An Analysis into Screen Adaptations

As the count of screen adaptations arise, many fans of literature are on the edge of their seats, awaiting their favorite series to be turned into a movie/TV series. The experience of connecting with fictional characters through the telling of their experiences, whether heartbreaking or joyous, creates a bond that motivates a reader to follow the series to a film. Once it is adapted, it can skyrocket in earnings and views, or plummet and fail miserably, and it can be heartbreaking for both loyal readers and directors as well.

However, there is no direct formula or checklist for creating a successful screen adaptation; since, I’ve pondered and compared 4 film/TV series adaptations that were undoubtedly successful, and others that unfortunately were not. Through a broad look at The Twilight Saga, Percy Jackson & the Olympians, The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones, and Game of Thrones the requirements for a successful screen adaptation will be sought for.

The films/series selected have a few things in common besides originating from books. They’re all fiction, and most importantly had a humongous fan base even before being considered for adaptations. All of these book series are best sellers, with millions in sold copies and were the inspiration of other authors, fan fictions, and now the film industry. In most cases, like with Game of Thrones or The Twilight Saga, the film adaptation pleased the existing fanbase and catapulted an increase in the number of fans. On the other hand, The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones and Percy Jackson & The Olympians are examples of the frustration of existing fans as well as the lack of interest of a possible new audience. Here I’ll be opening this discussion by analyzing the different takes in translation from literature to the screen, and the result in numbers.

Be advised that this article contains spoilers for Twilight, Percy Jackson, The Mortal Instruments and Game of Thrones.

The Twilight Saga

Based on Stephanie Meyer’s 4-book series of the same name, The Twilight Saga directed by Catherine Hardwick (1), Chris Weitz (2), David Slade (3), and Bill Condon (4-5) stars Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, and Taylor Lautner ¹ The story is centered around Bella Swan’s return to Forks, Washington, coming across the Cullen family, and sparking a relationship with Edward Cullen: “Edward warns Bella that she should leave him, but she refuses to listen and to understand why he is saying this. Bella learns his secret. He is a vampire; however, she is not afraid of his blood-thirsty needs and the fact he could kill her at any moment. Bella is afraid of losing him, the love of her life.” ² Throughout the series, Bella and Edward attempt to maintain their relationship despite obstacles surrounding their differences as vampire and human.

A major point linking the film to the books is that the series remains fairly accurate to the original text. As mentioned, Meyer’s The Twilight Saga had a large fan base prior to the films, and instantly, the first film gathered $392.6 million worldwide at the box office ³, clearly showing the support of its already existing fans. When comparing the films to the text, the changes made to any of the films were minor, keeping the backstories in forms of flashbacks and in a fairly similar sequence of events.

Summit Entertainment and the directors of the film wrote the films to be exactly as pictured by Stephanie Meyer, even having her as one of the producers, creating a consistency between the already existing fanbase and newer fans. This made the film clear in their target audience, and extremely successful, serving as an extension of the existing story rather than a new entity shooting darts at a hopefully loving new fan base.

Many critics arose from this series, criticizing the book/film cliché, antifeminist, and as concluded by The Guardian’s author Kate Muir, “looked at through the lens of the #MeToo generation, there is something to be said for a boy who is not pressuring a teenage girl to have sex. Although it’s worth remembering that although Edward looks 17, he is, in fact, 109 in vampire years… Silverstein also points out that ‘women were angered by Edward’s overprotection and Bella’s acquiescence. Where is her independent streak with Edward that she displays so fervently with her father and friends? Let’s also not forget that Edward watches (some sites have used the word stalk) Bella sleep in her bedroom’.” ⁴

However, I’ve come to think that what the directors of Twilight (2008) did right above all was to specify their audience. They never meant to please adult women/men, feminists, or to portray a healthy relationship between healthy people. It may be that their target audience, later known as Twihards, which consisted of teenage girls and “Twilight moms” ⁵ felt enamored by the portrayal of Bella Swan and Edward Cullen’s Romeo and Juliet codependency and obsession. By catering to Twilight’s already existing fan base, it only grew further, which can be seen in numbers as the films went on.

Twilight (2008) was the first of the 5-part film series and gathered a box office of $402 million, and ended with the film’s series finale The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn– Part 2 (2012) with $829 million. ⁶ In total, The Twilight Saga amassed $3.3 billion in the small amount of five films. ⁷

Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief

The Lightning Thief first published in 2005 is the first of Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson & the Olympians book series. The movie adaptation titled Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief directed by Chris Columbus starred Logan Lerman, Alexandra Daddario, and Brandon T. Jackson. ⁸ Rick Riordan’s book is based on Percy Jackson’s journey after discovering he’s a half-blood; a half mortal, half God, more specifically the son of a woman and the Greek God Poseidon. In the series, he and his friends Grover Underwood and Annabeth Chase go through a series of challenges that became a refuge of literature to many children.

I should begin by addressing the elephant in the room for anyone who’s familiar with both the book and the film adaptation. It was immensely disappointing, to many Percy Jackson fans, when the take on an immensely adored book was rather inaccurate. To give perspective, Percy, Annabeth and Grover are middle schoolers, so around 12 years old. However, in the film, the actors are grown-ups in their late twenties-early thirties playing high schoolers. When comparing the book and the film, it is still considered an adaptation, but some may argue it is a very loose one. The existing fans were alas disappointed, and their interest in another sequel plummeted just as fast as its box office, since Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief was already so far off the original story of Percy Jackson.

Since the original audience of The Lightning Thief lost interest in another sequel of the book’s telling of Percy’s story, a newer audience was hard to get. The film adaptation’s target audience is a mismatch of children but also adults; since it does not exactly target the children who’ve read the story, adults or older fans of Percy also have difficulty with the concepts for children. It seems for this one, the director threw a dart at a target audience, and missed the preexisting fans as well as new ones. Though the film was not a total loss, with a budget of $95 million and box office of $223 million worldwide ⁹, it seems like a gain, though not to its full potential. The sequel, Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters (2013) also had a similar budget and had worse results than the first movie. ¹⁰

Rick Riordan, author of the Percy Jackson & the Olympian series, posted this on his website about the film, and why it failed:

I’ve spent the last four years touring the country, talking about the movie. I’ve seen hundreds of thousands of kids. They are all excited about the movie, but they are also anxious. Most of these kids have no idea which studio produces which film, but everywhere I go, they say the same thing: Please don’t let them do to the Lightning Thief what they did to XXXX(another movie from the same producers)Don’t let them change the story. These kids are the seed audience for the movie. They are the ones who will show up first with their families, then tell their friends to go, or not go, depending on how they liked it. They are looking for one thing: How faithful was the movie to the book? Make Percy seventeen, and that battle is lost before filming even begins. ¹¹

The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones

The Mortal Instruments is a series composed of 6 books written by New Yorker Cassandra Clare between 2007 and 2014. The film adaptation, The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones is an adaptation of the first book, and was directed by Harald Zwart starring Lily Collins, Jamie Campbell Bower, and Robert Sheehan. ¹² The film as well as the books’ premises consist of Clary Fray (Lily Collins) discovering upon her mother’s kidnapping that she is the daughter of Shadowhunters: a hidden specie part human part angel that keep our world safe from evil creatures such as demons. Clary now must adapt to this new world that her mother hid from her by suppressing her memories, while also searching for her mother with the help of Shadowhunter Jace.

The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones is a case similar to Percy Jackson. The film adaptation was… somewhat accurate to the books: the events in the book happen, though not in the same sequence or portrayal as in the books, and some change entirely. There were also many scenes depicted differently, from description of the supernatural to how “things go down”, and also an acceleration of events. But most importantly, in my opinion, there was very little background of who was who and why does it matter, which all builds up and creates this sub-world so many fans adore. Some examples are: parabatais never get mentioned in the movie, we never get a real sense of Valentine’s relation to other Shadowhunters and the Shadowhunter world other than he’s just the antagonist, we are immediately told Jace and Clary are not related, Simon (Clary’s best friend) turns into a vampire way too soon, and Valentine gets tricked with the Mortal Cup at the end. Unfortunately, all these changes may have cost what could’ve been a successful film series.

The target audience is more concrete than Percy Jackson’s, which is why I’d call TMI’s film adaptation a “grayer area”. However, if the target audience was the existing demographic for TMI’s loyal fan base, why change so many aspects in the film?

The movie adaptation, from a budget of $60 million, made $75.9 at the box office. ¹³ As it can be imagined, there was not a sequel.

I’ll briefly mention another adaptation of The Mortal Instruments, a tv series called Shadowhunters: The Mortal Instruments (2016-2019) created by Ed Decter starring Katherine McNamara, Dominic Sherwood, and Alberto Rosende. ¹⁴ The series aimed for TMI’s audience and was successful for three consecutive seasons. However, prefixing my statement with a disclaimer, I personally observed that as the series continued and the events, scenes, and plot of the books were changed, so was there a decreasing interest in the series. Having The Mortal Instruments, which is a very multi-dimensional world be broken down into episodes was brilliant. The first season was fairly accurate to the books, but by the second season, much of the plot had changed.

Game of Thrones

Based on George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire, Game of Thrones is a well-known TV series created by David Benioff and D. B. Weiss, also known as D&D. It stars Emilia Clarke, Peter Dinklage, Kit Harington, Lena Headey, Sophie Turner and Maisie Williams. ¹⁵ It is centered around Westeros, a fantasy world where whoever sits upon the Iron Throne becomes the ruler of the Seven Kingdoms, and Game of Thrones tells the tale of many points of views surrounding this game for the throne. Of course, there is more to it, such as the return of an ancient creature that’s been dormant for decades, but that’s part of Game of Thrones’ many dimensions.

I include Game of Thrones as my last source to analyze the failures and successes of screen adaptations because it is one of the most, if not the most, successful translation of text to film. Regardless of whether one is a fan or not, it is commendable the amount of success in numbers and publicity that Game of Thrones has gathered over the years.

From season 1 to 7, the series adaptation of A Song of Ice and Fire has been fairly accurate, if not directly in tune with the books pacing, sequence of events, descriptions, et cetera. Of course, it is not an exact tell-a-tale of the books; there are changes in scenes and characters’ physicality, and not all of the background information of Westeros is revealed. But we get background of Westeros, the families, and we see them develop throughout the series.

I believe that, being accurate is not a necessity but perhaps screen adaptations “owe respect”, or a faithfulness to the fan base they’re presenting to. I think an example of this lack of faithfulness is Game of Thrones’ season 8. By season 5 (2015), D&D had to write the series without the guidance of the novels and George R. R. Martin acting as consultant. Without divulging into it too much and attempting to withhold my personal opinion on the season, without a book to go by and little input from George R. R. Martin (as well as his indecisive book ending), season 8 is David Benioff and D. B. Weiss’ telling of how Game of Thrones comes to an end.

In a shift of creation, we lost answers, character arches, more questions arose (where did Drogon take Dany?) and the fan base was left so frustrated that a petition with more than 1.8 million signatures for a remake of the season arose. ¹⁶

But overall, Game of Thrones was outstanding in catering to A Song of Ice and Fire’s target audience. Many call it a “pornographic series with a story” but A Song of Ice and Fire was intended for adults, so it’d be bound to have gory violence, some nudity, politics, scandalous plot twists, et cetera. And like Twilight, it delivered exactly what the already existing audience expected. CNN Business author Frank Pallotta wrote, “The viewership for ‘The Iron Throne’ [Game of Thrones’ last episode] includes 13.6 million people who watched the episode on HBO at 9 p.m. Sunday night, making it the most-watched telecast in the network’s history, according to HBO.” ¹⁷

While analyzing the subject of what truly encompasses a successful screen adaptation, the one factor I kept coming back to was the importance and power fan bases have. Regardless of how the films turned out at the box office, they gathered an audience the moment the books were chosen for adaptations.

As Cassandra Clare wrote in her book Clockwork Princess, “One must always be careful of books, and what is inside them, for words have the power to change us.” ¹⁸ Indeed, words on books have transcended pages and expanded to on-screen media where it can change the lives of others. In this expansion, fan bases grow, and said communities grow larger, embracing different people connected by a loyalty or passion for a fantasy world that in hearts, are very much real.

What do you think? Leave a comment.