The Transition From Graphic Novel To Film

Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World raked in an abysmal $10.6 million dollars on it’s opening weekend. Even after a global marketing campaign, Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World was ear-marked to be a summer blockbuster, what went horribly wrong?

Plot?

Cast?

Director?

We don’t know, and we’ll never be sure what happened to Scott Pilgrim. It could be a combination of things. Maybe Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World should have been a mini-series or adapted into a trilogy. Fighting a girl’s seven evil exes doesn’t allow for deep characterisation in 112 minutes, an average of 19 minutes per book of Bryan Lee O’Malley’s series.

Even with idealistic graphic novel publishers and film studios, the transition to celluloid is rarely achievable and successful. The film industry is already flooded with graphic novel to film attempts, a handful being quite successful with the majority either being mid-list or a flop. Perhaps it’s easier for film studios to see potential in a silver screen adaptation of a graphic novel as the brand would be  known in the current market.

The double-edged sword for film studios adapting graphic novels is accuracy and loyalty to the brand. They rely on the fans to purchase cinema tickets but what if the studio gets the adaptation horribly wrong? The bloated blimp on the silver screen would be detrimental to the brand and be held as a black spot against the series for getting it so wrong.

One would have thought that graphic novel established fanbases would be a sure bet. In these economic times, are film studios picking up on established brands as a safety instead of pushing creative innovation?

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Posted by Klara on 8:24 pm. Filed under Books, Headliner, Latest Column. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry