Misplaced Pages

#925074

54-489: Kaufman said in 2016 that the novel was being written so as to be unfilmable , and is itself about "an impossible movie." Neurotic failed film critic B. Rosenberger Rosenberg stumbles upon what may be the greatest artistic achievement in human history: a three-month-long film, complete with scheduled sleeping, eating, and bathroom breaks, that took its reclusive auteur, a psychotic African-American man named Ingo Cutbirth, 90 years to complete. B. makes it his mission to show it to

108-452: A dialogic process . While the most common form of film adaptation is the use of a novel as the basis, other works adapted into films include non-fiction (including journalism), autobiographical works, comic books, scriptures, plays, historical sources and even other films. Adaptation from such diverse resources has been a ubiquitous practice of filmmaking since the earliest days of cinema in nineteenth-century Europe. In contrast to when making

162-686: A 1996 New York Times article by Darcy Frey). An Inconvenient Truth is Al Gore 's film adaptation of his own Keynote multimedia presentation. The 2011 independent comedy film, Benjamin Sniddlegrass and the Cauldron of Penguins was based on Kermode and Mayo's Film Review of Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief . Films adapted from songs include Coward of the County , Ode to Billy Joe , Convoy , and Pretty Baby (each from

216-426: A Lesser God (1986), Glengarry Glen Ross (1992), Real Women Have Curves (2002), Rabbit Hole (2010), and Fences (2016). On one hand, theatrical adaptation does not involve as many interpolations or elisions as novel adaptation, but on the other, the demands of scenery and possibilities of motion frequently entail changes from one medium to the other. Film critics will often mention if an adapted play has

270-532: A characters' costume or set decor) since they are not specified in the original material. Then, the influence of film-makers may go unrecognized because there is no comparison in the original material even though the new visual identities will affect narrative interpretation. Peter Jackson 's adaptations of The Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Hobbit by author JRR Tolkien represent an unusual case since many visual and stylistic details were specified by Tolkien. For

324-919: A featured adaptive addition (film versions of "procedurals" such as Miami Vice are most inclined to such additions as featured adaptations) – South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut is a notable example of a film being more explicit than its parent TV series. At the same time, some theatrically released films are adaptations of television miniseries events. When national film boards and state-controlled television networks co-exist, filmmakers can sometimes create very long films for television that they may adapt solely for time for theatrical release. Both Ingmar Bergman (notably with Fanny and Alexander but with other films as well) and Lars von Trier have created long television films that they then recut for international distribution. Even segments of television series have been adapted into feature films. The American television sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live has been

378-437: A goal of "accuracy" is absurd. Others argue that what a film adaptation does is change to fit (literally, adapt), and the film must be accurate to the effect (aesthetics), the theme, or the message of a novel and that the filmmaker must introduce changes, if necessary, to fit the demands of time and to maximize faithfulness along one of those axes. In most cases adaptation, the films are required to create identities (for example,

432-505: A literary text, a specific sound effect can often be implied or specified by an event, but in the process of adaptation, filmmakers must determine specific the sound characteristics that subliminally affects narrative interpretation. In some cases of adaptation, music may have been specified in the original material (usually diegetic music). In Stephenie Meyer 's 2005 Twilight novel, the characters Edward Cullen and Bella Swan both listen to Debussy's Clair de lune and Edward composes

486-448: A musical film. Feature films are occasionally created from television series or television segments, or vice versa, a television series will derive from a film, such as in the case of Bates Motel and Chucky . In the former, the film will offer a longer storyline than the usual television program's format and/or expanded production values. During the 1970s, many UK television series were turned into films including Dad's Army , On

540-620: A novel form (although the novel version of The Third Man was written more to aid in the development of the screenplay than for the purposes of being released as a novel). Both John Sayles and Ingmar Bergman write their film ideas as novels before they begin producing them as films, although neither director has allowed these prose treatments to be published. Finally, films have inspired and been adapted into plays. John Waters 's films have been successfully mounted as plays; both Hairspray and Cry-Baby have been adapted, and other films have spurred subsequent theatrical adaptations. Spamalot

594-461: A parody of the parasitical nature of criticism soon metastasizes into a grab bag of long-standing Kaufman motifs and themes...This proves a mixed blessing, as B himself is such a relentlessly broad caricature that he makes the cadaverous restaurant critic in Ratatouille seem nuanced." The book was longlisted for The Center for Fiction 's First Novel Prize . Unfilmability Unfilmability

SECTION 10

#1733086315926

648-403: A remake, movie directors usually take more creative liberties when creating a film adaptation. In 1924, Erich von Stroheim attempted a literal adaptation of Frank Norris 's novel McTeague with his film Greed . The resulting film was 9½ hours long, and was cut to four hours at studio insistence. It was then cut again (without Stroheim's input) to around two hours. The result was a film that

702-446: A retelling of Hamlet ), Omkara (2006, based on Othello ) and Maqbool (2003, based on Macbeth ). Another way in which Shakespearean texts have been incorporated in films is to feature characters who are either actors performing those texts or characters who are somehow influenced or effected by seeing one of Shakespeare's plays, within a larger non-Shakespearean story. Generally, Shakespeare's basic themes or certain elements of

756-463: A screenplay for Sin City but utilized actual panels from writer/artist Frank Miller's series as storyboards to create what Rodriguez regards as a "translation" rather than an adaptation. Furthermore, some films based on long-running franchises use particular story lines from the franchise as a basis for a plot. The second X-Men film was loosely based on the graphic novel X-Men: God Loves, Man Kills and

810-463: A song of the same name). Films based on toys include the Transformers franchise and the G.I. Joe films; there is a longer history of animated television series being created simultaneous to toy lines as a marketing tool. Hasbro's plans to for films based on their board games began with 2012's Battleship . While amusement park rides have often been based on action movies, conversely the 1967 Pirates of

864-433: A source for film adaptations such as Roberta (1951), Dyesebel (1953), Ang Panday (1980), Bituing Walang Ningning (1985) and Mars Ravelo's Bondying: The Little Big Boy (1989). In the early 2000s, blockbusters such as X-Men (2000) and Spider-Man (2002) have led to dozens of superhero films. The success of these films has also led to other comic books not necessarily about superheroes being adapted for

918-454: A static camera or emulates a proscenium arch. Laurence Olivier consciously imitated the arch with his Henry V (1944), having the camera begin to move and to use color stock after the prologue, indicating the passage from physical to imaginative space. Sometimes, the adaptive process can continue after one translation. Mel Brooks' The Producers began as a film in 1967, was adapted into a Broadway musical in 2001, and then adapted again in 2005 as

972-567: A theoretical argument against adaptation, based on the idea that if there is "an organic connection between form and content in every art" then it must be concluded that "one may perhaps make a good film out of a bad novel, but never out of a good one". With the rise of prestigious and well-funded TV series in what is considered a Golden Age of Television in the 21st century, some works previously considered unfilmable have undergone visual adaptations. Among works long considered unfilmable that have ultimately been successfully filmed are The Lord of

1026-426: A virus invented by a sapient ant living in the distant future. Review aggregator Book Marks reports seven rave reviews and seven positive reviews out of a total of 18, signifying that the book received a positive critical reception. Matthew Specktor writing for The New York Times praised the novel for its surrealism and humor, writing: "It must be said that, by any standard—and even for someone who remembers

1080-417: Is Kaufman pushing himself to every formal and social limit, no holds barred, bleak and devastating, yet marvelous." Chief film critic of The Guardian Peter Bradshaw wrote, "[Kaufman] may be someone for whom anxiety and sadness are a personal ordeal, but he transforms them into bleak, stark, unearthly monuments to comic despair." In a review for Slate , Laura Miller wrote: "What at first appears to be

1134-463: Is a type of medium specificity which prevents a work of literature from undergoing successful film or television adaptation. A wide variety of considerations can lead to a work being seen as unfilmable. These include aesthetic conventions, audience expectations, technological limitations and ethical or political considerations. In his Theory of the Film , Béla Balázs discussed (but ultimately rejected)

SECTION 20

#1733086315926

1188-415: Is an estranged filmmaker whose work receives negative reviews from her father, who prefers both ultra-obscure experimental films and the works of Judd Apatow . His attempts to mentally reconstruct the three-month movie send him to a wide variety of psychiatrists and hypnotists, most notably the sinister Barassini, whose work begins to have perverse effects on his body. He finds himself beginning to shrink, and

1242-426: Is constantly falling down manholes. He becomes addicted to ketamine, and develops a clown fetish . At one point plastic surgery is conducted on him without his consent. He is forced to pursue careers selling shoes at Zappos and working in a laundromat to impress a woman. His knowledge of film is seemingly deteriorating, as he constantly and surreally misquotes and misremembers movies. Several other plotlines concern

1296-402: Is essential and practically unavoidable, mandated both by the constraints of time and medium, but how much is always a balance. Some film theorists have argued that a director should be entirely unconcerned with the source, as a novel is a novel and a film is a film, and the two works of art must be seen as separate entities. Since a transcription of a novel into film is impossible, even holding up

1350-459: The Harry Potter film series , author JK Rowling was closely consulted by the filmmakers, and she provided production designer Stuart Craig with a map of Hogwarts ' grounds and also prevented director Alfonso Cuarón from adding a graveyard scene because the graveyard would appear elsewhere in a later novel. An often overlooked aspect of film adaptation is the inclusion of sound and music. In

1404-500: The St. Augustine Monster ; a war fought between android clones of Donald Trump and a fast food restaurant, Slammy's; a murder attempt by Abbott and Costello on a rival comedy team, Mudd and Molloy, which is depicted in Cutbirth's film; and several forms of time travel, including by a precognitive meteorologist, clones of other characters (including Trump and a more financially successful B.), and

1458-504: The third film on the storyline " The Dark Phoenix Saga ". Spider-Man 2 was based on the storyline "Spider-Man No More!" Likewise, Batman Begins owes many of its elements to Miller's Batman: Year One and the film's sequel, The Dark Knight , uses subplots from Batman: The Long Halloween . The Marvel Cinematic Universe starting in 2008 is a shared universe with films combining characters from different works by Marvel Comics . The DC Extended Universe starting in 2013 uses

1512-454: The Bible have been adapted frequently. Homer's works have been adapted multiple times in several nations. In these cases, the audience already knows the story well, and so the adaptation will de-emphasize elements of suspense and concentrate instead on detail and phrasing. Many major film award programs present an award for adapted screenplays, separate from the award for original screenplays. In

1566-496: The Buses , Steptoe and Son and Porridge . In 1979, The Muppet Movie was a big success. In the adaptation of The X-Files to film, greater effects and a longer plotline were involved. Additionally, adaptations of television shows will offer the viewer the opportunity to see the television show's characters without broadcast restrictions. These additions (nudity, profanity, explicit drug use, and explicit violence) are only rarely

1620-617: The Caribbean ride at Disneyland was adapted into Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl in 2003. Remakes and film sequels are technically adaptations of the original film. Less direct derivations include The Magnificent Seven from The Seven Samurai , Star Wars from The Hidden Fortress , and 12 Monkeys from La Jetée . Many films have been made from mythology and religious texts. Both Greek mythology and

1674-890: The Galaxy began as a radio series for the BBC and then became a novel that was adapted to film . American comic book characters, particularly superheroes , have long been adapted into film, beginning in the 1940s with Saturday movie serials aimed at children. Superman (1978) and Batman (1989) are two later successful movie adaptations of famous comic book characters. In the Philippines, superhero comics have been adapted numerous times into films such as Darna (1951), Captain Barbell (1964), and Lastik Man (1965). In addition, comics of various genres other than those involving superheroes such as romance, fantasy and drama have widely been used as

Antkind - Misplaced Pages Continue

1728-472: The Rings , Dune , Watchmen , Gerald's Game , and American Psycho . This article related to film or motion picture terminology is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Film adaptation A film adaptation is the transfer of a work or story, in whole or in part, to a feature film. Although often considered a type of derivative work, film adaptation has been conceptualized recently by academic scholars such as Robert Stam as

1782-502: The Van (2015). Similarly, hit Broadway plays are often adapted into films, whether from musicals or dramas. Some examples of American film adaptations based on successful Broadway plays are Arsenic and Old Lace (1944), Born Yesterday (1950), Harvey (1950), A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), The Odd Couple (1968), The Boys in the Band (1970), Agnes of God (1985), Children of

1836-422: The back story and “spirit” of the character instead of adapting a particular storyline. Occasionally, aspects of the characters and their origins are simplified or modernized. Self-contained graphic novels, and miniseries many of which do not feature superheroes, can be adapted more directly, such as in the case of Road to Perdition (2002) or V for Vendetta (2006). In particular, Robert Rodriguez did not use

1890-428: The big screen, such as Ghost World (2001), From Hell (2001), American Splendor (2003), Sin City (2005), 300 (2007), Wanted (2008), and Whiteout (2009). The adaptation process for comics is different from that of novels. Many successful comic book series last for several decades and have featured several variations of the characters in that time. Films based on such series usually try to capture

1944-571: The case of a film which was adapted from an unpublished work, however, different awards have different rules around which category the screenplay qualifies for. In 1983, the Canadian Genie Awards rescinded the Best Adapted Screenplay award they had presented to the film Melanie when they learned that the original work had been unpublished; and in 2017, the film Moonlight , which was adapted from an unpublished theatrical play,

1998-424: The early 1980s. Developers are usually limited by what they can do with the film property, and may be further limited in time as to produce the game in time for the release of the film or other work. Films closely related to the computer and video game industries were also done in this time, such as Tron , Cloak & Dagger , Wreck-It Ralph , Pixels , Ready Player One and Free Guy but only after

2052-527: The films as they appear in theatres. Novelization can build up characters and incidents for commercial reasons (e.g. to market a card or computer game, to promote the publisher's "saga" of novels, or to create continuity between films in a series) There have been instances of novelists who have worked from their own screenplays to create novels at nearly the same time as a film. Both Arthur C. Clarke , with 2001: A Space Odyssey , and Graham Greene , with The Third Man , have worked from their own film ideas to

2106-514: The novel The Orchid Thief , was an intentional satire and commentary on the process of film adaptation itself. All of those are cases of Nathaniel Hawthorne's point. The creators of the Gulliver's Travels miniseries interpolated a sanity trial to reflect the ongoing scholarly debate over whether or not Gulliver himself is sane at the conclusion of Book IV. In those cases, adaptation is a form of criticism and recreation as well as translation. Change

2160-574: The origin of a number of films, beginning with The Blues Brothers , which began as a one-off performance by Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi . Radio narratives have also provided the basis of film adaptation. In the heyday of radio, radio segments were often translated to film, usually as shorts. Radio series turned into film series include Dr. Christian , Crime Doctor and The Whistler . Dialog-heavy stories and fantastic stories from radio were also adapted to film (e.g. Fibber McGee and Molly and The Life of Riley ). The Hitchhiker's Guide to

2214-434: The piece Bella's Lullaby for Bella. While Clair de lune was a pre-existing piece of music, Bella's Lullaby was not and required original music to be composed for the 2008 movie adaptation . In the 2016 sci-fi film 2BR02B: To Be or Naught to Be adapted from the story by Kurt Vonnegut , the film-makers decided to abandon Vonnegut's choice of music. They stated that they felt that it worked in his prose only because it

Antkind - Misplaced Pages Continue

2268-765: The play at all. In Britain, where stage plays tend to be more popular as a form of entertainment than currently in the United States, many films began as a stage productions. Some British films and British/American collaborations that were based on successful British plays include Gaslight (1940), Blithe Spirit (1945), Rope (1948), Look Back in Anger (1959), Oh! What a Lovely War (1969), Sleuth (1972), The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975), Shirley Valentine (1989), The Madness of King George (1994), The History Boys (2006), Quartet (2012), and The Lady in

2322-400: The plot will parallel the main plot of the film or become part of a character's development in some way. Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet are the two plays which have most often been used in this way. Éric Rohmer 's 1992 film Conte d'hiver ( A Tale of Winter ) is one example. Rohmer uses one scene from Shakespeare's A Winter's Tale as a major plot device within a story that is not based on

2376-458: The release of several films based on well-known brands has this genre become recognized in its own right. While documentary films have often been made from journalism and reportage, so too have some dramatic films, including: All the President's Men (1976, adapted from the 1974 book); Miracle, (2004, from an account published shortly after the 1980 "miracle on ice"); and Pushing Tin (1999, from

2430-482: The rest of humanity. But the film is destroyed when he stops for a soda, leaving just a single frame from which B. must somehow attempt to recall the film that might just be the last great hope of civilization. The novel grows to encompass a vast array of concepts and plotlines. B. is obsessed with proving his politically correct bona fides, boasting of his relationship with a Black sitcom star and his constant use of an uncommon non-binary pronoun , "thon". His daughter

2484-555: The role, Helen became a significant part of the film. However, characters are also sometimes invented to provide the narrative voice. There have been several notable cases of massive inventive adaptation, including the Roland Joffe adaptation of The Scarlet Letter with explicit sex between Hester Prynn and the minister and Native American obscene puns into a major character and the film's villain. The Charlie Kaufman and "Donald Kaufman" penned Adaptation , credited as an adaptation of

2538-449: The same model for DC Comics . The highest-grossing and most profitable comic book adaptations are Avengers: Endgame (2019) and Joker (2019), respectively. A video game adaptation is primarily a film that is based on a video game , usually incorporating elements of the game's plot or gameplay, beginning in the mid-1980s. Tie-in video games with films or other properties have existed since home consoles and arcade games of

2592-469: The shock of Kaufman’s work when it was passed around Hollywood as unproduced samizdat in the 1990s— Antkind is an exceptionally strange book. It is also an exceptionally good one." Anita Felicelli of the Los Angeles Review of Books praised Kaufman's storytelling, calling it "a thrilling first novel trying to assume the form of consciousness itself, with all its digressions and delusions ... Antkind

2646-405: The source material at all. Given the anticipated audience for a film, the screenwriter, director or movie studio may wish to increase character time or to invent new characters. For example, William J. Kennedy's Pulitzer Prize -winning novel Ironweed included a short appearance by a prostitute named Helen. Because the film studio anticipated a female audience for the film and had Meryl Streep for

2700-624: Was adapted from Romeo and Juliet , with its first incarnation as a Broadway musical play that opened in 1957. The animated film The Lion King (1994) was inspired by Hamlet as well as various traditional African myths, and 2001's O was based on Othello . Film adaptations of Shakespeare's works in languages other than English are numerous, including Akira Kurosawa's films Throne of Blood (1957, an epic film version of Macbeth ), The Bad Sleep Well (1960, inspired by Hamlet ) and Ran (1985, based on King Lear ); and Vishal Bhardwaj 's "Shakespearean trilogy" consisting of Haider (2014,

2754-560: Was classified and nominated as an adapted screenplay by some awards but as an original screenplay by others. When a film's screenplay is original, it can also be the source of derivative works such as novels and plays. For example, movie studios will commission novelizations of their popular titles or sell the rights to their titles to publishing houses. These novelized films will frequently be written on assignment and sometimes written by authors who have only an early script as their source. Consequently, novelizations are quite often changed from

SECTION 50

#1733086315926

2808-513: Was largely incoherent. Since that time, few directors have attempted to put everything in a novel into a film. Therefore, elision is all but essential. In some cases, film adaptations also interpolate scenes or invent characters. This is especially true when a novel is part of a literary saga. Incidents or quotations from later or earlier novels will be inserted into a single film. Additionally and far more controversially, filmmakers will invent new characters or create stories that were not present in

2862-663: Was not actually heard. Filmmakers' test screenings found that Vonnegut's style of music confused audiences and detracted from narrative comprehension. The film's composer, Leon Coward , stated, "You can try to be as true to Vonnegut's material as possible, but at the end of the day also you’re working with the material that you as a team have generated, not just Vonnegut's, and that’s what you've got to make work." Stage plays are frequent sources for film adaptations. Many of William Shakespeare 's plays, including Hamlet , Romeo and Juliet , and Othello , have been adapted into films. The first sound adaptation of any Shakespeare play

2916-549: Was the 1929 production of The Taming of the Shrew , starring Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks . It was later adapted as both a musical play called Kiss Me, Kate , which opened on Broadway in 1948, and as the 1953 Hollywood musical of the same name . The Taming of the Shrew was again retold in 1999 as a teen comedy set in a high school in 10 Things I Hate about You , and also in 2003 as an urban romantic comedy, Deliver Us from Eva . The 1961 musical film West Side Story

#925074