Books being adapted into film is not a new thing. It's not a bad thing either. Although these days, the practice of turning bestselling books into movies is getting so severe that I'm wondering whether the film studios are running out of ideas for original material. They seem to be just waiting for new critically acclaimed books to be published so that they can make a movie out of them.
There's also the new thing going on with classic fairy tales being given fresh twists in the big screen. Red Riding Hood, Beauty and the Beast, Hansel and Gretel, Alice in Wonderland, to name a few. Just recently, there were even two movies within a year about Snow White (one of which even sparked a cheating controversy involving a certain famous on-screen vampire love team, but that's another story.)
These days, when there's a new movie coming out, I don't get surprised anymore to find out that there's an existing book upon which the movie was based. I'm even thankful about it because if not for the movie, I wouldn't even know the book existed. Or if I did know about the book through previous encounters in the National Bookstore shelves, I wouldn't realize that it's interesting until they made a movie out of it. That's exactly what happened with the Hunger Games. I've been dismissing that book during my frequent excursions to the bookstore. Not until I got wind of the ongoing filming of the movie last year did I pick up my own copy, and I'm glad I did because I liked it.
There's a certain feeling of mixed excitement and dread whenever a book that I've already owned and loved for a long time gets to be the next "chosen one" in a film project. It's because when you read a book, you're practically making a movie out of it already in your head. It's exciting to see that amateur version you conjured in your mind get translated into an actual film by professional movie makers, not to mention the special effects that they can add to make it even more mind blowing. However, you also feel a little apprehensive due to the ever-present possibility that Hollywood could just as easily spoil the experience for you by not doing it justice in the big screen.
Right now, I am looking forward to the upcoming movies based on two of my beloved books: Life of Pi and The Perks of Being a Wallflower. These books really touched my heart and made me shed a tear or two when I read them back then. So far, I am pleased with what I've seen in the trailers, so I'm really hoping I don't get disappointed when I finally get to watch them in the theaters.
"But right now, we are alive and in this moment I swear we are infinite."
"Love is hard to believe, ask any lover. Life is hard to believe, ask any scientist. God is hard to believe, ask any believer. What is your problem with hard to believe?"
