Harry Potter: The Role Model For Film Adaptation

Harry Potter and the Adaptation from Novel to Film

1. "An adaptation is undeniably an appropriation of the text, and although the plot remains the same, the telling ’ or the interpreting of it ’ radically changes from one generation to the next."

2. "You've only got about thirty pages to set everything up. Establish your main characters ... ground the audience in the world where your story takes place, introduce the dramatic problem, and move into the second act."

The author discusses the difference between a "good film" and a "good film version of a book". She focuses on the Harry Potter Series and dissects the films one by one. The process of adapting a book for film is tedious and the Harry Potter Series seems to have done this well. A big part of the films success is dedicated to the fact that J.K. Rowling was a collaborator in the scriptwriting process This benefitted the film because J.K. Rowling knows the story best. J.K. Rowling set criteria for many things in the movie that she felt would show off her book best. She chose much of the set design and her main request was that the characters casted must actually be British.

In this article, I noticed that the marketing techniques in the United States and the United Kingdom are very different. This is because they are trying to sell the movie to a different target audience. Different versions of films are also aired to different countries in order to aide to a specific group of people. Those living in the United States may know the first Harry Potter movie as "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" but in the United Kingdom they called it "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone". 


In accordance to the casting of adaptation films, it is very difficult to find an actor that fits a readers prototype of a specific character. As always, the director must take into account the popularity of a specific actor. If an actor is too popular the viewer may not look at them as if they are the character of a book. One thing that the director cannot control when casting a film is how the viewers are going to react emotionally to a specific character. For example, in the Harry Potter Series, teenage girls fell in love with Harry's enemy, Draco Malfoy, because he was an attractive young boy. This caused author J.K. Rowling to be perplexed because the viewers should be falling more in with the hero, Harry, rather than the enemy.

Films have been adapted from novels, T.V. series, and even musicals. Directors must meticulously craft every element from set design to cast in order to capture a readers vision of an imaginary world, but they also must understand that everyone read the book in a different way and it is almost impossible to please everyone.

Nicholas Sparks: The King of Film Adaptation

Nicholas Sparks Adaptation, The Choice, Begins Production in North Carolina

1.  "Sparks has written 17 novels, all New York Times best-sellers, that have sold more than 95 

million copies worldwide and been translated into over 50 languages."

2. "Eight of Sparks’s books have been made into films..." 

Nicholas Sparks is beginning production for his 11th book to join the adaptation market. That means 11 out of his 17 novels took on the transformation from text to the big screen. "The Choice" is to be filmed in North Carolina where many of Nicholas Sparks' novels take place, not surprising since many of his novels have very similar storylines. The director of this film is Ross Katz and Sparks is going to be working closing with Theresa Park, who is known to be one of Sparks' "long time collaborators". Nicholas Sparks may not have written the screenplay, but he is, in fact, paying for this film along with Nicholas Sparks Productions and others. "The Choice" will be Nicholas Sparks' first independent feature film. "The Choice" needs to be marketed as a feature film because Nicholas Spark Productions has a deal with Warner Horizon Television to makes series' for cable (see here:http://deadline.com/2012/04/author-nicholas-sparks-starts-production-company-signs-deal-with-warner-horizon-254835/). These TV shows will not be written by Nicholas Sparks himself but will use his style and ideas in order to capture a different audience.

New York Times best-selling author, Nicholas Spark, has drowned himself in the cinema and television production industry. And how can one blame him? His films do very well in box offices around the world as well as with teen girls and young adult woman, because of this Lionsgate has already received distribution writes for the U.S. as well as the U.K.. Sparks has no reason stop turning his books into movies because he found something that worked for him and he will continue to do it until he stops benefitting from it. Although some audiences may be getting tired of watching the same story over and over again, Sparks is definitely in a good economic position because of these decisions.

Wasting no time with production, Nicholas Sparks released a movie in October (The Best of Me), has a movie currently in post-production (The Longest Ride), and is already on his way to starting his next feature film (The Choice). "The Choice" is going to be a Lionsgate film. Lionsgate Films is know for previous movies such as The Twilight Series and The Hunger Games. The selection of this big time production and distribution company will surely bring a wider audience but how will Sparks decide to market his production differently than he has the last 10 times?