Books to Movies

Here’s a trend you may not have thought about. Books are being made into movies.

Sure, we all know that. And if you’re a writer, it’s exciting to think about your book being bought by a Hollywood producer or studio. It’s happened to other writers, why not you? It’s happened in the past, so why not now?

But is the trend slowing down? We all know how hard it is to break into the publishing field. The movie business is even harder.

Well, according to the January 6th Sacbee.com, the trend is still strong. The article, “Between the Lines: Books-to-Movie Trend Not Slowing,” had this to say:

It's apparent that not all movies are derived from original screenplays, despite the roles of Hollywood writers. Many of the best films had their source material in books. For instance, at theaters now are "I Am Legend" (by Richard Matheson, published in 1954), "Atonement" (Ian McEwan, 2001), "No Country for Old Men" (Cormac McCarthy, 2005) and "The Kite Runner" (Khaled Hosseini, 2005).

Books to movies has a solid foundation. Consider Cracked.com’s list of “8 Kick-Ass Movies You Didn’t Know were Based on Books.” That list includes First Blood, the start of the Rambo movies. It was a book by David Morrell. Remember the scary movie called The Thing? That was based on the book Who Goes There? Did you know Psycho was also the name of the book by Robert Bloch? Check out Cracked.com’s website for the full list.

Some more recent examples would be The Nanny Diaries which came out in 2003. Or how about the 2006 book The Emperor’s Children just bought by Ron Howard’s Imagine? You can read about these and other deals in Publishers Weekly.

So, it still happens. No, it’s not easy, but it’s sure exciting when it happens to someone you know or love reading. Or … and here’s a New Year’s wish … to you!