Why does Hollywood love to butcher books that have been adapted into movies?

Question

Do they have something against bestselling authors?

Answer 1

Because Hollywood is evil on a stick!

Answer 2

Because it's impossible for cinema to replace the characters and scenery you developed creatively while reading. Imagination is far beyond any graphics and animation available. Plus there is no way to fit that much wording and description into and hour and a half.

Answer 3

Heya,

It's not so much that they like to butcher things as they have different priorities.

A writer only uses words to create a scene for the reader, allowing the reader's imagination to fill in anything that he leaves unsaid.

Films, on the other hand, show you all the visuals, give you all the sounds, but rely on the facial expressions and body language of the actors to relay what the characters are thinking.

Given the difference between the two mediums, there will be a good many differences between a book and the film made from it.

Also, many books are written for a target audience, but films, because of their cost must appeal to a far wider group of people.  A perfect example of this if the recent Lord of the Rings films.

Arwen, Aragorn's love interest, is only seen twice in the books, and is not in the second book at all.  Because the film needed a female lead they created scenes for her, giving her a bigger role than she had in the books.

Film making is all about making money.  They will do whatever the author allows them to do, if it means they can squeeze a few million more dollars out of the film.

Answer 4

loool

People don't like to read and they like to watch movies summarizing and glamorizing the darn thing for them, so why waste time ?

Answer 5

I know what you mean but i think that the imagination can not be beaten anyway.

Answer 6

Usually there is too much info to put into a movie format some of my favorite books by Tom Clancy have made horrible movies. the books take the time to weave a more intricate story. the only movie that I have ever seen and read the book was almost dead on was the green mile by stephen king,but even then theyy changed 2 details at the end than totally follow the book

Answer 7

I think they are trying to appeal to everyone - not just the people who read the book... So they have to add a lot of extra c**p.

Answer 8

It's not that, at all. But in books, things are explained in words from the narrator, rather than in the dialog, so they need to change plots of movies to explain what's going on. They also have to make things more exciting to capture the attention of the movie-goer- for example, the Tasks in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire are much more exciting in the movie than they are in the book (in the first task, Harry simple flies around overhead the dragon, trying to lure it away, whereas in the movie, he flies over Hogwart's grounds and falls off his broom- which is more exciting?).

They have to make it more interesting, they have to condense, and they have to explain. To be able to do all of this and keep the movies close to the book's original plotline would be truly magical. But movie makers aren't magicians, and so this is impossible.

I just look at it like this: Books are one form and media of art and movies are another. And you have to respect each for what it is, or else you'll never be happy with movies.

Answer 9

Yes, of course there's the transition from one medium to another, from the wriltten and imaginary to the visual.   But it's not ususally there that the "butchery" occurs.  I think the  "butchery"that SillyRab is referring to  consists of real violations of the story.  Of course, many novels are too long to make good movies and would do better as miniseries.  Other than that, however, many filmmakers seem to miss the point of the books they're adapting (has there yet been a really good movie of Huckleberry Finn?), or they ignore the literary value and think only of what will sell.  Of course there are exceptions..  Gone With the Wind was as faithful to the book as a four-hour film of a thousand-page novel could be.  The only change I noticed was that the movie actualy shows Rhett walking out of the house, whereas at the end of the book he simply goes upstairs, I suppose to pack.  Another movie that was extremely true to the book was the thriller You'll Like My Mother, in which the few changes actually heightened the development of the author's theme.   And then there are the films of Roman Polanski and most of the recent adaptations of Jane Austen's novels.  Maybe the industry is catching.on!