“Hollywood” Screws Over Another Book
This is rather old news, but as life has been terribly busy of late (more on that later) I have time now to talk about this. Some time ago the Sci-Fi channel aired a movie based off of two of the Earthsea books by Ursula K. Le Guin which looked captivatingly interesting so my wife and I watched it. It was a fairly good story, though we thought the ending left much to be desired. I have had her books on my “To Read” list for a while, and facing our long trek south I purchased the first two books from Audible.com so we could listen to them and enjoy the stories. Before I even got to do this I found an article online by Le Guin in which she expressed how upset she was about the movies. Among the details of what they got wrong and how things went askew (more can be found here at her site) I found this quote which still angers me to no end.
A Whitewashed Earthsea - How the Sci Fi Channel wrecked my books. By Ursula K. Le Guin:Early on, the filmmakers contacted me in a friendly fashion, and I responded in kind; I asked if they'd like to have a list of name pronunciations; and I said that although I knew that a film must differ greatly from a book, I hoped they were making no unnecessary changes in the plot or to the characters—a dangerous thing to do, since the books have been known to millions of people for decades. They replied that the TV audience is much larger, and entirely different, and would be unlikely to care about changes to the books' story and characters.
I have to say I applaud Le Guin for her bravery. She understood the movie version of her books would be different and did not try to control the movie production, but I am shocked at the attitude tossed back at her. It galls me to no end that anyone would be so callous as to say any audience would not care about changes made to a story or to the characters. I didn't think that was the point. I thought that a movie based off a book would bear a resemblance to the book, and the better the resemblance the better the movie (and I know many will argue with me here on this point). I frankly do not see the point of setting out to make a movie from a book then making drastic changes to it.
We have not yet finished the first book. We spent much of our twenty hours in the car talking and listening to music, but from what I have already heard I can tell they made significant changes to the story, unnecessary changes to the story and characters. The arrogance they displayed appalls me. That a writer could take another author's work and reform it into something different yet bearing the same name stuns me. Do they have no professional curtsey, pride, or integrity?
I know the filmmakers had every right to do what they did, since they purchased the rights to do so. I will not argue that point. I will say it was rude and discourteous to do what they did. If you want to make a movie based on a book, stick to the book. Tell the salient points; leave scenes out, summing them up if they hold minor importance, but do not change them. For myself, I think I will refuse to allow my stories to be turned into movies, unless they are already in a screenplay format.
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