Often,
when the subject of film adaptations comes up, we hear the familiar refrain “Yeah,
but the book was better.” But what do we say when the reverse is true- when a
book began life as a movie or a screenplay? Here are three such books that are
well worth your time.
The Human
Comedy, by William Saroyan:
Hired
by MGM to write the screenplay for this project, Saroyan was eventually removed
after refusing to compromise on the length. While Louis B. Mayer pushed forward
on the film version, Saroyan raced to publish his longer version first, as a novel.
It’s a short, breezy read… for a book, if not for a screenplay.
Dances
With Wolves, by Michael Blake:
Kevin
Costner fell in love with this spec-script sometime in the mid-eighties, but
Blake had a hard time selling it to anyone. Costner encouraged him to turn it
into a novel, with the hopes that it would improve his chances at a sale.
Released as a paperback in 1988, Costner finally bought the rights himself. The
rest is history. The film won seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture in
1990.
No
Country For Old Men, by Cormack McCarthy:
Originally
penned as a screenplay, McCarthy had little luck in selling this story to
Hollywood. As an accomplished novelist, he didn’t need Kevin Costner to tell
him to turn it into a novel, which he did in 2005. Enter the Coen brothers, who
faithfully adapted the book back into a screenplay in 2007. Four Academy
Awards, including Best Picture, were the result.
It’s an interesting subject. I know Douglas Adams’s The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy started
life as a radio play. (The Infinite Improbablility Drive was Adams’s ingenious
way of extending a story he thought was already over.) Certainly in the cases
of Dances With Wolves and No Country For Old Men, I think it’s probably
safe to say that “the movie was better than the book.” Anyone know of any others?
