C’MON HOLLYWOOD: More book adaptations, less reboots!

…more book adaptions, less reboots!
by J.A. Hamilton

Now I know I’ve touched upon the fact that novels and films go hand in hand before by way of my appeal for more Fantasy book translations, but this line of thinking goes far beyond the world of Fantasy. I’ve also done my fair share of complaining about reboots (particularly when it comes to comic book films and remakes) and though I’d hoped this year might improve on this situation, from what I can tell things are getting far worse far quicker. My advise; stop focusing on every old movie to ever make money and start looking for more novels to adapt as I’m sincerely getting worried about Hollywood’s creativity and how dire the end of this road will be if things don’t start to change.

The bare foot thing still makes me cringe

Some people might argue that we shouldn’t be worried, that there’ll always be another HARRY POTTER, DIE HARD, or RAMBO franchise; that the hits will keep on coming, but I’m not so sure unless we crack down on more books. Hollywood began to evolve at an exponential rate back in the eighties. The nineties too were hard hitting and I can’t complain about the countless hits of past decade either. But we all know how hard Hollywood has been leaning on comic books lately, and how eager they are to turn every hero to ever dawn a cape or mantle into a franchise, and as for the franchises that already exist, well, apparently they’ll just be rebooted or reinvented whenever Hollywood feels it’s convenient.

“Has anyone seen my pen?”

Comics are a great resource, but even the most abundant of resources can go dry and it’s just a matter of time. Some of the most fantastic films and characters have been brought to life by the aid of novels. It’s easy to forget this small fact but here’s a reminder of some of the greats and their genres: I’m a huge fan of gangster flicks and some of the best out there like THE GODFATHER, SCARFACE and CASINO are all based on books. The Sci-Fi world has been graced with hits like BLADE RUNNER, DUNE and MINORITY REPORT and for action (aside from those mentioned above) we’ve also gotten characters like James Bond, Jack Ryan and Jason Bourne courtesy of the marked page.

Princess Bride is one of my favorite novel based movies

Most people think of Horror or Thrillers when it comes to novel based films, and I don’t blame them considering they’ve helped make writers like Stephen King, Dean Koontz and Clive Barker household names. Hannibal Lecter helped out Thomas Harris and there have been a handful of films based upon James Patterson, Michael Crichton, Dan Brown and John Grisham’s work as well. Not every writer wants to have his work on screen, but with the amount of recycled nonsense streaming into cinemas lately, I’m hoping more of them will reconsider because we need all the creativity we can get these days and as you can see, for the most part they’ve got nothing to lose by converting and in most cases we’ll welcome them with open arms.

Writers of the world will be hard pressed to outshine Hannibal

So in the end, I’ll agree that the hits CAN keep coming as there are far more authors out there just waiting to be discovered and their numbers are growing each and every day. They won’t all provide us with groundbreaking characters or blockbuster films, but I’m all for rolling the dice on them if it means we’ll get just one less god awful remake or reboot. If this means the agents of the world have to work twice as hard when it comes to scouting or the directors and producers have to read a few extra scripts, then so be it because we’ll all be so much better off for their extra effort. This recent turn of events in Hollywood is making them look lazy and desperate and whether or not it’s true, it’s certainly not the impression we should be getting.