This year alone, there have been, “30+ book-to-screen adaptations,” according to Libby Life. With an increased amount of literary influence on the film industry, one wonders what happened to all the show writers. According to The Los Angeles Times, the writers’ strike began on May 2, 2023, and was a key factor in the cancellation or slowdown of many shows and movies. Due to the challenging process of getting everything cleared by editors, it became a lot more difficult to write original TV shows, leading to a reliance on books while leaving readers with mixed emotions. Many fans are happy to see their favorite books on their screens, but there’s also the contrasting aspect that adaptations tend to leave readers disappointed.
As new shows continue to emerge, the percentage of book-to-screen show adaptations has significantly increased. This is largely due to the writers’ strike, which has been causing a decrease in original show ideas. In addition to this factor, because of the writer’s strike, there has been an increased gap between seasons of shows. As stated in The Week, “Analysis of US drama found that the gap between seasons has now reached an average of 515 days.” This is not shocking, as there have been multiple complaints about the slow release time of popular shows. Stranger Things is one of the many shows that have had a gradual increase in time between seasons. Season Two came a year after Season One, but Seasons Four to Five have had a three-year wait, leaving the fans unhappy.
On a positive note, authors are beginning to get more recognition for their books. They are gaining increased involvement in the production of book adaptations. The Walrus explains how authors are getting more into screenwriting. Writers’ usual unsteady pay is, “Creating opportunities for… job security,” which is difficult in the writers’ field. When authors sell their books to companies like Netflix or Prime Video, they earn money based on the book’s value in the company. For example, the book My Life With the Walter Boys originally began as a book made in 2014 by Ali Novak, but as a show, it became a global phenomenon. The week it came out, it jumped to Netflix’s Global Top 10 as Number two, which then led more people to be more interested in the show and then the book, helping her gain profits. Not only does the book-to-screen adaptation help increase financial security for authors, but it also helps gain popularity in the social media aspect, as it creates fandoms quickly with the actual physical characters on screen.
Previous fans of books that go onto screen may be disappointed with the lack of details in the movie. Books show the internal thoughts of a character, but that isn’t easily translated to TV. Producers have to consider how the thoughts of characters could be shown without diving too deeply into a character’s head. Because of the already conceived ideas and themes from the book, TV shows have all the content they need, which then creates an easier process of writing and planning the show. Books add little details, but TV, in contrast, can miss these because of their short time period. For instance, in The Summer I Turned Pretty, author Jenny Han admits that it is difficult to show all the main moments without them, “Happening in the way [the audience] would expect.” So, as a consequence, some of the character’s internal thoughts are missed.
Several more book-to-screen adaptations are set to release soon, featuring a mix of Sci-Fi, Romance, and remakes from the 80s and 90s, as explained by Goodreads. Some remakes are Animal Farm by George Orwell, The Running Man by Stephan King, and Frankenstein by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelly. Mickey 17, which stars Robert Pattinson, is a movie based on the Sci-Fi novel Mickey 17 by Edward Ashton. Regretting You, by Colleen Hoover, has recently been adapted into a movie and is set to release on October 24, starring actors Mason Thames from How to Train Your Dragon (live-action) and McKenna Grace from Ghostbusters. All of these are upcoming movies predicted to appear on screen and surprise the readers with their changes.
