It, The Dark Tower and The Circle are great adaptations

In my opinion, the best work done, in the last 6 months, in relation to my topic, was the adaptation of It, a literary work coordenated by Stephen King, which tell us a story about a killer clown that exploits the children`s fears. It threatens to be totally terryfying, so it is better to be well awake to see the movie or read the book. 

The It book cover
Image: Pinterest

Video: Youtube


Besides, there is another story invented by the same author of It, which is based on a series of eight books that, once again, crosses the horror, with a mixture of Western, and sci-fi genres. It`s called The Dark Tower , and it centers on a young man, who is transported to a realm called Mid-World, where he joins a quest to save the land.

The Dark Tower book cover
Image: Pinterest

Video: Youtube

In conclusion, we have a woman, which gets a job at a powerful tech company called The Circle  but begins to uncover his secrets. This Dave Eggers creation deals with how we use technology, and the boundaries between private and public, using the lead character`s experience to explore whether tech companies ever get too close to comfort. 

The Circle book cover
Image: Pinterest

Video: Youtube

David Magalhaes

Our topic covered by the media

Nowadays, there are several ways to spread information and to stay informed. In the case of books adaptations, I would like to mention a few that I find really interesting and reliable.

                     BOOKTUBERS

By doing videos about novels or poetry, these people have become a new kind of journalists. They talk about their favourite books and comics, and their followers can rely on their opinions since they have solid arguments and experience. With their reviews, they advertise the books that they believe are the best. Most of them are young people who know the interests of their generation, which is really useful in order to convince their followers to give literature a try. This new way of communication is changing advertisement as we know it. At the right, you can see Newyorkbookworm, a booktuber which talks about this phenomenom.

PODCASTS

An affordable option to learn about writers and the latest news regarding books is listening to specialised podcasts. This form of entertainment has become more famous over the past four years, and it's only growing. In their recordings, you can find interviews, stories and reviews. You can easily download them on iTunes, and listen to them whenever you want to. Some of the most popular are Selected Shorts -there is an example below-, New Yorker Fiction Podcast and Books and Authors

SOCIAL NETWORKS

Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr and Instagram are only a few examples of where to find information about book adaptations. Since everyone can express themselves, news and rumours are spread faster than anywhere else. However, this comes with a flaw: The statements can be fake. But if you check the facts and don't trust uncertain accounts, you shouldn't have any problem. The main feature about social networks is the speed at which news are spread.

#Gigantesco

Disney CANCELA la película inspirada en Jack y las habichuelas mágicas que sucedía en España. pic.twitter.com/PV4p68hRiE

— 《Previously FILMS》 (@PreviouslyFilm) October 12, 2017

BLOGS AND WEBSITES

One of the best ways to find information on the internet is through blogs. They provide news, trailers, reviews and even tests. With them, you can read longer posts about books or movies that you are interested in. In these websites you can even find links to others where you are able to download novels or films. There are many languages and topics that you can read about, besides of the multimedia content they post. One of the most important pages that are available on the internet is Sarah's Book Shelves.

Example of a literature website called Read.Breathe.Relax

Everything wrong with Shadowhunters

Sometimes, book adaptations should be forgotten and ignored. This is the case with Shadowhunters, a TV show from Freeform which is based on the books of Cassandra Clare. Although She has writen about the Shadowhunter's world many times, her first series -The Mortal Instruments- were the most popular. Because of her recognition and success, she was offered the incredible chance to have a TV show inspired by her saga. It was a disaster.

Poster of the movie

Before we start talking about the series, we should remember the first time that these novels were adapted. In 2013, a movie called City of Bones was released. It wasn't a blockbuster, but it was okay. Many fans agreed that the casting had been excellent, as well as the special effects. Some changes had been made from the book, but everyone though they were necessary and tolerable. However, the movie didn't make enough bennefits, and Constantin Film Production decided that there wouldn't be a sequel.

Fans were devastated, but soon another oportunity came up. When the TV show was announced, all the readers felt excited and thrilled. The first teaser seemed very good, and the emotion kept growing. The first hint that something was wrong appeared with the trailer. The special effects weren't as good as in the film, and the main actress -Katherine McNamara- didn't surprise in a good way the fans. But the readers still had hopes and believed in this adaptation.

By the time the first season had ended, many fans were already pretending it had never happened. Important changes in the plot had been made, and the characters had different interests and personalities. This show had more diversity than the movie, which is always a good point, but something just didn't work with so many differences from the books. While the movie had a darker perspective, the show seemed more childlike. The characters were hunting demons and weird creatures, but the spectator didn't feel scared or concerned because the story was more optimistic and juvenile.

Official photo of the Shadowhunters show

Cassandra Clare, the author of these novels, was asked about her opinion on these changes, but she said that she doesn't make that kind of decisions. She also said that the fans shouldn't argue about whether the series or the books are better, because they are just different. However, it is difficult to ignore the huge contrast between the two adaptions and the book itself.

To end, I would like to discourage the readers of the book to give it a try. I know you may think that it is not that awful but trust me: It is. If you haven't read the books, there is a chance you might enjoy it, but the odds are you will dislike it anyway. Some of the actors are great, but the storyline is just too bad.

Gif from the movie City of Bones with the main characters:
Jace, Clary, Isabelle and Alec

Scene from the pilot of Shadowhunters

The multifaceted Stephen King

Sthephen King is a ‘New York Times’ bestselling novelist who made his name in the horror and fantasy genres with books like ‘ Carrie’, 'The Shining and ' IT.' Much of his work has been adapted for film and TV.

In 1973, King sold his first novel, Carrie, the tale of a tormented teen who gets revenge on her peers. The book became a huge success after it was published the following year, allowing him to devote him

self to writing full time. It was later adapted for the big screen. 

Although many of King's works were made into film or TV adaptations, some Cujo and Firestart were released for the big screen in 1983 and '84 respectively, while It debuted as a miniseries in 1990—the film The Shining, released in 1980 and starring Jack Nicholson and Shelley Duvall, became a renowned horror thriller that has stood the test of time.

For a good portion of his career, King wrote novels and stories at a breakneck speed. He published several books per year for much of the 1980s and '90s. His compelling, thrilling tales have continued to be used as the basis of numerous films for the big and small screens. Kathy Bates and James Caan starred in the critically and commercially successful adaptation of Misery in 1990, with Bates winning an Oscar for her performance as the psychotic Annie Wilkes. 

Over the years, King has become known for titles that are both commercially successful and sometimes critically acclaimed. His books have sold more than 350 million copies worldwide and been adapted into numerous successful films.

Video: Youtube

David Magalhães

Image: Xataka

Five different sources to take into account

Sometimes, when we don`t know anything about a movie or a book, the only thing to do is search for that information, so we can do our job correctly. But what are those sources? And what we can find on them?

Here, there are some of my suggestions:

                                                               1. TV Guide

                                                                   

Image: Wikipedia

TV Guide is a bi-weekly and american magazine that offers us a long list of things related to television shows, gossip news but also movies. It helps to know more about descriptions and detailed reviews of a certain entertaining product. For this project, it serves to display informations about the characters and when there is a book behind that film, it makes interesting comparisons. 

                                                     2. Entertainment Weekly

Image: Radiotopia

Next we have Entertainment Weekly, another weekly magazine from United States. It talks about films, tv shows, music, Broadway productions, among other things. In order to help this work, EW provides a lot of information between news and reviews of  movies and series, raised by literary works.  It has also a special section of all the new literary successes, which probably will be adapted into movie.

                                                    3.  ComicBook

     

Image: Scopely

ComicBook is an entertainment media and lifestyle site for a generation that is passionate about larger than life characters, celebrities and entertainment franchises. From celebrity and trending news to comics, anime, gaming, and franchises like The Walking Dead, Star Wars, Star Trek, Netflix and WWE. Besides that, it talks about different kinds of BD`s , normally adapted to television series or films. It is a reliable source and strongly recommended for the people who want to know more about super heroes stories.
                                                        4.  The Hollywood Reporter

Image: The Hollywood Reporter

 The Hollywood Reporter is a multi-platform American digital and print magazine focused on the Hollywood film industry, television and entertainment industries. It is useful on giving important informations about all films, including the adaptations through by books and, in that way, it is very similar to TV Guide.                                 
                                                                   5. The Millions

Image: Twitter

The Millions is an online literary magazine. It contains articles about literary topics and book reviews. An original aspect about this one is that he creates specific lists about the best books at the moment, which can be found in shops and libraries, and the best adaptations from books to movies and still a lot of old archives. It`s very complete and informative about the whole literature world.

The Lord of The Rings: The silmarilion failure

What happens when one does not read the J.R.R Tolkien books?
Either
1. Nothing
2. Your crazy friends don't believe you
3.You read them

Since the movies came out my parents read the trilogy of The Lord of The Ring, meanwhile my aunt devoured the bible of Tolkien:  The Silmarillion. Little did I know about the condense and majestic world of the Middle Earth  and until this day, I haven't read the trilogy. I know, is sad if you are a fan of the books, still, the movies are great and I know that they won an Oscar for best movie adaption, so that comforts me.

Trauma. Gollum is not listening

The years went by and I remained a virgin from the Lord of The Rings experienced, until one day something changed... A friend of my was a big fan of the books specially the Silmarillion, with the story of the origins of the middle earth, the men, the dwarf, hobbits, elfs and gods. I canot tell how I got that interested but I remembered that all began with a WhatsApp conversation about good books.
One book led to another and then Tolkien's story got in the way. A month later, I was having a limited edition of the Silmarillion, it was my friend's precious treasure.

The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien

I promised him to take care of that book like it was my baby, and I got three months to read it. I was confident about the time...Oh boy I was so naive.

Here is an honest representation of my inner-thoughts while reading the Book:

"First pages, good, some characters introduced, the creation of the son of gods, mmm, I need to catch-up with the names, thank good there's a dictionary with names in the back." That was how everything screw-up, I ton of characters where introduce in the first fifty pages, I was constantly confused or I even slept because of the plot been so damn intricate. It took me two months to read hundred pages. TWO MONTHS, and then, I gave up, cowardly.

I now know, after speaking with my aunt, that the book is hard to pass, and that is cause because, the Silmarillion was a compilation of notes and drafts that Tolkien wrote but never put together, it was too long and complicated and he never had the time to published. His son, eventually discovered all that and realises that it was unfinished,  so he decided to write the rest. I can understand why he did it, to perpetuate his fathers legacy, to show the world the great story he was creating or even to gain some recognition maybe. All I can say is that is was hard to understand and to take all that information so fast; from the creation of the all Mighty sons, the elfs, the men, the dwarfs the hobbits, the separation of the elfs, how Sauron turned evil, the war, the creation of tools, and magic objects. the backstabbing, the affairs, the names... Those names, they could have three different names, because it changed from dialect, to region or even because the writer wanted to. They even have a dialect glosary!

Anyway, I will someday read the goddamn book, and the Lord of The Rings as well.

I will not die until I read those books.

Game of thrones: Should you watch it?

Daenerys Targaryen, one the most important characters.

Game of thrones is one of the most successful TV shows in the history of television. It is based on the well-known saga of George R.R. Martin A song of ice and fire, although the writers of the show have made a lot of changes during the process of adaptation.

The best thing about Game of thrones are definitely the characters. They are very realistic, since they aren´t completely good or bad. That way you can relate to them even in the most unrealistic situations. However, in the last season a lot of fans agreed that their beloved characters

were very different from the books. Jamie Lannister for example no longer has a personality, and Arya Stark is unrecognizable.

The scenery is incredible as well, and the special effects are breathtaking. The plot is intriguing and well-done, although it can´t be compared to the books. While the show is simpler and easier to understand, the novels are more profound and appealing.

In my opinion, the show will catch your attention from the first minute, but it has several mistakes and plot holes that don´t happen in the books. I think that the series are great and everyone would enjoy watching them, and it is also a good way to make people become interested in the novels. But nothing can beat the books of A song of ice and fire.

Sansa Stark during season 6

Jon Snow in "the battle of the bastards"

Flag with the symbol of house Lannister

A filmlover/ bookworn doing blogs

I like it.That's why I constantly talk about the last book I read, or the spectacular scenery from the Memoirs of a Geisha. 

Chiyo going through Fushimi Inari-taisha

I can't tell where the love for films began, but I clearly know how the love for a novel started. It was my mom's fault, her constant and pushing passion for books resulted in passing that passion to me, her only daughter. At the beggining it was one of the books from the Chronicles of Narnia: The Boy and His Horse (El Caballo y el Muchacho in Spanish)
 I got to be honest, I did not like the book, and the fact that I, as a six year old had to read it because of my mom, traumatised my childish mind. Thank God my mother soon realised that I wasn't even understanding the plot of the book. And now that I remember, I just know that yes, there was a boy and a horse, for obvious reasons, otherwise the title would be different, and there was another horse named win, I think, they were constantly walking somewhere and maybe there was a sword involved in all that, but that's it.



After that, my mother find a lighter kind of narrative for me...it was Narnia, still, but it was with pictures, and it was the story that everybody knows because of the films: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe

It was okay, very easy to read and less painful than the previous Narnia experience. After that, books became a norm for me, something in which I could escape from homework and teleport to another country or world or continent.

The years pass by and then the Academy Awards and E! entertainment television appeared into my life to remain until today. I would watch the nominee movies to judge them to test if those movies were worthy of such renowned prestige and then talk with my mother and aunt about it.

The two passions combined, I would read the book before the film was out or I would listen the critics from a movie to see if the book was actually interesting.

Its amazing how movies and books are nowadays related, and how I enjoy both, one because all the effort it can take to put into screen the vision of someone, from sound, to visuals to the script. And the other because it shows how a well written story or a very successful one can transport you to amazing places that just you're mind can take you.

Sometimes it can turn bad, but there's a lot of work put into those projects, so here, we're going to talk about all that.



Hope you enjoy it as well as we do.


The pictures where taking:
  Chiyo and the santuary bridge
El Caballo y el Muchacho
The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe
Books Vs Comics HP