Book-to-screen adaptations are not new, but there have certainly been many in recent years as Hollywood has frequently turned to BookTok for inspiration on what the next big TV or film hit will be.
In the last six months, Heated Rivalry and Off Campus, both based on popular book series, have taken social media by storm.
Freida McFadden’s popular book The Housemaid hit the big screen last year, with Love Story’s Paul Anthony Kelly announced as one of the stars of the sequel, The Housemaid’s Secret, which will be released in December 2027.
Fans are eagerly anticipating the release of The Love Hypothesis, based on Ali Hazelwood’s popular book and starring Lili Reinhart and Tom Bateman, which will be released on Prime Video in September.
Caro Claire Burke’s debut novel, Yesteryear, was snapped up by Amazon MGM before she had even finished writing it, and is now set for a big screen outing with Anne Hathaway in the lead role.
And this is barely scratching the surface of what’s to come.
Why are there so many book-to-screen adaptations lately?
With so many books being adapted for the screen, BookToker, former reality TV star, and soon-to-be author Luke Bateman told WHO that he believes production companies are choosing to adapt so many books because it’s much less of a risk to adapt existing IP.
“They’re seeing these massive fandoms and they’re seeing the existing IP and they’re going, ‘OK, we can create this knowing that it’s already got a fan base for it.’ So they know straight away that [the adaptation] will be successful.”
He adds that he believes the producers see the fans as almost like free promotion.
“When they see those books that already have these large fan bases, they’re going okay, well we know that all of these readers are going to talk about it, are going to go and watch it, are going to tell their friends about it and it will receive its own sort of promotion through those fan bases,” Bateman explains.
Luke’s plea to producers of book-to-screen adaptations
Bateman said that while it is great that these adaptations are bringing new fans to the original books, he does have a “big” issue with them.
“When these production companies come and use this IP and come and try to sort of steal these fan bases and then don’t honour the source material, that’s my biggest gripe,” he shares.
“I want every book that I love to be turned into a movie, absolutely. I want that for every single book. I think it’s fantastic. But respect the audience that you’re trying to monetise because that’s what they’re doing, so really respect the source material.
“Respect the fans, because they’re the ones who went and bought the book, they’re the ones who read the book, they’re the ones who talked about the book, the only reason that you are making this into a movie is because millions of readers love the book.
“So, if you’re going to do it, do it respect.”
When asked if he has a good example of an adaptation done well, the first one that comes to mind is Heated Rivalry.
“[The producers] took that to Hollywood and Hollywood wanted to change it completely, and then Jacob [Tierney] took it to the production company in Canada, and they said, yeah, we’re going to stick really close to the source material, and then you saw the success that that had because of how close it was to the source material.
“So, Heated Rivalry is a great example of a book-to-screen adaptation done extremely well because it stayed so true to the source material. One that was done poorly, I think for me, is The Wheel of Time TV series.”
However, Bateman also says he is happy to see the exposure the entertainment industry is giving to books.
“What I sort of hope for is that these book-to-screen adaptations bring people back the other way,” he says. “I really would hope that people watch the movie and go, ‘I love that movie, now I want to read the book'”.
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