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I’m writing a character that is the equivalent of the stereotypical Hollywood executive that doesn’t respect art or storytelling and only sees $$$. I’m brainstorming for ideas of dastardly things my character can do to the stories by the poor writers under his thumb, so I’ve thought to ask here:
If a film/TV show adaptation was made for your novel, what changes do you think the stereotypical Hollywood executive would make that you’ll hate? E.g. casting attractive actors for unattractive characters, inserting an unnecessary romance…
@valtmy Change all the races of my characters for the sake of diversity (though idk why they would my MC is Asian), adding a love triangle (or three), change the ending (by making it happy isntead of vague and tragic and open), and adding a lot more daddy issues than I originally intended there to be.
Lately, it's been on my brain
Would you mind letting me know
If hours don't turn into daysWIP HofE: make the parents super strict and awful; make the MC very rebellious; diversify the main and side characters and definitely have a romance/love triangle between some of the six main SCs, and a love triangle between the MC, her love, and one of the other six SCs; include more dragons and make then nastier; possibly mess up the villains; maybe cut out the minstrel and MC’s biological father; and they would completely cut out or misinterpret the religion in it.
WIP FP, WS: diversify the cast (ofc, but unnecessarily); cast someone too handsome for the MC; make his best friend his girlfriend; screw up the entire origin story of the FPS and WSs; also, mess up the languages and writing systems; make his female student an total Hollywood strong female character and her brother the typical Hollywood wimpy man; mess up the whole reason of why the antagonist does what he does.
"[Write] today like there's no tomorrow!"
I already planned that if Hollywood asks to make my book into a movie I’d refuse. 😀 lol The problem is, I’m pretty sure it would both mess up the plot and introduce a plethora of things I wouldn’t be comfortable letting young readers see. (There’s some violence in my book, but on the whole it should be kid friendly).
So, they’d definitely diversify the cast because it’s mostly male right now (while adding more female characters isn’t bad, it completely changes the dynamic of the cast, opening up for romance which isn’t one of my side plots)
Definitely cut down side plots and side characters (that’s not a bad thing :D)
Cut out the philosophy sections entirely (it’s one of the main points of the book, but I don’t think Hollywood would want to spend slower scenes proving the existence of God)
Change the story question(s) and make the book entirely different
Ugh. Talk about the author’s/reader’s nightmare. I avoid watching any movies based off books I love – even if the author helped direct it! XD
For my first series, they would definitely make up some love interest characters, maybe even change one of my character’s backstory from having lost a sister to having lost a, well not a sister. Considering the MCs’ situation concerning parents, they’d probably make their adoptive parents either overbearing or weak, and make their first parents (who died years ago) be perfect. Then, considering that one of my MCs actually ends up following in his first father’s footsteps, they’d probably make this out to be rebellious (which it isn’t at all).
And yeah, war is ugly, and it’s very different to put in on screen than to read it in a cleanly written book.
Plus, my characters would certainly be cast wrong, the second MC, the main Mc’s sister would probably be a feminist (which would devastate her as a character), and their clothing would probably not be right. They’d also cut out the Lord Our Shepherd and all the other God oriented themes.
The whole thing would end up with a suspicious theme that contradicts the books
As for the second…
Undoubtedly they would make a love triangle between the first three MCs, which I am specifically avoiding in the book. Especially since there is a natural romance between two of the characters that has them getting married partway through. Yeah, I’d hate to see what they’d do with that.
They would develop ulcers over the allegory and probably mutilate it. All the symbolism would be only half done, and that that survived would be warped. It would get weird.
Did I say I’d hate to what they did to the romance possibilities? Well, I’d also be horrified by how they would cast the King, who being God, is practically never really seen. Oh, it would be bad. Very bad.
They might ignore the little details about hair length and modesty, and thus end up ruining one of the supporting illustrations and defying logic. Oh, I’m sure the costumes would be great for both series… Just not to the books.
Once more, the characters wouldn’t look right. They’d also either overdo the violence or under do it. (Most likely the first.)
You have listened to fears, child. Come, let me breathe on you... Are you brave again? -Aslan
At first I thought,”Romance, over described battles, messed up characters…”
Then I remembered my book’s cultures.
The first books MCs’ father would be shown as a bloodthirsty military captian, their mother a brutal taskmaster. The fact that this kingdom has a female home-guard would immediately warp into some feminist program. In fact, looking at what country this kingdom is based off of…It would get ugly fast.
One MC would be a villian, the other a rebellious radical. The side kingdoms would be heroes, or they would glory in their fallen morals. The violence would be enough to give PTSD, and all my beautiful Slavic accents would be heaped on the villains and make the ‘good guys’ sound American (not an accent in my book).
The prison camp would take up half the movie. or maybe they’d dump Zlatan completely and destroy my clear anti-rebellion themes with Vulkasin.
They’d leave out God, or make the Creator into some weird…something, thus destroying the remaining truth in this book!
Wait. How would they portray the fact my characters aren’t human? Either animal suits or animation.
And that’s just the first book!
I would be ready to strangle whoever stole my rights to MY books if I didn’t believe murder wrong.
First Grand Historian of Arreth and the Lesser Realms (aka Kitty)
Fork the Gork@devastate-lasting @emilysf @augustinaii @elishavet-pidyon @koshka
Thanks for the inputs! 😀
@valtmy Even though 99% of what I write is fanfiction anyway, I would not want the film industry to adapt any of my stories without me in charge. They’d probably make all my fantasy stuff weird and dark. I would love seeing my Rexy picture books as a kids’ TV miniseries, but I’d probably create it and direct it and everything. I would NOT leave it up to directors and actors who do not really care about kids with special needs or the truth about diversity and just see another dinosaur movie/show with the main character having a weirdo lisp (or go and stick un-Christian cultural problems in it).
"When in doubt, eat cheese crackers."-me to my charries who don't even know about cheese crackers
Things unchristian directors could do with my book … oh help.
They’d probably try to make out this beautiful, really close, boy-boy brother-like friendship I have into something else … if you know what I mean. And they’d probably cause conflict between that and another friendship/frenemyship one of the boys has with another main boy character. Which would be wrong on all levels.
And they’d definitely try to make my girl characters a bigger part of the story … which would kinda ruin multiple parts of it. I have girl characters, but my boys are my mains.
They’d cast my noble bodyguard with an American accent. That’s just wrong. He has a regal British accent, and there is no dispute about this. I have nothing against American accents, btw😃, I just know that this particular character has a much more British-like accent.😅
They’d make a character I have been desperately trying to not make a feminist into a feminist.
They’d make bad things happen in this really pure romance I have between two characters.
They would make one of my main protagonists have a bad relationship with his father when he actually doesn’t have a bad relationship with his father at all.
They’d put so much swearing and violence into it that it wasn’t for the age range I intended if for anymore. 10-14.
That’s all I can think of for now … I do know I would love to see my story as an anime someday, but I think I’d have to be the one directing it or else …😬. Or at the very least I’d need to work with a group of Christians who understood my vision for the story.
The end of a story, a beautiful picture; a feeling of longing yet hope~
That’s my wish to create.
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