When you are a screenwriter, it is sometimes difficult to find the idea that will make a good movie or a good series. This is why many are turning to literature, a genre of which we can currently see on American television a large number of adaptations, more or less faithful elsewhere… Here is for you a TOP 10 adaptations of recent years!
Game of Thrones
Certainly the best known adaptation and one of the most followed at the moment. Fans are eagerly awaiting the seventh season scheduled for summer 2017. But it is basically a series of fantasy novels by Georges R.A. Martin, still in the process of being published. Five volumes have been released since 1996, the sixth being delayed for almost six years! We could only advise you to immerse yourself in reading these books, to make a passage back to Westeros as well as the North of the Wall, and to complete your knowledge of the Kingdom of the Seven Kingdoms…
Zoo (Zoo)
Broadcast since the summer of 2015 on CBS, the Zoo series is based on a novel by James Patterson, published in 2012, American author of many thriller and detective novels. The series is not very faithful to the book (characters in addition, liberties taken as to the scenario, etc.) But it works quite well and is renewed for a third season scheduled for 2017.
Red Dragon (Hannibal)
A book by Thomas Harris published in 1981, Dragon Rouge has already had the honors of American cinema. A literary success, it depicts the quest of FBI agent Will Graham, in pursuit of the most cannibalistic of murderers. It is on this novel that the third season of the series Hannibal (2013-2015) is based, where Mads Mikkelsen plays a Hannibal Lecter more chilling than life.
The Vampire Diaries
Series of fantastic books for young people written by L.J. Smith since 1991, Diary of a Vampire can boast of being the book that inspired one of the CW's most popular series. Indeed, its adaptation, The Vampire Diaries has been the heyday of the channel since 2009, despite a rather different content of the book in the treatment of the characters … The eighth season is scheduled for October 21, 2016.
Pretty Little Liars
Liars, a series of 16 novels written by Sara Shepard (publication is not finished) gave rise to this series that follows the adventures of five teenage girls, between friendship, disappearance and quarrels. Broadcast on the Freeform network (new name of the ABC Family channel), the second part of the seventh and final season of Pretty Little Liars should arrive in April 2017.
That dear Dexter (Dexter)
A 2004 crime novel by Jeff Lindsay, the novel This Dear Dexter is the equivalent of the first season of the Showtime series, broadcast for 8 seasons between 2006 and 2013. Six more books will follow, but the TV series is very different in the treatment of plots and characters. There is only the character of Dexter that we find similar, this dear scientific expert and his alter ego serial killer …
Temperance Brennan (Bones)
18 pounds. This is the number of works contained in the literary series of Kathy Reichs, forensic anthropologist. It was enough to make a television series broadcast on FOX since 2005. We passionately follow the investigations of Temperance Brennan, herself a forensic anthropologist, in partnership with the FBI. Little extra? The character of these books, who shares the same profession, is also a writer, and his favorite character is called… Kathy Reichs!
The 100
Same title, identical basic plot but different content! If you read Kass Morgan's books, published in three volumes available since 2013, in parallel with the series, do not expect to find all the characters and all the plots of the series. A good complement for fans of the series broadcast on CW, whose fourth season is currently being filmed. If you're hesitating to get started, check out our comparison article of the books and the series !
Colorado Kid (Haven)
A very short novel of 157 pages published in 2005, written by Mr. Stephen King, Colorado Kid gave rise to the series Haven broadcast in five seasons from 2010 to 2015 on SyFy. Do not look for any resemblance, you will be disappointed. The initial idea is the same but where the book is content to narrate the mystery around the death of a young man in a town in Maine, the series plunges us into a completely fantastic universe!
The Southern Community (True Blood)
Charlaine Harris has written 13 volumes of this literary series, which began publication in 2001. Alan Ball drew seven seasons of the series True Blood, where we follow the adventures of the young Sookie in a world where synthetic blood has been created and where vampires are no longer necessarily killer creatures, all taking place in Louisiana, where the heat and wetness stick to your skin …
Of course, this list goes on and on, since the series Orange is the New Black, Outlander, House of Cards, Younger and many others have also been inspired by books. Enough to give you reading by the fireplace this winter!
