Book to movie adaptations

A brief history

Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Little Women, and To Kill a Mockingbird are just some of the famous literary works that Hollywood took and turned into some of the notable feature films of our times. One of my goals this year was to read as many books as movies that I end up seeing. Right now (at time of writing) I’m at one movie and one book, so off to a good start! If you want and are on either of these sites, then feel free to add me on GoodReads or Letterboxd and make sure to hold me accountable so I can reach that goal! With all that said, I just thought it could be a cool article about the brief history of Hollywood adapting books to the silver screen and some of the more notable adaptations over the decades.

To start all the way back at the beginning, we need to go back in time two centuries to the year 1899. Georges Méliès a French filmmaker would go on to adapt not one, but two stories into “movies”. Those being Cinderella (a story adapted many times) and King John. Méliès would go on just a few years later to make his most famous film (another book adaptation) A Trip to the Moon.

All of those were incredibly short movies, under 20 minutes in total runtime, so shorter than your average show on streaming today. The first feature length film to be made out a of a book adaptation was that of Cecile B. DeMille and his 1914 film, The Squaw Man. From there the flood gates would be nothing but opened in directors and producers favorite way to make a movie, adapting the work of someone who had already done 90% of the work for them. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and Bram Stoker’s Dracula alone have been adapted over 150 times between the two of them.

Before we get into some of the more famous book to film adaptations, here are some cool firsts in the genre. All Quiet on the Western Front was the first movie that was adapted from a book to win Best Picture at the Oscars. In total 49 of 96 Best Picture winners given out have been to movies that were first books. Jurassic Park is technically (after re-releases) the first film adapted from a book to earn 1 billion dollars at the worldwide box office. I counted 10-11 films total that were adapted or loosely adapted from books in total that have crossed a billion dollars (out of 55 currently). That number could shoot way up if you wanted to include comic books, but for the sake of this article, I will not be. And author wise, William Shakespeare stands above all with a reported, 1121 movies or t.v shows based off his works. Agatha Christy and Stephen King come in at a distant but respectable 2nd and 3rd.

Let’s start with Mr. King and a time one of his books that was adapted for the big screen in the early 80’s. As said above, Stephen King is one of the more well renown authors in the Hollywood sphere, and most of the time he is incredibly supportive of whatever movie or show is coming out. The Monkey (February 21st) is his next story turned into a feature, and I recently read that Stephen said that it was excellent and definitely worth seeing. I feel like an author is always going to stand by their works on the big screen, even if the final product leaves a lot to be desired. But there is one Stephen King adaptation that he famously disowned, said was horrible, and that no one should see. It also turns out to be his most famous movie, The Shining. It isn’t the most accurate depiction of what King wrote in the book, but I think it is pretty undeniable that Stanley Kubrick made an all time great movie. I’m excited to read the book around Halloween and see the differences myself!

Also being someone in their 20’s, I think I speak for most people when I say that Harry Potter is probably the most influential of the books and adaptations that have been made in our lifetime. The movies were and still to this day are wildly successful and the books even more so. J.K Rowling is a polarizing figure to put it politely, but she does write a good series that captured the minds of generations and then turned it into the third highest film series of all time. Warner Brothers and HBO are now working on a television show, that will have each season cover a book, and devote more time. No spells needed, as it should definitely entrance Harry Potter fans all over the world to tune in!

Speaking for myself one of the adaptations I was most surprised to love was Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women (2019). Sometimes you see a preview or a synopsis for a movie and just think, that isn’t really something that I’m interested in seeing, because I can’t really relate. I know that is something I thought of Little Women, but I’ll be damned, because it was an incredibly relatable and just all around amazing story. So this is just one that I think holds true to that old saying, you really can’t judge a book by its cover.

Last year alone we had three of the more high profile releases be based off books. The first being Frank Herbert’s Dune (Dune 2) which is something you could argue inspired George Lucas to make Star Wars. And the second being something that you can’t avoid if you try to go on the internet and that is Colleen Hoover’s It Ends with Us. Last but certainly not least, you have Wicked, which of course is an imaging of the Oz books. This upcoming year you have some more fun book to movie adaptations to look forward to. Those including, Mickey17, the end to the Wicked saga, and not one, but two adaptations of Frankenstein with Frankenstein and The Bride!. So a lot to look forward to for readers and cinema-goers alike.

I think if there was a complaint about the book to movie adaptation, it would be that most people say that the book is always better. I think that can both definitely be very true and also be very untrue, just depending on what book it is. I’m reading Brett Easton Ellis book, American Psycho right now, and I don’t love the movie, but the book is a pretty frustrating read and hard to get into. So I appreciate that the movie cut a lot of the fat and filler out of its runtime. And then you have stuff like The Goldfinch which was a very well regarded book and then the movie came out and it was utter trash. So I guess it really just depends on who is the one adapting the book at the end of the day.

THANK YOU as always for reading to this point, and let me know down below what your favorite book to movie adaptations are! Until next time