The 2nd of March 2023 marks World Book Day and like every year, we are always ecstatic to celebrate World Book Day at AI Global Media. This year we decided to get our employees to share their favourite film or television series that has been adapted from a book. We collated all of their answers and have put together a piece filled with fun facts of these well-loved book adaptations.
Harry Potter
The Harry Potter film series is one of the most popular book adaptations with so many Harry Potter fans (also known as Potterheads) that fell in love with the characters while reading the books and on the other hand, die-hard fans of the movie that bought and enjoyed the books after indulging in the film adaptation. The fantasy books that revolve around a young wizard are the best-selling fantasy book series and over 500 million copies of the books from the series have been sold globally.
The Lord of the Rings
The Lord of the Rings book series was first published in the 1950s and there have been three film adaptations to the book series. The first made in 1978, the second made in 1980 then in 2001 the first part to the three instalment trilogy was released and was directed by Peter Jackson, the second was released in 2002 and the third part in 2003. As well as this, the film trilogy has set a record for receiving 17 Oscars.
Game of Thrones
Game of Thrones is the record-breaking mythical television show based on the novel series with the same name published in the 90’s. A fun piece of trivia of the widely-loved show is that there is an unreleased pilot episode of the series that was so bad it had to be shelved and reshot. The creators of the series wanted the show to be as authentic as it could be and as close to the book series as possible which is why it was scrapped initially.
The Devil Wears Prada
The Devil Wears Prada was a major success when it released in 2006 and the chic comedy film has gone on to become a cult favourite among the masses. A lesser-known fact about the film is that the studio, Fox, bought the rights of its source material before the novel was even complete. The vice president of the studio at the time was so impressed by the manuscript that the rights to the big screen adaptation were immediately bought in 2003!
The Handmaids Tale
The Handmaids Tale is a dystopian novel written and published in 1985. The series highlights prominent political issues and has garnered a capitvated audience since it’s release in 2017. The author of the novel, Margaret Atwood works as the consulting producer on the series and has made a cameo appearance as Aunt Margaret in the pilot episode titled “Offred”.
Dune
The 1965 epic science fiction novel Dune was highly controversial at it’s time of release as the storyline detailed the complexities and dangers of messianic prophecies. The novels are heavily influenced by the Middle Eastern and Islamic cultures. The film adaptation, directed by Dennis Villineuve, was a huge theatrical success although received mixed reviews due to the nature of the length of the film. The film stars Timothee Chalamet in the lead part and the second part is due to release in the latter half of 2023.
The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe
The famous novel was published in 1950 after it took the author 10 years to write. C.S. Lewis started writing the best-selling novel in 1939 and finished it in 1949. The novel was heavily inspired by three girls that lived with Lewis during World War II due to the bombings that were expected at the time in London. As well as this, the land of Narnia is also heavily inspired by Lewis’s imaginations from his childhood; he often imagine stories that took place in “Animal Land” as a child. The film adaptation released in 2005 and was a global success!
The Life of Pi
The fictional fantasy novel was originally published 2001 and won the Booker Prize in 2002. The story follows An Indian boy who is lost at sea in a life boat and has four wild animals as companions following him on his journey. The film was planned to be adapted into a movie since 2003 and the makers auditioned 3000 people to find an actor to play the role of the protagonist, Pi. Eventually Suraj Sharma was cast despite having no previous acting experience.
The Vampire Diaries
The popular young adult vampire fiction series was originally published in the early 90’s and the television adaption went on air in 2009 and ended in 2019 with 8 seasons, making it the longest running vampire series. Despite the popularity of the novels, a lot of the material was changed for the television series.
Christine
The 1983 released horror film is based on the novel written by Stephen King of the same name. The film released in theatres eight months after the novel was published and was still reigning with high New York Times fiction rankings. The director of the film, John Carpenter confirmed his interest in making the on-screen adaptation after reading only half of the manuscript of the novel.
Pride and Prejudice
Pride and Prejudice is considered to be one of the finest examples of English literature. The classic novel was originally published in 1813 by the maverick Jane Austen and has a total of 17 adaptations, as it has been adapted several times for cinematic and televised release. The 2005 release became a cult favourite as it received four Oscar nominations and box office success. On the other hand, the 1995 mini-series created by the BBC remains the most popular on television due to the nature of the writing staying true to the original material.
