Franchising Literature: Death or Salvation?

[Lord_Chanticleer]

Does franchising a work of literature do it more harm than good? That's a matter I've been pondering for quite some time.

The Harry Potter franchise is what prompted me to do some philosophising on the subject. On the one hand, the film adaptions raised awareness of the books, which greatly attributed to their popularity. In fact, I think that the vast majority of its fanbase consists of people who discovered the books through the films, rather than the other way around.

On the other hand, however, the entire side phenomenon of books, films, toys etc. got completely out of control and became more and more detached from what the books were trying to tell. This makes me wonder how many Harry Potter fans actually truly know and understand what the series is about.

The same, I guess, is true of the Lord of the Rings. Anyone who's read the works of Tolkien know that the underlying mythology and language experiment were to Tolkien vastly more important than psychological depth and gripping action scenes, the latter mostly being an addition of Peter Jackson.

So basically, the original work and its adaption in more popular media often seem to be vastly different, to the point where the two seem to have nothing in common apart from the outer face. I suppose lack of mass advertisiment is a bit the bane of books, which makes their popularity greatly dependent on media which do enjoy this kind of attention, but goes at the cost of warping the original message.

What are your thoughts on this matter? 

[Knives]

I'm not too sure about your thoughts about Harry Potter and its succes, I'm pretty sure they were succesful and then shot to film. I could be wrong, but it sounds like you're guessing as well.

I tried the Lord of the Rings books, but it's not for me. I enjoy the films.

The thing is, books and films are entirely different mediums, and thus it's likely and fitting that a film is very different from books. I know Blade Runner loosely is based on Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, but they are nothing alike. What BR does, and the author agrees and I think got paranoid even when he saw it, is recapture the atmosphere from the books. Similiary, Apocalypse Now is based on Heart of Darkness.

Another example is Naked Lunch, a book that due to its structure of loosely connected tales wasn't suited for film, but the film is instead a hybrid of biography and elemens of the book. It's an excellent film.

Thinking about books I've read, the New York Trilogy seems to be precisely in its place as a book, and it would be very hard to film, since most of the conflict is internal, while in actual effect nothing much happens.

What I think is that if done right, a movie adaptation is similiar yet quite different from its source material, and then they both have a reason to exist.

[Lord_Chanticleer]

The thing is, books and films are entirely different mediums, and thus it's likely and fitting that a film is very different from books. I know Blade Runner loosely is based on Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, but they are nothing alike. What BR does, and the author agrees and I think got paranoid even when he saw it, is recapture the atmosphere from the books. Similiary, Apocalypse Now is based on Heart of Darkness.

I agree with you on that score. Capturing the essence and feel of the books is far more essential, I think, than sticking to the letter.

What I think is that if done right, a movie adaptation is similiar yet quite different from its source material, and then they both have a reason to exist.

If it's done right and with respect for the author and his work I've got nothing against film adaptations.

What made me wary of the entire concept, however, was how in the case of Harry Potter the films, especially by the last three, they just sought to monetize it. In the end it didn't matter whether the films were up to snuff or not because Harry Potter had already become an established "brand", so to speak.

I think what it all boils down to is this: is it alright for an author to have his/her book(s) adapted for another medium, which would involve sacrificing a great deal of integrity in favour of something that is more marketable yet shallow, if it would also mean sparking more interest in the book(s) it/themselves?

[Knives]

What exactly about the later HP movies did you think was without ingegrity?

[Lord_Chanticleer]

What exactly about the later HP movies did you think was without ingegrity?

The films lack a great deal of internal consistency. Lots of crucial story elements were left unexplained in the films. Most of the time they were cut to make room for a big CGI-heavy finale. Some plot devices in the final installments have their origin as seemingly unimportant objects in the previous ones, such as the two-way mirror that Harry received from Sirius Black, for example. They got nary a mention in the adaption of the books in which they first appeared, yet suddenly pop up out of nowhere in later adaptions.

My theory is that Rowling knew that a film adaption would be highly lucrative and agreed to it, despite the fact that the series were still being written and much was still subject to change throughout the entire period. This, in my opion, was guaranteed to cause problems later on during filming. Rowling took the short route to riches, capitalising on the combined success of books and films. Had she been concerned about the integrity of the film adaptions she'd have waited until the entire series had been fully written.

[FuturePerfection]

Can't wait to see your face if they spit out a 50 shades of grey porno 

[Maxbarrass]

Can't wait to see your face if they spit out a 50 shades of grey porno 

I herd they were already creating a film based off the books.  That is why they have became popular all of a sudden.  If not, then their popularity would cause them to be noticed by film producers and script writers.  But, dear God I will not be watching those films with my sister like I was forced to with Twilight.  I don't care if they are a porno or not.  Any way it has too much narrative to be a Porno...