Adapting films into novels

[Santino]

If I had millions of pounds too spend, I'd set up a publisher that only published novels that were adaptations of films. Not those rubbish novelisations of action films that they sometimes do, but proper adaptations of decent films. It would not make any money, because the film companies would want all the profits, but anyway.

Here are some films that I reckon could make good books:

Citizen Kane - a long, rambling book, told (like the film) from lots of different points of view, through letters and memoirs and interviews and newspaper stories. Dom DeLillo would be an obvious choice to write it, but I've never finished one of his books so I'd find someone else.

Twelve Monkeys - a baffling book with sequences in the wrong order and footnotes that sometimes direct you to skip ahead or go back and re-read certain sections. Occasional head-fuck moments when you look around to check that you aren't being watched.

Cinema Paradiso - no tricks about this one, just a first-person narrated version of this heart-breaking film. For added authenticity I would get it written in Italian/Sicilian and then translated into English.


Any other ideas? Just as there are good films made from bad books, it would be great to make a good book out of a bad film. Also, feel free to reminisce about piss-poor novelisations you have enjoyed. I used to love The Karate Kid book.

 

[Reno]

In the 70's they turned almost every major release into a novel if it wasn't based on one. Occasionally some highly respected authors would do a novelisation for the money, as was the case with William Kotzwinkle's E.T., which was one of the few such books that gathered critical acclaim.

Alan Dean Foster was a sci-fi author who did lots of novelisations. I especially remember his Alien, which was based on an early draft of the screenplay that included lots of scenes which never made it into the final film.

In pre-VHS times I also collected photo-novelisations which took screengrabs of the films and turned them into comic books.

 

[ATOMIC SUPLEX]

Ah yes, I loved all that. Before video, it was the only way to relive a film, or to experience one you couldn't go to see.

 

[Santino]

I had Return of the Jedi as a storybook.

 

[Brainaddict]

In the 70's they turned almost every major release into a novel if it wasn't based on one. Occasionally some highly respected authors would do a novelisation for the money, as was the case with William Kotzwinkle's E.T., which was one of the few such books that gathered critical acclaim.

I read the book of ET before I saw the film. No one ever believed me when I said it was a good book though

 

[May Kasahara]

Yeah, the ET novelisation was alright, as I recall. Ghostbusters and (whisper it) Annie were also pretty substantial novels, at least to an under-10. Ghostbusters in particular seemed to have quite a lot of Noo Yoik spirit. I read that one several times. And the Annie novelisation had lots of detail about the Depression and FDR and that.