books, which I thought was brilliant because it took one subplot sub·plot n. 1. A plot subordinate to the main plot of a literary work or film. Also called counterplot, underplot. 2. A subdivision of a plot of land, especially a plot used for experimental purposes. out of the novel and turned it into a complete screenplay." Miramax Films, which has a publishing arm called Talk Miramax Books, has forged an excellent reputation as a maker of quality films, many of which are book adaptations. Currently, the company is developing the Mario Puzo Mario Gianluigi Puzo (October 15, 1920 – July 2, 1999) was an American author known for his novels about the Mafia, especially The Godfather (1969). Life and works novel Omerta o·mer·ta n. A rule or code that prohibits speaking or divulging information about certain activities, especially the activities of a criminal organization. as well as The New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of Times best-seller Ice Bound. What does it cost to acquire the rights to whip a book into a movie? "The purchase price and the option price all depend on who the writers are. If you're buying a manuscript from an extremely established author, the price can be extremely high. Equally, you can buy an idea from a very established screenwriter and spend a fortune on it," Vaines continued. "At the other end, there are books that you like, but the writer is not that established and no one quite knows how the book is going to do [as a film]. That can be optioned at a much lower price." Kids' programming is also a frequent grabber of book-based stories. Cartoons such as Clifford and Madeline were based on popular storybooks. Golden Books Family Entertainment adapted the best-selling best·sell·er also best seller n. A product, such as a book, that is among those sold in the largest numbers. best children's book Poky Little Puppy into five animated adventures. Golden Books' executive vp Alexander Drosin observed: "We often use pre-existing stories that were classics. If the story is strong enough, we want to develop it. With children's books, there isn't enough in them so you need to build from there." Drosin added that books provide a window to view the potential performance of a project. "With books, you're not going into the marketplace blind." The transformation from page to screen sometimes hits a snag. A recent court battle involved Karen Hildebrand and Kim Thompson, owners of Twin Sisters Productions Inc. and Twin Sisters Licensing Corp., who sued Canada's Cinar Corp. The sisters sold their children's educational-material company to Cinar just 12 days before its financial nose-dive in March 2001. The sisters are suing Cinar for fraud and misrepresentation misrepresentation In law, any false or misleading expression of fact, usually with the intent to deceive or defraud. It most commonly occurs in insurance and real-estate contracts. False advertising may also constitute misrepresentation. . Many novels and nonfiction pieces immediately translate into movies in readers' minds. Studio heads have the same experience while reading books. They wonder if what they are reading has the potential to be the next critically acclaimed motion picture earth shaker Shaker Member of the United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearing, a celibate millenarian sect. Derived from a branch of the radical English Quakers (see Society of Friends), the movement was brought to the U.S. . Miramax's Vaines observed that books "are fully developed with plot lines and they give you a very clear view of whether [they are] adaptable or not." |
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