Explore the way directors like Peter Jackson or Rob Zombie have made remakes of films that inspired them in the past (like King Kong and Halloween respectively), and discuss what might happen if this became as prevalent of a trend in literature. What if Stephen King rewrote The Lord of the Rings? Or Chuck Palahniuk rewrote The Great Gatsby? Why do film directors get this creative urge while authors seemingly don’t?
This has a relationship to Seth Grahame-Smith and his books on Abraham Lincoln and Pride and Prejudice both confronting zombies. – Joseph Cernik5 years ago
I guess many authors don't like their characters being re-written in a fashion they do wish to. This is one of the reason why many authors kill their characters before they are being incarnated in someone else's novel. Though it's a heart-wrenching move for the fans of the franchise, but it's a necessary evil to be executed so that the character is not re-written posthumously, after the writer's death. You can of course buy the copyright from the original writer. There is an author by the name of Tilly Bagshawe, who bought the copyright from Sidney Sheldon and has apparently written sequels to his books – Azira101phale5 years ago
Perhaps the fact that more passion goes in to writing a novel due to creating images with words and therefore more work is done to create these images. Whereas, with development in technology and the ability to visualize images there is always room for improvement with films. – Indigo Jones5 years ago
This would be an interesting thought piece, for sure. I think books have the advantage of allowing readers to make their own movies in their heads, so we don't need or want remakes as much. Each director can have his/her own vision for how a movie should look, sound, etc., and each one is free to portray that vision.
This doesn't cover plots, though. If Stephen King rewrote The Lord of the Rings, it might end with Frodo cowering in a corner muttering "my precious" as Sam stands over him tearfully. As I said, an interesting thought piece. I would definitely enjoy reading this. – noahspud5 years ago
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