Page to Screen: Book to movie / series adaptation discussions - Page 7

Originally posted by: LizzieBennet

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.

Ooo, this is such an interesting question! See, I don't always pay attention to an author's descriptions, I'm just gonna ahead and imagine another character or actor that I'm familiar with and I think as a similar enough personality/backstory to the character in the book. (Although I will day, I read The Hating Game after the trailer for the movie came out, so I had Lucy Hale in my head while reading the book.) In short, I don't really have a lot of dream fancasts for books, but I do have some for animated series and comics!

I think two actors for me who embodied their book counterparts perfectly are Danielle Galligan as Nina Zenik and Taylor Zakhar Perez as Alex Claremont-Diaz (and I know a lot of people say that this doesn't have anything to do with an actor's performance, but I have such a great appreciation for how much they love books and they're such nerds about it too, I love it). It's more than just them having the personality and mannerisms of these characters down to a science - it genuinely felt like Nina and Alex stepped out of their books and onto these sets. However, I do want to add that I think the entire Shadow & Bone series was very well cast, but unfortunately, some characters got stuck with some very poor writing... yeah, I'm talking about Freddy Carter as Kaz Brekker because he is so talented, the writing simply did not allow for him to reach his true potential as Kaz in all his ruthless glory (we got so close with 2x04).

An actor whose portrayal I was surprisingly impressed by was Iman Vellani as Kamala Khan/Ms. Marvel. I never really had a fancast for this series, even though it is my favourite comic book series, but I was skeptical when I first heard about this casting choice just because she looks nothing like Kamala in the comics. But ya know, it's my favourite series and she was from Toronto so I wanted to be supportive and watched the show... and I'm so happy that I did because she was perfect as Kamala! She balanced the charm and silliness of that character so well with her inherent heroism and that perseverance that makes her such an interesting contrast to Carol Danvers because of their similar strengths but also their differing beliefs.

I genuinely don't think I've ever come across a bad casting choice, just a lack of understanding of the source material from the writers of the adaptation.

Originally posted by: aryapdane

Even the HP movies are guilty of the injustice that is dished out to Weasleys but yeah the fandom takes it to a different level altogether. Lol the FB movies have been atrocious and although my heart bleeds at the thought that I won't get Jude Law and Mads Mikkelsen as Dumbledore and Grindelwald, i am happy that the movies got cancelled. Isn't Cursed Child a fanfiction though?? I thought it was some other person who wrote it and Rowling just approved of it. That woman needs to stop trying to milk the HP franchise for every cent. That said, I wonder if the new HP series would be any good.

You're right about the MCU. They do tend to get the casting right.

True.. the movies did Weasleys dirty too. Haven't watched FB but know the basic storyline and that was enough to put me off . And yes, The Cursed Child was originally someone else's idea but later Rowling also contributed to the story and officially stated it to be the 8th part of HP series . Like you said, she needs to stop fixating on the franchise as her golden goose... lest she end up killing the goose in a bid to acquire all the golden eggs .

I've hopes from the new series... merely because

1. The story is completely written now so they can plan accordingly right from the beginning.
2. Series format will allow them to explore the story in better ways than the movies (having more time to build the plot).
3. Better Vfx available now.

On the other hand, I'll miss seeing it on the big screen because HP is grandiose... and well worth watching in the cinema where we get a more immersive experience. Series will probably also have less budget... and of course, deaw comparisons with both - books as well as old movies. They have got some big shoes to fill... let's see how well they manage to do so .

Thanks for the tag.

I refuse to watch any of my favourite books adaptations into movies or series because I just know someone will mess it up at some point. I don't fan cast, for some reason, I mentally will draw the images of how I want them to look given the descriptions and no actor lives up to my imagination which is devastating for me!

If the show starts off really well and I have not read the books, I will only watch the show such as GoT. I hated the last 2 seasons and wish I could unsee that disaster. I do have the books but I am still waiting on GRRM to finish the books, at this point honestly I am really sceptical about him ever finishing these.

The only movie I have watched where I have read the books is Gabriel's Inferno by Sylvain Reynard because readers were promised that they would keep to the books and they did. I appreciated that they kept it to the books, but there was a lacking of intensity within the characters which I felt while I read the books and acting was off so I found it boring. I went back to the books though with the actors they had casted because they were Julia and Gabrielle for me, so perfect and matched so close to the descriptions.

I read the Bridgerton series and I did not wish to taint my eyes by watching the show. When I hear from friends how this changed or that changed, or this story went awry, I am so thankful I did not watch the show. Kate and Anthony's story - they made it like bollywood affair or something so I was like phew! I did rage internally when I hear they changed x y z and I can understand for tv audience, there needs to be some changes, but when you change the story, it's not really Bridgerton in my opinion. I did skim through season 3 to watch Polin scenes because Nicola C is one of my favourite actresses and I hated how they showed Colin and Eloise were upset with Penelope for WD when in fact in the books it was totally opposite. So yeah, I shall stop in my tracks before I continue my rant lol...

Harry Potter I had loved the movies, the books are on my list to read after so much push from my friends to read the books I have decided to plunge into it. Only thing I am a bit wary of is not being able to read HP in the way I want to imagine it after I got sucked into reading a Dramione FF.

Like, I was convinced to try out Draco and Hermoine's story on AO3 - Manacled. I had resisted for a while because I don't tend to enjoy FFs as I once used to... But this one - I loved it, I am always for Enemy - Lover pairings and dark romance and angsty pairings and I have fallen into this rabbit hole of finding new Dramione FFs that are similar to Manacled. I've recently downloaded The Auction which is supposed to be good so going to dive into that this weekend. I started getting hung up on and watching loads of edits of Manacled and book binding the FFs, and I started researching on how to bind FFs at home and that is one expensive hobby so I jumped back into re-reading a favourite mafia book of mine so I wouldn't get too sucked in and spend hundreds to fund a new hobby.

Pride and Prejudice is one series I have enjoyed, the BBC series one with Colin Firth. Not the movies. I think PP was done quite well and I really liked that.

For me though - the books always wins above the movie/series.

Bride and Prejudice is the only one I've watched w.r.t P&P because Sony MAX was obsessed with it at one point, and it was just 🫣🤣 (songs are meme-orable).

As we now know, the Grimm's Fairy Tales were adapted differently into the Disney movies, and it was so shocking to know how dark the original folk tales were, when the movies present them like idealistic fairytales. Tangled & Ella Enchanted are charming with how they changed the plots of Rapunzel and Cinderella. I think supernatural, mystery and action thriller books or folk tales make for wonderful book adaptation to movies, because they already provide the best premise, and can do with limited details too to make it more enthralling.

The romance genre novels are the only type I'd personally rather watch than read, coz I otherwise lack a Mills & Boons imagination.

Closer home, I will never not choose the Jungle Book cartoon series. The Guide was an apt representation in both the book and movie, and I cannot imagine the characters as anyone but Dev Saab and Waheeda Ma'am. Lootera was a subtle and nice version on The Last Leaf. I also kinda liked the take they were trying with Taming of the Shrew in Isi Life Mein, it made the ending less misogynistic, but the acting was so 😶‍🌫️

In some cases, there is an emotional connect to the movies for it being a part of childhood (especially for Harry Potter, Chronicles of Narnia, Percy Jackson, Matilda, Bridge to Terabithia etc.), wherein even if at times I have had my qualms about it, the actors have made the franchises their own with their phenomenal acting, so I have come to appreciate their acting and dissociating it with the books if they do not follow the exact same trajectory.

Yeh Hai Mohabbatein might have diverged from Custody, but it retained the essence between Ishita and Ruhi, which made it a cult classic.

My Sister's Keeper was one of our rapid readers for the Modern Philosophy class, wherein the book and movie have diverse endings. I've resigned to the fact that these are meant to be two different stories. Recently learned that the author Jodi Picoult pointed out how the ending was changed without her consent, which raises questions on how creative liberty allows filmmakers to make their own decisions while translating a book to movie onscreen, while leaving the OG author's imagination behind.

P.S I know I've made too many edits on this, sorry about it, but my memory is really bad, so it took me sometime to summarise everything in one post 🙂

Some actors that perfectly brought to life the book characters imo. I've obviously included only the books I've read that I've watched adaptations of.

1. Stephen Fry & Hugh Laurie as Jeeves & Wooster (TV series)

2. Jeremy Brett as Sherlock Holmes (TV series)

3. David Suchet as Hercule Poirot in Poirot (TV series)

4. Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch in To kill a Mockingbird (movie)

5. Clark Gable as Rhett Butler in Gone with the wind (movie)

6. Colin Firth as Fitzwilliam Darcy in Pride & Prejudice (BBC series)

7. Maggie Smith as Minerva McGonagall in the Harry Potter movies

8. Jonathan Bailey as Anthony Bridgerton in Bridgerton. This last one might be cheating a bit since Anthony in the series is a lot different from the Anthony in the books but I want to highlight how much JB took this character, dug deep down into what makes him tick and then spun some JB magic to make it his own. I cannot imagine anyone else as Anthony!

9. I want to include some of the LoTR cast too particularly Ian McKellan as Gandalf. He was fantastic. Made me love Gandalf much more than in the books. Same with Viggo Mortenson as Aragorn.

10. Kate Winslet as Marianne Dashwood in Sense and Sensibility (movie). She made me love Marianne so much more than in the books. And she looked so darn pretty doing it!

Originally posted by: aryapdane

Hello, fellow Wodehouse fan! I can't say how delighted I am to find you lol. It's criminal how people these days don't read Wodehouse. The Blandings series is my favourite Wodehouse series. But man, the tv adaptation just didn't cut it. You're absolutely right about Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry. I really can't imagine anyone other than them playing Bertie and Jeeves.

I don't think they have casted the actors for Book Lovers yet but I think if we get two actors with great chemistry, we should be fine.

What do you think about the Colleen Hoover adaptation that's coming out? Personally I hate Colleen Hoover's writing. But maybe the movie will be salvageable??

I haven't actually read any Colleen Hoover. I get such conflicting opinions about her that I'm hesitating to try. And my friend - whose tastes match with mine A LOT - hated her writing. So idk. Maybe I will try her someday once I get through my current Tbr.

About Book lovers yeah, actors with good chemistry is a must. I did not get that in The Hating Game. I actually really liked the actors' chemistry in another romcom adaptation I watched - Tangled by Emma Chase. It was fun. I did not expect to like it as much as I did. Then again, chemistry is subjective. So who knows?

My top 3

1. Harry Potter Series - like everyone said, books are far better than the movies but movies are nice too.

2. The Notebook

3. PS I love You

About 2 and 3, what more to expect from a Romance Renegade 😜

Originally posted by: LizzieBennet

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.

I really feel bad for rambling about East Asian dramas/novels here. I trying to make my text as generic as possible

Mostly I read after the cast is announced or when the shooting starts. So no matter how different the description is from the actor working on the project I put it all behind and enjoy.

There's one of my recent reads (the drama has not aired yet) decided to chop off one of my favorite characters from the book and incorporate it into another existing character. Definitely not happy about this but while reading I did have an image of an actor who could have possibly pulled it through. Yet to discover how angry I'm going to get when I watch the drama when it airs will come back here to update if the thread remains open.

Personal top 3 - don't get me started

Originally posted by: Leprechaun

I really feel bad for rambling about East Asian dramas/novels here. I trying to make my text as generic as possible

Mostly I read after the cast is announced or when the shooting starts. So no matter how different the description is from the actor working on the project I put it all behind and enjoy.

There's one of my recent reads (the drama has not aired yet) decided to chop off one of my favorite characters from the book and incorporate it into another existing character. Definitely not happy about this but while reading I did have an image of an actor who could have possibly pulled it through. Yet to discover how angry I'm going to get when I watch the drama when it airs will come back here to update if the thread remains open.

Personal top 3 - don't get me started

@purple: That is the worst! I hate when they do that.

Personal Top 3: Do tell!

It can be a Top 20 if you want

Originally posted by: ExoticDisaster

My top 3

1. Harry Potter Series - like everyone said, books are far better than the movies but movies are nice too.

2. The Notebook

3. PS I love You

About 2 and 3, what more to expect from a Romance Renegade 😜

I have not read the Notebook but have watched the movie.

P.S. I love you ... neither read nor watched. Did you find the movie faithful to the book in both cases?