Mostly name value. It’s why you can get properties like Pirates of the Caribbean, Battleship, and more recently “F1” which despite having 75 years of stories to draw on, I’ve been told has gone for a generic “I don’t do that any more, I’m retired” story.
Is suspect part of it is also the nature of the beast, back in the 1990′s Hollywood studios paid sometimes millions for spec screenplays by the likes of Shane Black and Joe Eszterhas. You would have thought for all that investment they would leave the scripts alone. However sometimes there are practical reasons for changing a script or optioned book—you can’t secure the permissions to shoot a climbing scene on the Eiffel Tower, so you change it to another landmark. Sometimes the actor wants to remove a scene that they think is bad for their brand. However as Frank Tashlin put it:
There’s always been some moron-who usually went by the name of ‘producer’ - who would have to justify his existence, and interfere.
Many of the changes that take a book from the one fans will recognize to something different might be precipitated by a whole chain of people trying to justify their input.
Hmm yes, I love it, but I was thinking—how about instead of fighting in Algiers, they fight in Baghdad. People are more familiar with Baghdad than Algiers.
I remember a very meta passage in Gilbert Gottfried’s book Rubber Balls and Liquor. He explains that a celebrity, even a b-list celebrity like him, doesn’t write a book because they have something to say. As he puts it:
“I’m writing a book because I have a book deal”
″Think of it in movie terms. I was once at a party and overheard these Hollywood types discussing Tom Cruise. One guy said Tom Cruise owed the studio one more picture. Another guy said he had three top directors ready to sign on to the project and a major distribution deal here and abroad. A third guy said ‘Great, so what should the movie be about?‘
Well, it’s the same with books. Some guy set up a book deal for me, so now I have to write it. Nobody said ‘Boy, Gilbert Gottfried is a fascinating intellect. He should write a book.’”
This raises the interesting prospect of someone who had no business writing a book, gets a book deal, that gets optioned by a studio, and then adapted into something that hardly resembles the original work. Staring an actor who didn’t even know he was being shopped for the part.
Mostly name value. It’s why you can get properties like Pirates of the Caribbean, Battleship, and more recently “F1” which despite having 75 years of stories to draw on, I’ve been told has gone for a generic “I don’t do that any more, I’m retired” story.
Is suspect part of it is also the nature of the beast, back in the 1990′s Hollywood studios paid sometimes millions for spec screenplays by the likes of Shane Black and Joe Eszterhas. You would have thought for all that investment they would leave the scripts alone. However sometimes there are practical reasons for changing a script or optioned book—you can’t secure the permissions to shoot a climbing scene on the Eiffel Tower, so you change it to another landmark. Sometimes the actor wants to remove a scene that they think is bad for their brand. However as Frank Tashlin put it:
Many of the changes that take a book from the one fans will recognize to something different might be precipitated by a whole chain of people trying to justify their input.
Hmm yes, I love it, but I was thinking—how about instead of fighting in Algiers, they fight in Baghdad. People are more familiar with Baghdad than Algiers.
I remember a very meta passage in Gilbert Gottfried’s book Rubber Balls and Liquor. He explains that a celebrity, even a b-list celebrity like him, doesn’t write a book because they have something to say. As he puts it:
This raises the interesting prospect of someone who had no business writing a book, gets a book deal, that gets optioned by a studio, and then adapted into something that hardly resembles the original work. Staring an actor who didn’t even know he was being shopped for the part.