Last week saw the second attempt to launch a franchise based on a successful series of young adult novels. The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones is based on The Mortal Instruments series of five novels (with a sixth on the way) written by Cassandra Clare. Lily Collins (daughter of Phil Collins) plays Clary Fray a seemingly normal teenager who discovers she is a Shadowhunter, a sort of daemon hunter. Think Buffy the Vampire Slayer but with less (intentional) comedy. The other movie earlier in the year Beautiful Creatures is based on The Caster Chronicles: Alden Ehrenreich plays Ethan a seemingly normal high school student ( is this sounding similar?) who has a recurring dream about Lena played by Alice Englert (daughter of Jane Campion), a girl he has never met, until she turns up as the new kid at school. Both films are fun and entertaining movies with a suitably gothic tone. However they are also sadly unremarkable and unoriginal. Beautiful Creatures failed to find an audience making a sequel unlikely. On the other hand the confidence in Mortal Instrruments is such that City of Ashes the second Mortal Instruments film is already in pre-production. Shooting is due to start next month with a release next summer. This got me thinking about similar themed books that have been adapted into movies. Some have done better and more successful than others:
Harry Potter (2001-2011): The undisputed champion of the book to film adaptation in recent years has been Harry Potter having grossed nearly $8billion from its 8 films (based on 7 books). The success of the films comes partly from the great casting and the faithful (so I am told) adaptation from J. K. Rowling‘s books. But it goes further than that, a film should be its own entity and survive on its own merits not requiring the viewer to have read the books. This helps the audience grow over and above the fans of the novel. I didn’t see any of the films until 2011 but watched them all in a short space of time and have to admit I enjoyed them.
Chronicles of Narnia (2005-2010): Based on C. S. Lewis’ Narnia series of books and produced by Walden Media in association with first Disney then Fox. Three of the seven novels: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005), Prince Caspian (2008) and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (2010) have been adapted into films so far. Faithful to the source novels and like the source novels, the movies are distractingly preachy but good entertaining fun. Commercially successful grossing over $1.5billion, the first is amongst the top 50 all time highest grossing movies. It appears the series has stalled with complications since Walden Media’s exclusive rights have lapsed.
The Golden Compass (2007): Was an unfortunate mess of a movie. Well cast and beautifully shot but completely ruining Philip Pullman’s fantastic story. If reports are correct it was nothing short of a clusterfuck for New Line Cinema. One of their most expensive films ever with a budget estimated at around $180million, it took around $70million at the US box-office. New Line then sold the worldwide rights to cover the production costs, it went on to take over £300million. In one way it is sad that Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy is unlikely to be adapted into a film anytime soon, on the other hand I am glad the series stopped before they made things any worse.
The Twilight Saga (2008 – 2012): Coming second only to Harry Potter in the book adaptation box-office, The Twilight Saga had its detractors who were almost as vocal as its fans. It also had its ups and downs artistically; Eclipse (2010) directed by David Slade representing the high point and New Moon (2009) directed by Chris Weitz the low point. The first film directed by Catherine Hardwicke was arguably the most important as its success secured the budget for the ongoing saga. Love them or hate them, you can’t argue with nearly $3.5billion from 5 films (based on 4 books). Not great films but completely inoffensive, I really can’t see why people get so worked up about them.
Tomorrow when the War Began (2010 – ?): Based on the first of a series of seven Australian novels that have a striking resemblance to Red Dawn. The first movie was well received in Australia but failed to find an audience in the rest of the world. Two sequels have been suggested but are yet to materialise.
Percy Jackson & the Olympians (2010 – ?): Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief (2010) and Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters (2013) are based on the Percy Jackson & the Olympians series of books by Rick Riordan. An updating of Greek mythology, Percy is a demigod, and son of Poseidon (based on his exploits in defeating various monsters, he appears to be based on Perseus, son of Zeus). The first film was a financial success but the second has only just managed to make back its budget making an adaptation of The Titan’s Curse less likely.
I am Number Four (2011): Based on the first of four (to date) novels about alien children hiding out on earth from a second alien race who took over their home world. Finding a good balance between sci-fi action and high school drama the movie is entertaining if disposable. The cast is quite good but Timothy Olyphant is criminally underused and Teresa Palmer’s ‘number six’ is a more interesting character than Alex Pettyfer’s ‘number four’. Made on a relatively small budget (the money was all spent on producer Michael Bay‘s robot hitting exercise) for this type of movie it made a reasonable profit. A sequel was announced but then shelved.
The Hunger Games (2012-2015): Thanks largely to the perfect casting of Jennifer Lawrence the Hunger Games was a huge success. Grossing nearly $700million and becoming the best selling DVD/Blu-ray of 2012 a sequel was guaranteed. The first sequel Catching Fire is scheduled for release later this year with the final book Mockingjay split into two parts, Part 1 will be released in November 2014 with part two twelve months later. My only concern the second and third books were much weaker than the first creating a real challenge for the script writers.
So what’s next?
Seventh Son: Based on the first (there are twelve so far) of Joseph Delaney’s children’s dark fantasy novel series The Wardstone Chronicles. The highlights of the casting are Jeff Bridges and Julianne Moore. Scheduled for release next January (February in the UK) next year.
Vampire Academy: Based on a series of six young-adult paranormal romance novels by Richelle Mead. I haven’t heard of any of the principle cast but the supporting cast includes Olga Kurylenko, Gabriel Byrne and Joely Richardson. Scheduled to be released February next year.
Divergent: Unlike the other films mentioned, Divergent is based on the first of an intended trilogy. It has been adapted into a film before parts two and three have been published. It is the debut novel by American author Veronica Roth. The film version is directed by Neil Burger and has an interesting cast including: Shailene Woodley, Kate Winslet and Maggie Q. it is scheduled for release next March next year.
I’m not sure we have seen ‘The Next’ Twilight or Harry Potter yet but The Hunger Games is looking like the best and the most successful.
It also looks like Eoin Colfer’s Artemis Fowl series is coming to the big screen. That one I’m actually excited for.
I don’t know that one, I’m really looking forward to Wool.
Great blog – always a nightmare watching good books be transferred into film… not always a hit. I am sad that they didn’t make more of the Tomorrow when the War began Series
Thanks. its the way of the world, if there is a ready made audience the studio sees it as a low risk.
Im actually keeping my fingers cross for the adaptation for The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flammel by Michael Scott. Im surprised the books are still unknown to many.
Don’t know that either. as mentioned above Wool is the one I am really excited by, I loved the book.
Oh check it out if you have a chance. You won’t be disappointed.
I think the ball really got dropped with the Narnia series. Dawn Treader was so terrible compared to the first two. I would’ve liked for these stories to have gone on further, but only if they had as much heart as the first two.
I wonder how Divergent will do? I haven’t read the book, but it sounds so much like The Hunger Games, Mortal Instruments, and Beautiful Creatures that it may not be original enough. Though, I hope it is, because Shailene Woodley is awesome.
I only know her from The Descendants but she was really good it that.
Good overview. I disagree only regarding Twilight and Hunger Games. Well, I don’t disagree about Twilight so much as I see why so many people are righteously horrified by it’s existence. It’s her as a female archetype – there’s no two ways about it, the protagonist characterisation is all about the passively relationship obsessed girl. She actually does nothing in her life when her boyfriend leaves her, in her self imposed quest to be as lovesick as possible. She’s willing to die for her man, but not in order to do anything good in the world, just to die, whether suicide, faux suicide, accidental death through lifestyle hazard or murder. She’s an awful female role model for teenagers, and the fact that doesn’t seem to register as a bad thing amongst it’s target audience really grates on some people. Especially when better franchises could have easily been that franchise but didn’t ‘get there first’, such as Vampire Diaries, an equally tweenish vampire/werewolf/one special girl story that at least has character with some self possession, animus, inner world of autonomous thought. Instead it became a tv show, and one somewhat sabotaged in quality by it’s tortuous overuse of dramatic music.
Hunger Games though I’m thoroughly looking forward to. I was very impressed with the first film on all levels and I’m one of those people who only read the books because the adaptation of the first was of such high quality. I wasn’t really surprised that I liked the film since I’ve always been a Gary Ross fan, but was even more impressed with the approach of Ross et al when I read the book. Novels in first person limited narrative scope conversions into objective, empirical stories is so often royally ballsed up, but imo they really tapped into the essentials, the essence of the story whilst mediating the novel’s teenage sexual confusion into a more subtle approach that all age groups could digest.
Regarding the trilogy, I’m a huge fan of it’s progression. Collins writes with a cinematic style in each of the books [which is naturally a contributing factor in why the adaptation seems promising] but the more serious and self possessed war arc that develops over the trilogy makes them, for me, greater than the sum of their parts. I guess that’s because I came to it from the opposite perception. Many cinephiles ignorant of the books [myself included] took the first film as having a relational narrative worthy of being compared to Battle Royale. I like to have perceptions proved wrong and greatly enjoyed discovering The Hunger Games trilogy was a different and entirely better beast when taken as a whole, and in terms of cinematic approach, the genre of Mockingjay could make this a future classic genre-meld series. So I’ve high hopes for the coming 3 films. If, of course, the new writers/directors aren’t undoing the sensible approach of the first. My only concern other than that is about approach to certification. The use of shaky cam to obscure the violence and not much visible blood from even the nastiest murders in the first was fairly well done [from a shaky cam as necessary evil pov] in HG in order to make it less clearly gruesome for it’s younger audience, but it will be to the detriment of the series if they continue that much more. If they try to continue making the films suitable for 12 yos, it’s going to be a franchise that audiences outgrow; they should be realistic and loyal to the intensity of the increasing violence in the books even if they have to make the second or 3rd/4th 15 or 18 certs. It would be better if they don’t take the approach that every 12 year old who has read or is reading the books should be able to get in the cinema in release week, instead they should focus on making the story mean the same thing and feel the same repurcussions in the movie adaptations. They’d benefit more from a universal audience approach and gain fans amongst adults and the books’ target audience.
Thanks for taking the time to reply.
There is far too much to be said about the merits and problems of the characters in Twilight to go into. Personally I am more concerned about all the copycats and the way they have taken vampires away from the horror genre.
I found the second and third Hunger Games books weaker than the original so don’t know what to expect of the films. I just hope they don’t change the ending. I can’t see them making 15 or 18 certificate movies, that would take it too far from its origins but do think they need to move it to the upper end of what they can get away with with a 12.
SOME SPOILERS
You’re totally right about the vampire genre shift; I’ve a pang of irritated longing for vampires who are evil soulless unsaveable blood sucking fiends with a serious allergy to sunlight. The allegorical point of them too is sourly missed. It seems current generations have no taste for the horror, tragedy and pathos, they just want sexy sun walking high school kids who just so happen to drink a little bit of thick claret now n again.
Hunger Games is something of an opportunity in my opinion, that’s probably why I’m excited about it. A future dystopian [and therefore in the eyes of most] sci fi story that turns into an explicit war saga, with a positive female protagonist who isn’t obsessed with making a man love her, getting married or having kids, and who isn’t a superhero or chasing one? What a nice change. I really like the war angle – a war story for teens and pre-teens entirely relateable to war as we know it, and about how normal people [both those politically minded and those with no initial sense of political identity] can contribute to huge change in fairly small steps. I know it’s not the first teens in war film [Harry Potter of course is also The King of that genrebend too], but HG using no supernatural elements is a nice change. I’d hope it’s success might spawn interest in that as a genre and pull a chunk of funding out of the ‘sexy teen entirely unhorrifying vampire’ genre.
The second book, I grant you, is largely a shameless sequel in the spirit of Hollywood sequels and part of Mockingjay is entirely an exercise in ‘break the cutie’… perhaps to it’s own detriment. But I actually think I like both those things, despite the barefaced negatives within them. The arc of the second book makes sense in the context of Snow’s thinking, and in a sense Collins [imo] was canny to design it as a sequel. As I said previous, she seems to write cinematically, with the narrative flow mostly matching a generic feature film scope and terrain. I wouldn’t be surprised if Catching Fire was a cogent attempt to insert what Hollywood likes most [a repeat performance] but she did so by tying it character motivation and a sensible format to introduce the next group of essential characters; no accidental meetings of protracted montages of collecting the new crop together, where none of these new people matter to us or have any reason to get involved. The 75th Hunger Game story has a lot of smart brevity underneath the repeat behaviour.
Mockingjay on the big screen is problematic though. Narratively, I did love the break the cutie [it made sense to me in the context that Collins wanted her characters to not be superhuman, and is so deliberately concerned with the reality of war, not to mention people in our own society who are unrealistic about it] but it does go on for a while and lacks classic entertainment. And the Capitol events will need a very shrewd visual team to get right. Overall I’m excited because of Lawrence. Her casting over other – more physically suitable – actresses I hope was because she will make the drama of CF and especially Mockingjay actually better than in the book. At least I like to think they hired the physical unsuitable actress because their minds were focused on getting a lead so Oscar worthy that the performance would be a pitch perfect performance unmatched in generic blockbusters. If that’s the goal it means they understand the potential for true iconic status if they don’t treat it like a bit of fluff.
But ultimately it’s about getting to the end isn’t? It makes or breaks the whole thing. As you note, they can’t change that, it would make producing the series a boneheaded enterprise, and with Lawrence I find it hard to believe anyone involved would even consider it. If she can be said to have a character theme in her career so far, it’s of the character who thinks or does the unpopular or misunderstood actions. The ending fits that so perfectly I’d imagine that if it wasn’t the ending, it would become the ending just because she’d rock it so perfectly [in the spirit of Fight Club if you will]. Eitherway I really don’t feel like latter stuff can be done justice without making it explicitly violent, whether graphically seen or narratively inferred in clever ways. Since classification boards take into account the meaning the audience will take from the violence and war films are often treated differently for historical relevance, I’d like to think that some violent plot points won’t hinder a 12A or 15 rating despite appearing to be a teen sci fi franchise. Avoiding all violence before the censors even get involved would be a fools errand though; what kind of war film doesn’t try to show the horrors of war? Very few could make a sense of loss caused by war feel involved enough if most/all the most violent events are sanitised like the first film.
Writing that I might be a bit of a fangirl. Oh well.
I’ll wax enthusiastic no more about HG :p I am in fact trying not to think about Mockingjay at all, despite my fascination with it, but since I’ve not seen anything Danny Strong has written, I’ve no idea if his adaptation is likely to be a smooth conversion or a total shambles. I only know him for his acting. Everyone raves though, so maybe it’ll be good.
[…] years? Every series of books that gets to three volumes is suddenly treated as a hot commodity. Fandango Groovers examines the trend, for better and for […]