Page to Screen: Book to movie / series adaptation discussions - Page 4

Novels that got made into movies and I liked are:

Harry Potter Series

and

The Hunger Games

Originally posted by: ssttuuttii

I'm curious... do you read Fanfiction? If yes, why is it different from reading books in general? I've always wondered why there are so many fanfic readers who don't read books otherwise... would like to genuinely understand the mindset behind this .

I have a couple of theories about this just based on personal experience/what others have said to me. I remember back in university, the idea of trying to get through a book felt exhausting, but for some reason, a 100k+ word fanfic felt like light work. For me, it was probably just because with fanfic, I wouldn't have a whole new world to learn about/get invested in, I'm just reading about my favourite TV/movie characters in fun scenarios or fix-it fics when a storyline pisses me off. I was also writing fanfics myself at the time, so I enjoyed reading other people's work as well. For some reason, I never find myself reading books and fanfics simultaneously - I've really gotten back into reading, and the more books I read, the less fanfic I wanted to read. (Also, I have a really hard time getting into new shows nowadays, so when I do read fanfic, it's usually a re-read of a show that ended in like, 2018.)

However, other people have shared some different opinions. I had a friend of mine say that the current popular romance books aren't as appealing as fanfics to them because of the writing - they said that they found that a lot of their favourite fanfic authors are just better writers than the ones being recommended to them. And I don't necessarily disagree, there are definitely a couple of fanfics I can think of with not necessarily better writing, just so well-written that I wish it was a book too. (The fanfics that get turned into books are never the ones that I wanna see get turned into books.)

Someone else told me that they like fanfics for how uncensored authors get to be compared to traditionally published authors. Another person said that they thought that it was easier and more fun to get to talk to fanfic authors in the comment section and through DMs and that's not really something they could do with published authors because at the end of the day, fanfic authors are still a part of your fandom and fan just like you. One of my tumblr mutuals read 'Cinderella Is Dead' and said that they immediately had to go read a OUAT fanfic to get over how much they disliked that book. (which is absolutely fair because I also didn't like that book )

Originally posted by: Sevenstreaks

When my fav onscreen pair track not going well or they get separated by makers or serial ended , then Fanfiction only brought happiness . Those times I ve read so many fanfictions .

Books I generally can't read more than a page if its not a fast paced one . I doze off immediately . If its fast paced I end up reading it within a day

Have you tried audiobooks? I feel like they help me focus when I'm having a hard time staying engaged with a book - happened with Bridgerton, reading it was making me fall asleep but for some reason having some random lady in a recording booth read it to me actually made it fun.

Originally posted by: foreverlazy

Have you tried audiobooks? I feel like they help me focus when I'm having a hard time staying engaged with a book - happened with Bridgerton, reading it was making me fall asleep but for some reason having some random lady in a recording booth read it to me actually made it fun.

Haven't tried it yet

Thanks for Suggesting

Will try and tell you :)

Originally posted by: Sevenstreaks

I used to read AUs too

@Bold : That's sufficient. Because we already got connected to names and faces ( older or younger version d vision is still d same)

I mean... I don't really pay attention to how authors describe their characters a lot of the time (specifically in romance books) because I'm going to imagine my favourite couple that I think fits the storyline/characters of whatever book I'm reading. Or sometimes not really even a favourite couple, just actors whose chemistry I've always liked (translation: the entire time I was reading Dr. Dil by Nisha Sharma, I was imagining Jennifer Winget and Karan Wahi as the main couple, she could've told me one of them dyed their hair lime green midway through the book and I wouldn't care).

I will also say though, there are some fanfic writers who told me in the past that they replace characters in their original work with their favourite couple and characters from whatever TV show or movie it is just for engagement. I wouldn't go out of my way to read a story about people who don't like each other getting snowed in, but if that same story is Vampire Diaries AU, sign me up!

Originally posted by: aryapdane

Thanks @LizzieBennet for the tag. I loved everyone's take on the topic. Most of the adaptations I liked have already been mentioned, so I'll try to name a few that no one has spoken about.

My favourite Book to Screen Adaptation has got to be John Grisham's A Time to Kill. Matthew McConaughey was perfect in the role of Jake Brigance and I'd watch anything with Samuel L. Jackson. They did a great job with the entire trial part of the movie and the few changes that were made only lifted the movie. The closing argument from Jake is one of the most powerful scenes ever put on film and I think I remember the entire speech verbatim.

The BBC Jeeves and Wooster series is another great adaptation. They did a really great job, considering that Wodehouse's humour is more word play based than comic set pieces.

The LotR movies were good but the Hobbit movies were a major let down and Amazon's Rings of Power Series is a crime against the human race!

I think someone commented about Good Omens already, but if would be criminal to not say how good it is while I'm on the topic of adaptation of Terry Pratchett's works.

I'm quite excited to see the adaptation of Emily Henry's Book Lovers. I love the book so much and I can't wait to see how the movie turns out to be.

I read Time to Kill a long time ago and was pretty sure I watched the movie too, but from your description perhaps not? I must watch it then.

OMFG!!! I did not think I'd come across anyone who'd read Wodehouse on here let alone have watched Jeeves & Wooster the series! And I absolutely agree! I have watched other Wodehouse adaptations (some of the Blandings Castle ones) and they were duds for me but this one shone! And it's mostly because of how true they stayed to the characters and the writing and 99.99% because of the excellent casting of Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry as Wooster and Jeeves. They lived and breathed those characters!

I absolutely loved the LotR movies. They're what got me into the book, & they're probably one of the very rare instances where I enjoy the screen adaptation more than the book. That said, I agree with you on the Hobbit and Rings of Power. Complete bore fests & there was absolutely no call to stretch The Hobbit in 3 longass movies!

Good Omens was wonderful though I have not read the books. I could not stand the adaptation of THHGTTG, so was wondering if they'd do this one right but they did. Which makes me wanna watch Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, also because I don't remember the book much at all.

I very recently read Book Lovers so I'm curious too. Have they cast for it already? Is it under production? I wonder how that book will translate into a movie because so much of it is character work. But I'd watch it for sure.

Originally posted by: ssttuuttii

Something that's also true for Sherlock Holmes. He's my fav book character, so much so that I afraid to watch anything related to it because I was sure to be disappointed. Having liked the Iron Man movies made me try Robert Downey Jr.'s Sherlock movie.... and as expected... I didn't like it much .

That said, Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman shared great chemistry as Sherlock and Watson. We tend to forget how important Watson is to canon. The earlier Shelock series with Jeremy Brett who simply stunned as Sherlock had someone non-descript as Watson. Ditto for the Poirot series. Hastings there was so unmemorable and he's so so important in canon and we absolutely needed actors with good chemistry to play the Poirot-Hastings banter effectively on screen. I missed that in the series! But Kenneth Branagh as Poirot is still an absolute No for me

Thanks, everyone for sharing your thoughts but now that you've done I want to put this to you all..

When you read, do you imagine a character to look a certain way based off of the author's descriptions? Going one step further, do you fancast a character in your head when you read? And when the screen adaptation comes out, did you ever find that your fancast (or mental picture) of that character was so perfectly embodied by the actor in question that you cannot now imagine that character as looking like anyone else? Or the other way round - the actor was nothing like you imagined but you were still blown away by their portrayal and now they have replaced your original fancast in your head?

Do tell us your own personal Top 3, or Top 5 or even Top 10 actors who lived and breathed their characters so much that they became that character.

Originally posted by: aryapdane

Sorry for jumping into this discussion uninvited.

I can understand the logic behind writing an AU. You get a readymade fandom just by using character names but I don't get the logic behind reading AUs. More often than not, the characters in the AUs are so OOC that it'd just make sense to call them by different names. The entire point of reading an FF becomes moot in my opinion. The only type of AU i can read is a modern retelling of characters in a high fantasy, or perhaps a gender swap. But I really need the ff writer to stay true to the original characterisation of the characters.

@bold: Oh my god, the amount of coffee shop and college AUs that I read when Shadowhunters and Teen Wolf were still airing - those fanfics absolutely helped me get through university.

AUs are not really my go-to or something I actively seek out, I just end up reading them because they've been a popular fanfic style for a couple of years now. But I find that even when it's just a fanfic about the current track of a show, characters can seem OOC because maybe you have the doormat of the show finally sticking up for themselves and it feels cathartic as both a reader and a writer. But when writers completely change the character is when I lose all interest because what do you mean you're going to write the show's nicest character as the school bully???

The type of AUs that I like are when the characters still feel like the characters from the original source material, they end up going through similar story beats, but it's all in a different setting or having them in different occupations. Red White and Royal Blue fanfics are actually a great example of this because even though there are so many AUs in this fandom, most of them just feel like a retelling of the book with a different writing style and added plot because instead of being the First Son and the prince, the main couple might be written as actors or athletes or even just regular, non-famous people.

Originally posted by: foreverlazy

I have a couple of theories about this just based on personal experience/what others have said to me. I remember back in university, the idea of trying to get through a book felt exhausting, but for some reason, a 100k+ word fanfic felt like light work. For me, it was probably just because with fanfic, I wouldn't have a whole new world to learn about/get invested in, I'm just reading about my favourite TV/movie characters in fun scenarios or fix-it fics when a storyline pisses me off. I was also writing fanfics myself at the time, so I enjoyed reading other people's work as well. For some reason, I never find myself reading books and fanfics simultaneously - I've really gotten back into reading, and the more books I read, the less fanfic I wanted to read. (Also, I have a really hard time getting into new shows nowadays, so when I do read fanfic, it's usually a re-read of a show that ended in like, 2018.)

However, other people have shared some different opinions. I had a friend of mine say that the current popular romance books aren't as appealing as fanfics to them because of the writing - they said that they found that a lot of their favourite fanfic authors are just better writers than the ones being recommended to them. And I don't necessarily disagree, there are definitely a couple of fanfics I can think of with not necessarily better writing, just so well-written that I wish it was a book too. (The fanfics that get turned into books are never the ones that I wanna see get turned into books.)

Someone else told me that they like fanfics for how uncensored authors get to be compared to traditionally published authors. Another person said that they thought that it was easier and more fun to get to talk to fanfic authors in the comment section and through DMs and that's not really something they could do with published authors because at the end of the day, fanfic authors are still a part of your fandom and fan just like you. One of my tumblr mutuals read 'Cinderella Is Dead' and said that they immediately had to go read a OUAT fanfic to get over how much they disliked that book. (which is absolutely fair because I also didn't like that book )

Thanks for the in depth and analytical reply .

@Green I've read such wonderful fanfics as well... very well-written and long enough to be proper books. The fact that they were totally AUs would also help... if the author ever decides to publish. Sadly, it is like you said, the ones that get published aren't that good in reality... and just end up giving a bad name to FFs in general (looking at you 50 shades of grey ).

@Purple I get what you mean and I've seen that. Readers like the direct interaction and the chance to influence the storyline (since most fanfic writers take their readers' comments seriously and have been known to change plots accordingly).