“Game of Thrones: The Dragon World” and its prequel “The Dragon Lineage” TV series are both adapted from George R.R. Martin’s fantasy novel “A Song of Ice and Fire”. On the 24th of the month, Martin criticized that 99.9% of Hollywood adaptations of movies and TV shows are worse than the original novels, but he really liked “Shogun”.
The 75-year-old American writer and screenwriter George R.R. Martin posted a new article on his blog, presenting his thoughts on adapted movies and TV shows. Martin stated that more and more movie producers in Hollywood want to adapt stories from books, believing that they can do better, but the adaptations have turned out to be worse.
According to Martin, “Wherever you look, there are more writers and producers eager to shoot exciting stories and ‘turn them into their own stories’. No matter if the original author of the story is Stan Lee, Charles Dickens, Ian Fleming, Roald Dahl, Ursula K. Le Guin, J.R.R. Tolkien, Mark Twain, Raymond Chandler, Jane Austen or… well, who wrote it seems not to matter.”
Martin expressed that no matter how important the author is, no matter how great the work is, there are always people who think they can do better and want to “improve” the story. Martin said, “They will tell you: a book is just a book, a movie is just a movie. As if saying something profound, and then they will turn this story into their own story.”
Martin criticized Hollywood adaptations of movies or TV shows, “They never make the situation better. In a thousand times, nine hundred and ninety-nine times, they make the original work worse.”
However, Martin mentioned that there are some cases where a good book is adapted very well, which is worth encouraging. He cited the FX TV series “Shogun” as an example, which he watched and found to be very good.
British writer James Clavell spent three years researching and writing the historical novel “Shogun” in 1975. Martin mentioned that he read this book when it was first published in the late ’70s, and it left a deep impression on him.
Paramount Television produced a miniseries called “Shogun” (Anjin, 1980). Martin stated that the new FX TV series “Shogun” is excellent, even though there are some differences between the new and old versions of the TV series, both the new and old writers remain faithful to the original work. Martin said, “I think the author must be very pleased, as both the old and new writers respect the original work, giving us a fantastic adaptation and resisting the temptation to ‘turn it upside down’.”
The FX original series “Shogun,” starring Hiroki Hasegawa, aired its first season of 10 episodes on Disney+ in February this year, receiving a 99% approval rating from critics on the review site Rotten Tomatoes, with a 90% audience freshness rating. On the 17th, FX announced the production of the second and third seasons, with filming set to begin in the summer of this year.