Overview

An Eclectic Collection of Fiction That Inspired Film Memento, All About Eve, Rear Window, Rashomon, and 2001: A Space Odyssey are all well-known and much-loved movies, but what is perhaps a lesser-known fact is that all of them began their lives as short stories. Adaptations gathers together 35 pieces that have been the basis for films, many from giants of American literature (Hemingway, Fitzgerald) and many that have not been in print for decades (the stories that inspired Bringing Up Baby, Meet John Doe, and All About Eve). Categorized by genre, and featuring movies by master directors such as Steven Spielberg, Stanley Kubrick, Robert Altman, Frank Capra, and John Ford, as well as relative newcomers such as Chris Eyre and Christopher Nolan, Adaptations offers insight into the process of turning a short story into a screenplay, one that, when successful, doesn’t take drastic liberties with the text upon which it is based, but doesn’t mirror its source material too closely either. The stories and movies featured in Adaptations include: •Philip K. Dick’s “The Minority Report,” which became the 2002 blockbuster directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Tom Cruise •“The Harvey Pekar Name Story” by reclusive graphic artist Harvey Pekar, whose life was the inspiration for American Splendor, winner of the 2003 Sundance Grand Jury Prize •Hagar Wilde’s “Bringing Up Baby,” the basis of the classic film Bringing Up Baby, anthologized here for the first time ever •“The Swimmer” by John Cheever, an example of a highly regarded story that many feared might prove unadaptable •The predecessor to the beloved holiday classic A Christmas Story, “Red Ryder Nails the Hammond Kid” by Jean Shepherd Whether you’re a fiction reader or a film buff, Adaptations is your behind-the-scenes look at the sometimes difficult, sometimes brilliantly successful process from the printed page to the big screen.

Full Product Details

Author:   Stephanie Harrison
Publisher:   Random House USA Inc
Imprint:   Random House Inc
Dimensions:   Width: 15.50cm , Height: 3.60cm , Length: 23.20cm
Weight:   0.669kg
ISBN:  

9781400053148

ISBN 10:   1400053145
Pages:   640
Publication Date:   26 April 2005
Audience:   General/trade ,  General
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
This item will be ordered in for you from one of our suppliers. Upon receipt, we will promptly dispatch it out to you. For in store availability, please contact us.

Table of Contents

The Directors: Translators, Magicians, Collaborators and Thieves Jerry and Molly and Sam by Raymond Carver Robert Altman: Short Cuts (1993, DVD) * Blow-Up by Julio Cortazar Michelangelo Antonioni: Blow-Up (1966, VHS) * Your Arkansas Traveler by Budd Schulberg Elia Kazan: A Face in the Crowd (1957, VHS) It Had to be Murder by Cornell Woolrich Alfred Hitchcock: Rear Window (1954, DVD) Science Fiction: Kubrick and Spielberg, Spielberg and Kubrick The Sentinel by Arthur C. Clarke 2001: A Space Odyssey (Kubrick, 1968, DVD) Super-Toys Last All Summer Long by Brian Aldiss A.I.: Artificial Intelligence (Spielberg/Kubrick, 2001, DVD) The Minority Report by Philip K. Dick The Minority Report (Spielberg, 2002, DVD) Horror: Cue the Gore Spurs by Tod Robbins Freaks (Browning, 1932, VHS) The Fly by George Langelaan The Fly (Neumann, 1958, DVD and Cronenberg, 1986, DVD) Herbert West-Reanimator: Six Shots by Midnight by H.P. Lovecraft Re-Animator (Gordon, 1984, DVD) Westerns: Tonto Means Fool in Spanish Stage to Lordsburg by Ernest Haycox Stagecoach (Ford, 1939, DVD) A Man Called Horse by Dorothy M. Johnson A Man Called Horse (Silverstein, 1970, DVD) * This is what it Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona by Sherman Alexie Smoke Signals (Eyre, 1998, DVD) Graphic Stories: Flying Under the Radar ** The Harvey Pekar Name Story by Harvey Pekar American Splendor (Shari Springer Berman, 2003, DVD) ** Hubba Hubba by Daniel Clowes Ghost World (Terry Zwigoff, 2001, DVD) Five All-But-Lost Stories * The Wisdom of Eve by Mary Orr All About Eve (Mankiewicz, 1950, DVD) A Reputation by Richard Connell Meet John Doe (Capra, 1941, DVD) * Mr. Blandings Builds His Castle by Eric Hodgins Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (Potter, 1948, VHS) * Cyclists' Raid by Frank Rooney The Wild One (Benedek, 1954, DVD) * Tomorrow by William Faulkner Tomorrow (Anthony, 1953, VHS) The Good, the Bad, and the Unadaptable Bringing Up Baby by Hagar Wilde Bringing Up Baby (Hawks, 1938, VHS) Babylon, Revisited by F. Scott Fitzgerald The Last Time I Saw Paris (Brooks, 1954, DVD) The Swimmer by John Cheever The Swimmer (Perry, 1968, DVD) Suspense = Style * The Killers by Ernest Hemingway The Killers (Siodman, 1946, DVD) * The Basement Room by Graham Greene The Fallen Idol (Reed, 1948, DVD) Memento Mori by Jonathon Nolan Memento (Nolan, 2000, DVD) Classic Family Fare My Friend Flicka by Mary O'Hara My Friend Flicka (Schuster, 1943, DVD) Red Ryder Nails the Hammond Kid by Jean Shepherd A Christmas Story (Clark, 1983, DVD) Shoeless Joe Jackson Comes to Iowa by W.P. Kinsella Field of Dreams (Robinson, 1989 DVD) International Cinema In a Grove by Ryunosuke Akutagawa Japan: Rashomon (Kurosawa, 1951, DVD) The Lady with the Pet Dog by Anton Chekhov Italy: Dark Eyes (Mikhalkov, 1987, VHS) The Independents: Money Changes Everything * Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been by Joyce Carol Oates Smooth Talk (Chopra, 1985, VHS) Auggie Wren's Christmas Story by Paul Auster Smoke (Wang, 1995, DVD) * Emergency by Denis Johnson Jesus' Son (Maclean, 1999, DVD) * Killings by Andre Dubus In the Bedroom (Field, 2001, DVD)

Reviews

Author Information

Stephanie Harrison teaches in the state university system of Florida.

Tab Content 6

Author Website:  

Countries Available

All regions