Saturday, December 26, 2009

RERUNS: ADAPTATION Pt. 4

The Rules of Adaptation
(originaly published 2005, edited and cleaned up)

Rule 3: "Respect the source material."
Rule 4: "Don't be afraid to screw with the source material."

Even a short novel clicks in at 300 pages. A script is around 120, with lots of blank lines. Only so many people in so many locations can be paraded on the screen in two-odd hours. When a character shows up, the screenwriter can't just lay down a couple pages of backstory like the novelist can -- they have to establish character through action and dialogue. Every page spent on one plot point is a page that comes out of another. When a writer's very good, all that seems effortless. But trust me, it's all whirring away under the surface, waiting to blow a gasket.

A while ago I had a run at adapting Asimov's Foundation Trilogy. Yes, yes I am unworthy, file your complaints at the door. Anyway, fifteen hundred pages of 1950's sci fi. Stunningly cerebral and emotionally wrenching at the same time. I starter writing, well, more like transcribing like an old monastery illuminationist. Scenes transposed untouched. Whole speeches lifted ver. Just transferring the geniuis from one medium to the next.

One character, Bayta, is crucial to the arc of the second book. Her virtue inspires certain people people to fall in love with her, to change, and the fallout from this changes the course of humanity's future over a millenium. Bayta is the center of the movie.

And Bayta is, essentially, a space housewife.

Foundation and Empire was written in 1952. Oh, Bayta is a very liberated space housewife, to be sure. She worked outside the home. For 1952, Asimov was writing some pretty progressive stuff. It wasn't Mary Tyler Moore dancing in her Capri pants for Rob's drunken voyeuristic friends (what was up with that?) but it was progressive. For 1952. Yet if I transposed this character literally, I'd be making Asimov's very relevant work reek of obsolescence.

Ok, then, think. Foundation is made up of scientists. Good, let's try her as a scientist. She has a stake now, an intellect, a voice. She's not a spectator, she has an agenda with Foundation and its plans. She has personal goals LINKED to story goals. There's now a reason she seeks out Foundation's enemies -- or Enemy, if you know the book. Heresy? Maybe. Better film-making? Hell yeah. My job's to write the movie, not Xerox (tm) the book.

However, the important thing isn't to gut the source for ego's sake. I've read those scripts, where a writer's peed all over a story to make it his. That's not adaptation, that's bullying. It's usually done by someone who never solved the "why do I love this story" question we addressed earlier.

What's odd is that the one group of authors who can complain about changes to their books -- the living ones -- have never had a problem with what I've done. Because, trust me, when the script goes in, I'm sitting there wincing, waiting for the original author's feedback. Matt Wagner loved the new character in Mage. Lee Child was incredibly gracious about my adaptation of Killing Floor. Greg Rucka dug Tara's new relationship with a character who'd been a one-page cameo in the book. I had to rewrite the entire ending to Matt Reilly's Ice Station, and he was not only fine with it, he pitched out some possibilities. Hell, unless Warren Ellis lies like James Earl Ray, even he liked the Global Frequency pilot screenplay. A book' s a static thing, for better or worse. When writers get a chance to breathe some more life into the work, they tend to enjoy it. They understand that writing is all about choices. Different choices allow them to see the work that might-have-been.

(This is not always true, of course. Alan Moore hates the movie adaptations of his work. He also hates, well, all of us. Yes, you too. No, I don't know why. Just be afraid. He can smell you.)

That concept of choice leads us to the last two big rules in the art of adaptation ...

56 comments:

hodag said...

Seeing as we're on reruns, help a fellow out and tell me where I can get a copy of Red Skies.

No, I am serious, does anybody have a clue where I can get a copy of some vintage (kind of) Rogers?

Andrew Timson said...

Yes, yes I am unworthy, file your complaints at the door.

Personally, I think that you're completely worthy, and would like to see the screenplay. Hint hint. ;)

Owlee said...

Wait, wait... Lee Child? Killing Floor? Jack Reacher?? When, what, where, who???

Logan said...

To Alan Moore's credit, only the last two adaptations of his work followed your own criteria for producing a good adaptation, and even those, while good films, still felt like they were missing something crucial.

libraryguy said...

I'd like to point out that Alan Moore reportedly liked the Lustice League Unlimited adaptation of "For The Man Who Has Everything."

Cujo359 said...

Just a movie? That is ambitious. As much as went on in the series, I'd think a mini-series would be in order.

DrGaellon said...

FOUNDATION?!?!? Dude, you're crazier than Peter Jackson - that's the one project I can think of worse than LotR. If you pulled it off, it would be AWESOME, but it would be murder to do.

Anonymous said...

These adaptation lessons are fascinating. Thank you.

There are two movies out there that I think are as wonderful as the books are themselves -- and the screenplays are faithful in tone and feel, but not to actual scenes, or in some cases, plot points. And one stars Tim Hutton -- Ordinary People by author Judith Guest. The other is the Prince of Tides, book by Pat Conroy.

In most cases, however, I like either the book or the movie based on the book, but not both. Yes, sometimes I prefer the movie to the original source material.

DB said...

Foundation and Empire wasn't written in 1952. It was published in book form in 1952. It was written, and originally published in magazine form, in 1945. I know, big difference, right, but if you're going to adapt Asimov, you ought to know more exterior facts about his work that what you gleaned from an inadequate copyright page.

Monica said...

This is a fascinating discussion on adaptations. Personally, I've found that my feelings about adaptations vary from project to project. I usually like the movie to stick close to the book, but in some cases I think the things that are added or changed actually improve on the actual story. The one thing that bugs me almost universally is when the movie contradicts something in the book, because it seems like "ret-conning," especially if the rest of the movie is close to the original.

Calla said...

I didn't know you'd done an adaptation of Lee Child's "Killing Floor" - I'm pleasantly surprised!

Who do you see as Reacher?

witless chum said...

"However, the important thing isn't to gut the source for ego's sake. I've read those scripts, where a writer's peed all over a story to make it his. That's not adaptation, that's bullying. It's usually done by someone who never solved the "why do I love this story" question we addressed earlier."

I wonder if "Starship Troopers" is what KFM is thinking of here?

That one might be the exception to the rule, as it totally runs on the pure contempt the writer and director have for the values and ideas of the source material. They basically made a movie about how much they hate the Heinlein novel they adapted. Everything, from costuming to casting seems geared to that.

(Personally, I thought the movie was okay when I saw it in the theater. Then I watched it on cable in early 2002 after watching a lot of CNN in the last few months and I thought it was awesome.)

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