Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Dreams of Adaptation

The odds of my little book Saving Jake ever being turned into a movie are probably the same as my odds of winning the next multi-million Power Ball Lottery. Still, that doesn't stop a writer from dreaming, does it? Every time I see a young male actor with dark hair, brown eyes, and a particular quality of charisma or pathos (depending on the role he is doing), I think, What a perfect Jake! Then I'm off and away, imagining what my story would look like on the big screen. I have even watched it many times in my head, picturing how each scene could be brought to life.

On the other hand, I have seen adaptations of some of my favorite books, and have been appalled/shocked/ stunned at what they've done to my personal mind movie. For those of us who are big fans of someone called Jack Reacher, I'm sure I speak for many of us that we are shocked/stunned/possibly appalled that Tom Cruise has decided to cast himself in the part. Jack Reacher, for those who do not read Lee Child, is approximately 6'5" and somewhere in the neighborhood of 250 lbs.

And then there's the situation where casting isn't a problem because the screen writers have taken a completely different route. I read a lot of mystery novels, and was thrown for a loop when someone adapted the book Relic (the first Pendergast novel by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child) and managed to leave Pendergast out of the movie entirely, even though he solves the crime in the book. Go figure.

So sometimes when I think about my little story being adapted, I also think maybe it's for the best that it remains an obscure little tale. It could possibly be twisted into something I don't recognize, if someone took a crack at it. Maybe remaining an unknown is not always a bad thing.

But I can't help dreaming. That's why when I imagine Saving Jake on the big screen, I also imagine that I either have complete control over adaptation and casting, or the movie is being done by Peter Jackson with a soundtrack by Hans Zimmer. Now, that would work!

2 comments:

  1. Oh, what a dream, to see our novels made into a movie. You do have some good points though. Unless you have control, no telling what Hollywood might do to your story.

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  2. Dear Mr. Hollywood producer,
    If you buy the film rights to my book, you can do whatever you want to it :-)

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