The Coming of Age of Book-to-Screen Adaptations

Inspiration is everywhere. We see it in the people boarding the train on our commute to work. We find it in the crevices of a forgotten building. We note it in ourselves as we navigate life's challenges. But the best source of inspiration, perhaps, comes in the form of books. Written media is chock full of stories begging to be shared with the masses. Are we to remain idle while captivating stories like Cinderella and The Goldfinch are told only to those with the time and desire to read them? Of course not. These stories deserve to be converted into visual experiences capable of steering cultural conversations and resetting the public mood.

Here in Hollywood, we scour the literary world for pieces that reflect an idea bigger than ourselves. We seek to tell these stories in ways that will ignite the future of film. What may seem like a blip on the New York Times Bestseller list is often an avenue in which we can push cinematic and cultural boundaries. Take the following films, for example. Each one existed as written literature first, and each one helped spread cultural conversations sparked by their literary inspiration and significantly impacted the direction of films that followed.

Dracula

1930s culture was characterized by stress and poverty. Americans were searching for an escape from the reality of The Great Depression. For many, relief was found in the form of comedic entertainment, so it was slightly surprising that Tod Browning chose to bring Dracula (1931) back to the silver screen. Browning based his version of this vampire horror story on a collection of previously completed works: a 1924 stage play, the 1897 novel by Bram Stoker, and the plagiarized 1922 film Nosferatu. It was the first cinematic horror story without comedic relief or logical explanations for implied supernatural concepts. Browning’s Dracula would set the stage for a decade full of literary-based horror films, including several other noteworthy adaptations like Frankenstein and The Invisible Man.

The Maltese Falcon

John Huston debuted his directorial skills in 1941 with the release of three-time Academy Award nominee The Maltese Falcon. The film was based on Dashiell Hammett’s 1930 novel and, in 1989, would be drafted into the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress in their first round of film selections ever. An all-star cast and some very unique camera work helped to turn this early film noir into the masterpiece it’s recognized as today. It was Huston’s adaptation that introduced the infamous “femme fatale” to the emerging noir genre, and turned The Maltese Falcon into a proud moment in Humphrey Bogart’s impressive career.

To Kill A Mockingbird

This well-known title is the film adaptation of the Harper Lee novel read in schools across the United States. It was directed by Robert Mulligan and released in 1962 amidst one of the most turbulent decades in history. Space exploration, political turmoil, and celebrity drama rampaged the headlines on a daily basis. Still, Mulligan managed to produce and release an iconic film fraught with cultural implications and lasting significance. What’s particularly notable about this screenplay, however, isn’t the moral message or the acclaimed drama (although both deserve praise in their own right), but the casting. Gregory Peck’s portrayal of Atticus Finch in To Kill A Mockingbird is arguably one of the most brilliant casting choices of the century. In fact, it was Harper Lee herself that said, “When he played Atticus Finch, he had played himself, and time has told us all of something more: when he played himself, he touched the world.”

The Godfather

Mario Puzo’s 1969 New York Times Best Seller sold more than nine million copies in two years, briefly giving it the title of best selling published work in history. Its 1972 cinematic predecessor would also amass critical acclaim thanks to the foresight of Paramount Pictures, which saw potential in the literature before the final draft had been written. Author Mario Puzo was hired to write a screenplay version and director Francis Ford Coppola was given an opportunity to do the same. The final draft of The Godfather, which was 40 pages longer than commissioned, was a collaborative fusion of the two minds. The movie was the first ever to portray mobsters as complex, deep characters. It was also tangentially responsible for Italian-American stereotypes that would seep through cinematic culture, public perception, and more than 300 gangster films for decades to come.

With infinite more time and a thousand more words, I am positive that I could walk you through at least a dozen more book-to-film adaptations that impacted Hollywood and American life beyond Beverly Hills in momentous ways. We’ve barely brushed the surface on the movies that brought life and light to otherwise distressing cultural issues. Titles like The Color Purple, Trainspotting, and No Country For Old Men were all born from literature that ventured into aspects of human life that we, here in Hollywood, were too timid to touch first.

It is thanks to authors that these influential stories are available for telling, but it is thanks to Hollywood that they’ve been told to everyone.