There’s a right way and a wrong way to do an adaptation, like a book to a movie, for example.
If you do it wrong, the project could die.
If you do it right, audiences will complain that it’s too different. “The book was better,” they’ll say. They’ll rue the whimsy of the crass opportunist (you) who just wanted to make a buck by destroying a work they loved.
We’re all guilty of dismissing and deriding adaptations. Books to movies are the typical example, but it happens in all cases: TV show to movie, movie to TV show, radio drama to book, board game to TV Show, toy to movie—you name it. “Not as good as the original,” we say.
So how can you win at the lose-lose game of adaptation?
The instinct of a lot of writers is to cater to the “not as good as the original” crowd. They want to be as faithful as possible to the source material.
As powerful as this instinct is, it’s the wrong way to do an adaptation.
A better way is to take the skeletal structure of a story and accentuate the elements that will shine in the new media. This approach will work in most cases.
An even better way—the best way—is to let the source material inspire you, and then disregard it at every turn if it doesn’t serve the adaptation.
Every medium has different rules, conventions, language, and audience expectations. These have to come first in any adaptation, above even the source material.
The best adaptations take on a life of their own. They augment and honor the source material. They’re not merely re-creations of it.
An inventive adaptation—one that’s more like a child than a clone—will expand the audience of the original. It will find new audiences. And it will have the best chance to succeed.
Some source material is almost impossible to adapt to film. I'm re-reading "Catch-22" right now and since high school, it has made me laugh so hard I can't breathe. But the film in the Seventies sucked because Heller's brand of satire is tough to mimic without going over the top. Apple TV has a great limited series of "Catch-22" they made in 2019 and it was much better, but captured more the horror of war than the satire. It gave it a good try, though.
I love the movie ‘Adaptation.’ All time great movie. Not so excited for the new ‘Mufasa’ movie.