How authors make book-to-movie magic

You’re reading Book Club, Boston.com’s guide to the Greater Boston literary scene. Sign up to get book recommendations, author Q&As, deep dives on trends in the industry, and more in your inbox every week.

Dear readers,

Oscars season is upon us. This year’s Academy Awards nominees run the gamut from historical dramas (“The Brutalist”) to political thrillers (“Conclave”) to musical fantasies (“Wicked”). They couldn’t be more different, and yet there’s one thing seven of the ten Best Picture nominees have in common: They’re adaptations. 

While not all have been adapted from books, specifically, all seven were based on written works: “Emilia Pérez” was based on an opera; “Sing Sing” on an Esquire article; “A Complete Unknown” on a biography; “Dune: Part Two,” “Conclave,” and “Nickel Boys” on novels; and “Wicked” on a musical that was based on a novel.

There are plenty of great adaptations coming down the pike in 2025, too. I’m eagerly awaiting Christopher Nolan’s adaptation of Homer’s “The Odyssey” (with Matt Damon set to play Odysseus) and Guillermo del Toro’s adaptation of Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein” (starring Oscar Isaac, Jacob Elordi, and Mia Goth).

To get an insider’s perspective into the world of adaptations, I talked to local author Elizabeth Gonzalez James whose magical realism Western, “The Bullet Swallower,” has been optioned for film. Gonzalez James is currently writing the screenplay for a feature film. 

Below, she shared what the adaptation process is like, and some of her all-time favorite book-to-movie reimaginations. 

🎬 Elizabeth Gonzalez James on adaptations

Your novel, “The Bullet Swallower” was published last year. When you were writing, did you have a screen adaptation in mind?

EGJ: I had the idea a long time ago to write this book, probably in 2013 if I had to guess. I actually originally wanted to write it as a film, and I maybe started to write it, or maybe I was just starting to think about writing it, but I realized pretty quickly that I didn’t know how on Earth to do that. I was still just trying to learn how to write a novel at that point. I said, ‘This sounds really hard. I’ll write it as a novel. That’ll be easier.’ And the joke was on me, because that was not easy. It took me nine years from when I first started researching it, until it finally came out.

When writing the novel, I had a feeling that it could work as a movie. It was just so plotty and so visual, that I thought, ‘I think this could work.’ And it did!

How is writing for the screen different from writing a novel? What has the adaptation process been like for you?

EGJ: I keep trying to find a metaphor, and I haven’t yet. It’s less creative writing and more like architecture. Or, it’s like learning Spanish and then learning Portuguese, and you think that one is going to help you learn the other, but not really. They’re just so different.

I just can’t really get over how little the skill transfers. That was really the most shocking thing. I went into the screenplay thinking like, ‘Oh yeah, I understand story structure. I understand how to tell a story and use proper plot structure and all that stuff.’ And, yeah, I totally do for a novel – but not for a movie.

Adapting this film is the hardest thing I’ve ever done – it’s harder than raising kids. I had really easy kids, but no, it’s literally the hardest thing I’ve ever done.

There’s a common sentiment in the adaptation world that “the book was better than the movie.” What do you make of that?

EGJ: The cliche is that the book was better, and I definitely have a lot more sympathy now for the people whose job it is to adapt these books for the screen. It’s not just that you only have two hours to tell a story that might take eight, 10, 15 hours to read. But it’s also that the screen, the film, forces you to focus in a way that a novel doesn’t. You have to make very painful cuts. There are definitely some characters that are not going to make the transfer from the book to the film, and that’s sad. But that’s just how it goes. 

And it’s not just about making cuts, but it’s about making sure that everything is necessary to the story. Everything has to function in an enclosed loop. You can’t leave a circuit open, or the electricity doesn’t flow. And it’s the same thing with a screenplay; you can’t leave any open circuits.

What are some of your favorite adaptations?

EGJ: “No Country for Old Men” is definitely gonna be up there. Martin Scorsese’s “The Age of Innocence” is fabulous. The “Anna Karenina” with Keira Knightley that came out in 2012, that one’s excellent. I’m watching “One Hundred Years of Solitude” [the 2024 TV show] on Netflix and it’s good – I haven’t finished it, so I can’t say if I love it yet. And “Pedro Páramo” on Netflix is a very interesting adaptation.

✏️ Pencil these in 

Take a break from the news at these joyful literary events happening near you:

Oscars Watch Party at Trident Booksellers | Mar. 2

Watch the Oscars at Trident Booksellers in Back Bay, and come dressed to impress! Side games, prizes, and themed food and drink options will be available for guests.

Hundred Year Book Debate | Mar. 4

Vote for the best book published 100 years ago in 1925: F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby,” Franz Kafka’s “The Trial,” and Virginia Woolf’s “Mrs. Dalloway.” (Fun fact: All three books have been adapted into films!)

“Sunrise on the Reaping” Midnight Release Party | Mar. 17

At Harvard Bookstore, partake in themed activities, trivia, giveaways, and a costume contest at a midnight release event for “Sunrise on the Reaping,” the fifth book in Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games series. Each ticket holder will receive a copy of the book.

An Appetite for Books: A Cookbook Book Club | Mar. 24 

At Parkside Bookshop in the South End, join bookseller Laurel and 15 other home cooks/book lovers for a discussion about Christina Soteriou’s vegetarian cookbook “Big Veg Energy.” I attended Parkside’s last cookbook book club with my colleague, food reporter and writer of “The Dish” newsletter Katelyn Umholtz. We made hummus from a recipe in the book! Keep an eye out for Katelyn’s next newsletter to see how it went.

Witch-Craft Cinema: “Charmed” | Mar. 27

Watch the first three episodes of the TV show “Charmed,” bring-your-own craft or buy a kit, and sip a themed drink at SideQuest Books & Games in Somerville.

💡Answer me this:

I’m trying out a new format for this section (formerly called “Survey Says”) where I’ll include a trivia question related to the newsletter’s theme. Since this newsletter covers adaptations, I’ve got a question for book and film lovers alike. Drum roll, please!

What was the first book-to-film adaptation to win a Best Picture Academy Award?

Hint: The WWI-era, anti-war book was adapted for film for the third time in 2022. Email me your answer at [email protected]. The first reader who emails me with the correct answer to the trivia question below will get a personalized book recommendation from me or a local bookseller. 

💬 Wise words

I’m still making my way through Kevin Kwan’s romance novel “Crazy Rich Asians” – which was adapted into a 2018 film, by the way. In lieu of including another quote from the book, I’ll include some closing adaptation recommendations from my colleague, Kevin Slane. He’s Boston.com’s entertainment writer and author of The Queue, a streaming newsletter:

“A list of the greatest book-to-movie adaptations is mostly just a list of the greatest movies, period. “The Godfather,” “Gone with the Wind,” “The Wizard of Oz” –  the list goes on. Instead, I’ll highlight an instance in which a movie (in my opinion) far surpassed its source material, 2010’s “The Social Network.” Screenwriter Aaron Sorkin kept the barebones of author Ben Mezrich’s compelling but clunky “The Accidental Billionaires” for his brilliant script, while director David Fincher turned conference room litigation over the founding of Facebook into high drama.”

– Kevin Slane, Boston.com entertainment writer

Happy reading and watching!

— Annie Jonas

Annie Jonas

Annie Jonas is a Community writer at Boston.com. She was previously a local editor at Patch and a freelancer at the Financial Times.

Want to leave a comment?

Create an Account Or sign in to your account

To comment, please create a screen name in your profile

To comment, please verify your email address

Conversation

This discussion has ended. Please join elsewhere on Boston.com