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Fantasy Authors Fight For More Creative Control
The Battle for Adaptations // Image by Kait Cunniff with DALL-E
Best-selling authors like George R.R. Martin and Brandon Sanderson are increasingly taking their gripes with adaptations of their work public — potentially sabotaging major IP investments.
The Big Picture: Authors have always had complicated feelings about movies and shows based on their books, especially when they stray from the source material. But aside from a few infamous examples, authors mostly kept quiet to avoid spoiling the experience for audiences. Those days seem to be long gone… even when they’re still technically part of the project.
Behind The Scenes: The book-to-screen pipeline is getting sabotaged.
Brandon Sanderson has criticized Amazon’s The Wheel of Time, saying his input was “largely ignored.”
Andrzej Sapkowski said he “cannot praise” Netflix’s The Witcher because the show’s creators “never listened to me.” (The criticism may have even contributed to star Henry Cavill’s departure.)
George R.R. Martin reportedly had a falling out with House of the Dragon co-showrunner Ryan Condal after he “stopped listening to me.” (Martin does love the new A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, though.)
Final Adaptation: Queensland University of Technology professor and digital trends scholar Amanda D. Lotz told THR that the phenomenon is heating up because social media has changed the game. Authors now have a direct relationship with their audience, and stan culture makes serving the most passionate fans paramount. And with streaming series offering more room to breathe and explore subplots, authors believe there’s finally enough space to adapt stories without compromise.
That creates a perfect storm in which authors, comic-book creators, and video game designers feel empowered to share their unfiltered opinions and demand a greater role in how their works are adapted across mediums.
Coming Soon: Get ready for top authors to start contractually demanding creative control over how their works are adapted… which could flip the power dynamic in Hollywood development.
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Today’s email was written by David Vendrell.
Edited by Nick Comney. Polled and Copy-edited by Kait Cunniff.
Published by Darline Salazar.