From Bestseller to the Big Screen: the Acquisition and Development of Popular Novels in Classical Hollywood

Download or read book From Bestseller to the Big Screen: the Acquisition and Development of Popular Novels in Classical Hollywood written by Erica Moulton and published by . This book was released on 2023 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This dissertation examines how adaptation became an organizing logic within the film and publishing industries during the height of the Hollywood studio system. The author traces the evolution of adaptation as a historical phenomenon by focusing on the path that many bestselling novels took from the page to the screen, and the variety of creative agents who were involved in this cross-industry practice. Following the recent call in the field of adaptation studies to integrate textual and contextual approaches, this dissertation is divided into two parts. The first two chapters address the industrial circumstances surrounding bestseller adaptation, with the first chapter exploring changes within the publishing industry and the second chapter cataloguing the ways that adaptation structured studio hierarchies and operations. The latter three chapters examine bestseller adaptations across three broad categories that fit within fiction and film trends of the time-historical epics, romantic melodramas, and humanist dramas. Through close readings of trade press and primary documents, including script drafts, motion picture rights contracts, and studio correspondence, the author argues that adaptation in the studio era created a dynamic of mutual influence between the two industries. Book publishers embraced a growing commercialism within their industry and looked to Hollywood for innovative marketing tactics while film studios that sought secure production investments for their A features turned to the bestseller lists. The author argues that many of the novels elevated to the bestseller lists possessed certain qualities that appealed to studio management, especially the story editors who were responsible for identifying and securing these titles. In Chapter 3, the author unpacks how adaptations of historical bestsellers played an integral role in A feature production, supplying the epic scope and visual spectacle needed for a screenwriter to construct the framework for a Hollywood historical epic. The fourth chapter examines how novels centered around female characters were developed to serve as star vehicles, especially for a cycle of women's films at Warner Bros. starring Bette Davis. Chapter 5 looks at the role of censorship in the adaptations of humanist dramas, in particular those that would become headline-grabbing social problem films.