Adaptation 2 - Thoughts on book to movie, movie to play, and this to that

Last time, I wrote about all the stories and songs coming into the Public Domain and free for you to adapt. Earlier, I compared the strengths and weakness of different forms (prose, film, fiction podcast, poetry/lyrics, and stage). There’s a lot to chew on there, but I suspect most people can connect the dots. So, rather than write how-tos for each adaptation, I’ll just offer some notes (opinions, experiences, reflections) and examples, as needed. I’ll go from what I see as the biggest opportunities (based on landing the gig and impact of the work) to ones that may be more specialized.

Notes: 1 - Animation (musical films and Broadway musicals) and comics (tentpole films) have had an outsized cultural influence in the last twenty-five years. Blockbusters provide a route for very few (those with credentials or power) to reach audiences and readers. On the other hand, who’s to say animation and comics coming into the public domain won’t hit the same notes without battles with Disney and Marvel.? 2-  I’m not an expert on all of these areas. I doubt anyone is. So take my observations with a grain of salt (or leave a comment).

Fiction Podcast (or Radio Theater) to TV
-Opportunity Medium-High
-Art High

This is the path many legendary TV shows (Gunsmoke, I Love Lucy) took. And it seems to be repeating itself (Welcome to Nightvale, Limetown). Making a fiction podcast is less expensive than making a movie or a stage play. And you don’t need bestseller sized audiences to attract producers and agents. These professionals seem to be inviting the creators in. The trick is finding a way to attract even a moderate audience amid all the competition. Still, there is already wonderful work around in fiction podcast, even though (in the US) there was a decades-long hiatus. Some are even eschewing the old-time approaches to produce work that is truly new. And it’s just getting started.

Now… adapting Public Domain radio shows may need to wait a little bit. Radio drama did not really get its start until 1923, and this year’s Public Domain Day is for the year 1924  Wait a few years before some of the really great old radio dramas appear.

Prose to Fiction Podcast (or Radio Theater)
-Opportunity High
-Art High

Highly doable. And it can be great. Proof: Mercury Theater’s (Orson Welles’s) adaptation of War of the Worlds.

Prose to Stage
-Opportunity Medium-Low
-Art Very High

Prose being turned into plays has a long (and successful) history:

Of the top 10 grossing non-musicals, see The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, War Horse, To Kill a Mockingbird, and arguably Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. Recent Tony Winners from prose  are The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, War Horse, and  Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.

Of the top 10 grossing musicals, see Wicked, The Phantom of the Opera, Beauty and the Beast
(indirectly), Chicago (indirectly), and Les Miserables. Recent Tony Winners from prose are Hamilton, Fun Home, and A Gentleman's Guide to Love & Murder.

I think there are great opportunities in the books and short stories that are already available in terms of using them to create works for the theater. The trouble is breaking in. In general, this requires being part of a theater community.

I live in the New York area, so the barrier is low, and you can even end up with industry people in your audience. Chicago, Toronto, and London are good theater cities, too. There are other cities like Edinburgh (which specializes in “fringe” work) and non-English language cities (Athens, Tokyo). And there seem to be “live” online venues emerging, thanks to the pandemic.

If you can become part of a community, my advice would be to look for Public Domain prose works where dialogue is a major strength and the story is simple enough for a one-act play. One-acts in small theaters provide laboratories for learning, finding collaborators, and building credentials. (Then be ready to jump when someone asks for a full-length work.)

Prose (Novel, Novella, Short Story) to Film-Opportunity Medium
-Art Medium

I’ve been told that there was a time when Hollywood would see the galleys of a promising book before the author did. Something similar may still be true for comics, but I doubt reading-averse Hollywood cares now until readers validate the work.

So… the advantage is the many of the Public Domain works are already validated. Admittedly, those readers are mostly dead, but the titles and names of authors might have lived on. It has to be a work that has cinematic potential, in story and action. (I’d look at novellas first.) Think in terms of updating the story for our times. Oh, and move quickly. Someone else may be looking at the same works.

Stage to Film
-Opportunity Medium-Low
-Art Medium

Talkies created a great migration of writers from Broadway to Hollywood because of the need for dialogue. A lot of beloved works came from these writers, sometimes as their plays (The Front Page) became films with few changes.

Considering opportunities in the Public Domain, begin by abandoning musicals. Few had stories that were much more than excuses for the songs. (The stories in Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers films provide a good approximation of what writers could get away with.) My understanding is the Broadway Musical changed with Oklahoma! Since then, audiences expect more in terms of story.

But there may be treasure in the non-musicals. It takes more imagination to see the opportunities for cinema in a stage script, but they are there. If this catches your interest, learn from the best. Study how the action and visuals implied by Shakespeare made it into the best adaptations of his work. Then find your own Shakespeares of the 20s. 

Film to Stage
-Opportunity Low
-Art Medium

For today’s work, this mostly involves big budget, and it’s much more likely that going to the stage will include adding music (unless, as with the animations, it’s already there).

The main concern on Public Domain is dialogue wasn’t a part of film yet (The Jazz Singer came out in 1927), and most plays are dialogue rich. Even if the story could be easily adapted, using a silent as a selling point doesn’t confer much advantage.

Poetry (or Lyrics) to Stage
-Opportunity Medium
-Art High

Cats stands out as an unusual case of success. And I saw a brilliant stage adaptation of The Illiad. But even though there list of examples runs out fast, poetry and lyrics fit the stage nicely, since speech is dominant. Story is the sticking point. Were there any magical narrative poems written in the 20s? I don’t know, but it might be worthwhile to check.

I suspect there are great possibilities with lyrics. In the 20s, Tin Pan Alley was alive and well, with wit, personality, and innumerable innovative cultural mixes. So, find a song that tells a story and can be delivered to today’s listeners, and that’ll be a good start toward a story. The selling point becomes the catchy song. The tough part is growing a story from that tiny seed.

Film to Prose
-Opportunity Low
-Art Low

These are called novelizations. Today, they come to writers through agents. And they almost always result in clearly derivative, second-rate work. One exception I know of… Isaac Asimov once was asked what he thought about how Hollywood had turned his novel, Fantastic Voyage, into such a mediocre film. He immediately said, “I turned a mediocre film into a good book.”

TV to Prose
-Opportunity Low
-Art Low

What happens here, even today, is even worse than what happens when films are novelized. (I’m sure there are exceptions.) And there are no 20s TV shows waiting for adaptation.

Film to Music
-Opportunity Low
-Art High

The songs are made to push the movies, but some wonderful songs by some marvelous composers/lyricists have been created. The gigs go to people with track records.

With that in mind, it may be that watching Harold Lloyd or Mary Pickford do their work in silent films could inspire some songs worth hearing, especially if a contemporary angle could be explored. It would be fun to give it a try.

Film or TV to Fiction Podcast (or Radio Theater)-Opportunity Low
-Art High

Okay the Public Domain opportunities for TV won’t be around for decades. There are films to adapt, but they are silent. (Post-1940 films, mostly series like Henry Aldrich and Captain Midnight, were adapted from radio dramas.) With that said, some of the TV shows (Have Gun Will Travel) and films (Star Wars) adapted have been good. 

Poetry (or Lyrics) to TV-Opportunity Low
-Art Low



I'm not aware of this happening, other than television events based on epic poems. It might work.

TV to Poetry (or Lyrics)
-Opportunity Low
-Art Low

Okay, I’ll admit some good songs have come from TV shows (but not by people without contacts and credentials). But, again, there were no TV shows in the 20s.

Stage to Poetry (or Lyrics)
-Opportunity Low
-Art Low

Musicals come with their own songs, of course. I’m not sure that a stage play has inspired verse or original songs.



By design, this post ends with what seem to be not adaptation possibilities, but impossibilities. But I'm happy to be proven wrong. Creating a rap musical based on Chernow's biography (over 800 pages) of Alexander Hamilton drew skepticism and laughter. Be the genius that shows the way.