Okay, disclaimer, Hollywood has not come knocking with an offer for my books, nor do I think they are likely to any time soon. I merely say this because I am sat here, watching Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1, having watched each of the Harry Potter films over the past week, and with 1 film still to go, and in watching them I am reminded of the damage that can be done to a story when Hollywood gets their hands on it.
The first two Harry Potter books were made into decent movies, I’m quite happy to watch them; after that, however, the films, in my opinion, become worse and worse. The acting, even from those with great acting credentials is no more than acceptable, while horrific liberties are taken with the plots, scenes ignored or cut to the bare minimum, scenes added for no good reason, characters missing, elements of speech shifted from one character to another.
Some of these things can be excused by the necessity of making the films manageable lengths, but not everything.
I can’t help thinking that if they can’t do justice to the books, they shouldn’t have touched them at all.
Being reminded of how indifferent filmmakers are to ensuring they adapt a book correctly is why, should they ever make an offer for any of my books, my first instinct is going to be to tell them to get lost (I realise there’s every chance my answer will depend on the size of the offer and my need for money at the time, but I’d like to think my integrity will allow me to go with my first instinct and refuse to have my books butchered).
ARC Books 