Picture the scene: an American writer in her mid 30s has just published her first novel and it causes a sensation, first across America then, the world. A love triangle featuring a young woman whose life is turned upside down and the men between whom she must choose. Just three short years later Tinseltown is already turning it into a multi-million dollar project. Every casting decision is scrutinised in the press and fans are outraged that the role of their all-american protagonist should have gone to a Brit! And in case an image of a sparkling R-Pattz is forming in your head, cast your mind back about another 70 years to David O Selznick’s Gone With the Wind.

The old Hollywood producers cottoned on pretty quickly that they would need a stockpile of fodder for their cinematic cannons and lucky for them they had more than a couple of millennia-worth of literature to mine. Unlucky for the audience, not every adaptation was of quite the same calibre: in 1940 Lawrence Olivier appeared in both Rebecca and Pride & Prejudice, only one of which still holds up today (and it doesn’t feature a farcical carriage race to Netherfield).

New cinematic movements and “auteurs” may encourage original story-telling or experimental techniques over linear narratives, but they won’t replace the audience love of seeing favourite characters “brought to life”. Transpose Scarlett, Rhett and Ashley to Harry, Ron and Hermione, Edward, Bella and Jacob or Katniss and her two chaps and you’ll see that nothing much changes. In the age where “content is king” Hollywood’s obsession with adaptations shows no signs of waning.

So what is it that makes a good adaptation? How is it that some movies manage to stand on their own two feet whilst others are content merely riding a wave of pre-existing hype (ahem… Fifty Shades)? While the answer to these questions is largely down to individual preference, and personal attachment to the source material, we will be bringing you a few of the things which we look for when turning page to screen.

Page to Screen : Part 1 – The Film Must Stand Alone