I’m always fascinated by translations and versions, by what choices are made and how affective those choices are. As reflected in my recent reading materials:
Book #6 – The Mist by Stephen King
Originally The Mist was released as part of King’s Skeleton Crew anthology. It was recently re-leased as a stand-alone novel in conjunction with The Mist movie being released. At 50K, it’s longer than much of what I read last year. I was slightly curious to see how King told the story versus the movie. Of course, the movie is much more action oriented. The characters “do” more than they contemplate, and in the end I’m not sure they need the excuses for acting that King gives them in the book. And Mrs. Carmody works much better as a character when we can see and hear her. King doesn’t quite get out of his protagonists head enough to let us feel the effect Carmody is having on people, mainly because she isn’t having that effect on Dan. In contrast, it’s being inside Dan’s head let’s us experience the revulsion toward the unknown things in the mist. The movie ends up being a much tighter work.
Book #7 – Michael Chabon’s screenplay for Spiderman 2 and David Mamet’s screenplay for Hannibal
Both of these men received some form of writing credit on their respective movies.
Spiderman 2 retained many of the concepts of Chabon’s script, though dumping others. The pizza delivery scene, for instance, stayed. The end script decided to place more emphasis on Parker losing his powers. That really became the heart of the story and is less central in Chabon’s script. Chabon concentrates more on Doc Ock, giving him a direct relationship with MJ and having the ‘pods be the main technology that Doc has been working on, not a tool that has gone awry. While it’s interesting that many of Doc’s problems are caused directly by Spiderman’s actions (echoing the first movie), I think it was a much better choice to center the movie on Spiderman rather than his nemesis.
Mamet’s Hannibal. Wow. Different. What ended up in the movie (and what is in the book) is approximately in the last third of Mamet’s script. He gives us more of a lead up to Starling’s disgrace, more of her fractured state of mind. She’s decided to marry John Brigham when he’s shot in the fish market, for example. It is *much* more Starling’s story than anything. And with that, he lacks the subtlety of the original story. We already get it that Starling has invested her life in the FBI and it’s crushing when that’s betrayed. (Well, okay, based on reaction to the book and movie, maybe I’m the only one to get that…)
Another thing that I think both of these script relies too heavily on is coincidence. All stories rely on coincidence somewhat, but it’s something an author need to be careful with. Doc sees an interview with MJ after tuning in to see coverage of Spiderman. Pazzi is at Quantico when Hannibal opens and it’s the reflection of Starling taking a picture for the tourist-Pazzi that leads Lecter to her. That’s just…too much. I need to be careful with that sort of thing in my writing.
Simple Tricks & Nonsense 