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Film adaptations of your stories

Jabrosky

Banned
Do you ever fantasize about your published stories being adapted into movies? I do. I find myself more motivated to write if I imagine that after I finish and publish my book, someone is going to adapt it into a movie (preferably either animated or with a lot of CGI). Occasionally I even wonder which actors would portray my characters.
 

Sheilawisz

Queen of Titania
Moderator
The same happens with Me!! I want to see my Fantasy stories as a movie series even more than I want to see them in the shelves of a bookstore, and when I write, what I can see clearly in my mind is a movie and this is reflected in my fast and movie-like narrative style =)
 

Chilari

Staff
Moderator
Oh I do that all the time. One of the stories I was working on a couple of years ago, I wrote with a particular attractive actor in mind to play one of the main characters. That story is currently in the "inactive" pile, but for my current active story, I haven't really thought about it much. I have a few thoughts on who could play the villain, though those actors are possibly a little old even now and certainly would be by the time the thing got made into a film, so it's barely worth considering really.

In all honestly, mostly when I think about my novels being made into films, I imagine myself mixing with lots of famous attractive actors and kick-ass actresses more than I imagine what roles those people would be playing.
 

Sheilawisz

Queen of Titania
Moderator
I would like to add that the style of Magic, powers, places and stuff that I have in my stories would be excellent for movies full of CGI and all sorts of special effects: Mages flying on colourful crystals at 70000km/h, silver-coloured magical fire that advances destroying entire cities, crystal castles, gateways between different universes, dream-like worlds and other things similar to the 2010 Alice in Wonderland =)

My stories would be very expensive movies, but I am happy with the idea!!

I have not seen a teenage actress good enough to play Joan in my Joan of England series, but it should not be too difficult to find one that looks exactly like my character...
 

Jabrosky

Banned
I would like to add that the style of Magic, powers, places and stuff that I have in my stories would be excellent for movies full of CGI and all sorts of special effects: Mages flying on colourful crystals at 70000km/h, silver-coloured magical fire that advances destroying entire cities, crystal castles, gateways between different universes, dream-like worlds and other things similar to the 2010 Alice in Wonderland =)

My stories would be very expensive movies, but I am happy with the idea!!

My current WIP is planned to feature gods and lots of hostile wildlife, including dinosaurs, so it'll be heavy on CGI too.

Come to think of it, most fantasy stories would probably feature lots of CGI if adapted to film.
 
I may be dating myself, but when I first began writing fantasy, I didn't think it was possible to do my stories justice as a film, even with an unlimit budget. In fact, I recall deciding to tone down some of the fantasy elements in my first novel Rogue's Honor (just a manuscript at the time) when I adapted it into a screen play for my final writing project in film school. The writing professor advised me not to worry about how my story would be produced ("that's for the director and producers to figure out"), but these were actually going to be pitched to a Disney subsidiary; and I didn't want my script to be discarded as being too challenging to produce, or (almost a bad) to be produced with cheezy special effects. With the technology today, that wouldn't even have been a consideration. Still, the exercise of adapting my manuscript was an eye-opening exercise, and I realized just how much would be lost (technology not withstanding) just to conform to the film medium. I still do not believe a movie would do it justice, but a series like the HBO adaptation of Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire would probably fit the bill...
 

Shockley

Maester
No, I don't think about that. I write the words for the sake of words, and if someone wants to put them in a film that's fine but I put it out of my head when writing.
 

Ghost

Inkling
My stories have a psychological bent, moody atmospheres, and plots that are either slow or melodramatic. I doubt any studio would touch them. Frankly, I'll be happy if a publisher does. If I wanted to the end result to be a movie, then I'd write screenplays.

I don't dream of movie adaptations, book signings, interviews, or things like that, but I do fantasize that my favorite authors will read my books and praise them.
 

Devor

Fiery Keeper of the Hat
Moderator
Sometimes. But not really. I dream a little about adapting my work to a video game or tabletop RPG more than a movie.
 

Kit

Maester
No. One of the reasons I've never been very interested in being traditionally published is that you have to literally sell your work- and then the buyer can warp it into something that's an obscene parody of your creation. I don't want to ever see one of my books on a store shelf with a bimbo wearing a chainmail bikini on the cover who bears no resemblance to any character in my story. Moviemaking would be even worse. How many movies have we seen that were a joke compared to the book? The money would be nice, but I'm not sure it's worth seeing my work turned into something I don't like.
 
Just a bit of a reality check, but if you look at what the movie studios crap out on a regular basis...drama, comedy, and other forms of more or less normal people in a story (aka, cheaper films). Comic book films (which most of us are not writing), and recreations of movies done a couple times already. Now, when we leave the realm of comic books, there is quite a bit in the scifi realm...and then the occasional fantasy realm. Most fantasy movies I've watch (or could manage to sit through) were not based on a novel, but some writer who feels that women who use swords MUST be in a chain mail bikini. Ok, I guess I need to mention the current run of teen angst vampire flicks, which is almost as bad as the crappy fantasy movies.

So, even though most of my writing is scifi at the moment, I don't have any great expectations that anyone producing a movie will come knocking...unless...it's spectacular. Notice that books that sell in the millions (which is not that many in my browsing section of the book store) are the ones made into movies.

Dream away, but if you want a slim chance of it happening, then you will have to be a very good story teller, and get lucky enough to have a popular book.
 

Mindfire

Istar
I used to dream of my book(s) going to the big screen, but realistically, I've pretty much forgotten about that. If you notice, only the titans of the genre like LOTR & The Hobbit, The Chronicles of Narnia, or Harry Potter get movies that are actually worth watching. By contrast, when books that are only reasonably successful, or that are smash hits but still not "top tier", (e.g. Eragon) get movies, they're just cheap cash-ins. Although the quality of Eragon's movie could be blamed on the fact that the book wasn't that great to begin with...

Nowadays I think my "big adaptaion dream" for my books would be an animated movie or better yet an animated series. I think that my work would transfer over well to something in the style of Avatar: the Last Airbender. Plus, TV shows in general get more time to develop characters, meaning there would be fewer cut plot threads, plus animation allows you to make a character look exactly like they need to, so there wouldn't be any worries about actors not "looking right". And The Last Airbender's success has made racially diverse cartoon characters more mainstream. I think my work would feel right at home as an animated show on Nick or Cartoon Network.
 

Kit

Maester
Most fantasy movies I've watch (or could manage to sit through) were not based on a novel, but some writer who feels that women who use swords MUST be in a chain mail bikini.

((Kit looks in her closet)) Swords: check. Chainmail bikini: nope.

If I accomplish nothing more by being on this forum than to convince *ONE* fantasy writer to not put their female warrior characters in chainmail bikinis, I can die happy.
 

Mindfire

Istar
((Kit looks in her closet)) Swords: check. Chainmail bikini: nope.

If I accomplish nothing more by being on this forum than to convince *ONE* fantasy writer to not put their female warrior characters in chainmail bikinis, I can die happy.

What about a buckskin bikini? ...lol I kid. Sort of. I have a rainforest-dwelling culture. Light, mobile clothing is most practical for them and they don't wear armor really. But a bikini strikes me as out of place in my world thematically. I don't know why exactly. I just does.
 

Kit

Maester
I should start a thread in research: "Ask me what a real female warrior wears...." :p

The prevalence of ridiculous fetishwear in fantasy fiction really pushes my buttons (if that's not obvious by now). If you're doing fantasy fiction, make it believable. If you're doing porn, that's a different target demographic- and a different closet.

If I was headed to a real (unarmed) fight, I would put on bike shorts and a compression sports bra (and cut off most of my hair). I realize that in itself is tight, brief clothing that may be enough to stir some amount of prurient interest- but there's a big difference between brief, tight clothing as practical and brief, tight clothing as portraying a sex object.

Your clothes are a liability in a fight. Your enemy can grab your sleeve to immobilize your arm and/or pull you off balance, s/he can move you around with grips on your shirt, s/he can choke you with your own collar. Many throws and takedowns use grips on the clothing. Once your waistband starts falling down or your shirtsleeve gets torn and wraps up your own arm, your own clothing becomes a distraction at best and your doom at worst.

Once you're rolling around on the ground, your clothing only hampers you even more down there since it can be used to pin parts of you to the ground.

A woman fighting, unless she's really flat-chested, needs more chest support than your average chainmail bikini provides.

The long, flowing hair that is depicted on many female warriors on cheesy paperback covers says one thing to me: here is a great handle, as soon as I get a handful of that hair, I'm gonna control her head and she's toast.

I've trained and sparred in all sorts of attire, and you learn pretty quickly to figure out what is practical versus what can contribute significantly to getting the crap beaten out of you. What looks good is beside the point.

Please don't put your female characters in fighting clothes that are going to be a liability to their fighting.

Sorry for the thread hijack.
 

Mindfire

Istar
The long, flowing hair that is depicted on many female warriors on cheesy paperback covers says one thing to me: here is a great handle, as soon as I get a handful of that hair, I'm gonna control her head and she's toast.

True, but there's an important caveat to this. Some cultures with notable warrior elements (Native Americans spring to mind) have traditionally long hair. But (I think) those cultures tend to emphasize surprise attack and guerrilla style combat. If your fighter is going to be striking from the shadows, ambushing, sniping, etc. She's going to be far less concerned about someone grabbing her, because the idea is not to be seen in the first place.
 

Kit

Maester
There are cultures that consider long hair part of the uniform or magical mojo of a warrior. If the role of their long hair in their warrior culture gives them enough inspiration to cancel out the practical issues, rah rah to them. If I was fighting one, though, I'd be goin' for that convenient handhold. They are handing me an advantage which I will be delighted to exploit. At least their hair will look good at their funeral.
 
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Mindfire

Istar
There are cultures that consider long hair part of the uniform or magical mojo of a warrior. If the role of their long hair in their warrior culture gives them enough inspiration to cancel out the practical issues, rah rah to them. If I was fighting one, though, I'd be goin' for that convenient handhold. They are handing me an advantage which I will be delighted to exploit. At least their hair will look good at their funeral.

You just reminded me of a warrior culture that emphasized long hair but doesn't fall into the guerrilla tactics category: Vikings! Try and grab a viking's hair. I dare you. xD
 
Just a clarification, I refer to cheap fantasy movies. Most novels that have women as fighters usually have them in armor or other practical attire for the style of fighting they do. One thing that turned me away from script writing was a 'how to' book that at the very beginning made it clear that scripts are not novels. Scripts based on novels are not the novels and can (and usually do) change to fit the film and the producer. Hence the stupidity of the movies based on harry potter 4 and 5, of which they just did what they wanted to make it more dramatic.

I could pull a dozen books off my shelf in a matter of a half hour and every one would make an excellent movie. Some of them would even be relatively cheap to get movie rights for, but instead we get remakes.

Sigh
 
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