Apologies for the unannounced hiatus.  I do have a review coming up, but with how busy the past week has been, I did not have the time to properly watch the work I wanted to analyze.  Lost in Translation will return next week.

In the meantime, let me know if there’s an adaptation coming up you’re looking forward to, or even one that you’re dreading.

Next week, Star Wars: Rebels.

Last week, Lost in Translation looked at the problems Jem and the Holograms live action adaptation had at the box office.  The same week that Jem was pulled from theatres, Mark Wahlberg announced that he would be involved with a remake of The Six Million Dollar Man,  Today, a look at what such an adaptation needs to beware of.

The remake, The Six Billion Dollar Man, appears to be working from the TV series.  However, The Six Million Dollar Man was an adaptation itself, based on book Cyborg by Martin Caidan.  Will the remake acknowledge the original work is still a question.  Another catch is the forty years since the original TV series aired.  Time is seldom gentle as it progresses.  Can The Six Billion Dollar Man update the series without losing what made the original popular?

Technology may not be a problem.  Computers are far smaller and far more powerful now than in the mid-Seventies.  Thanks to the silicon chip and advances in miniaturization, computers no longer need to take up an entire floor and can fit inside an artificial limb with space leftover.  Steve Austin’s bionic arm, legs, and eye are still beyond current commercial technology, but advances available today in artificial limbs now allow for fine motor control.  Small cameras are available to all, with infrared available at low extra cost.  Web cameras are built into many computing devices, like laptops, tablets, and cameras.  Putting a military version of commercially available camera types into an artificial eye isn’t far-fetched.

The real problem, seen with every adaptation, is getting the feel right.  Jem and the Holograms failed there by going for a generic plot with no connection to the characters.  The Six Billion Dollar Man needs to acknowledge the feel of the original, even as it tries to be its own work.  The problem there is the Seventies.  Steve Austin didn’t just deal with rogue agents.  He went up against robots with his capabilities, against terrorism in ersatz versions of Northern Ireland, South America, and the Middle East, against psychics and mind readers, and against aliens.  The Seventies explored ideas that never panned out and are seen as bizarre today.

Compounding the issue of the Seventies is the change in how stories are told.  This was also seen in the remake of The Mechanic, which went from a character study with a deliberate pace to an action movie without changing the plot.  The Seventies saw longer shots, almost foreign to today’s near-constant cuts through editing.  Yet, for some effects, the camera may have to linger.

Another issue that could cause problems is the change of tone seen in adapted works, eschewing the tone of the original in favour of a darker, grittier story that sometimes misses the point.  The Caidin novels had Austin as a super secret agent, sent in where regular agents wouldn’t succeed.  The TV series followed that idea, but with a lighter touch.  The Six Billion Dollar Man could fall back to the Caidin novels or even just the first pilot movie.  The Six Million Dollar Man saw a shift in tone between the first of the TV movies and the actual series.  Colonel Austin stopped using weapons during the series, but does use grenades in the pilot.

The passage of time may be of help to The Six Billion Dollar Man.  The series ended almost forty years ago and is no longer in syndication.  While the TV series has been released on DVD, not everyone in the audience will have a copy.  This will allow the remake movie to recreate the general feel of the series – a bionic man working as a top agent for an agency – without necessarily getting all the details correct.  The main elements, the bionic sound effects, can be used to create a genuine feel, even if some details get changed.

The goal of Wahlberg’s remake should be to blend the sensitivies of both today and the Seventies without either treating the source material as a source of jokes or to go down the dark and gritty road without having some of the TV series’ levity.  Both have a place in The Six Billion Dollar Man.

If you haven’t seen Jem and the Holograms in theatres, and going by the numbers, you haven’t, you missed your chance.  Universal has pulled the film after just two weeks.  In its second week, Jem was getting $160 per movie screen* it was shown on.  With today’s movie ticket costs, that’s about ten to fifteen per showing.  The movie just did not get an audience.

Early reviews indicated that the movie had one of the most generic plots possible, with a “Remember Your Friends When You Are Famous” theme and having little connection to the Jem and the Holograms cartoon beyond just the name and being about an all-girl band.  People saw the trainwreck coming and decided that they had better things to do, like wash their hair or dig a hole and fill it back up.

There may have been a fundamental disconnect between producers and audience.  The Jem movie was based on the dolls, made by Hasbro.  The audience was expecting a movie based on the 80s cartoon, with a heftier plotline that involved crooked music producers, a bad-girl band wreaking havoc, and a love triangle where two of the interests were really the same person.  The audience who wanted to see the cartoon done in live action had no reason to go, and the generic plot may have kept away the younger set.

Might have been the targeted set.  Advertising for the movie was minimal.  It’s possible that Universal, the studio behind Jem, knew exactly what it had and went for a contractually-required minimal effort to promote the film.  The pulling of the film may have been in defense of the Jem brand.  This Jem and the Holograms movie was a flop, but it was one no one saw in theatres.  In five years time, the movie will be forgotten enough to try again.  Universal gave the film a $5 million budget.  Given what Universal made from Jurassic World, Furious 7, and Minions, the loss from Jem is minimal.  While Jem failed at the box office, it wasn’t the bomb Gigli was.  The movie won’t hurt the brand, especially after being pulled after two weeks**.  The IDW comic series is doing well and will keep the brand alive.

For the hypothetical movie in five years, what lessons can be learned from this attempt at a Jem movie?  First, forget the generic plot.  Jem has established characters, thanks to the cartoon and comic.  Each character has her story, from Jerrica’s work to keep her father’s record company afloat to Pizzazz’s family issues.  Tailor the film to the characters, not the other way around.  Second, at least ask Christy Marx to be involved.  Fans of the cartoon were dismayed when Marx wasn’t involved at all.  Ignoring the creator and writer of the original Jem cartoon may have kept more people away from the film than anything else, including a lack of marketing.  Even if Marx is brought in as a script consultant to make sure the characters feel right.

As Lost in Translation keeps finding, it’s the eye to details that make or break an adaptation.  The generic-ness of Jem and the Holograms that caused audiences to just not go.  The fans of the cartoon didn’t see their characters on screen, just their shells.

* Not the full theatre, but the actual theatre room in the multiplex where the movie played.
** In comparison, Gigli was pulled after three, but theatres were cutting the number of showtimes by then.

Spin-offs, as mentioned before, are another form of adaptation.  Instead of taking a work and translating it to another medium, a spin-off takes a popular* character and presents him or her as a lead, exploring how the character would react and develop.  Today, Lost in Translation will look at the 70s TV series, The Bionic Woman.

The Seventies saw a break out of science fiction on the big screen and on television.  Star Wars had its debut in 1977, but Star Trek turned into a force thanks to syndication, leading studios to realize that science fiction had a loyal audience.  Helping the interest in science fiction was actual science happening.  The Space Race between the US and USSR drove interest in the probes launched and led to the first American space station, Skylab, and the first probes, from the Russian Venera series, to land on Venus.

Along with the interest in space exploration came the use of computers.  The integrated circuit had made huge improvements since its first development, allowing for the reduction of computer size.  Computers still weren’t ready to be on everyone’s desks; the furniture still couldn’t deal with the weight.  The banks of computers, though, had more processing power.  The silicon chip led to the idea of miniaturization of computers; can they be made small enough to bring the Dick Tracy wrist communicator and the Star Trek electronic clipboard to reality**?

Science fiction has the benefit of not needing to be tied to what current technology can do.  If current technology is leading in one direction, science fiction can extrapolate not only the technology but the reaction to it.  Even if the story doesn’t get every detail right, it is impressive at what it predicts.  Science fiction is also a reflection of the time when it is written.  With Martin Caidin’s 1972 novel, Cyborg, it reflects the Space Race and the Cold War in its lead character, Colonel Steve Austin, former astronaut and test pilot.  Col. Austin became the first cybernetically enhanced human after his test plane crashed, leaving him with severe injuries.  With his bionics, Col. Austin became one of America’s top secret agents, dealing with threats to the nation.

Hollywood is known to adapt, to understate the matter.  Glen A. Larson licensed the idea in Cyborg and turned the book into a series of TV movies, the first being called, The Six Million Dollar Man, airing in 1973.  Once again, former astronaut Col. Steve Austin, played by Lee Majors, suffered a horrific crash during a test flight, requiring bionic replacements for his right arm, both legs, and his right eye.  The success of the TV movies led to a proper TV series, also called The Six Million Dollar Man.

The series was lighter fare.  Col. Austin was still a bionically enhanced agent working for the Office of Scientific Intelligence and Oscar Goldman, played by Richard Anderson.  His foes were terrorists from various national stand-ins***, rogue Soviet agents, greedy businessmen, robots, and even aliens and psychics.  Several characters returned, including Bigfoot, as played by André the Giant, and the Seven Million Dollar Man, played by Monty Markham.  One character, though, wasn’t originally planned on being brought back.

A two-part season two episode, “The Bionic Woman”, introduced Jaime Sommers, played by Lindsay Wagner, an old flame of Steve’s from his hometown of Ojai.  Jaime had also left Ojai to pursue her dreams of being a professional tennis player, and had great success in doing so.  When both she and Steve returned to Ojai to visit friends and family, their long dormant romance rekindled, leading to an engagement.

But first, “The Bionic Woman” needed a bionic woman.  During a skydiving outing, Jaime’s parachute failed.  She survived, barely, but lost the use of her right arm, both of her legs, and her right ear.  Steve convinced Oscar and Dr. Rudy Wells, played that time by Martin Balsam****, to give Jaime bionics, which they reluctantly did.  Jaime’s recovery mirrored that of Steve’s in the first TV movie; slow, steady, and then reaching beyond human capabilities.  However, Jaime had fallen victim to the Cartwright Curse.

Television in the Seventies and, indeed, through most of its history until recently, was episodic.  A series featuring a single person had to leave room for the romance of the episode.  Marrying the main character meant limiting some subplots.  The Cartwright Curse, named after the main characters on Bonanza, would see any serious relationship end, usually through the death of the woman.  With “The Bionic Woman”, the engagement reduced Jaime’s life expectancy.  One of the fears mentioned in the original TV movie was the chance of Steve’s body rejecting the bionics.  While Steve didn’t have those issues, Jaime did.  She was rushed back to the clinic, but died.

The two-part episode aired near the end of season two.  Over the hiatus, the production company realized how popular a character she was.  Bringing her back meant doing something so that she was alive again.  The season three opener for The Six Million Dollar Man was the two-part episode, “The Return of the Bionic Woman”.  The key question for the audience; “How are they going to have Jaime not die when we saw her die on screen?”  The answer was a new medical procedure, one that slowed down brain death long enough to adjust her bionics.  The solution came in just as Jaime’s heartbeat flatlined and, since the camera was focused on Steve and his reaction, having a new character call Dr. Wells out to the hall was easily missed.  Jaime Sommers would live again!

Steve slowly learns that Jaime hadn’t died.  He was kept out of the loop because Oscar and Rudy didn’t want to put him through a second emotional wringer if the experiment failed.  Jaime did lose some of her memories.  Older memories weren’t a problem and she remembered everything from recovering from the surgery.  The trauma surrounding her parachute accident, though, caused memory loss before and after the event.  The engagement, in particular, became a painful memory.  Steve and Jaime get a second chance at the failed mission from “The Bionic Woman”.  This time around, the mission is successful.

The Bionic Woman first aired in 1976, during The Six Million Dollar Man‘s third season.  Richard Anderson and Martin E. Brooks appeared in both series, with Anderson getting starring credit in both shows.  The two series crossed over a few times, including the three-part episode, “Kill Oscar”, introducing the Fembots and the two-part episode, “The Return of Bigfoot”.  The series ran three seasons total, ending in 1978 due to the network wanting a different demographic than what the show was drawing.

With the two shows working closely with each other, shaing core cast members even after The Bionic Woman switched networks, they were able to maintain a continuity, as seen with the crossover episodes.  But if Jaime was written and portrayed as Steve in a dress, the show wouldn’t have done as well as it had.  Steve, with his military background, was more likely to resort to violence, though it isn’t his first choice.  Jaime, whose was an Education major in college and had no military background at all, seldom resorted to violence, preferring a more human approach.

The Bionic Woman was its own show, taking the situations seen in The Six Million Dollar Man and adapting them to fit the character of Jaime Sommers.  The show was successful, despite the network’s beliefs.

* Usually popular, but there have been spin-offs based on characters whose popularity have been misread.  The short-lived NBC series, Joey, spun off from Friends, is a good example.
** Yes.  Apple now sells the iWatch, which, when connected wirelessly to an iPhone, works like Dick Tracy’s watch.  Star Trek‘s electronic clipboard was available first as the Apple Newton then as Palm Pilots, both of which have been superceded by smartphones and tablet computers.
*** No real country name was used for the terrorists, though locations were obvious.  Some areas were Northern Ireland, the Middle East, and Central America, but not called as such.
**** Three actors played the role over the run of both The Six Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman.  Martin E. Brooks took over the role in season three of the former and the entire run of the latter.

Going slightly off-topic today.  Technically, Spaced Invaders isn’t an adaptation, but it owes its existance to the Orson Welles radio broadcast, The War of the Worlds.  The radio play itself is an adaptation, based on the HG Wells story and transplanted to the United States.

The Mercury Theatre production of The War of the Worlds was a live broadcast in an age where radio was the entertainment system of the masses.  Breaking news could be aired without too much trouble, allowing critical events to be heard far and wide shortly after they occurred.  The War of the Worlds presented itself, at first, as just another music program, featuring a live orchestra.  However, news kept interrupting the show, first of meteor strikes, then of oddities occurring.  The station is then commandeered by the US Army to help broadcast their own messages.  The audience is then treated to calls for help from a soldier as alien machines march forward unrelentlessly.  The act ends with the soldier asking, “Is anyone there?” as background sounds fade.  The rest of the radio play, for listeners who hadn’t panicked, picked up with a survivor, played by Welles, wandering the blasted countryside and finding other people who had also survived the onslaught.  One man turned insular, not trusting anyone.  Others weren’t as distrusting.  The reveal of the fate of the Martian invaders showed that they were still vulnerable, if not to the mighty weapons of war that mankind fielded, than to the tiny bacteria and viruses omnipresent in our air.

I mentioned “panicked” above.  Listeners who hadn’t paid attention at the beginning or assumed that Mercury Theatre wasn’t on air for some reason got a shock when the Martian attack began, all from the view of soldiers on the front line.  Confirming a news story today is easy; there are multiple TV channels including twenty-four hour news channels, radio stations, and online news papers, all capable of updating as news breaks.  Even social media will explode with news as it happens*.  In 1938, radio was it.  Tuning a radio station in took some effort, so changing the station to get a second feed meant time lost.  Few people would see a need to change the station during breaking news**.  Someone turning the radio play on after it had started would have no idea that what he or she was hearing was a work of fiction.  With tension building in Europe, the breakout of a war was a strong possibility.  The reaction was unprecedented and became breaking news itself.  The War of the Worlds is memorable, thus it became a classic radio play.

As with so many other classics seen over the run of Lost in Translation, The War of the Worlds was remade and adapted to other media.  There has been two movies, one in 1953, the other in 2005, and a TV series in 1988.  The radio play has been influential, leading to works like the 1983 NBC TV movie, Special Bulletin, and the 1989 movie, Spaced Invaders.  The latter was a comedy, released in 1990, starring Royal Dano, Douglas Barr, and introduced Arianna Richards.  The cast comprised of solid comedy character actors.  Douglas Barr was best known from his work on the TV series, The Fall Guy, as the sidekick to Lee Majors’ bounty Hunter, Colt Seavers.

The movie begins with the Imperial Atomic Space Navy Battle Group Nine.  The admiral in charge has been replaced because of how poorly the Martian fleet is faring against the Arcturans.  A new edict is in place; all Martian ships, no matter the size, are to be equipped with an Enforcer Drone, to ensure that all orders are carried out to the letter.  A Martian who fails to follow those orders to the letter will, like the admiral was, be subject to “disciplinary termination”.

In the space between the orbit of Mars and Earth, a small scout ship carries our little green heroes – Captain Bipto, the commanding officer; Lt. Giggywig, the second in command; Blaznee, the ship’s pilot; Dr. Ziplock, the ship’s scientist, and Corporal Pez, the designated redshirt.  They pick up a broadcast of The War of the Worlds, mistake it for a cry for help from the pathetic humans, and decide to go help the invading forces.  Even the ship’s Enforcer Drone agrees with this plan of action, provided that it succeeds.  Failure, as always, would result in a disciplinary review.

The source of the “distress call” is traced to Big Bean, Illinois, an agricultural town celebrating both Hallowe’en and the opening of their new exit on the Interstate.  The town’s deputy, played by Fred Applegate, waiting for the town’s first speeder, finds it, clocking at 3000mph, well over the speed limit.  The speeder crashes on the Wrenchmuller farm and the group, except Blaznee, exit the ship.  Bipto takes the lead thorugh fields to a long black patch on the ground.  Pez is volunteered to cross it, but he refuses, citing that the patch could be a minefield.  Fortunately, Ziplock has a solution, a mechanical scout launched from a mortar.  Shortstuff, as the robot gets named, walks out on to the long black patch and promptly fails to explode.  Bipto takes the lead and boldy strides on to the patch, where he gets hit by a Cadillac.  Giggywig immediately takes command, and orders the rest of the Martians to march on.

Mr. Wrenchmuller (Dano), the owner of the farm where the Martian ship crashed, is facing the loss of his farm.  The crops were terrible this past season, and he’s about to lose the only home he knows.  The crashing of the Martian saucer gives him a bit of hope.  If he can get photos or even capture a live Martian, he could get the money to save his home.  With the help of his dog, he sets up a booby trap to catch a Martian.

The invaders find a group of small humans being loaded into a car.  The trick-or-treaters include the sheriff’s daughter Kathy (Richards), who dressed as an Alien, and Brian, played by JJ Anderson, who is dressed as a duck.  Kathy and her father are new to Big Bean, and neither have quite integrated into town culture yet.  The Martians try to threaten the Earth scum, but Mrs. Vanderspool, the evening’s chauffeur played by Patrika Darbo, thinks the costumes are adorable and doesn’t recognize the weapon that she shoves up from Giggywig’s hands.  The weapon still discharges, into Giggywig instead.

The Cadillac that hit Bipto goes to the town mechanic.  The car’s owner, Klembecker, leaves the Cadillac behind and picks up his truck.  Vern, the mechanic, removes the roadkill from the Caddy’s front grille and gets to work repairing the vehicle.  Bipto recovers from his injuries, and takes Vern as prisoner.  The mechanic is turned into Verndroid, Bipto’s loyal servant, doing everything the Martian bids.

The deputy manages to track the speeding spaceship to the Wrenchmuller farm.  Still dazed, he falls back to basics and starts writing tickets – no headlights, no taillights, no license plate, no wheels, and going 2945mph over the speed limit.  Blaznee, well aware of the traps set out by Wrenchmuller, gets the deputy to step back to realize just what is happening and to set off one of the traps.  The deputy has a moment of clarity just before the bale of hay hits him.

Kathy, who may be the most on the ball person in Big Bean, finds Shortstuff and discovers that the three new kids in alien costumes are really Martians.  She covers for them, calling them her surfer cousins from California.  Giggywig is still dazed, but Ziplock and Pez get into the tasty ritual they’ve lucked into.  Kathy lets Brian in on the secret, that the new kids are invaders, so that she has some help keeping an eye on them.  Giggywig recovers, though, and threatens Mrs. Vanderspool again, this time launching a missile.  Rightfully upset, Mrs. Vanderspool kicks Giggywig, Ziplock, and Pez out of the car.  Kathy says she should go, too, and drags Brian with her.  Brian isn’t happy with this; he has to share any candy he gets with his younger sister and his bag is only half full.

Back on the ship, while Blaznee is making repairs, he hears the end of the “distress call”.  He gets a sinking feeling, one that gets worse when the Enforcer Drone mentions that there will be a mission review after they leave the planet.  Blaznee heads out, more to escape the Drone than anything else.

The townsfolk are starting to piece things together.  Wrenchmuller, with photos of the ship, speeds to town to tell people about the invasion.  The deputy recovers and heads to town as well.  The sheriff tries to keep the calm, but Giggywig makes his television debut.  Giggywig has found a target to attack to cow the townsfolk.  His first target, though, riles the locals; the new exit is destroyed.  The second target, though, lets the townies know exactly where he is.  Giggywig has Ziplock and Pez set up a heat ray to attack what he thinks is a missle silo.  The attack backfires, and Giggywig hits the emergency summons for the ship.

The rest of the Martians eventually realize that what they heard was fiction, there was no Martian attack on Earth, and that they messed up badly.  The ship’s hyperdrive malfunctions, requiring it to return to zero gravity before it implodes, making Big Bean some other universe’s problem.  The Enforce Drone decides that the crew needs to be subjected to disciplinary termination.  The sheriff listens to Kathy, and, after a call to Strategic Air Command that goes nowhere, becomes the voice of sanity and helps the Martians with their ship.  He realizes, with Kathy’s help, that they’re more a danger to themselves than to Big Bean.  To quote Kathy, “They’re not evil, just stupid.”  By the end, the Martians are back in space.  They had to dump everything to achieve orbit.  The last item dumped helped out Mr. Wrenchmuller, providing the fertilizer needed to give him a crop to sign over, saving his farm.

Spaced Invaders is a comedy at its heart, and doesn’t try to overreach.  The creators, though, did toss a few little details for flavour.  The opening credits have Gustav Holst’s Mars, the Bringer of War, from The Planets.  There are off-hand references to the TV series, My Favourite Martian, including Bipto’s line, “What in the name of my Uncle Martin…”  Giggywig marches out at the co-op like George C. Scott did in Patton.  The movie may not be in any great movie lists, but it is a fun watch.

As to The War of the Worlds, the radio play appears every so often, acting as counter-point and as punctuation to what is happening in the movie.  The movie takes the ideas in the radio play and twist them.  What if the Martians weren’t competent?  What if the human townsfolk weren’t cowed by Martian weapons?  What if the heat ray was used on a corn silo?  It’s not a faithful adaptation of the radio play or even of HG Wells’ original work, but Spaced Invaders uses those works to create its own fun story.

Next week, The Bionic Woman.

* With social media feeds like Twitter and Facebook, it’s best to find another source.  The general populace isn’t known for wise decision making.
** This still happens today.  When major news breaks, people tend to flip to their preferred news provider, be it television, online, or radio.  NBC experience this in 1983 while airing the TV movie, Special Bulletin.  The movie was set up as a news broadcast, though with fake network names, about a terrorist threat that involved a nuclear bomb.  Even with disclaimers, people were fooled into believing that the movie was a real news broadcast, thanks to the use of videotape and the actors adding verbal tics before speaking.

During a discussion with Steve, the question whether there is a cycle happening, one first started in the Fifties.  During the History of Adaptations, the Fifties were discovered to have a low number of original works, something that the Aughts shared.  The Fifties also had a number of movie remakes, something the New Teens is seeing.

With the movies remade in the Fifties, the new versions took advantage of the change in filming technology.  The Ten Commandments and Ben Hur: A Tale of Christ were both black and white silent films when they were released in the Twenties.  Their remakes in the Fifties took advantage of the major advances in movie making – sound and colour.  With both films being period pieces, nothing on screen needed to be changed beyond what was essential for the new technologies and grander scales available.  The spectacle of both epics were enough to draw in the younger audience while those who saw the originals could see them again with the new dimensions of full colour and sound.  Thirty years made a huge difference in the film industry.

Fast forward to now.  The entertainment news is filled with remakes.  Just from the older news posts for Lost in Translation, I get the following list:
Jem and the Holograms
The Equalizer
Ghostbusters
Predator
Indiana Jones
Blade Runner
Big Trouble in Little China

That doesn’t include films like 21 Jump Street, remaking a TV series, and all the Ninties movies being remade like Stargate.  Again, the difference is thirty years.  The advances in film technology aren’t as obvious,  though.  The use of computers for special effects has grown over time, but not all the works being remade will benefit from the advance outside the budget.  Cecil B. De Mille remade The Ten Commandments because of the sound and colour.  The movies listed above and the others are being done because of nostalgia.

It’s the thirty years that raised the question.  Thirty years is enough time for a young man to work through the system to get to the point where he can make decisions on what to film.  Thirty years ago was 1985, the middle of the decade with the most original popular works made.  The chart from last week may help here.

As pointed out last week, part of the issue with the complaints about adaptations is that the Eighties and Nineties, where the original works outnumber the adaptations, were anomalous.  Today, if someone wanted to watch a movie from the Eighties, it’s not difficult.  Between television reruns, home video and online streaming, chances are good that a movie from the Eighties is available.  In the Fifties, those options weren’t available.  Movies from Hollywood’s early years might make an appearance on television or appear at repertory cinemas, but the ease of finding them did not exist like it does today.

Is there a cycle restarting?  It’s hard to tell.  There isn’t enough data yet to make that call.  The chart above shows that the New Teens are behaving in a similar manner to the Sixties, but this decade is only half over.  A backlash against adaptations is building, but, again, the Eighties and Nineties were exceptions, not the norm, when it comes to original works.  It is something to keep an eye on, though.  If a cycle is repeating, noting the speed at which the elements appear helps work out how long a given segment will last.

 

The History of Adaptations
Twenties
Thirties
Forties
Fifties
Sixties
Seventies
Eighties
Nineties
Aughts
New Teens

Welcome to the history of adaptations.  I’ve been looking at the top movies of each decade, analyzing them to see which ones were original and which ones were adaptations, and of the adaptations, what the source material was.  I’m using the compiled list at Filmsite.org as a base.  With the New Teens completed up to now, it’s time to figure out what all this means.

First, though, my methodology.  I needed a start point, thus my use of the list at Filmsite.org.  The list provided me with a base to work from.  I chose the popular films, as according to box office, because the films should be memorable enough and have lasting impact on films even today.  Even Ingagi, released in 1930 and pulled when it was discovered that the found footage was found in other movies, still has ripples in the form of Gorilla Grodd, who has appeared in the current TV series, The Flash.  While box office takes reflect how much money a movie made at the theatres, it does ignore the effects of television airings and the sale and rental of home videos, both video tape and DVD/Blu-Ray.  Some classic films, including Casablanca and Psycho, gain an audience long after leaving theatres.  Popular films also may not be representative of the films released.  There aren’t many Westerns on the list, yet the genre was a staple for several decades.

Going through every film released, though, would be a huge undertaking.  The goal of the project was to discover whether movie adaptations were a recent approach or if it was something happening throughout the history of film.  The Filmsite.org list starts with 1915’s The Birth of a Nation.  One hundred years of film history to examine.  I needed a way to get a sample of what was released.  Again, the popular films may not be representative.  Statistically, I haven’t run the numbers.  In the more recent decades, studios have shown a tendency to follow the leader; if one studio has a breakthrough hit featuring an alien invasion/romantic comedy, every studio will make a similar film to get a piece of the action.  Whether that holds true for the earlier years of Hollywood remains to be researched.

Throughout the project, I broke down the films into original and adaptations, making note of where a film didn’t quite fit into either.  I placed sequels under original unless the sequel itself was based on another work.  Movies like Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King and The Hunger Games: Catching Fire are both sequels and adaptations, both being based on books in a series.  The categories aren’t perfect, though breaking the movies into finer categories would dilute the numbers to the point of uselessness.  The most films in one decade was 29, in 1915-1929 and 1930-1939.  The fewest, 13, came in 2000-2009, which was also the decade with the fewest original works on the Filmsite.org list.  The graph below shows the number of original movies versus the number of adaptations by decade.  On the left, in blue, is the number of original works.  The right, in orange, is the number of adaptations.

As the above shows, only two decades had the number of original movies outnumbering the adaptations.  With all the complaints about the number of adaptations, the Eighties and Nineties, still fresh in people’s minds, were the exception.  My expectation when I started was that the early years would have a large number of adaptations as scripts for stage were repurposed for film, but the Fifties showed otherwise.  The Fifties were the first decade to have a huge number of remakes, too.

If the Eighties and Nineties were the exception, then why the complaints?  The next few graphs might shed some light.  I chose three separate decades, the Early Years, the Fifties, and the Aughts, to show what sources were used for adaptations.

Novels and plays are the bulk of the adaptations.  Neither take over half, but the literary tradition is there.  The other three sources, poems, myths and legends, and the Bible, aren’t that much different.  The era is literary.

 

In the Fifties, novels and plays are major sources in adaptations, but other works are appearing.  The number of remakes equal the number of movies using plays as a source.  Myths and legends have a larger piece of the pie than in the Early Years.  Children’s literature is a new source, thanks to Disney, but poems are still being used.

With the Aughts, the literary sources drop.  Novels and plays combined equal the number of movies based on children’s literature.  Comic books are a bigger source.  The Aughts also had movies based on sources not seen in the previous decades – toy lines and theme park rides.

The Aughts may be showing why there is a complaint about the number of adaptations.  The source work is far better known today.  A movie based on one of Shakespeare’s plays passes the acceptance test.  A movie based on a line of action figures is being made because either the toy line is selling well or the toy company wants to sell more of the toys, and thus can irk people.  The same holds with using children’s literature and Young Adult works; there’s a feeling of catering to a younger audience that alienates older viewers.

Adaptations aren’t a new phenomenon.  They’ve been around since the beginning of the film industry and will be around until the industry collapses.  Film making is expensive.  Studios need to pull in an audience, and, if done well, adaptations of popular works will draw in the crowd.

 

The History of Adaptations
Twenties
Thirties
Forties
Fifties
Sixties
Seventies
Eighties
Nineties
Aughts

Welcome to the history of adaptations.  I’ve been looking at the top movies of each decade, analysing them to see which ones were original and which ones were adaptations, and of the adaptations, what the source material was.  I’m using the compiled list at Filmsite.org as a base.  Last time, the Aughts had fewer original movies than the Fifties, which had three, including the two Cinerama demo films.

The decade isn’t over yet, but the general trend has been for big budget adaptations based on comic books and Young Adult novels, or so it feels.  Does this feeling hold out when looking at the popular movies so far this decade?  Both Marvel and DC have a number of movies scheduled over the next few years, with Valiant getting in on the action.  Movies adapted from Young Adult novels soared with the later Harry Potter films and the Twilight adaptations.  Sustainability is in doubt, but the studios are making too much money to ignore the cash cow.

The top movies of the decade, by year, up to 2015:
2010
Toy Story 3 – sequel.  Pixar’s approach to storytelling means that they won’t create a sequel unless there is a proper story to be told.
Alice in Wonderland – adapted from the 1872 Lewis Carroll story, Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There.
Iron Man 2 – sequel of an adaptation and part of the lead up to Marvel’s The Avengers.

2011
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2 – both an adaptation and a sequel.  The movie covers the latter half of the last book of JK Rowling’s Harry Potter series.
Transformers: Dark of the Moon – sequel of an adaptation of the Hasbro toy line.

2012
Marvel’s The Avengers – adaptation of the Marvel superhero team.
The Dark Knight Rises – sequel of the adaptation, The Dark Knight.
The Hunger Games – adaptation of the novel, The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins.

2013
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire – sequel and adaptations of the second book in the Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins, Catching Fire.
Iron Man 3 – sequel of an adaptation.
Frozen – adaptation of the fairy tale, “The Snow Queen”, by Hans Christian Andersen.
Despicable Me 2 – sequel.  The first movie, Despicable Me was an original work.

2014
American Sniper – adaptation of American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most  Lethal Sniper in U.S. Military History by Chris Pyle
Guardians of the Galaxy – adaptation of the characters and team as seen in Marvel comics.

2015
Jurassic World – adaptation.  While intended as a sequel to the first three Jurassic Park movies, there are only two returning characters, including the island.
Avengers: Age of Ultron – sequel to the adaptations, Marvel’s The Avengers.
Inside Out – original but inspired by the daughter of the director
Furious 7 – sequel and part of the Fast and Furious franchise.

Of the eighteen movies listed above, four are original, including the sequels Toy Story 3, Despicable Me 2, and Furious 7.  There are nine adaptations, including both Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2 and The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, which are also sequels.  The remaining five films are sequels of earlier adaptations.  Naturally, the divisions weren’t easy to define.  Jurassic World could be seen as a sequel of the previous Jurassic Park movies.  I placed it as an adaptation because of how little it shared with the previous films.  While Universal Studios counts the film as part of the Jurassic Park franchise, Jurassic World only has one character returning, and he was a minor one in the original movie.  Thus, I’m placing Jurassic World into the adaptation category.

The source of the adaptations isn’t as diverse as the Aughts.  Six movies were adaptations of comic books.  Three were based on Young Adult novels.  One came from a Michael Crichton work.  Disney was the only studio to reach into the literature of the past for adaptations, using works by Lewis Carroll and Hans Christian Andersen.  While comics haven’t had this strong a showing in previous decades, they aren’t a new medium.  The Avengers #1 was published in 1963, bringing together characters from other titles, including Iron Man, who first appeared in Tales of Suspense #39 in 19591963*.  Jurassic Park, published in 1990, is more recent.

Along with the above breakdown, there were ten sequels in the popular list.  While Lost in Translation treats sequels as original works, continuing a story started in a previous film, the general movie audience may not agree with the assessment.  The number of sequels, adaptations, and the combination of the two leads to the complaints that there are fewer original works.  Yet, the Aughts had fewer popular original movies than this decade.

Next week, wrapping up the series.

* I misread the information at the link.  Iron Man’s debut was in 1963; Tales of Suspense started in 1959.

The History of Adaptations
Twenties
Thirties
Forties
Fifties
Sixties
Seventies
Eighties
Nineties

Welcome to the history of adaptations.  I’ve been looking at the top movies of each decade, analysing them to see which ones were original and which ones were adaptations, and of the adaptations, what the source material was.  I’m using the compiled list at Filmsite.org as a base.  Last time, the Nineties saw a slight slippage of the originality of the Eighties, but original works still outnumbered adaptations.

If the early days of AOL and the creation of the World Wide Web* allowed people to discuss films indepth, the normalization of the Internet meant that word of mouth could make or break a movie.  A movie featuring two hot actors – Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck, linked via tabloids as “Bennifer” – should have had a good opening weekend.  Instead, Gigli bombed at the box office as word of mouth sent warnings to avoid the film.  Gigli set a record in 2003 for the biggest drop between opening and second weekend box office totals.**

I used “Weird Al” Yankovic as a barometer of popularity in the Eighties and Nineties.  In the Aughts, he only had one song, “Ode to a Superhero“, released on the first album after Spider-Man hit theatres.  His focus turned to the Internet, where popular memes now start.  That change of focus is emblematic of how far into daily lives the Internet has become.  Movies aren’t the trendsetters as they were in early days of Technicolor.

The top movies of the decade, by year:
2000
How the Grinch Stole Christmas – live-action adaptation of the Christmas story by Dr. Seuss.

2001
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone – adaptation of the popular children’s novel by JK Rowling.  Harry Potter was a huge phenomenon, with people lining up outside bookstores when the new installments were released, something seen in the past for concert tickets for the biggest of the big name rock stars and with geek-friendly movies.

2002
Spider-Man – adaptation of the Marvel character seen in Spectacular Spider-Man and The Amazing Spider-Man.

2003
Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King – adaptation of the third book of JRR Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, The Return of the King.  Also counts as a sequel.

2004
Shrek 2 – sequel of an adaptation.  The first Shrek movies was based on the 1990 children’s book, Shrek!, by William Steig.
Spider-Man 2 – sequel to the 2002 adaptation, Spider-Man, above.
The Passion of the Christ – Mel Gibson’s controversial Biblical adaptation of the last days of Christ.

2005
Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith – the last of the Star Wars prequel movies.

2006
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest – adapted from the Disneyland ride, “Pirates of the Caribbean”.

2007
Spider-Man 3 – like Spider-Man 2, a sequel of an adaptation.

2008
The Dark Knight – adaptation of the DC Comics character, Batman, as seen in a number of titles, including Legends of the Dark Knight and Detective Comics

2009
Avatar – original.  James Cameron created an immersive world using 3D filming techniques, reviving the film process.
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen – sequel of an adaptation of the Hasbro toy line, Transformers.

That makes a grand total of one original movie, Avatar.  Of the remain films, there were six adaptations, five sequels to adaptations, and one movie, Return of the King, that counts as both sequel and adaptation.  The obvious question, “What is the difference between a “sequel of an adaptation” and “a sequel and an adaptation”?  The answer – source material.  Return of the King was still based on an existing work, in this case, Tolkien’s novel.  The movie relied heavily on the original work, which itself was a continuation of a story started in a previous novel.  With the Spider-Man sequels and Shrek 2, the movies built on the previous movie but wasn’t necessarily based on the original work.  The distinction is academic, but it does exist and will come up again.

The sources of the adaptations is another difference from previous decades.  Literature and plays were the prime sources up to the Eighties.  In the Aughts, three movies were based on children’s literature, with only one being animated.  In the past, it was typically an animated Disney film that covered children’s books.  Four movies were based on comic book characters, though three of those films featured Spider-Man.  The Bible returned as a source, the first time since 1966’s The Bible: In the Beginning.  Rounding out the literary sources is The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien’s fantasy epic.

What makes the Aughts unique is the use of unusual original sources, a toy line and a park ride.  In the Eighties, Hasbro took advantage of a relaxing in regulations governing children’s programming, allowing them to work with Marvel and Sunbow to produce cartoons for several lines of toys, including Transformers, G.I. Joe, and Jem and the Holograms.  Of those three mentioned, Transformers kept returning to television in one form or another, with little continuity between series***.  With the animated series being a near constant, a live-action movie version wasn’t a surprise.  The park ride, on the other hand, is Disney leveraging one of their existing properties in another field.  The Pirates of the Caribbean wasn’t the only ride turned into a feature film.  The Country Bears, The Haunted Mansion, and the recent Tomorrowland all began as Disney rides.

With just one more decade to go, it’s easy to see where complaints about Hollywood’s lack of originality comes from.  After two decades where original works were in the majority, even taking into account sequels, the sudden turn around back to the level last seen in the Fifties makes the Aughts seem abnormal.  As seen in this series, The Aughts and, as shall be seen, the New Teens arent’t unusual.  The Eighties and Nineties were the exceptions, but since they are within recent collective memory while the earlier years are outside the pop consciousness, it’s difficult to realize how unique those decades are in the history of film.  The Aughts also pull from sources not previously used as extensively.  Prior to the Eighties, only animated films meant for children used children’s novels as a source.  The Harry Potter phenomenon changed how people see children’s literature and opened the doors for movies based on Young Adult novels.

* Best cat photo distribution method ever created.
** The record has since been broken, first in 2005 by Undiscovered and then in 2007 by Slow Burn.
*** I’m simplifying this a lot.  Transformers continuity is flexible and depends on the writer.  Oddly, Beast Wars/Beasties is in continuity with the original Transformers cartoon despite the differences in time and in animation styles.

NBC has announced a remake of the Eighties series, Hart to Hart, with a twist. The original, airing from 1979 to 1984, starred Robert Wagner and Stefanie Powers as Jonathan and Jennifer Hart, a rich married couple whose hobby was fighting crime. Lionel Stander co-starred as the Harts’ butler and chauffeur. The twist? The new Hart to Hart will be a gay couple, Jonathan Hart and Dan Hartman*, a by-the-book attorney and a free-wheeling journalist, who fight crime.

With just the announcement, there’s some notable differences already. First, the new series has crime fighting part of the couple’s day job. In the original, as I mentioned, it was more a hobby or a side effect of their careers and wealth. The original Harts were independently wealthy, letting them go to wherever needed because they owned their own jet. Hart and Hartman may not have the mobility, but they will have more exposure to local crimes because of their jobs. Second, the wealth factor. Jonathan and Jennifer were rich. Jonathan and Dan should be comfortable enough to purchase or at least expense items, but unless either come from a wealthy family, there’s no butler. For the third difference, the obvious elephant in the room, Hart and Hartman are gay. Really, that shouldn’t be a problem, but with Kim Davis in the news the past few weeks, count on people complaining that there are gays on their TV.

The question, though, is why remake Hart to Hart instead of creating a new series?

Pros
Name recognition. Hart to Hart still rings a bell for the older audience and has a good ring to it. The name should pull in viewers who are curious.

Age. The last first-run episode aired over thirty years ago. The series is old enough and and has been off the air long enough that intimate familiarity is lacking. Hart to Hart also doesn’t have the same level of syndication as any of the Star Trek series. This lack of familiarity will let writers focus on the new characters without necessarily causing moments of, “But that’s not what Jonathan would do!”

What a twist! With same-sex marriage a huge topic over the past few years, coupled with the US Supreme Court overturning state level bans against those marriages, the series gains a new level of freshness. The younger audience, the people who poll very favourable to same-sex marriage, will appreciate the approach.

Cons
In name only. There are a number of key changes to the premise, as mentioned above. Changing the couple from opposite- to same-sex isn’t a problem, removing the wealth and thus one of TV’s better supporting role is. Again, if one of the pair is wealthy, the butler can remain, but nothing in the article mentioned anything about wealth. There is also nothing said about whether Hart and Hartman are married, though I have thoughts to share below about that.

It’s not its own work. This is the flip side of name recognition, above. The series can become a mainstream hit, showing a couple working together, living together, fighting crime, with the only difference being that they’re both men. But it’ll be known as a remake. Shouldn’t a ground breaking show be its own thing?

A few things I’d do with the show, which may or may not be planned already include working in the marriage and making sure the characters feel real instead of stereotypes. With the marriage, have it as a subplot through the first season. Hart and Hartman keep trying to get the wedding planned, but they keep getting sidetracked by investigations. Jonathan and Jennifer were an established married couple, having a few years of wedded bliss behind them; Jonathan and Dan don’t have that luxury because of legalities**. Given my druthers, I’d change Jonathan Hart to John Soul and change the title to Hartman & Soul, but I don’t work for a network.

If the show is successful, this could open up some older series to be remade with gay couples. Picture Simon & Simon*** remade, with the brothers turned into a gay couple who are private investigators; or McMillan and Wife as a lesbian couple, one being the commissioner of the San Francisco Police Department.

Jokes aside, I do hope the series does well, assuming it makes it to air. Quality work needs to be encouraged.
* Er, so shound’t the series really be called Hart to Hartman?
** Depending on the state. Set the series in California, and they could have been married since 2008.
*** If the Internet was around like today when Simon & Simon aired, the amount of Simcest fanfics would overwhelm the Supernatural Wincest fics.