Adaptation Do's and Don'ts

[seanham]

Jim has talked several times that a new adaptation may be happening (in fact in a 2021 interview he said it may be here if not for COVID). Watching Wheel of Time, Shadow and Bone, and other book to TV adaptations got me thinking; what are some things that can change in an adaptation, and what are some things that should not be changed. Keeping in mind that some things will have to be changed, it is easy to print words on a page, but it is much harder (and more expensive) to do a lot of animation or CGI. With that in mind if there is another adaptation we as fans (especially us mega-fans) need to be willing and acknowledge the need for compromise or recognize that not everything will be just like the books.  Here are some of my thoughts, but looking forward to hearing what everyone's thoughts are!

Can Change:
Harry being super tall, keep him tall but does not need to be NBA tall
Details of books - setting of minor fights/conversations (can't change anything major but not everything needs to go down just as in the books)
Give some more screen time to other characters have parts of some episodes from Murphy or Eb's perspective (similar to some of the short stories, we could see how other people view Dresden)


Don't Change:
Character's backstory, first interactions, motivations
How magic looks/works
Sue coming alive in DB

[g33k]

Don't Change - The general progression of the stories, the ramping-up of stakes & power-levels.

e.g. don't introduce a heavy-hitter (like a naagloshii) in episode frigging #1, where it should rip Harry apart.

[Conspiracy Theorist]

Harry’s height, you could get away with an actor 6 foot four or five and the rest is camera work to add the extra inches, that worked very well on Reacher, where they had the identical problem made worse by previous casting. My current pick would be the Succession actor Nicholas Joseph Braun, 34 and 2.01 meters tall, and clearly a good enough actor to carry a lead after working with Brian Cox.

I would have Harry doing a narration, but yes showing other characters more. Perhaps occasionally have another character doing a bit of narration to contradict Harry, like Thomas or Murphy. That worked in Young Sheldon and is a device viewer are familiar with. The early books in particular underserved characters like Murphy and Susan. Television is not first person narrative, they can be expanded without diminishing Harry.

You can’t mess around with the universe too much, it’s quite clear as the books progress that everything is connected and things have been unfolding steadily since Grave Peril.

I would bring in elements from the short stories, RPG and comics more clearly, perhaps as flashbacks.

CGI is good enough and cheap enough for effects to be books consistent, and frankly people are expecting it these days from a premium show.

It is going to have to run to the current time-line, no setting it ‘now’ it’s 2000 phones and computers and cars for the adaption of Storm Front.

People are familiar with the Multiverse, so you immediately run a la Star Wars a crawl of what leads up to Storm Front something along the lines of :

“In a universe not so very far away, mankind’s gods and monsters such as vampires and faeries co-exist in secret with humanity. A lone Wizard, and Private Investigator/Police Consultant  Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden, acts when supernatural forces impinge upon the the mortal world in the City of Chicago. Together with his friends and allies, mortal and supernatural, such as Leuitenant Murphy of the CYPD and Spirit of Intellect Bob the Skull, Harry Dresden acts as mankind’s champion, even though his own people, the White Council of Wizards treats him with suspicion and have him placed under a suspended death sentence for killing his former master, Justin du Morne in a life or death magical duel when Harry was a teenager after he tried to magically enthrall Harry and his tragic first love Elaine to his will.”

Cut to the Yellow pages advert

No hat.

Definitely no hat.

Did I say no hat.

[Mira]

Harry’s height, you could get away with an actor 6 foot four or five and the rest is camera work to add the extra inches, that worked very well on Reacher, where they had the identical problem made worse by previous casting. My current pick would be the Succession actor Nicholas Joseph Braun, 34 and 2.01 meters tall, and clearly a good enough actor to carry a lead after working with Brian Cox.

Yeah, I don't think Harry's height is a really big issue as long as he is at least six-four or five, since he'd be seen as above average in height.  My main reason for that is though Jim keeps saying Harry is six foot nine, he writes him like he is a much shorter guy of maybe six foot three or even a little shorter. 

[Mr. Mouse]

Yeah, I don't think Harry's height is a really big issue as long as he is at least six-four or five, since he'd be seen as above average in height.  My main reason for that is though Jim keeps saying Harry is six foot nine, he writes him like he is a much shorter guy of maybe six foot three or even a little shorter.

Harry's height is sort of like the inverse of Nero Wolfe's weight. Rex Stout wrote Wolfe as though his weight is this major issue. But Wolf is 270 lbs on a 5'11" frame, which isn't healthy but isn't as life constraining as depicted.

[Conspiracy Theorist]

Producer to Jim “we can make Mr Cruise look taller if he wears a hat.”

That is the deal breaker.

[Mira]

Producer to Jim “we can make Mr Cruise look taller if he wears a hat.”

That is the deal breaker.

A hat will only take you so far, you cannot make a five foot nine guy look six foot nine with a hat...He'd look like "The Cat in the Hat.."

[Conspiracy Theorist]

Tom Cruise wishes he was 5 foot nine. He should try out for Toot.

[Mira]

Tom Cruise wishes he was 5 foot nine. He should try out for Toot.

Don't know if you remember Alan Ladd?  He was so short he had to stand on a box for love scenes..

[Conspiracy Theorist]

Yes but the box wasn’t in shot. Maybe the could CGI him like in the Lord of the Rings, or have special props built like a 5/6 size Blue Beetle, or cast a Chihihua as Mouse. Or a normal sized cat as Mister, and just say he is a huge 30 pound tomcat.

The adaption does have to have Mister and Mouse

[BrainFireBob]

Tom Cruise wishes he was 5 foot nine. He should try out for Toot.

Anyone other than Gerard Butler wouldn't be appropriate for Toot. But he needs to get back in shape.

There's going to be some questionable casting choices. Christina Hendricks as Charity would be possible, but there's not a highly similar young woman running around. Makes the Fae in general, with their hyper good looks, difficult. And Mab/Titania? Actress needs to be towering.

From a story perspective, don't mess with the order- and they will. Need Bab-5 levels of control to adapt this particular story correctly. Other than that, this should be a relatively easy adaption compared to something like Wheel of Time or Sword of Truth- they just need to not pull a Dark is Rising or Shannara screwup with the episodes to "pull in viewers."

[Snark Knight]

In terms of taking lessons from some other adaptations ...

I think the fan base generally understands a TV adaptation has to be streamlined. That's OK, it's going to happen. But if you're going to add significant arcs of new non-book material, it had better 1) clearly do something for the narrative or characterization that the cut stuff didn't work at 2) be done well.  An example of done well would be The Expanse bringing in Avasarala from the start - that introduced one of the fan-favourite characters earlier than in the books, but had her doing things around the book events that largely made sense for what her job would have entailed even if unseen on page. An example of doing additions poorly would be whatever the hell the suicidal warder arc in wheel of time was going for - that bogged down a lot of run time for some exposition that wasn't terribly urgent and could have been covered in a short dialog.

Most especially don't edit fan-favourite protagonists to make them much less likeable so they don't overshadow the producers' favourite characters, or to add unearned "gritty" (again, wheel of time).

[vincentric]

Watch Wheel of Time after reading books. Realize that the only ways to do worse would be to start changing character names to make them more "modern".

[Conspiracy Theorist]

Agree with Avasarala on the Expanse, initially appalled, but it really worked.

Clearly there are some things the writers realise didn’t quite work when originally committed to the page and have a second chance at adaption to do better. Hopefully that would occur here.

The supernatural females are easy, a CGI filter over the actress to give them an otherworldliness. That will also show when Molly gains the Mantle. Mab changes height along with her aspect so a degree of CGI will apply in any event.

[Snark Knight]

Agree with Avasarala on the Expanse, initially appalled, but it really worked.

Especially that they used adding an earlier story for her to introduce the OPA's interest in stealth materials right from the very beginning.  A nod to the readers who understood the significance, and a clever twist on all the viewers who didn't and thought it was a red herring for the season 1 plot instead of a Chekov's Gun for four seasons later.