Sci-Fi And Fantasy Adaptations | Why Can't They Get It Right?
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 29 июл 2024
- Mike takes a look though a business and marketing perspective as to why he thinks studios keep missing so badly in adapting beloved fantasy series.
Want to send Mike something? You can do so to the below address:
Mike K.
15201 Mason Rd
Suite 169
Cypress, TX 77433
Support Mike on Patreon: / mikesbookreviews
Join Mike's server on Discord / discord
Visit Mike's Amazon Wishlist: amzn.to/2zpHooW
Follow Mike on Goodreads: / mikesbookreviews
Follow Mike on Twitter: / zepp1978
Like Mike's Book Reviews on Facebook / mikesbookreviews
Follow Mike on Instagram / zepp1978
Follow Mike on TikTok / zepp1978
Microphone used in these videos: amzn.to/3IpFSAX
Camera used in these videos: amzn.to/3IqqdBv
0:00 Introduction & Purpose
1:28 Content Warning
2:31 The Next Game of Thrones
3:55 No Love For the Source Material
5:30 Money Can't Buy You Love
7:30 Poor/Lack of Marketing
8:56 Making the Wrong Hires
10:40 Think They're Better Writers Than the Author
13:53 Treating Fans Like the Enemy
16:12 Not Listening to Your Audience
17:40 Being Intentionally Divisive
19:23 Zero Accountability
20:48 Final Thoughts
------------------------------------------------------
Theme music provided by Infraction
/ @infraction
Music used: Epic (No Copyright Music)
infractionroyaltyfreemusic.ba...
Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0(CC BY 3.0)
creativecommons.org/licenses/...
------------------------------------------------------
#MikesBookReviews #Fantasy #adaptation 
Развлечения
adaptation red flags:
"we want to do our own thing"
"we want to subvert the viewers expectations"
"we want to modernize the story"
Fr, only instance that could work is for characters that have so many different version that is not weird that a screenwriter would want to do their own thing, like what's happening with the into the spider verse films.
Nailed it.
Or when they want to interject woke things
Agreed. I think if most adaptations tried to follow the source material as closely as possible, a lot of this stuff would be fixed. I can only think of a few adaptations that “did their own thing” and were successful. Kubrick’s version of The Shining comes to mind and that worked mostly due to his prowess as a film maker.
Basically if you’re not Kubrick, just go by the book
@@ianfrye7900 I’d think any good director would be ok with shining not by the book. It’s depends on a director
This video should be required viewing for all involved with these fantasy productions.
Yeah, except that all of these points should be obvious enough that they shouldn't need to be told.
They're not all one same group. Some fail, some succeed by doing the right things, and some could be better.
which is why they will never see it
They dont have the attention span to watch a video this long
Agreed
The best line I have heard for this came from a movie critic named MauLer he said: "It's not about passing the torch it's about torching the past." The people who get these products don't understand what demographics are. Barbie and Oppenheimer proved, two movies made for very specific audiences, can be successful without compromising for some mythical "modern" audience that appeals to everyone. When adapting books appease the reader first then try to bring in normies. GoT wasn't pulling in 20 million viewers a week that first season. Book readers watched it and word of mouth spread. They are literally doing the opposite by telling the original fans you're opinions are outdated and wrong and we are going to come in an make it "better." If you piss off the people who made the IP popular to begin with there is no one spreading it to the normie fans.
Agreed!
Couldn't have said it better myself. kudos
So many props for Pierce Brown buying the Red Rising Rights back when they showed they didn't want to make his story
Yea he has made it very clear that it isn't happening unless he's absolutely certain it is done well.
Indeed. Seeing your artwork defiled is not worth any money.
Who was going to develop it and what was their vision for it?
@@aleonard8272 I don't know if it's been said, rumor I heard was they wanted to squash it into a 2 hour movie
@@christophertheofilos1063 thank goodness that didn't happen!
Knowing that one of the show runners for Rings Of Power thinks Tolkien fans are "evil" for disliking his show will never cease to amaze me.
@@PleadingMackerelthere is no plain old constructive criticism anymore. It is now considered hate speech to criticize their product.
@@PleadingMackerel relax. That has always been hate speech. Now they weaponize the claim to frighten critics.
MCU executives literally told the show runners of Secret Invasion to NOT read the source material before writing the show - that went really well for them lol oooof
Concerning the Wheel of Time:
If memory serves, Amazon had no issue with time running out as they started to get things going shortly after they had the rights. It was the previous rights holders that made something on the cheap just to try to keep those rights.
I'm not sure what happened with Rafe and Wheel of Time, but from things I heard and what I saw of the first season, I have some ideas.
1. Rafe wanted to keep the story as close as possible to the books.
2. #1 is not possible because the story is freakin' *HUGE.*
3. Amazon didn't allow for a sufficient number episodes of sufficient length to cover as much as would be required to tell the story adequately.
4. Rafe hired writers who were not familiar with Wheel of Time or the fandom.
5. Some serious issues hampered the production, especially loosing a main actor, and having to write around it.
6. Rafe gives in to his desire to add stuff that *he* wanted to see, taking time away from things that really need to be on screen.
7. Things were added, and changes were made to inform the audience that could have been far better done with a few lines here and there, leaving room for important information that had to be left out due to lack of time.
8. Rafe had things written as though the audience consisted of people who lack the intelligence to follow the story.
9. Disregard of the way things actually work or don't work in the books.
10. Either FX that were very misleading, and/or more disregard for what is or is not possible in the books.
11. Rafe appears to be incapable of adapting such a complex story to the screen.
We always knew #11 would be a problem for any show runner, but Rafe could have brought someone on board to help, and he failed to do so. The fault is with both Amazon, who did a lot of meddling with the production, and Rafe for not realizing his shortcomings and getting some help to do it right.
Anyone else think the GoT producer's secretly resent George RR Martin for not getting his next book out within the 5 years or so that the show was chugging along, which would have given them more to work with? After wrapping season 2 and then 3, I can just hear the showrunners being like, yo, George, hows that next book comin along? With beads of sweat coming down their foreheads lol
Agree 100%. It's so bizarre that people keep getting to make things based on an IP they dislike. How does the interview for that job even go?
"We want you to make This Thing."
"I hate This Thing."
"Great! We hate This Thing too! You're hired!"
No CGI!
No politics!
No massive changes to source material!
No hating the source material!
All excellent points you raise here Mike. Something I'm sick to death of hearing from show runners and actors these days is "We're modernizing the story" or "We're updating the story for the modern audience." If you do that then you're not telling the original story. Why is Lord of the Rings considered one of the greatest fantasy adaptations of all time 20 years after it was made? Because Peter Jackson and Co loved the books and wanted to do the story justice.
Completely agree. Ego + Incompetency + Lack of love is a very common mix in failed adaptations. I'd love to see a New Sun, Malazan, Hyperion, or Red Rising adaptation but in this climate, I'd just stick to the books. I swear I'd put my all into promoting these if they happened and were good. But now I just shrug at any announcement and wait for the inevitable failure.
I would not trust to adapt the New Sun in any climate. But Hyperion could make a great movie...with the right climate.
Pierce Brown’s been in talks off & on to do a Red Rising adaptation for I think years now. So far nobody’s been willing to do it the way he wants it done, so… maybe some day a movie studio will realize the books are popular for a reason.
Sad thing is these days I'd rather them not even try to adapt anything because I know they will destroy it in every way possible. Whenever I hear a story I like is being adapted it just makes me shudder instead of excited lol.
This is why I'm looking forward to the Dark Tower series. Mike Flanagan is such a hardcore King fan, that this show, in my prediction, will be the biggest work of art adaptation SINCE Game of Thrones. Since everyone wants to use GOT as their bar, I feel like DT will be the only one reach it.
I want to have your optimisim
I got three or four books into DT, I'm not sure that's gonna interest a large audience
@@jamesalexander958lol
I feel like it will, especially if Roland/Suzannah/Eddie/Jake perform well
Dark Tower was a perfect example of a studio that didn’t give a crap about the source material and made a dumb movie for stupid people. I hope the tv show is better but I doubt it. I do like Flanagan though so who knows.
Once upon a time, Roland of Gilead, a brave gunslinger, decided to take a break from his quest for the Dark Tower. Feeling adventurous, he decided to embrace his creative side and try on a pretty pink dress.
As he admired himself in the mirror, Roland felt a sense of liberation and joy he had never experienced before. The dress made him feel confident and free, allowing him to see beyond his relentless pursuit of the Dark Tower.
Inspired by this newfound realization, Roland decided to share his story on RuPaul's Drag Race. He wanted to showcase his unique journey and inspire others to embrace their true selves.
On the runway, as Roland strutted his stuff, a small, unexpected fart escaped him. The audience erupted in laughter, but instead of feeling embarrassed, Roland embraced the moment with a smile. He realized that even in the face of unexpected mishaps, it's important to find humor and continue to express oneself authentically.
Roland's appearance on RuPaul's Drag Race became a sensation. He became an inspiration to many, reminding them that it's never too late to discover new passions and embrace who they truly are.
And so, Roland of Gilead, the gunslinger turned drag queen, continued to spread joy, acceptance, and self-expression throughout the realms, leaving behind his quest for the Dark Tower, but finding a new purpose in bringing smiles to the faces of others.
Sarcasm acknowledged.
The Expanse is a good example of how to do it right. They had one of the authors in the writing room. A great sci-fi book series is a great sci-fi TV show.
Disagree. The authors even woked out on their own content (Cibola Burn) to make it consumable for "MoDeRn AuDiEnCeS".
@@HandlesAreStupid2024that’s unavoidable at this point though.
I'm just nodding my head throughout this video. Amen, brother, amen. These days when I hear something I love is going to be adapted, my initial reaction is "oh no."
I'm still broken over the Wheel of Time "adaptation." It really hit me where it hurts with how bad it was. This is my favorite book series of all time and I was trying really hard to overlook the outright disrespect for the books up until the season finale where they just crossed the line. The sad thing is we'll probably never get another adaptation and it's a damn shame.
Agree. I was mixed on it through most of the first 7 episodes, but that finale was so terrible.
It never had a chance
They literally wrecked the whole thing in the first 30 seconds lol. The show was atrocious.
@@Banner-18 omg!!! Yes they did and I thought exactly the same, like this is atrocious.
If you didn't like the season I highly suggest giving my fan edit a shot. It's much more streamlined and tightly structured, and might be closer to what you want. Then again, it might not 🤷🏾♂️ But worth checking out I'd say. At least watch the opening 5 mins to see if it hooks you.
You didn’t read the original text of that Witcher interview. We have it in Hungarian. Way worse than the English version. He is literally attacking the American people’s intelligence.
Yes he totally did that man is truly an idiot
Yeah that's disgusting behavior from an author and besides having no interest in his books, I definitely will never support him.
@@TheMrNukeman I read the article and have the translation, “What he says: “I tried to explain it (saying about the a movie plan that processes the uprising in Warsaw) in that there wasn’t just German soldiers but Hungarian and Ukrainian too at the German side but for the Americans it was too complicated. They are from a different historical community where everything is clear USA is the good side, others are the bad.”“When these series are made for the wider audience (where there are a lot of Americans actually) these simplifications make sense and needed. It’s painful to lose the higher complexity but the people just can’t accept it. Sometimes perhaps we go too far but we have to make these decisions and we have to accept it.” - something like this. But you have to understand the article around it too: ““The roasting of the USA in the last decade is not a new phenomenon at this level, because in several cases it was proven true that their society wasn’t the sharpest knife at the table, yet his comment here is still extremely rude because saying that a nation can’t accept complexity is really an overstatement say the least. But he went further tho, in a different interview he said that the children are the issue here because they grow up with TikTok and RUclips so they don’t have patience for longer contents at all” - went somehow like this. Not totally correct translation but tried. This is the Hungarian article of that interview.
@@nazimelmardithat's his fault for catering to an audience. When writing, always assume your readers are smart, that way you'll put out the best story possible. If they aren't smart, who cares.
@@brandocalrissian3294 exactly.
Excellent points, let’s all hope that future adaptations will change for the better soon and not give up hope. Recently discovered your channel and appreciating your videos/comments/reviews a lot already!
Mike
You forgot to mention AMC's Anne Rice Vampire Chronicles and Mayfair Witches. What they did with that is unforgivable. But it brings me to a point. As a business major I agree with you and would go so far as to say what these people have engaged in is false advertisement. They purchase these IP's for name recognition only. They use the name to tell their own story then call it an "adaptation". I also agree with you on how for most books a one on one adaption is not possible or at times smart. Many people forget that the original LOTHR trilogy was not a one to one adaptation and in fact Christopher Tolkien actually hated the movies. As you know certain cuts and changes were made since it was a different medium but I'd say most of the changes made for a better story and they retained the heart of the books. These so called writers and show runners are skilled or talented enough for that.
Good Omens and Sandman - those are amazing adaptations! Made changes where it enriched the story, but kept the spirit of the source material.
True, and I suspect it's because Gaiman is EXTREMELY involved in these projects. He's good at it too.
The best thing about the WoT adaptation was the fact that I started reading the books because my questions were not getting answered fast enough. I'm on book #10 now and can't wait for the payoff at the end!
Completely agree with everything you said here. The biggest downfall is that the show runners think they are better writers than the OG author who INVENTED the product they are adapting. You are not a better writer than the author, so take the author’s advice and actually make a show that resembles the source material even a little bit. It doesn’t have to be an exact page to page adaptation. They just don’t care.
And yeah, those people who convince themselves into trying to like the WoT show by saying the “it’s another turning of the wheel!” Line, it annoys me to no end. I don’t WANT another turning of the wheel. I don’t want it to be The Wheel of Time by Rafe Judkins (guest starring occasional character names and places made up by Robert Jordan). I want The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan. You can adapt it, obviously it can’t be exactly like the book, but that “show” is TWoT in name only.
And yes, accountability is key. Until these execs start taking accountability and looking at what the majority of fans are saying we will not get good movies or adaptations. Look at what is happening to Marvel! They are not listening to the fans and just pumping out garbage like no one’s business. Until we see accountability and people running these shows who actually like the thing thing they are supposed to be adapting, we won’t have good movies.
I remember you talking about vampires who were actually scary back in the day and nowadays they just sparkle😂 I saw The Last Voyage of the Demeter yesterday in theaters. It's based on one chapter in the Dracula novel. I thought this adaptation was a great step towards vampires being scary again. I would recommend watching it 😃
Back in the day Vampire's were viewed as blood sucking monsters. Worse than the devil. Nowadays, there teenie weenies who want to go straight. Becoming human that is. Sickening.
@@funguykel that's why I enjoyed this movie so much. This vampire was a blood sucking monster with absolutely no mercy. Long time since I've seen that done so well. Hearing others people gasping and reacting to this movie showed that I wasn't the only one who thought this was done well. It's by no means a masterpiece but it was art and very fun to watch.
I really enjoyed The Last Voyage of the Demeter! It gave me the motivation I needed to finally pick up my copy of Dracula that's been sitting on the shelf for the last 7 years. Such a fun, creepy movie
The worst thing to happen to vampires was they took the supernatural out of it and made it a virus.
It's not fantasy, but the last few Star Trek shows have broken my heart.
Something promising is that Brandon Sanderson seems to be very involved with whichever of his books are going to be adapted.
He has said on record multiple times that he is taking his books to the studio that will fit his vision...he is rich enough not to care about the money and rather wants the adaptation done right, so he has the power to turn down studios. And he has a good eye for screenwriting judging from some of his comments on his input to the WoT scripts. It's very different for him vs other authors, and I'm glad he will play such an active part in any adaptation of his works.
Sanderson said many times he turned down offers for both movies and video games due to quality concern.
You're right. After GoT changed fantasy for TV, all these studios jumped on a trend without understanding what made it work. Witcher and Amazon's WoT are the worst, claiming over and over that they're "fans of the books" and "being faithful to the source material" but constantly giving huge middle fingers to the fans, then turning around and blaming "toxic fandom" when their shit shows bomb.
GoT went off the rails when the show passed up the published books, but House of the Dragon was very good in its first season. Honoring the source material is a must.
Agreed. I was so angry by The Witcher adaptation that I stopped watching after S1. Cavill tried his best, but they wouldn't listen.
Anyway, I am looking forward to the next Witcher book lol XD
Spot on. Excellent analysis. You probably didn't even cover all the reasons, but no additional ones come to mind.
Great points ! I usually stay on the sidelines for these things, but your video stirred a couple of hot takes of my own. Specifically, the failed Wheel of Time adaptation has really broken my heart, and every point on your list resonates. Those books were so fundamental to my development - reading them under the desk in high school, waiting for each new book through college, then graduate school. Many of these showrunners and writers think they love the source material, but the pressure cooker of making the show leads to a ton of rationalization about why they are making the changes. Most of them seem to think they have some type of enlightened approach, and are simply captive to the zeitgeist of the moment they are making them. So it's not that they think they are better writers, per se, but they think they have a more enlightened perspective on the type of story they should be telling and how it should be told. When an adaptation is trying to improve by purgation or fundamental changes/additions that are motivated by cultural or political factors, they are turning that art into a vehicle for their message(s) and disrespecting the source material. I'm not saying there isn't room in art to spin something from a specific worldview, but in the context of these shows, these adaptations are THE adaptation for a generation's general audience, and all the more reason to do right by them.
My feelings exactly!
If screenwriters want to do their own tihing then let them write thier own books and make their own series. When I want to look at the "Wheel of Time" series on TV , I want to see what Robert Jordan wrote or as close as possible to it. NOT A WOULD BE WRITER'S INTERPRETATION OF WHAT HE SEES. I want Jordan's vision of his fantastic world. Who do those writers and companies thing they are? Thank you Mike for your your very just comments. If more people though like you, we would have much more good series to view.
The worlds never feel real. They all look like they were filmed at 'Ye Olde Renaissance Fayre' or the nearest 'living museum'. The towns, areas, wilderness never feel lived in. Even Rohan in LotR didn't feel like a real living place - it was a dozen houses on top of a bleak hill in the middle of nowhere, yet this was supposed to be the capital of a nation?
GoT got this right. King's Landing was a full, vibrant city. Winterhold felt like a working castle.
Mike, I’ve got nothing to add to this because A.) I don’t have any amount of expertise in film adaptation, or the business of it and B.) because what you said makes total sense to me.
Sometimes, because I don’t have expertise in these areas, I can’t figure out why a show or movie just isn’t working for me, but you’ve given me a lot of food for thought when it comes to analyzing why an experience either did or did not work for me. Thanks for a well thought out and honest video I appreciate it!
Never going to read anything by Terry Brooks or Terry Goodkind, but still kind of enjoyed the seasons of Shannara and Legends of the seeker!
MIKE why does it feel like this video is lifted directly from my brain?? You seriously just NAILED IT.
I'd love your thoughts on people like Rafe or Mckay/Payne who claimed they were giant fans of the original material but then their shows don't feel like that's true at all. Is this just a marketing tactic to get the fans on board in the beginning?
I never like to gatekeep and say someone doesn't understand a book, but I will say I have a hard time believing someone like Rafe claiming to love and have re-read the series multiple times as a kid sounds like bullshit.
Excellent video, great points. All the points you make are also the reasons why I feel The Expanse remains one of the best adaptations I've seen in a while
I think you are spot on with your comments Mike.
I know there have been a handful of good adaptations from book/comic to screen, but the ratio between good and bad adaptations is way way skewed in the favour of bad adaptations.
Adaptations are such a massive disappointment now that I really don't want anymore.
I'd much prefer to see original films and TV shows instead, but they don't seem to be able to a good job of that neither anymore.
It is a good thing that we have books to rely on.
I agree with everything you said Mike, it’s a sad reality we live in right now. Arrogance is a problem as well.
🎯💯
Really astute analysis Mike. ‘The customer is always wrong’ is a poor business model in any industry. I’m presently happy to sit back and wait for unbiased reviews before getting too excited about adaptations. I hope creators hear your message.
Absolutely fantastic video Mike. I completely agree with entirely what you have to say.
I’ve read The Witcher, Lord of The Rings and many other adapted fantasy series more times than I can count and I don’t understand why they show runners are making these decisions.
Keep up the great content. 🖤
Your right about GOT, i think i started seeing blurbs about it on HBO like 2 weeks before it actually came out...... And the reason it was great was not surprising, you were right, despite Dumb and Dumber getting greedy in the end, they did love the source material.....GRM is just a notoriously slow writer and HBO outpaced him and D&D were left to there own devices.
Another great video! BTW.... love your shirt.
Great video! You bring up a lot of good point, and I completely agree about the Amazon shows just looking cheap for some reason, which is baffling to me.
Id kill for an HBO adaptation of all of the First Law world
Wow... do that faithfully and it could blow GoT out of the water
@@annarien4333 agreed. Plus the budgets could be better used since there’s no dragon money needed
You made a real bookborn essay!
Oh, no, I wish I was as good as she is at those ha ha
👏 This! This all day long. All your points are spot on Mike. I’ve pretty much lost all interest in watching TV because of all these failed adaptations. At the end of the day I’d rather read a book because I get so much more enjoyment out of it (it’s why I’m here).
I'm always terrified of movie/TV adaptations. A Wrinkle in Time has been one of my favorite books since I was a kid. I can't bring myself to watch the movie. Lol
You didn’t miss much
@OtherTheDave That's what I figured.
You're lucky.
Good, don't. It was a terrible movie
Great video. Hit the nail on the head
I'm so glad we are on the same page Mike.
Happy reading to you, like ur thoughts on stuff…
Miiike your shirt brings back big childhood 90s vibes for me!
Thanks, Mike. Excellent analysis.
My take? As with any entertainment platform, genre, or movement, fantasy adaptations will improve when the economic, cultural, & artistic conditions do. They don't have to be perfect; let's be realistic. But they must be close enough so that we can get fantasy movies & TV shows worth watching.
Knowing what I do about the industry, I don't think that's possible right now. My best hope is that someday, somehow, things will change.
And that I'll live long enough to see it.
The fact so many authors get left behind after the rights are purchased has always confused me too. I'll never understand why you don't want the person who knows the world the best to be involved. I think something that really helped GOT was that GRRM was so involved with the series, even writing some of the scripts to the best episodes.
Well it’s not always the care. Sapkoeski who wrote Witcher didn’t care to be part of games development or Netflix show. He thought he’s above them. Little did he knew that it were games and show that got people excited to read the series. But to his credit he said Cavill was the Geralt he envisioned and he’s angry at netflix for firing him. Knowing that author is a bit of an arrogant ass, it’s a high praise indeed
Part of it is Authors rarely have experience in the film world, so they say "You guys must know what you're doing." and hope for the best.
What saved GoT was GRRM worked in Hollywood for years so he knew all the angles and stayed on top of it.
Then there's the interview with David Gemmell, the rights agreement always includes a paragraph that basically says "They're going to make a respectful adaptation of the first book, then they're going to make movies 2, 3, 4, and 5 using their own stories, characters, and ideas so the only royalty they have to pay the author is for the name. Which by that point is chump change"
Yesss to this video Mike! I vent to my girlfriend about this all the time (who isn’t a fantasy fan so I’m usually not met with much of a reaction) so I am so glad that other people out there feel the same way. I think this era will be looked back on as a dark age of fantasy adaptations.
However I agree that Dune and House of the Dragon are nailing it so far 👌
Joe Abercrombie writing the script for Best Served Cold gives me hope
You nailed it with the accountability aspect of your critique. I think it comes down to the progressive studio's often are unable or unwilling to adjust their world view in some instances and are dead set on pushing their agenda in spite of the obvious negative impacts it has on their story telling. So instead of taking the red pill they prefer to isolate themselves in their echo chambers and blame the outside audience who provides fair critique to the developer team's warped vision for the product they produce.
If the writers would be willing to drop the agenda the story telling would be much improved. But overall screen writing quality has tanked into very niche tropes the past half decade or longer. Along with corporate America, social media, nat'l media coverage etc., the push towards forcing the progressive agenda has tarnished much of the entertainment industry product. Its unfortunate. They also seem highly rigid in their world view and unwilling to be open-minded to traditional preferences.
One of the best videos I've seen on RUclips. Thank you for doing this Mike.
Thanks for watching it!
Excellent video! My observation is that the trend in fan antagonism and polarization, making the fans (or some of the fans) the enemy, seems to be very much of a piece with the zeitgeist of the times: it's the politicization of everything, including entertainment, and it makes everything worse.
This gets into why I love being an indie author: our goal is to tell the best story we can, and there doesn't seem to be this intense antagonism of people who don't like our books (at least, not that I've seen).
I will say, too, that I gave the Wheel of Time adaptation a chance. My problem was that even several episodes in, I did not care about any of the characters or connect with them in any way. I did not even bother to finish the first season.
Great video sir. We have been calling this shit out for years. Creating division is unacceptable especially among fans. No incentive to do better. You nailed it.
I want to applaud Mike again for an honest take here. I agree with him 100 percent. It's a shame how other content creators turned a blind eye to blatant dedication on source materials. Mike kept it real here and I got one thank you.
Great breakdown couldn’t have said it better
Well said Mike! Couldn’t of said it better! Thank you for speaking the truth. I hope just one person in the show biz sees this and a lightbulb goes on and shit starts changing!
good insights Mike! happy to talk business with you anytime.
The struggle is REAL!! Good topic to discuss. I absolutely hate when they change plot twist and make their own. The book can be true to the story, but when a show gets modified, there goes the originality. Budget can be a huge factor, too. Wish they did small series a story of their own n not beloved series and characters we learn to love and care about and not mixed up characters.
Thank you for your thoughts on this. I enjoyed hearing your comments from a marketing perspective. I agree that there needs to be accountability. But as long as people continue to mindlessly consume crappy product, they'll continue making it. I think that this summer's box office is proof that people are getting tired of poor quality stories, so maybe there's hope that companies will pay attention.
I actually loved the 80s dune movie. The internal dialogue and such really helped my understanding of such a deep story. I felt that it was much clearer than the current adaptation. It also felt pretty page for the page.
Great video. Thanks Mike!
I had such high hopes for Wheel of Time. Rafe telling us how he read the books with his mom and wanting to be true to the story.
And there was this girl who's sole job was making sure they would be true to the books, who got fired.....
I don't mind green Warders being bi but siuan and moraine? Really!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Please do your review on legacy of the drow. I'm so glad you're covering Salvatore's work.
"Hire people who understand / love the source material" EXACTLY!!!
"Give the audience what they want" - Exactly!!
Thank you for you gave a public voice to my thoughts
Brutally accurate criticism. Great great video there Mike!
Fantastic video. Hit the nail on the head with every point.
Best one being why the heck do these companies wage war with their own diehard fandoms?
Thanks Mike.
Totally agree.
I did love the adaptation of Mists Of Avalon though. Would highly recommend.
Was the best of times, was the worst of times. The times of fantasy taken seriously as a creative genre to be adapted and the times of learning how hard it is to adapt fantasy.
It has to be about the money, I get that. But clearly, it can be about the money and please the fans. LOTR, HP, ASOIAF. Investors have to be the ones pushing for studios to emulate the successful adaptations. We can only hope!
Fantastic video Mike!
You are so spot on with every observation you make. I was always under the impression that adaptations are made to open various fantasy worlds to the public at large and giving them the apetite for the books. Obviously I was fantastically wrong. Now I'm with you on the please no, don't side of the fence when it comes to adaptations. The only adaptation I mean to watch is House of the Dragon, for exactly the reasons you mentioned. Everything else might as well not exist.
Thanks for making this video!
There's a great film about the movie adaptation of a book. It's not fantasy, and it's pre-social media but gives you an idea on what you might come up with when adapting your work in Hollywood. Maybe you guys know it, the name's 'State and Main'. It's a comedy about filmmaking.
Very clever and educating.
The two streaming shows I have seen ads for in the last 5+ years are rings of power and wheel of time. I would constantly see ads for these things on youtube, twitch and other sites. Wheel of time even had banners up and interviews with the actors/directors etc at my theater (not that unusual for my theaters for a tv show to do this, but the banners can be rare).
The witcher also had some advertising but any others had basically no advertising.
Bloody nailed this one mate
Great video as ever
I got some hopes for the Best Served Cold adaptation. Main actress seems excited, director knows and enjoys Joe’s books and Joe himself will be the script writer. Still skeptical but I’m looking forward to it
I 100% agree on all the points you stated there Mike!
I feel most of us feel the same way but would rather not say anything because of the backlash and name calling that comes with it these days.
I would hold that they knew that Wheel of Time was popular but they didn't bother to find out why. In other words, they did't care what made the series special, they just crunched numbers and said, hey, we have a built-in audience of (fill in the blank), so let's make this. Quality, fidelity to the source material, etc. goes out the window when you're only interested in the numbers game. This has been a problem for a long time, and sadly, probably won't be fixed anytime soon.
I’ll add, I’ve followed you since your early WoT book videos and liked your content. However you and Madison approached the early WoT episodes with an attitude that seemed to be “we will be positive no matter what”. While I commend you for coming around to what’s obvious at the end you did partake in labeling fans who saw the issues with the show early as idiots who don’t understand adaptations or bigots or what have you, all in the spirit of being positive about the show. Content creators are part of this problem and I do believe you have integrity Mike else you would have shilled to the end with this as many WoT “megafans” are doing, but some self reflection is warranted I think for content creators in general. The “Whitecloaks” / “Bookcloaks” / “Bigots and Haters” were right after all.
Everything you said is spot on!
Very well said, 100% agree with everything. Especially with the show runners being the key. If you hire fans of the source material to run the show, I think the rest of your listed pitfalls naturally take care of themselves because true fans will avoid them
You absolutely nailed every point in this video. I can see why Sanderson hasn't green-lit any of this books yet.
And why Pierce Brown took his rights back.
Good for him!
I agree with your points Mike. But I will say this about your argument about "hiring a new CEO of your company who doesn't know the product, etc."
This happens all the time, in many industries, and it usually is a "good thing". Plenty of CEOs that use to work for a shoe company who go on to work at Mattel, or Coca-Cola...share holders just want cash back on their investment, dollars and cents. They could care less what you know, do, or respect - give us that quaterly stock bump, they are happy.
This issue though of course, this is being applied to Art: Movie/TV, Books, Video Games...etc...
As long as we have a strongly bloated and industrialized series of industry taking art purely to monetize profit - that art will suffer more often than not.
The Expanse is pretty different from the books, yet I'm enjoying it a lot (started the show immediately after reading first 6 books). I guess that 's because the spirit of the books is there and the characters feel right despite the changes.
Just an example of good adaptations with changes. In gerenral I fully agree with everthing in the video, maybe except advertising, cause' I live in a different country, and we don't get any advertising of such shows here at all, it's just word of mouth
Excellent video and so on point, sadly. Hope more people watch this one.
Love the honesty and objective opinion. I don’t get excited about any adaptation anymore. Been scorned too many times. I’m worried about First Law if they ever do it.
This video should be pinned at every studio. Show runners should also be required to watch this video before starting a project.
If only studio's would listen to this. Nailing it Mike
Kind of funny: had a serious conversation about this not too long ago. The example I use of doing something right, something wrong, and something surprising would be both adaptations of Interview with the Vampire, Queen of the Damned, and the adaptation of Mayfair Witches. With the 94 film, we had the closest to a straight adaptation we will have of the original novel and one that still works to this day (for the most part). With failure, we look at both Queen and The Witching Hour. Like with most of her work, there are some things that won't work as an adaptation. With the two examples for failure, they kind of showed what happened when you make her novels mainstream: clustered mess of trying to be cool with modern audiences and toning down on some of her themes. With surprising, the new adaptation of Interview. Yeah, a lot was changed from the novel but, for me at least, it still had the heart and soul of what Rice wrote about.
I feel like fantasy is also exceptionally hard to adapt, you have these bombastic magic systems, gigantic casts of characters, and things that are just impossible to translate from page to film without having to spend all of your budget on the CGI for a scene.
I know the feeling. Frankenstein came out in 1818. And 106 years later, there still hasn't been a faitfull addaption of the book.
Very good take.
“Intentionally try to shit in the audience’s mouth” I choked on my drink. 🤣
Cueing this up belatedly. Super curious to hear what you have to say, especially with regards WoT. Watching now...
EDIT: that was fucking well articulated, I'm glad you substantiated each opinion (and it is your opinion) with as much explanation and thought put into it as possible. This wasn't a knee-jerk reaction video, it was really well done. I hope in vain that some writers and producers will come across this video and take something away from it. Bravo!