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61-452: The Transgressors opens with deputy sheriff Tom Lord riding on a Texas road with the town prostitute Joyce Lakewood. They are lovers and Lord treats her more respectfully than any man Joyce has been with but he refuses to marry her. This leads to them alternately trading insults and flirting. As they argue it is made clear that although he talks like a local with little education, Lord is highly educated. He almost completed medical school when he

122-568: A paragraph in his contract stipulating he remained "the only person who could write books about Rambo". This paid off for him when the film producers changed the ending and decided for a sequel . David Morrell accepted to carry out the novelization and negotiated unprecedented liberties which resulted in a likewise unprecedented success when his book entered The New York Times Best Seller list and stayed there for six weeks. Simon Templar or James Bond are examples of media franchises that have been popular for more than one generation. When

183-613: A sequel titled Halo: Ghosts of Onyx . Raymond Benson novelized the original Metal Gear Solid in 2008 and its sequel Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty , while Project Itoh wrote a Japanese language novelization of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots also in 2008 (with an English adaptation later published in 2012). Itoh was set to write novelizations of Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater and Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker , but his death in 2009 resulted in these projects being handed to Beatless author Satoshi Hase and

244-522: A decade". He worked also as a designer of video games. S. D. Perry wrote a series of novels based on the Resident Evil video games and added tie-ins to the novelizations, covering all the mainline titles in the series up until Resident Evil Zero . Eric Nylund introduced a new concept for a novelization when he delivered a trilogy, consisting of a prequel titled Halo: The Fall of Reach , an actual novelization titled Halo: First Strike and

305-448: A film is released, which means it is usually necessary to base the novelization on a screenplay instead of the completed film. It might take an insider to tell whether a novelization diverges unintentionally from the final film because it is based on an earlier version which included deleted scenes. Thus the novelization occasionally presents material which will later on appear in a director's cut . In some cases, separate novelizations of

366-443: A film will buy its novelization. This makes these relatively inexpensively produced works a commercially attractive proposition in the case of blockbuster film franchises. The increasing number of previously established novelists taking on tie-in works has been credited with these works gaining a "patina of respectability" after they had previously been disregarded in literary circles as derivative and mere merchandise. The writer of

427-417: A friend of her husband's from Highlands and also implicates Lord and drives Donna to the shack where Lord is staying. Pellino believes that either Donna will kill Lord or Lord will have to kill Donna in self defense, either way making the focus for McBride's death move away from Highlands to Lord. Donna meets Lord at the remote shack and tells him she has come to kill him. Lord makes jokes rather than claiming he

488-425: A gun on his hip into town Lord confronted him for wearing a gun without a permit. McBride pushed Lord into a storefront. This was the opening Lord was looking for and he quickly pummeled McBride. From that point on McBride was a different man. He never came into Lord's town again but he swore that if he saw Lord outside of Lord's legal jurisdiction he would kill him. Joyce recalls this story as Lord pulls their car off

549-401: A meal Lord prepared for her she succumbs to her exhaustion and falls back into a natural sleep. Lord comes to realize that Pellino has come to town and that the gangster is trying to discretely keep tabs on him. Lord recognizes Pellino from a mug book of known criminals. Lord drives out of town all the time amused that he knows Pellino is following him even though Pellino clearly thinks his prey

610-541: A minor accident. The look on Lord's face after the accident reminds Joyce of another time he had such an intense look and she remembers a feud he had with Aaron McBride, a supervisor for the Highlands Oil and Gas company. There was oil on land that Lord owned and he signed a contract with McBride to have Highlands drill the oil. However, Highlands swindled him by a loophole in the contract. As a result, Lord waited for an opportunity to take revenge on McBride. When McBride wore

671-512: A new writer named Hitori Nojima (a pen name for Kenji Yano) respectively. Kojima would go on to write Metal Gear Solid: Substance (a two-part alternate novelization of the original Metal Gear Solid and Metal Gear Solid 2 ), as well as the novelizations of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain and Death Stranding (a game which he helped write the script for). In some cases an otherwise standard novel may be based on an unfilmed screenplay. Ian Fleming 's 1961 James Bond novel Thunderball

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732-479: A novelization is supposed to multiply the 20,000–25,000 words of a screenplay into at least 60,000 words. Writers usually achieve that by adding description or introspection . Ambitious writers are driven to work on transitions and characters just to accomplish "a more prose-worthy format". Sometimes the "novelizer" invents new scenes in order to give the plot "added dimension", provided they are allowed to do that. Publishers aim to have novelizations in shops before

793-405: A novelization, and so did Isaac Asimov , later in his career. While increasingly also a domain of previously established novelists, tie-in writing still has the disadvantages, from the writers' point of view, of modest pay, tight deadlines and no ownership in the intellectual property created. The International Association of Media Tie-In Writers is an American association that aims to recognize

854-408: A scheme to frame him for the murders they committed. Lord manages to kill Curly but Red has him cornered when a rifle shot comes from nowhere and shoots Red in the arm. Donna refused to follow Lord's order to remain safe in their shack and saves his life. At first Lord is furious with her and they argue some more but eventually he realizes how foolish he is to be angry with someone who saved his life and

915-513: A screenwriter novelizing his own screenplay. Star Wars: From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker was published under the name of George Lucas but his script had been novelized by the prolific tie-in writer Alan Dean Foster . Acquiring editors looking for a novelizer have different issues. The author may not have all of the information needed; Foster wrote the Alien novelization without knowing what

976-434: A thing. Lord realizes that the real killers are coming for him next and tries to get Donna to safety but she stubbornly refuses to leave. He goes out to confront the killers who turn out to be Curly and Red, the two wildcat oil workers whose boss Tom killed. Although they hated McBride, his death and the subsequent troubles with Highldands made it impossible for them to get money and as time went by they blamed Lord and developed

1037-503: Is "largely unrecognized". Writers Guild of America rules require that screenwriters have right of first refusal to write novelizations of their own films, but they rarely do so because of the lack of prestige and money. Some novels blur the line between a novelization and an original novel that is the basis of a film adaptation . Arthur C. Clarke provided the ideas for Stanley Kubrick 's 2001: A Space Odyssey . Based on his own short stories and his cooperation with Kubrick during

1098-412: Is his dead father who was a doctor. As Donna sleeps Lord looks through her handbag and finds a loaded gun which he correctly assumes she purchased to kill her husband's murderer. Donna is appalled when she wakes up and discovers that Lord not only gave her the shot but undressed her and put her to bed. She is alternately enraged and amused by Lord's clownish replies to her questions. Eventually, after eating

1159-406: Is innocent and this infuriates Donna. She shoots Lord at point blank range several times and Lord falls to the floor with agonizing screams. As soon as she fires Donna regrets her decision. She realizes that she's been manipulated to think Lord murdered her husband without any actual evidence. As she weeps over his body Lord jumps up from the floor of the shack and says "Look ma, no holes!". He changed

1220-440: Is made to realize by his associates that he must see that Lord takes the fall for McBride's death. In the meantime, Donna comes to Lord's town attempting to get answers. She ends up at Lord's home, lured in by the doctor's shingle that Lord's great grandfather put on the house and the door which Lord always leaves open. Lord can tell that she is near exhaustion and gives her a shot to make her sleep. As he does so, she assumes Lord

1281-625: Is responsible for finding the East Texas Oil Field in 1930. The term was used in the early oil industry in western Pennsylvania . Oil wells in unproven territory were called "wild cat" wells from mid-1870, and those who drilled them were called "wild-catters" by 1876. For instance, the Titusville Herald noted in 1880: "The discovery of the fluid in New York State was the signal for a general exodus of wildcatters from all parts of

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1342-600: Is still unaware of his presence. Lord takes refuge in a small shack in the Texas desert and notes that Pellino follows him. Meanwhile, Donna wakes up in Lord's home. She finds a humorous note that Lord left her and continues to go from anger to amusement when thinking of him. She is grateful for his kind treatment but angered by his clownish behavior. She leaves Lord's house and talks to sheriff Bradley. Bradley implicates Lord as her husband's murderer. Donna then meets Pellino who masquerades as

1403-424: Is the first novelization of a comic book character. Video games are novelized in the same manner as films. While gamers might enjoy playing a certain action scene for hours, the buyers of a novelization might be bored soon if they merely read about such a scene. Consequently, the writer will have to cut down on the action. Novelization writers are often also accomplished original fiction writers, as well as fans of

1464-521: The Xenomorph looked like. The contract may be very restrictive; Max Allan Collins had to write the novelization for Road to Perdition only based on the film, without the detail he had created for the graphic novel of the same name that the film is based on. Rewrites of scripts may force last-minute novelization rewrites. The script for the 1966 film Modesty Blaise was rewritten by five different authors. The writer or script doctor responsible for

1525-537: The eponymous comic strip . Falk worked on the novelizations on his own and with collaboration. A dispute over how he would be credited led to the cessation of the series. Peter O'Donnell , who scripted the Modesty Blaise comic strip, later authored novels featuring the character not directly based on the stories presented in the strips. Matt Forbeck became a writer of novels based on video games after he had been "writing tabletop roleplaying game books for over

1586-449: The feature film The Saint was released in 1997 the creator of this character ( Leslie Charteris ) had already been dead for four years. Hence its novelization had to be written by another author. Ian Fleming on the other hand had official successors who wrote contemporary "Post-Fleming" James Bond novels . During his tenure John Gardner was consequently chosen to write the novelization of Licence to Kill in 1989 and also

1647-567: The 1850s. Directors of wildcat banks in the Midwest were known as "wild-catters" before Edwin Drake 's discovery of oil in Pennsylvania. Novelization A novelization (or novelisation ) is a derivative novel that adapts the story of a work created for another medium, such as a film , TV series , stage play , comic book , or video game . Film novelizations were particularly popular before

1708-474: The Italian mobsters who actually run the company nervous that their illegal activities associated with Highlands will be discovered. The man really in charge of Highlands is August Pellino. He mistakenly comes down hard on the figurehead boss of Highlands who kills himself as a result. This means there are now two apparent suicides of senior Highlands employees making the mobsters who Pellino reports to nervous. Pellino

1769-451: The advent of home video , but continue to find commercial success as part of marketing campaigns for major films. They are often written by accomplished writers based on an early draft of the film's script and on a tight deadline. Novelizations of films began to be produced in the 1910s and 1920s for silent films such as Les Vampires (1915–16) and London After Midnight (1927). One of the first films with spoken dialogue to be novelized

1830-438: The bullets in her gun to blanks when she was sleeping. Donna believes Lord's story that the death of her husband was a result of Lord defending himself. She is exhausted from her recent C-section and sleeps in Lord's little cabin. Meanwhile, a gunman who isn't identified finds Pellino and takes him to the tool shed for the wildcat well where McBride was killed. He locks Pellino in the shed. Pellino realizes he can easily break down

1891-544: The character appeared in Wild Town , The Killer Inside Me and Pop. 1280 . In Wild Town as in The Transgressors , the sheriff was a heroic figure, a man who though highly intelligent and capable of achieving much more was forced by circumstances to take a job that was beneath his intelligence and who played the fool as a way to fit in with his less educated co-workers. In the novels The Killer Inside Me and Pop. 1280 ,

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1952-426: The court house Bradley calls after him to come back in vain. Bradley's tone goes from pleading to threatening as he tells Lord that he will get no special favors if Bradley is pressed to investigate McBride's death. Lord returns home and goes on an alcoholic bender, remaining drunk for several days. The novel then changes scenes to the story of McBride's young wife Donna and the corruption of Highlands. When her husband

2013-515: The court house where he confesses to his boss sheriff Bradley that he has killed McBride. For quite some time Bradley has had a growing hostility to Lord because it is an open secret that Lord really runs the sheriff's office and the Bradley is just a figurehead. Bradley takes Lord's confession as an opening to come down on him. However, rather than act contrite as Bradley expects, Lord reacts with rage and abruptly quits his job as deputy. As he storms out of

2074-405: The current draft or work already on another film script. Not every screenwriter is available, willing to work for less money than what can be earned with film scripts and able to deliver the required amount of prose on time. Even if so, there is still the matter of novelizations having a questionable reputation. The International Association of Media Tie-In Writers concedes that by saying their craft

2135-659: The door but he decides that is what his assailant is expecting so instead he removes the floor boards and tries to crawl underneath the shed to a spot where he could escape without being seen. However, the shed has a den of rattlesnakes living beneath it. Pellino is attacked by a swarm of snakes and dies in agony from their bites. Pellino's presence in town is soon followed by four other mobsters who have been following Pellino and will kill him and Lord if Pellino fails to. They are all ambushed and killed as they drive out to Lord's shack. Donna thinks that Lord killed these men and Lord exhibits his usual arrogance that she might even think such

2196-404: The enthusiasm they experienced when watching the film. A film is therefore also a sort of commercial for its novelization; the film's success or failure affects the novelization's sales. Conversely, film novelizations help generate publicity for upcoming films, serving as a link in the film's marketing chain. According to publishing industry estimates, about one or two percent of the audience of

2257-458: The film itself is based on an original novel: novelist and screenwriter Christopher Wood wrote a novelization of the James Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me . Although the 1962 Ian Fleming novel was still available in bookstores, its story had nothing to do with the 1977 film. To avoid confusion, Wood's novelization was titled James Bond, The Spy Who Loved Me . This novel is also an example of

2318-428: The film script. For example, he changed the setting from the 1800s old west to present day (1961) Texas, Swedish con men to Italian mobsters, and the ending from a melodramatic death of the protagonist into a happy ending. Rather than killing her husband's killer, she marries him. This generated significant push back from his publisher but ultimately the movie Cloudburst was never filmed which made correspondence between

2379-414: The mounted cat gave its name to the hollow. The same story claims that because the area was largely untested and somewhat away from Oil Creek Flats, the term "wildcatter" was coined to refer to a person who risked drilling for oil in any unproven area. Wildcat was American slang for any risky business venture by 1838, long before the rise of the petroleum industry. An example was the wildcat banking of

2440-432: The novel and the film script irrelevant. However, Thompson still felt push back from his publishers who wanted him to continue the noir fiction style that he had cultivated in previous books rather than to tell a traditional romantic story with a happy ending. The character of the deputy sheriff who plays the fool but is in reality highly intelligent appeared in four of Thompson's novels. In addition to The Transgressors ,

2501-403: The novel ends as they realize they are both in love with each other. The Transgressors started from a contract Thompson received to write a novelization of a movie. The movie was to be titled Cloudburst and was about a woman in the old American west who sets out to find her husband's murderer and ends up falling in love with him. Thompson began writing the novel but he changed major parts of

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2562-497: The novelization of GoldenEye in 1995 . John Gardner found his successor in Raymond Benson who wrote besides several original Bond novels three novelizations including The World Is Not Enough . While comic books such as the series Classics Illustrated have often provided adaptations of novels, novelizations of comics are relatively rare. The Adventures of Superman , written by George Lowther and published in 1942,

2623-473: The oil country ..." According to tradition, the origin of the term in the petroleum industry comes from Wildcat Hollow, now in Oil Creek State Park near Titusville , Pennsylvania . Wildcat Hollow was one of the many productive fields in the early oil era. An old story claims that a speculator who was drilling in this narrow valley shot a wildcat, had it stuffed, and set it atop his derrick, and that

2684-418: The original novel is generally reissued with a cover based on the film's poster. If a film company also wishes to have a separate novelization published, the company is supposed to approach the author who has "Separated Rights". A writer has these rights if he contributed the source material (or added a great deal of creative input to it) and if he was moreover properly credited. Novelizations also exist where

2745-480: The original. The novel was released a year before the film and unlike the film it had sequels. Frederick Forsyth 's 1979 novel The Devil's Alternative was based on an unfilmed script he had written. Cormac McCarthy 's 2005 novel No Country for Old Men was adapted from a screenplay the author wrote. This allowed the Coen brothers to stick "almost word for word" faithfully to the book when adapting it back into

2806-408: The preparation and making of this film adaptation he wrote the film novelization of the same name which is appreciated by fans because the film provides little exposition , and the novelization fills in some blanks. David Morrell wrote the novel First Blood about John Rambo , which led to the film adaptation of the same name . Although Rambo dies at the end of his original story, Morrell had

2867-495: The road. They are in the middle of the desert but Lord spots a wildcat well near by. As they walk towards the well Joyce and Lord see a sign indicating it is a Highlands well supervised by McBride. Joyce tries to dissuade Lord from approaching it but he uses his mock ignorant humor to deflect her pleas. As they approach the well they are greeted by two Highlands workers named Curly and Red who know Lord. They help him repair his car and are almost finished when McBride comes to supervise

2928-452: The same film are written for publication in different countries, and these may be based on different drafts of the screenplay, as was very clearly the case with the American and British novelizations of Capricorn One . Writers select different approaches to enrich a screenplay. Dewey Gram's Gladiator , for example, included historical background information. If a film is based on a novel,

2989-416: The sheriff was a sociopath who used his clowning and the fact that people assumed he was a fool as a way to manipulate others and get away with crimes including multiple murders. The sheriff character was partly inspired by Thompson's father who was also a sheriff and who was an expert at manipulating people. Also, like the character Thompson's father put on a veneer of a friendly easy going man but underneath

3050-519: The short story adaptations. Alan Dean Foster would later adapt the follow-up animated series into the Star Trek Log series. Mel Gilden wrote novelizations of Beverly Hills, 90210 , merging three episodes into one book. As he explained, this approach required him to look for a joint story arc . In the early 1970s Lee Falk was asked by the Avon publishing house to deliver Phantom novels based on

3111-638: The site. On seeing Lord McBride is overcome with rage. McBride pulls his gun. Lord never carries a gun so he rushes toward McBride hoping to disarm him before he can fire. The two struggle and McBride is shot and killed. Curly, Red, and Joyce all tell Lord that they will support him and corroborate that Lord acted in self defense. Lord thinks that their testimony will not be believed since they are all known to be his friends. Instead he asks them to simply say nothing unless they are questioned and to let McBride's body be discovered by some other Highlands employee. Lord drops Joyce off at her home and then goes directly to

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3172-434: The so-called "final" version is not necessarily the artist who has contributed the original idea or most of the scenes. The patchwork character of a film script might even exacerbate because the film director , a principal actor or a consulting script doctor does rewrites during the shooting. An acquiring editor who intends to hire one of the credited screenwriters has to reckon that the early writers are no longer familiar with

3233-402: The works they adapt, which helps motivate them to undertake a commission that is generally compensated with a relatively low flat fee. Alan Dean Foster , for example, said that, as a fan, "I got to make my own director's cut. I got to fix the science mistakes, I got to enlarge on the characters, if there was a scene I particularly liked, I got to do more of it, and I had an unlimited budget. So it

3294-409: The writers of adapted and tie-in fiction . It hands out annual awards, the "Scribes", in categories including "best adapted novel". Doctor Who had stories novelised in particular from the era of its original series published by Target Books. Episodes of Star Trek were adapted into short stories by the noted science fiction writer James Blish . Each volume of the stories included a number of

3355-422: Was King Kong (1933). Film novelizations were especially profitable during the 1970s before home video became available, as they were then the only way to re-experience popular movies other than television airing or a rerelease in theaters. The novelizations of Star Wars (1977), Alien (1979) and Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979) sold millions of copies. The first ever video game to be novelised

3416-425: Was Shadowkeep , in 1984. Even after the advent of home video, film novelizations remain popular, with the adaptation of Godzilla (2014) being included on The New York Times Best Seller list for mass-market paperbacks. This has been attributed to these novels' appeal to fans: about 50% of novelizations are sold to people who have watched the film and want to explore its characters further, or to reconnect to

3477-402: Was based on a script he had co-written; in this case his collaborators subsequently sued for plagiarism. Peter O'Donnell's novel Modesty Blaise was a novelization of a refused film script. In this case the creator of the main character had written the script alone, but later on other authors had changed O'Donnell's original script over and over, until merely one single sentence remained from

3538-442: Was forced to drop out to care for his sick father. His father lingered on for years requiring Lord's full-time care and as a temporary way to bring in money Lord took a job as a deputy sheriff. The job turned out to be permanent as by the time his father passed away Lord felt he was too old to return to school and he uses his clownish yokel way of talking to blend in with the rest of the men in the sheriff's office. Joyce and Lord have

3599-680: Was fun". Writing skill is particularly needed for challenging situations common to writing novelizations of popular media, such as lack of access to information about the film, last-minute script changes and very quick turnaround times. Collins had to write the novelization of In the Line of Fire in nine days. Although novelizations tend to have a low prestige, and are often viewed as "hackwork", several critically acclaimed literary authors have written novelizations, including Arthur Calder-Marshall , William Kotzwinkle and Richard Elman . Best-selling author Ken Follett , early in his career, also wrote

3660-585: Was highly cynical and almost misanthropic in his view of humanity. The sheriff character was also partly inspired by an experience Thompson had with an actual deputy who arrested him when he neglected to pay a fine for being drunk and disturbing the peace. Wildcat well A wildcatter is an individual who drills wildcat wells , which are exploration oil wells drilled in areas not known to be oil fields . Notable wildcatters include Glenn McCarthy , Thomas Baker Slick Sr. , Mike Benedum , Joe Trees , Clem S. Clarke , and Columbus Marion Joiner ; Joiner

3721-476: Was killed Donna was already in the hospital having a C-section for what would be her first child with McBride. While in the hospital Donna received the news that her child died after the procedure and then that her husband is dead. Donna doesn't believe that her husband committed suicide and goes to various people in Highlands demanding an investigation. She receives no satisfaction from Highlands but her demands make

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