| dc.description.abstract | Book to movie adaptations have been heavily popularized over the years of moviemaking. While there are several amazing adaptations out there that were, and arguably still are, widely successful, such as Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter. That, however, is not the case for all adaptations. The purpose of this thesis is to explore the reasons for why the book to movie adaptations did not do as well as expected, and therefore see why they did not achieve the “franchise status” they aspired to, in addition to considering if TV adaptations has become the new norm. Thomas Leitch’s Film Adaptation and Its Discontents: From Gone with the Wind to The Passion of the Christ, presents several reasons why certain adaptations reached their success, and J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter franchise is used as a control group of what a successful franchise is. The adaptation of Christopher Paolini’s Eragon of the same name has some issues with fidelity and compression, as well as the directing and the acting. The main issues with Philip Pullman’s Northern Lights adaptation, The Golden Compass, are within the writing, mainly with narrative, compression and cutting. This is where the TV adaptation, His Dark Materials, has been branded as superior. When compared to the production process of Harry Potter, there are several flaws that are highlighted in Eragon and The Golden Compass: author involvement, writing, casting and fan satisfaction. I found that fidelity does have much to do with the success, as fan opinion matters. In addition, the costs versus profits factor in majorly, as both discussed movies did not earn as much as expected. Therefore, it was found that TV-shows may be the future of adaptations, as fidelity is easier to uphold, and the costs are generally much lower. | |
