Although often considered a type of derivative work, film adaptation has been conceptualized recently by academic scholars such as Robert Stam as a dialogic process.
Adaptation from such diverse resources has been a ubiquitous practice of filmmaking since the earliest days of cinema in nineteenth-century Europe.
In contrast to when making a remake, movie directors usually take more creative liberties when creating a film adaptation.
In 1924, Erich von Stroheim attempted a literal adaptation of Frank Norris's novel McTeague with his film Greed.
For example, William J. Kennedy's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Ironweed included a short appearance by a prostitute named Helen.
In most cases adaptation, the films are required to create identities (for example, a characters' costume or set decor) since they are not specified in the original material.
Then, the influence of film-makers may go unrecognized because there is no comparison in the original material even though the new visual identities will affect narrative interpretation.
For the Harry Potter film series, author JK Rowling was closely consulted by the filmmakers, and she provided production designer Stuart Craig with a map of Hogwarts' grounds and also prevented director Alfonso Cuarón from adding a graveyard scene because the graveyard would appear elsewhere in a later novel.
Filmmakers' test screenings found that Vonnegut's style of music confused audiences and detracted from narrative comprehension.
The first sound adaptation of any Shakespeare play was the 1929 production of The Taming of the Shrew, starring Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks.
The animated film The Lion King (1994) was inspired by Hamlet as well as various traditional African myths, and 2001's O was based on Othello.
Rohmer uses one scene from Shakespeare's A Winter's Tale as a major plot device within a story that is not based on the play at all.
What a Lovely War (1969), Sleuth (1972), The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975), Shirley Valentine (1989), The Madness of King George (1994), The History Boys (2006), Quartet (2012), and The Lady in the Van (2015).
Some examples of American film adaptations based on successful Broadway plays are Arsenic and Old Lace (1944), Born Yesterday (1950), Harvey (1950), A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), The Odd Couple (1968), The Boys in the Band (1970), Agnes of God (1985), Children of a Lesser God (1986), Glengarry Glen Ross (1992), Real Women Have Curves (2002), Rabbit Hole (2010), and Fences (2016).
Laurence Olivier consciously imitated the arch with his Henry V (1944), having the camera begin to move and to use color stock after the prologue, indicating the passage from physical to imaginative space.
In the former, the film will offer a longer storyline than the usual television program's format and/or expanded production values.
During the 1970s, many UK television series were turned into films including Dad's Army, On the Buses, Steptoe and Son and Porridge.
The American television sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live has been the origin of a number of films, beginning with The Blues Brothers, which began as a one-off performance by Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi.
American comic book characters, particularly superheroes, have long been adapted into film, beginning in the 1940s with Saturday movie serials aimed at children.
In the Philippines, superhero comics have been adapted numerous times into films such as Darna (1951), Captain Barbell (1964), and Lastik Man (1965).
In addition, comics of various genres other than those involving superheroes such as romance,[5] fantasy[6] and drama[7] have widely been used as a source for film adaptations such as Roberta (1951), Dyesebel (1953), Ang Panday (1980), Bituing Walang Ningning (1985) and Mars Ravelo's Bondying: The Little Big Boy (1989).
The success of these films has also led to other comic books not necessarily about superheroes being adapted for the big screen, such as Ghost World (2001), From Hell (2001), American Splendor (2003), Sin City (2005), 300 (2007), Wanted (2008), and Whiteout (2009).
Films based on such series usually try to capture the back story and “spirit” of the character instead of adapting a particular storyline.
Self-contained graphic novels, and miniseries many of which do not feature superheroes, can be adapted more directly, such as in the case of Road to Perdition (2002) or V for Vendetta (2006).
Joe films; there is a longer history of animated television series being created simultaneous to toy lines as a marketing tool.
[11] Less direct derivations include The Magnificent Seven from The Seven Samurai, Star Wars from The Hidden Fortress, and 12 Monkeys from La Jetée.