Carol Goodson wrote: >On Fri, 13 Oct 1995, lang thompson wrote: > >> My question, though, is why >> bother to adapt a book--especially a familiar one--if you're going to >> alter it so radically? > > >***because it's cheaper than paying a writer to come up with a wholly new >work. Books which are in the public domain are fair game...it probably >costs relatively little to get a writer to just adapt the story a bit. > > And, a successful novel is already 'tested' on the audience - the story in= =20 itself has proved to be appreciated, and one possible reason of box office= =20 failiure is thus eliminated. I guess this is the main reason for all the re= cent=20 adaptions of comic books. BTW, I doubt that it's cheaper to buy the rights = to=20 Crichton's novels than getting a completely original script...:-) /ulf ---- To signoff SCREEN-L, e-mail [log in to unmask] and put SIGNOFF SCREEN-L in the message. Problems? Contact [log in to unmask]