Movies based on books seem to be all the rage in recent years. A greater number of movies from books have been coming to theaters and attracting existing readers of the book the film is based on. These films are often known as adaptions (sometimes referred to as movies based on books).
Yet another type of books that are movies (more accurately called books from movies) is a novelization, which is in essence the opposite of a film adaption. A book is created after the script is written and thus the script is “novelized” for another group of fans.
Often times a movie studio hires a screenplay writer to compose a script for a film. Once the screenplay is complete, or often times when the screenplay is still getting developed, the production company might employ the services of an author to create a novelization of the screenplay. The function of this is normally for advertising and extending the audience for that tale to a bigger spectrum of prospective fans.
The problem about writing novelizations would be that often times it is hard to transform a tale that was at first a script to a novel. In a movie you do not attain as many inner thoughts, and in addition the descriptions of locales and characters are not as vibrant. If the author of the novel didn’t initially visualize the world, it is often hard to adapt the movie script to a novel, meanwhile trying to keep the tale solid, not uneven, and most of all pleasurable.
And so there are movies from books and there are books from movies. Yet which one is best? Well, that’s a tricky debate. Almost always however the original form the project was made in will be superior compared to its adaptation.
Which means if the book was written originally and afterwards a film based upon the book was produced, often the novel is far better. In contrast if the screenplay was prepared initially, then the book was made from the screenplay, the movie could very well be better. You will have of course exceptions, but in most cases that is how it normally happens.
In combination with adaptions & novelizations, there’s tie-in versions as well. Such editions generally consist of the identical text that the initial book had, yet the cover photos are updated to match the movie adaption and “tie-in” the novel to its film.
No matter whether the story was originally created by an author or a screenplay writer, essentially the process is about morphing a story to a new medium with the hopes of touching more enthusiasts who will enjoy the tale in the way they like best.
Do you love discovering new books that are movies? If so, check out the Books as Movies blog for the latest news about new and upcoming movies from books.
