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First off, let's deal with the term "novelization" because I know not everyone is familiar with the concept. It's exactly as it sounds: Just as screenplays are often written that are based on existing novels, a novelization is a novel that is written based on the screenplay.
The only novelization I have ever read is the one for "Hook," which I read as a kid. As an adult, I have only been vaguely aware of their existence and haven't gone out of my way to read anything from the genre. But lately, as I have been studying screenwriting, the subject has come back into my field of view and I find it kind of interesting.
Do you ever read movie novelizations? And if so, why? And are their any you would suggest?
In any case, let's all take a trip down Literary Lane and learn more about this perhaps underappreciated art form.
Novelizations extend as far back as the silent film era and have stayed with us ever since. One popular early novelization was King Kong.
The initial reason for their existence was that, before home video, it was common for a moviegoer to see a movie only once--in the theater--and then never see it again (or at the least see it only very rarely on television). So novelizations gave people the opportunity to experience the story and characters again, any time that they wanted.
Novelizations, justifiably or not, have never been taken seriously as literature and have often been considered "hack work." And while this may be the case in some regards, in reality some accomplished writers have done novelizations as well.
And while most novelizations stay in print for only a short while, some do endure. The original Star Wars novelization, for instance, has never gone out of print and continues to sell well to this day. Other classic novelizations that continue to have positive reputations include Total Recall, Gremlins, Close Encounters of the Third Kind and the Indiana Jones trilogy.
Perhaps the king of novelizations is Alan Dean Foster, who began doing work in the field in the 70s and has continued to do so into the present day. Some of his better known works include novelizations for Krull, the original Clash of the Titans, the Star Trek reboot films, the Transformer movies, and what is probably his most revered works:
There are also, occasionally, anomalies in the world of novelizations. One case in point is My Girl. My girl was based on an original novel, but after the movie was released a novelization that follows the movie much more closely was also released.
Another interesting case is that of 2001: A Space Odyssey. Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke worked on the screenplay for the movie together, and then Clarke did the novelization based on the screenplay. Many fans of the movie appreciate the novelization because it clarifies some of the more mysterious plot elements from the movie.
These days, most novelizations spring from the sci-fi or fantasy genres. In the past, all sorts of movies were novelized: Pretty in Pink, First Knight, Finding Forrester, Home Alone. . . But nearly all novelizations today go something like this: Pacific Rim, The Dark Knight, X-Men: Days of Future Past, Godzilla, etc. (Godzilla actually made it onto the NYT Bestseller's list.)
And lastly, I'd just like to point out that there's a Top Gun novelization in existence and I fucking want that shit!
The only novelization I have ever read is the one for "Hook," which I read as a kid. As an adult, I have only been vaguely aware of their existence and haven't gone out of my way to read anything from the genre. But lately, as I have been studying screenwriting, the subject has come back into my field of view and I find it kind of interesting.
Do you ever read movie novelizations? And if so, why? And are their any you would suggest?
In any case, let's all take a trip down Literary Lane and learn more about this perhaps underappreciated art form.
Novelizations extend as far back as the silent film era and have stayed with us ever since. One popular early novelization was King Kong.
The initial reason for their existence was that, before home video, it was common for a moviegoer to see a movie only once--in the theater--and then never see it again (or at the least see it only very rarely on television). So novelizations gave people the opportunity to experience the story and characters again, any time that they wanted.
Novelizations, justifiably or not, have never been taken seriously as literature and have often been considered "hack work." And while this may be the case in some regards, in reality some accomplished writers have done novelizations as well.
And while most novelizations stay in print for only a short while, some do endure. The original Star Wars novelization, for instance, has never gone out of print and continues to sell well to this day. Other classic novelizations that continue to have positive reputations include Total Recall, Gremlins, Close Encounters of the Third Kind and the Indiana Jones trilogy.
Perhaps the king of novelizations is Alan Dean Foster, who began doing work in the field in the 70s and has continued to do so into the present day. Some of his better known works include novelizations for Krull, the original Clash of the Titans, the Star Trek reboot films, the Transformer movies, and what is probably his most revered works:
There are also, occasionally, anomalies in the world of novelizations. One case in point is My Girl. My girl was based on an original novel, but after the movie was released a novelization that follows the movie much more closely was also released.
Another interesting case is that of 2001: A Space Odyssey. Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke worked on the screenplay for the movie together, and then Clarke did the novelization based on the screenplay. Many fans of the movie appreciate the novelization because it clarifies some of the more mysterious plot elements from the movie.
These days, most novelizations spring from the sci-fi or fantasy genres. In the past, all sorts of movies were novelized: Pretty in Pink, First Knight, Finding Forrester, Home Alone. . . But nearly all novelizations today go something like this: Pacific Rim, The Dark Knight, X-Men: Days of Future Past, Godzilla, etc. (Godzilla actually made it onto the NYT Bestseller's list.)
And lastly, I'd just like to point out that there's a Top Gun novelization in existence and I fucking want that shit!