Film Translations and Movie Adaptations

Charlie Kaufman's Adaptation wasn't the first and certainly will not be the last word on the work of a screenwriter bringing someone else's work up on to the big screen. It has been reported that Jeffrey Eugenides, the original writer of the novel that turned into the film The Virgin Suicides, was not particularly happy that he was denied a screenwriting cred when Sofia Coppola used almost every bit of his dialogue when writing her screenplay.

Many of our favorite screenplays that we credit our favorite screenwriters with writing actually come from original material that started out with long forgotten names. Sidney Howard did not write Gone with the Wind, but Margaret Mitchell did. Julius Epstein, Philip Epstein, and Howard Koch did not write Casablanca aka Everybody Comes to Rick's, but Joan Alison and Murray Burnett did. Billy Wilder and Raymond Chandler did not come up with the idea for Double Indemnity, but James M. Cain did. William Goldman did not write All The President's Men, but Woodward and Bernstein did. Stanley Kubrick did not write 2001: A Space Odyssey, but Arthur C. Clarke did. Francis Ford Coppola did not come up with the idea for The Godfather, but Mario Puzo did. Bo Goldman did not write One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, but Ken Kesey did. Tom Stoppard did not write Empire of the Sun, but J.G. Ballard did. Etc. Etc. The list goes on and on and on.

Forget about the much debated influences that led George Lucas to write Star Wars. Or the derivation of Quentin Tarantino's oeuvre. Or even the mystery of the authorship of Good Will Hunting.

But, let us not forget about the work of William Shakespeare, losing sight of the literal translations, he brought us such gems as West Side Story, Kiss Me Kate, O, 10 Things I Hate About You, Throne of Blood, and Ran.

Did you know Shakespeare wrote 635 screenplays??!!

That is not to say that what they did with the previous material is not great, it most often is.

That is also not to say that great original material does not exist, it most certainly does. But, we should also recognize that it is that much more rare (and that will have to wait for a later post).

So whose movie is it? Shouldn't we remember the earlier writers when we praise the work up on the screen? Where would we be without original material? And, does this explain why so many screenwriters are so quick to revise and rewrite earlier work? Is it just so good it needs to be put up on the screen? Is it just the safe, easy way out? Or, do they have a unique vision that only they can provide in order to translate a page turner into a real movie?