1. There is no such thing as “a sure thing” in the art of adaptation. The popularity of a book, play, or true-life story does not guarantee a successful adaptation. On the other hand, no matter how unknown the book or true-life story, it could become a critical and commercial hit.
2. Before spending a great deal of money on optioning a project, assess the problems and your ability to solve them. If you can’t do it, don’t do it.
3. Be careful of adaptations that seem too easy. Easy adaptations sometimes become unoriginal and predictable films.
4. Just because an adaptation looks impossible doesn’t mean it is. Anything is possible—if you can pull it off.
5. Adaptation is both an art and a craft. You need to understand the material, the problems, and the craft of screenwriting to make the adaptation work. But no matter how much you may know about the craft of writing and adapting, it will still need your art—your creativity, insight, and talent.
I hope you have found this book practical and usable—and that it can guide you in your work. Like Michelangelo, who looked for the angel within his blocks of stone, I hope you are able to find the film within great fiction and great true-life stories. I wish you well at creating an adaptation that’s as good as, if not better than, the original.
WINNERS OF THE ACADEMY AWARD FOR BEST PICTURE
1930-1990
1930’s
All Quiet On the Western Front, 1930 (novel)
Cimarron, 1931 (novel)
Grand Hotel, 1932 (novel)
Cavalcade, 1933 (play)
It Happened One Night, 1934 (short story)
Mutiny on the Bounty, 1935 (novel)
The Great Ziegfeld, 1936 (true-life story)
The Life of Emile Zola, 1937 (true-life story)
You Can’t Take It With You, 1938 (play)
Gone With the Wind, 1939 (novel)
1940’s
Rebecca, 1940 (novel)
How Green Was My Valley, 1941 (novel)
Mrs. Miniver, 1942 (novel)
Casablanca, 1943 (play)
Going My Way, 1944 (original screenplay)
The Lost Weekend, 1945 (novel)
The Best Years of Our Lives, 1946 (novel)
Gentleman’s Agreement, 1947 (novel)
Hamlet, 1948 (play)
All the King’s Men, 1949 (novel)
1950’s
All About Eve, 1950 (short story)
An American in Paris, 1951 (musical play)
The Greatest Show on Earth, 1952 (original screenplay)
From Here to Eternity, 1953 (novel)
On the Waterfront, 1954 (nonfiction article)
Marty, 1955 (teleplay)
Around the World in 80 Days, 1956 (novel)
The Bridge on the River Kwai, 1957 (novel)
Gigi, 1958 (novel/play)
Ben-Hur, 1959 (novel)
1960’s
The Apartment, 1960 (original screenplay)
West Side Story, 1961 (play)
Lawrence of Arabia, 1962 (true-life story)
Tom Jones, 1963 (novel)
My Fair Lady, 1964 (play)
The Sound of Music, 1965 (musical play)
A Man for All Seasons, 1966 (play)
In the Heat of the Night, 1967 (novel)
Oliver!, 1968 (novel/musical play)
Midnight Cowboy, 1969 (novel)
1970’s
Patton, 1970 (true-life story)
The French Connection, 1971 (nonfiction article)
The Godfather, 1972 (novel)
The Sting, 1973 (original screenplay)
The Godfather II, 1974 (novel)
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, 1975 (novel/play)
Rocky, 1976 (original screenplay)
Annie Hall, 1977 (original screenplay)
The Deer Hunter, 1978 (original screenplay)
Kramer vs. Kramer, 1979 (novel)
1980’s
Ordinary People, 1980 (novel)
Chariots of Fire, 1981 (true-life story)
Gandhi, 1982 (true-life story)
Terms of Endearment, 1983 (novel)
Amadeus, 1984 (play)
Out of Africa, 1985 (true-life story)
Platoon, 1986 (original screenplay)
The Last Emperor, 1987 (true-life story)
Rain Man, 1988 (original screenplay)
Driving Miss Daisy, 1989 (play)
1990’s
Dances With Wolves, 1990 (true-life story/novel)
WINNERS OF THE EMMY AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING MINISERIES AND DRAMA/COMEDY SPECIAL
1977-1990
Roots, 1977 (book)
Eleanor and Franklin, 1977 (true-life story)
Holocaust, 1978 (book)
The Gathering, 1978 (original TV script)
Roots: The Next Generation, 1979 (book/true-life story)
Friendly Fire, 1979 (true-life story)
Edward and Mrs. Simpson, 1980 (true-life story)
The Miracle Worker, 1980 (play)
Shgun, 1981 (novel)
Playing for Time, 1981 (true-life story)
Marco Polo, 1982 (true-life story)
A Woman Called Golda, 1982 (true-life story)
Nicholas Nickleby, 1983 (novel/play)
Special Bulletin, 1983 (original TV script, loosely based on the play The War of the Worlds)
Concealed Enemies, 1984 (true-life story)
The Jewel in the Crown, 1985 (novel)
Do You Remember Love?, 1985 (original TV script)
Peter the Great, 1986 (book/true-life story)
Love Is Never Silent, 1986 (novel)
A Year in the Life, 1987 (original TV script)
Promise, 1987 (short story)
The Murder of Mary Phagan, 1988 (book)
Inherit the Wind, 1988 (play)
War and Remembrance, 1989 (novel)
Day One (book), and Roe vs. Wade (true-life story), 1989 (tie)
Drug Wars: The Camarena Story, 1990 (true-life story)
Caroline (short story), and The Incident (original TV script), 1990 (tie)
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Screenwriting Books
The following are well-respected and very useful screenwriting books.
Although this list by no means covers the many good books on the market, these are some I am personally familiar with and, from my bookstore research, know are popular.
Blacker, Irwin. The Elements of Screenwriting. New York: Macmillan, 1986.
Brenner, Al. The TV Scriptwriter’s Handbook. Cincinnati: Writers Digest Press, 1985.
Cox, Kerry, and Jurgen Wolff. Successful Scriptwriting. Cincinnati: Writers Digest Press, 1988.
DiMaggio, Madeline. How to Write for Television. New York: Prentice Hall, 1990.
Egri, Lajos. Art of Dramatic Writing. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1972.
Field, Syd. Screenplay. New York: Dell Publishing, 1984.
————. The Screenwriter’s Workbook. New York: Dell Publishing, 1988.
Goldman, William. Adventures in the Screen Trade. New York: Warner Books, 1983.
Hague, Michael. Writing Screenplays that Sell. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1988.
King, Viki. How to Write a Movie in Twenty-one Days. New York: Harper & Row, 1988.
Mehring, Margaret. The Screenplay: A Blend of Film Form and Content. Stoneham: Focal Press, 1990.
Miller, William. Screenwriting for Narrative Film and TV. New York: Communication Arts Books, 1980.
Sautter, Carl. How to Sell Your Screenplay. New York: New Chapter Press, 1988.
Seger, Linda. Making a Good Script Great. Hollywood: Samuel French, 1989.
————. Creating Unforgettable Characters. New York: Henry Holt, 1990.
Swain, Dwight V. Film Scriptwriting: A Practical Manual. Stoneham: Focal Press, 1988.
Walter, Richard. Screenwriting: The Art, Craft, and Business of Film and Television Writing. New York: New American Library, 1988.
Whitcomb, Cynthia. Selling Your Screenplay. New York: Crown, 1988.
Source Materials
The following are some of the source materials referred to in this book.
Allen, Donald M. (trans.). Four Plays by Eugene Ionesco. New York: Grove Press, 1958.
Brown, Christy. My Left Foot. London: Mandarin Paperbacks, 1954.
Dickey, James. Deliverance. New York: Dell Publishing, 1970.
Dinesen, Isak. Letters from Africa. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1981.
————. Out of Africa and Shadows on the Grass. New York: Vintage Books, 1989.
Fielding, Henry. Tom Jones. New York: Random House, 1950.
Forster, E. M. A Room with a View. New York: Bantam Books, 1988.
Howard, Sidney. Gone With the Wind, the Illustrated Screenplay. London: Lorrimer Publishing, no date.
Kesey, Ken. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. New York: New American Library, 1962.
King, Stephen. “The Body” (from Different Seasons). New York: New American Library, 1982.
————. The Dead Zone. New York: New American Library, 1979.
Maltin, Leonard (ed.). TV Movies and Video Guide. New York: New American Library, 1988.
Mitchell, Margaret. Gone With the Wind. New York: Avon Books, 1976.
Perry, George. The Complete Phantom of the Opera. New York: Henry Holt, 1987.
Schaefer, Jack. Shane. New York: Bantam Books, 1949.
Trzebinski, Errol. Silence Will Speak. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1977.
Wager, Walter. 58 Minutes. New York: Tor Books, 1989.
Walker, Alice. The Color Purple. New York: Pocket Books, 1982.
INDEX
The index that appeared in the print version of this title does not match the pages of your eBook. Please use the search function on your eReading device to search for terms of interest. For your reference, the terms that appear in the print index are listed below.
Abstraction in theatre
Academy Awards
winners of (1930-1990)
Actors, exchange between audience and, in theatres
Acts, creating three
Adam
Adaptations. See also Characters; Story line; Style; Theme
afterword on
changing source material in
commercial viability of
condensing vs. expanding material in
failed
film-to-film (see Film-to-film adaptations)
of novels (see Novel adaptations)
optioning for (see Optioning stories for adaptation)
statistics on
successes of
television (see Television docudramas)
of theatre (see Theatre adaptations)
this book on
of true-life stories (see True-life story adaptations)
African Queen, The
After Hours
All About Eve
Always
Amadeus
Arc of story line
Attica
Audience, exchange between actors and, in theatre
Autobiography of Malcolm X, The
Avalon
Awakenings transition scenes
Batman
Bear, The
Ben-Hur
Big Chill, The
Birth of a Nation, The
Black Like Me
Black Rain
Bleak House
Blossom Time
Blow-Up
Bonfire of the Vanities
Boudu Saved from Drowning
Breathless
Brook, Peter
Brown, Christy
Burning Bed, The
Cadeau, Le (The Toy)
Casablanca
Case studies
Driving Miss Daisy
Fatal Attraction
Field of Dreams
Phantom of the Opera, The
Reversal of Fortune
Cast the First Stone
Catalyst scenes
Caucasian Chalk Circle, The
Chair, The
Characters
choices of, and theme
conflicts between
cutting and combining
defining functions of
dimensionalizing with details
intentionality of
main
number of
in The Phantom of the Opera
relationships between, in true-life stories
sympathetic
in television docudramas
transformational journey of
Chariots of Fire
Cherry Orchard, The
Children of a Lesser God
Chinatown
Chorus Line, A
Christmas Carol, A
Christy
Chronology
handling problems with
in television docudramas
Cinema Paradiso
Citizen Kane
Cleopatra
Climax
building
in story lines
in true-life stories
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Cold War Romance of Lillian Hellman and John Melby, The
Color Purple, The
characters
Coming to America
Context in film-to-film adaptations
Controversial material
Copyright on material, expired
Costs of story options
Cotton Club, The
Cousin, Cousine
Creating Unforgettable Characters
Crimes of the Heart
Cross Creek
Crossing, The
Crossing to Freedom
Cyrano de Bergerac
Dances With Wolves
story arc
three-act structure of
transition scenes
Dark Victory
Dead Zone
Deardon, James
Defiant Ones, The
Deliverance
theme
Descriptive detail
building, in novel adaptations
finding theme in
Diabolique
Dialogue
finding themes in
theatrical
Diary of Anne Frank, The
Dick Tracy
Die Hard
dramatic story line
Disclaimers
Docudramas. See Television docudramas
Down and Out in Beverly Hills
Dramatic order in true-life story adaptations
Dramatic story line
raising stakes of
repetitive action vs. rising
Driving Miss Daisy
case study of
Edward and Mrs. Simpson
Edward Scissorhands
Eleanor and Franklin
Elephant Man, The
Emmy Awards
winners of (1977–1990)
Empty Space, The
Equus
Eraserhead
Errors and Omission Insurance (E & O)
Everybody’s Baby: The Rescue of Jessica McClure
Everybody’s Child
Everything You Wanted to Know About Sex but Were Afraid to Ask
Facts, adhering to, in television docudramas
Fatal Attraction
case study of
Fatal Vision
Fiction. See Novel adaptations; Short-story adaptations; Theatre adaptations
Fielding, Henry
Field of Dreams
case study of
58 Minutes
Fighting Back
Film-to-film adaptations
contemporary significance
context
creative changes
Fatal Attraction case study
qualifications for
story line
value system
Financial responsibility for story options
Flowers in the Attic
Foreign films, value system of
Fourth Wise Man, The
French Connection, The
Friendly Fire
Friendly Suit, A
Games Mother Never Taught You
Gandhi
Glass Inferno, The
Glory
Goal-oriented story lines
Godfather III
Godspell
Gone With the Wind
scene sequences
story arc
GoodFellas
Great American Man Shortage, The
Great Gatsby, The
Grifters, The
Guest, Judith
Hair
Hamlet
Harper Valley P. T.A.
Hasenfus, Eugene
Having It All
Heaven Can Wait
Heaven’s Gate
Henry and June
Henry V
Here Comes Mr. Jordan
Hero With a Thousand Faces, The
High Noon
Hope and Glory
Ice Pirates
Images, finding theme in
Incidents, adaptations of true-life
Indiscreet
Information in novels, film adaptations of
Intentionality in stories
Issues and problems in story lines
It Happened One Night
It’s a Wonderful Life
Jesus Christ Superstar
Julia
Kazan, Nicholas
Killing in a Small Town
King Kong
Kinsella, W. P.