Literature and pop culture

There have been some pretty big hit series in novels lately. They've become so big, in fact, that many scriptwriters and film-makers have forgone new and original movie scripts for the stability of turning best-selling books into movies. To list a few books: the Harry Potter series, Lord of the Rings series, Percy Jackson Lightening Thief, Nicolas Sparks novels, The Lovely Bones, Eragon, Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole (in theaters Sept. 24th!), Ramona & Beezus, The American, The Girl Who Played With Fire, The Blind Side, etc..

Many comics have also been made for the big screen: Batman/Dark Knight, Hellboy, Iron Man, Sin City, Spider Man, Men in Black, The Incredible Hulk, Wanted, Fantastic Four, Transformers, Alien vs. Predator, Catwoman, Daredevil, Superman, X-Men, etc. The list goes on and on and on. There's been quite a few TV shows as well, but those generally aren't as popular, or simply the popular comics are made into movies instead of live action TV shows.
Here are more comics-turned-movies coming out in the next 2 years: The Green Lantern (summer 2011), Men in Black III (2012), X-Men: Firstclass (2011), Thor (2011).

[*If you'll notice, the majority of these movies, books & comics are supernatural, paranormal or fantasy in theme. Wonder why that is? Stay tuned for tomorrow's blog!]

 3 new films that will soon join the ranks is Stephen King's magnum opus, the Dark Tower series! I have mixed feelings about this, though I'm mostly happy. I'm glad these are being made into movies because Stephen King's books are awesome, most especially this series. And all seven novels will be made into 3 movies and 1 TV series (neato!). On the other hand, I'm a chicken and never watch scary movies. Period. Though I'll probably make an exception for these ones. And then, there's also the worry that the people making the movie will royally mess it up.

Besides J.K.Rowling, who had a very active role in the creation of the Harry Potter movies, most authors do not or cannot have anywhere near as much say-so. And I've seen some really messed up movies. Take, for instance, my favorite childhood book is Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine. *minor rant warning* This is a Newberry Award winning novel that was completely gutted and destroyed as a film (for which I still cannot like Anne Hathaway). The scriptwriters & film-makers changed the entire plot, removed major characters, added in a main character that never existed in the book, completely changed the personality of some of the main characters--it was a mess! On top of that, they changed some characters' personalities and completely altered the physical description of the elves from tall, slender, peace-loving, green-skinned vegetarians to Keebler elf look-alikes!

I will say that there are a few occasions when the movie comes out really good, maybe even better than the books. I thought Stardust by Neil Gaiman came out really good in film. There was a bit added to the movie, but those parts were really funny and only made it better than before. I mean, who doesn't love cross-dressing pirates? hahaha

And I'll end it there for now. Good to get this outta my system.
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Aha! I flatter myself that I was clever enough to split a very long blog post into 3 separate, marginally smaller entries. =) Yay!
... Kinda scary to think how long it would have been otherwise.  


P.S. I didn't touch the whole Twilight stuff because that will come up in next week's blogging.