Novelization
Encyclopedia
A novelization is a novel
that is written based on some other media story form rather than as an original work.
Novelizations of film
s usually add background material not found in the original work to flesh out the story, because novels are generally longer than screenplay
s. Similarly, material from the screenplay or filmed scenes that are cut from the final production may still be present in a novelization, often because the novel is completed for publication while the film is still being edited for release. The practice was particularly popular for successful films and television series before the advent of home video
, which gave people the ability to record programs or buy commercial releases for repeated viewing.
or short story
a novelization is often commissioned to fill the marketing niche. Novelizations have been published since at least the 1920s; for example, the 1928 film The Fleet's In! starring Clara Bow
was novelized by Russell Holman. L. Frank Baum
's Tik-Tok of Oz
(1914) and The Scarecrow of Oz
(1915) might be deemed novelizations, as they are based on the musical play The Tik-Tok Man of Oz
(1913) and the feature film, His Majesty, the Scarecrow of Oz (1915), respectively, which were adaptations of earlier Oz books, Ozma of Oz
(1907) and The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
(1900), respectively.
There is also a smaller market associated with novelizations of television; the television series Star Trek
, for instance, was adapted by James Blish
into a set of short stories which were bundled to create saleable books. The practice was repeated by Alan Dean Foster
with the Trek animated series to create the Star Trek Log series.
form, essentially an illustrated novelization. The art in a comics adaptation can vary from original perspectives to directly copying still scenes from the film, though issues of actors' personality rights
may prevent exact likeness of film characters. The majority of Marvel Comics
' Super Special
series featured film adaptations; DC Comics
customarily prints adaptations as stand-alone, one-shot issues. Sometimes a comic book adaptation can lead to an ongoing licensed series by the same publisher; examples of these include Marvel's Star Wars
series based on the original trilogy and DC's various series based on the first six Star Trek
films, both of which featured stories set during the "gaps" between the films.
s in between novelizations. The novels Halo: The Fall of Reach
and Halo: First Strike
, which serve as prequel
s and sequels to the video game Halo: Combat Evolved
, were written before and after the novelization of the game. Author Greg Cox wrote the original novel Underworld: Blood Enemy after writing the novelization of Underworld and before writing the novelization of the sequel film Underworld: Evolution
. Also, while novelizing the Resident Evil
video games, author S. D. Perry
wrote original novels that took place between the novelizations. With the rise in recent years of films based on comic book properties, the publishers of the adapted properties have also started producing prequel comics as supplemental material, set in the canon
of the films rather than that of the source material.
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
that is written based on some other media story form rather than as an original work.
Novelizations of film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
s usually add background material not found in the original work to flesh out the story, because novels are generally longer than screenplay
Screenplay
A screenplay or script is a written work that is made especially for a film or television program. Screenplays can be original works or adaptations from existing pieces of writing. In them, the movement, actions, expression, and dialogues of the characters are also narrated...
s. Similarly, material from the screenplay or filmed scenes that are cut from the final production may still be present in a novelization, often because the novel is completed for publication while the film is still being edited for release. The practice was particularly popular for successful films and television series before the advent of home video
Home video
Home video is a blanket term used for pre-recorded media that is either sold or rented/hired for home cinema entertainment. The term originates from the VHS/Betamax era but has carried over into current optical disc formats like DVD and Blu-ray Disc and, to a lesser extent, into methods of digital...
, which gave people the ability to record programs or buy commercial releases for repeated viewing.
Novels
A novel as a tie-in to any successful major film release is considered an important marketing strategy. If a film is based on a novel, the novel is generally reissued with a cover based on the film's poster (sometimes with pictures from the film included) but if it is an original screenplay or based on a novellaNovella
A novella is a written, fictional, prose narrative usually longer than a novelette but shorter than a novel. The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Nebula Awards for science fiction define the novella as having a word count between 17,500 and 40,000...
or short story
Short story
A short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels. Short story definitions based on length differ somewhat, even among professional writers, in part because...
a novelization is often commissioned to fill the marketing niche. Novelizations have been published since at least the 1920s; for example, the 1928 film The Fleet's In! starring Clara Bow
Clara Bow
Clara Gordon Bow was an American actress who rose to stardom in the silent film era of the 1920s. It was her appearance as a spunky shopgirl in the film It that brought her global fame and the nickname "The It Girl." Bow came to personify the roaring twenties and is described as its leading sex...
was novelized by Russell Holman. L. Frank Baum
L. Frank Baum
Lyman Frank Baum was an American author of children's books, best known for writing The Wonderful Wizard of Oz...
's Tik-Tok of Oz
Tik-Tok of Oz
Tik-Tok of Oz is the eighth Land of Oz book written by L. Frank Baum, published on June 19, 1914. The book actually has little to do with Tik-Tok and is primarily the quest of the Shaggy Man to rescue his brother, and his resulting conflict with the Nome King.The endpapers of the first edition...
(1914) and The Scarecrow of Oz
The Scarecrow of Oz
The Scarecrow of Oz is the ninth book set in the Land of Oz written by L. Frank Baum. Published on July 16, 1915, it was Baum's personal favorite of the Oz books and tells of Cap'n Bill and Trot journeying to Oz and, with the help of the Scarecrow, overthrowing the cruel King Krewl of Jinxland...
(1915) might be deemed novelizations, as they are based on the musical play The Tik-Tok Man of Oz
The Tik-Tok Man of Oz
The Tik-Tok Man of Oz is a musical play with book and lyrics by L. Frank Baum and music by Louis F. Gottschalk that opened in Los Angeles, California on March 31, 1913. It is loosely inspired by Baum's book, Ozma of Oz , and the basis for his 1914 novel, Tik-Tok of Oz. It was promoted as "A...
(1913) and the feature film, His Majesty, the Scarecrow of Oz (1915), respectively, which were adaptations of earlier Oz books, Ozma of Oz
Ozma of Oz
Ozma of Oz: A Record of Her Adventures with Dorothy Gale of Kansas, the Yellow Hen, the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman, Tiktok, the Cowardly Lion and the Hungry Tiger; Besides Other Good People too Numerous to Mention Faithfully Recorded Herein published on July 30, 1907, was the third book of L....
(1907) and The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is a children's novel written by L. Frank Baum and illustrated by W. W. Denslow. Originally published by the George M. Hill Company in Chicago on May 17, 1900, it has since been reprinted numerous times, most often under the name The Wizard of Oz, which is the name of...
(1900), respectively.
There is also a smaller market associated with novelizations of television; the television series Star Trek
Star Trek
Star Trek is an American science fiction entertainment franchise created by Gene Roddenberry. The core of Star Trek is its six television series: The Original Series, The Animated Series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise...
, for instance, was adapted by James Blish
James Blish
James Benjamin Blish was an American author of fantasy and science fiction. Blish also wrote literary criticism of science fiction using the pen-name William Atheling, Jr.-Biography:...
into a set of short stories which were bundled to create saleable books. The practice was repeated by Alan Dean Foster
Alan Dean Foster
Alan Dean Foster is an American author of fantasy and science fiction. He currently resides in Prescott, Arizona, with his wife, and is also known for his novelizations of film scripts...
with the Trek animated series to create the Star Trek Log series.
Comics
A similar practice is an adaptation of a film in comic bookComic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
form, essentially an illustrated novelization. The art in a comics adaptation can vary from original perspectives to directly copying still scenes from the film, though issues of actors' personality rights
Personality rights
"Personality rights" is a common or casual reference to the proper term of art "Right of Publicity". The Right of Publicity can be defined simply as the right of an individual to control the commercial use of his or her name, image, likeness or other unequivocal aspects of one's identity...
may prevent exact likeness of film characters. The majority of Marvel Comics
Marvel Comics
Marvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media...
' Super Special
Marvel Comics Super Special
Marvel Comics Super Special was a 41-issue series of one-shot comic-magazines published by Marvel Comics from 1977 to 1986. They were cover-priced $1.50 to $2.50, while regular color comics were priced 30 cents to 60 cents, Beginning with issue #5, the series' title in the its postal indicia was...
series featured film adaptations; DC Comics
DC Comics
DC Comics, Inc. is one of the largest and most successful companies operating in the market for American comic books and related media. It is the publishing unit of DC Entertainment a company of Warner Bros. Entertainment, which itself is owned by Time Warner...
customarily prints adaptations as stand-alone, one-shot issues. Sometimes a comic book adaptation can lead to an ongoing licensed series by the same publisher; examples of these include Marvel's Star Wars
Star Wars
Star Wars is an American epic space opera film series created by George Lucas. The first film in the series was originally released on May 25, 1977, under the title Star Wars, by 20th Century Fox, and became a worldwide pop culture phenomenon, followed by two sequels, released at three-year...
series based on the original trilogy and DC's various series based on the first six Star Trek
Star Trek
Star Trek is an American science fiction entertainment franchise created by Gene Roddenberry. The core of Star Trek is its six television series: The Original Series, The Animated Series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise...
films, both of which featured stories set during the "gaps" between the films.
Sequels
It has recently become common for authors who write novelizations to write original novel sequelSequel
A sequel is a narrative, documental, or other work of literature, film, theatre, or music that continues the story of or expands upon issues presented in some previous work...
s in between novelizations. The novels Halo: The Fall of Reach
Halo: The Fall of Reach
Halo: The Fall of Reach is a 2001 science fiction novel by Eric Nylund based on the Halo series of video games and acts as a prequel to Halo: Combat Evolved, the first game in the series. It is set in the fictional Halo universe, taking place in the 26th century across several planets and locations...
and Halo: First Strike
Halo: First Strike
Halo: First Strike is the third novel in the Halo series and the second Halo novel written by Eric Nylund. Published in 2003, it serves as a bridge between the events of the video games Halo: Combat Evolved and its 2004 sequel Halo 2...
, which serve as prequel
Prequel
A prequel is a work that supplements a previously completed one, and has an earlier time setting.The widely recognized term was a 20th-century neologism, and a portmanteau from pre- and sequel...
s and sequels to the video game Halo: Combat Evolved
Halo: Combat Evolved
Halo: Combat Evolved, frequently referred to as Halo: CE, or Halo 1, is a first-person shooter video game developed by Bungie and published by Microsoft Game Studios. The first game of the Halo franchise, it was released on November 15, 2001 as a launch title for the Xbox gaming system, and is...
, were written before and after the novelization of the game. Author Greg Cox wrote the original novel Underworld: Blood Enemy after writing the novelization of Underworld and before writing the novelization of the sequel film Underworld: Evolution
Underworld: Evolution
Underworld: Evolution is the second installment in the Underworld series, following Underworld in 2003...
. Also, while novelizing the Resident Evil
Resident Evil (series)
Resident Evil, known as in Japan, is a media franchise owned by the video game company Capcom. It was created by Shinji Mikami as a survival horror game series that was initiated with the eponymous PlayStation title Resident Evil in 1996. Since then, the game series has strayed from its roots to...
video games, author S. D. Perry
S. D. Perry
Stephani Danelle Perry is a novelist living in Portland, Oregon. She is the daughter of writer Steve Perry.S. D...
wrote original novels that took place between the novelizations. With the rise in recent years of films based on comic book properties, the publishers of the adapted properties have also started producing prequel comics as supplemental material, set in the canon
Canon (fiction)
In the context of a work of fiction, the term canon denotes the material accepted as "official" in a fictional universe's fan base. It is often contrasted with, or used as the basis for, works of fan fiction, which are not considered canonical...
of the films rather than that of the source material.
External links
- Article by Deborah Allison
- "Read 'Em and Weep", Article by Joe Queenan for The Guardian
- "Revenge of the Novelizations", Articles by Mutant Reviewers From HellMutant Reviewers From HellMutant Reviewers from Hell is a website devoted to reviewing offbeat or "cult" films. Founded in 1997 by college students Justin Olivetti and Kymberlie McGuire, the site's stated goal is to provide an alternative to stuffy, pretentious movie critics by offering humorous reviews from a more...
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