Movie adaptations based on books are common in Hollywood. After all, movies have been around since the late 1800s, so naturally, when the idea of Hollywood wears off, Tinseltown searches books for new ideas. What is not so common is that the authors of these books are chosen to give their own book the movie treatment.
It is much more common to see a more experienced screenwriter touch up a book for film treatment, and equally common to see an author have no involvement in the production of a film. However, when authors decide to set foot in the world of screenwriting to adapt their own book, most of the time it produces a great movie.
10 Stephen Chbosky – The Perks of Being a Screenwriter / Author
In 1999, Stephen Chbosky took a break from screenwriting to publish his first book, The perks of Being a Wallflower. Borrowing aspects of his own life, Chbosky recounts a year in the life of freshman Charlie, a shy teenager who struggles with mental health issues and pain while befriending two older people.
The book had a tumultuous road to the big screen as its controversial subjects ensured it would be banned in certain American schools, but eventually, a 2012 film starring Logan Lerman, post-Hermoine Emma Watson and future DCEU Flash, Ezra was adapted. Miller.
9 Mario Puzo – The man who fathered the godfather
Surely, this could be the best known example of an author writing the script for their own project, or at least the most successful. Mario Puzo originally posted The Godfather In 1969 and due to the immense success of the book, Hollywood quickly gave it the green light for a release date of 1972, written by Puzo himself.
Puzo, by reapplying his characters and story to the big screen, earned him an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay, and he also earned the film another two Oscars, including Best Picture. The book went on to spawn its own series of novels, but it seems that the legacy of the film trilogy, particularly the first, which is often held in high regard among the best films ever made, has far overshadowed the book’s legacy . Serie.
8 Jesse Andrews – Him, Earl, and the Dying Girl He Wrote About
Jesse Andrews released his first novel, Earl and me and the dying girl, back in 2012 and only three years later, similar to the one mentioned Godfather, a film adaptation hit theaters. What helped speed up the film’s production was that Andrews was able to write the script.
Andrews admitted that he didn’t know anything about screenwriting when he wrote the film version, but while his agent was buying the rights to the film, producer Dan Fogelman suggested that Andrews write the script himself. As he said IndieWireThis all happened even before the book was published (Fogelman simply read galleys for the book), but the gamble made by everyone involved helped make the film an indie favorite at Sundance, winning both the Audience Award. as the Grand Jury Prize.
7 John Patrick Stanley – won the Pulitzer Prize, almost won an Oscar for doubt
Maybe this is a bit of a cheat since Doubt: a parable It was originally a play rather than a book, but it’s worth mentioning because, unlike other writers on this list, John Patrick Stanley has the rare distinction of winning a Pulitzer Prize for his gripping mystery story about two nuns who They investigate the infatuation of a priest with a child at their school.
In fact, Stanley came close to winning an Oscar for his work, as the film adaptation starring Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Amy Adams was nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay at the Academy Awards.
6 Gillian Flynn – gone [Girl] With the flynn
The public quickly became obsessed with Gillian Flynn Girl is gone as soon as it hit the shelves. Once it became a New York Times bestseller, the film adaptation was inevitable. However, not many people expected Flynn herself to make the adaptation of her own book.
After a Golden Globe and BAFTA nomination for writing Gone Girl’s script, Flynn quickly launched his own Hollywood career. She went on to co-write Widows for 12 years of slaverySteve McQueen before writing three episodes of HBO Sharp objects, which itself was an adaptation of the novel of the same name that Flynn wrote in 2009.
5 Clive Barker – Raised hell from his infernal heart
In the 1980s, Clive Barker quickly built a reputation in the novel industry as a leading writer on the horror genre. One of the most fascinating novels that helped him build such a reputation was The infernal heart, where a woman who had an affair with her husband’s late brother vows to restore the latter’s body after he is sentenced to the Cenobite kingdom for tampering with a mysterious puzzle box.
If that synopsis sounds a bit familiar, it’s because this very plot formed the basis for the first entry within the Hellraiser movie franchise. Not only did Barker write the script, but he also directed the cult horror classic.
4 Stephen King: enters full saturation
Most of the time, Stephen King has little or no involvement in the film production of his novels, despite the frequency with which his novels are adapted for the big screen. He doesn’t seem to have a particularly large interest in Hollywood, to the point that he hated Stanley Kubrick’s adaptation of The glow.
That hatred had fueled and inspired him to adapt another book of his as a writer / director, Maximum overdrive. As explained to CBC Noon, received many fan letters about The glowthe statement asking why he was not involved in the production, as it was not a faithful adaptation. “There is a spirit in the writers’ works, even if it is only printed on the page,” he explained. “And sometimes the director understands that. And I was curious, if I did it myself, what would happen? Would people say, ‘You blew it yourself’, or would they say, ‘yeah, we have what we want’?” Given the poorly received reviews of this movie, people said the former.
3 Michael Crichton – Welcomed us to Jurassic Park
Michael Crichton has had quite a prolific career in Hollywood, although not immediately. He had some successes in the 70s writing and directing the first Westworld adaptation, as well as The great train robbery (based on his 1975 novel), starring James Bond himself, Sean Connery, but other than those two notable films, he didn’t find much success as a screenwriter until the 1990s.
Heading into 1993, the novels were his real bread and butter. That year, it was three years out of publication. Jurassic Park. Once it became a best-seller, Universal gave Crichton $ 500,000 to write the screenplay for his own novel. After David Koepp was hired to rework Crichton’s script on the recommendation of Universal president Casey Silver, the film was released under the direction of director Steven Spielberg.
two Nicholas Pileggi – A good friend of a writer
Criminal reporter and journalist Nicholas Pileggi first stormed Hollywood after writing the book Wiseguy: Life in a Mafia family in 1986, based on his findings when researching Henry Hill’s 20-plus-year history in the mob while working with Paul Vario (whose name in the film was changed to Paul Cicero).
Pileggi adapted his film with director Martin Scorsese as good friends, which became an instant, Oscar-winning hit, earning Pileggi a nod for Best Adapted Screenplay. He quickly followed it by adapting another book of his, Casino: Love and Honor in Las Vegas. He co-wrote the script with Scorsese, who returned to direct.
1 William Peter Blatty – Made the scariest movie (and book) of all time
The Exorcist it has often been hailed as the scariest movie ever made. This should come as no surprise to those who read the original book of the same name, which terrified audiences in 1971. The novel was written by William Peter Blatty, who naturally wrote the film released two years later.
It is also worth noting that after seeing The French connection and feel like that movie has the ideal tone for a Exorcist film, Blatty personally asked William Friedkin to direct it.
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Reference-www.cbr.com
