Adaptations

It’s not hard, or at least, it shouldn’t be when you have 100 million + dollars to fling around.

So why so much failure?

Because “Hollywood,” as the collection of producers etc. that run the business, doesn’t care a lick about the stories that they adapt. They adapt things like books and movies for two reasons:

  1. There is already a built-in fanbase (in other words, some guarantee on a return on investment).
  2. The key elements of the story have already been filtered in the free market to have wide appeal. In other words, the book was already successful, so a movie with the same key elements ought to be as well.

Where they actually “fail” is probably with point number 2, though whether they “fail” at all is debatable, considering the point of making the movie is not to adapt a beloved story, but rather to make money and continue the messaging the industry heads care about.

In fact, the movie being “good” isn’t really a prerequisite at all, just as proper adaptation is not. People will see whatever crap they throw on screen and they know this, particularly if it is an adaptation of a beloved book franchise that has message boards full of fans fantasizing about who they would cast in the movie adaptation.

So your favorite book gets a screen option because it’s already very popular. It gets tossed to a producer and a director who have the seniority for an easy return project, but they either hate the source material or don’t care about it all. In fact, they would prefer to just make their own movie, so that’s exactly what they do.

They know you’ll see it anyway. Hell, you’ll probably watch it several times.

Do you really think leftist filmmakers care about Conan, the personification of their vision of “Toxic Masculinity” – rugged, strong, violent, attractive, assertive, and above all, heroic?

No, they hate Conan, which is why a Netflix adaptation of Conan is virtually guaranteed to be awful, that is if you actually like Robert E. Howard and his characters. They also hate the people who like Conan – namely you – and they hate them because those people like Conan.

However, they do love money, so they will happily take a check to “adapt” Conan, and they might see an extra opportunity – to message to the people they hate about how bad they are for liking Conan and his toxic ways. It’s a two-for-one deal.

WHY DO YOU CARE?

Seriously, folks, if you feel like this article is directed toward you (since I am mentioning “you” frequently), it probably is. It doesn’t have to be that way, though.

Where I sit now, I do not understand why people want a cabal of leftists who hate them and the things they love to adapt any work of fiction to film. As I’ve said before, the book is always better, so skip the movie and read the book instead.

As long as you are willing to plop down your money for bad adaptations of classic works, you will continue to get them.

As author and editor Brian Niemeier points out, the first step is to STOP GIVING MONEY TO PEOPLE WHO HATE YOU.

The second step is to support the things you love, especially if they are out of the mainstream.

Lastly, you can be the change you want by stepping into the creative ring yourself. I wrote a book on how everyday people can establish a creative process that will yield BIG results over time.

3 Comments

  1. Aaron Shufflebarger

    Hollywood relies on the successes of source materials to generate interest for their big screen adaptations, but then they ignore or otherwise butcher everything that made the source materials successful.

    For a long time I thought an ignorance of audience was the culprit. I thought the bigwigs were just out of touch or delusional. Maybe that’s part of it, but it’s becoming increasingly clearer that they just don’t care. As you say, why worry about if you’re making money anyway?

  2. Considering what has happened to movie theaters with the economic crisis manufactured out of the casedemic, the demise of Hollywood may be closer than we think. Are people really gonna pay $25 to watch a movie at home, just because it’s a new release? I doubt it.

  3. Pingback: Becoming the Broken Record | Nixon Now

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