After spending more than a decade of their lives spearheading the phenomenon that was HBO’s “Game of Thrones,” David Benioff and D.B. Weiss weren’t necessarily in a rush to return to the world of adaptation. Neither had taken the quick plunge into Liu Cixin’s Chinese science-fiction epic “The Three-Body Problem” when the proposal of a series was first presented to them, despite it already sitting unread on Weiss’ Kindle. “Barack Obama’s quote was on the cover,” he recalls, “and I said, ‘Well, that’s interesting. Barack Obama likes a Chinese science-fiction novel — let’s get that one.’”
“Let’s get that one” also appears to be the philosophy of networks and streamers when it comes to acquiring the rights to books, video games or film properties in hopes of making the latest buzzy TV adaptation. Such an approach is nothing new on the big screen, as Weiss estimates that more than half of the 50 greatest movies of all-time were based on another medium. But it’s likely that the small screen adaptation floodgates started in part due to the smashing critical and commercial success of “Thrones,” which Weiss and Benioff adapted from author George R.R. Martin’s beloved (and still-unfinished) series.
“We’re close to peak TV, and if many more shows are being made, it also stands to reason that there are going to be more adaptations,” posits Benioff, who created Netflix’s “3 Body Problem” with Weiss and Alexander Woo. “When you’re pitching something, there is comfort that studios have with known material that’s already been well-received. And if you already have several books in hand, that makes it a more enticing prospect, because someone smart has already thought up a whole map of where the story is going.”
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It’s very possible that peak TV adaptation has already been reached, with the long list of hit, big-ticket series that pull their title and bones from another medium include “Fallout,” “Shōgun,” “Mr. and Mrs. Smith,” “Reacher,” “Loki,” “Ripley,” “Lessons in Chemistry,” “Fargo” and “Masters of the Air” — just to name a few.“
Someone shocked me the other day by saying that ‘Interstellar’ remains one of the highest-grossing original films of the last 10 years, and, to me, that is heartbreaking,” “Fallout” executive producer Jonathan Nolan says of the 2014 space drama that he co-wrote with his brother Christopher. “Where are the original stories? Adaptations are great, and I’m so happy with the way ‘Fallout’ has worked, but I think it will be a real shame if television went the same way that filmmaking has gone.”
Jonathan Nolan is no stranger to adaptation, considering he’s written his brother’s Batman films, co-created HBO’s “Westworld” and started his career by selling his own short story to his brother, who then turned it into 2000’s “Memento.” But he picks his spots in this realm, with the role-playing video game “Fallout” providing a negotiable canvas, since it’s essentially a “choose your own adventure” with different characters in each installment, meaning Nolan and company could create their own heroes and backstories.
“I have been careful to avoid working on any kind of adaptation in which the expectation is that it has to be rigorous, because you have no room to play,” Nolan says. “So I never was interested in working on a ‘Harry Potter’ or ‘Lord of the Rings.’ I like these hybrid products; you’re adapting but you’re still finding a way to exercise your own storytelling muscle. With true adaptation, you’re always changing. I mean, even the word adaptation implies a sense of transition or changing. If you respect something, you have the guts to tell the original creators and fans, ‘We’re going to find a path to a respectful and heartfelt adaptation, but we have to change some things over here to make it work.’”
The necessary or desired changes vary with each project. For “3 Body Problem,” Weiss, Benioff and Woo focused on compressing the book’s extremely dense science content and transforming the characters — whether that was by flipping the genders or turning the central figures from strangers to friends. “What makes this appeal to people beyond the hard [core] sci-fi community is, hopefully, caring about the characters in a way that’s maybe even beyond the way you do in the books,” Benioff says. “To his credit, Liu Cixin knew that this was going to happen, and he gave us his blessing. It probably added to the pressure because it’s like, ‘Oh, we really don’t want to let this guy down now!’”
“Shōgun” creators Rachel Kondo and Justin Marks had their own distinct challenge: Adapting James Clavell’s 1975 novel, about an Englishman in 17th century feudal Japan, that was previously turned into an extremely popular and Emmy-winning 1980 miniseries. “120 million people showed up for that show, so, to quote basically every executive I’ve worked with, ‘We should be so lucky,’” Marks jokes of the historic ratings for ’80s “Shōgun.” “We looked at it more as something to react against, by saying, ‘That lane is taken; let’s move somewhere else here.’”
That began by “finding ways to subvert the gaze of the original story,” according to Marks. This required earlier introductions of crucial characters, while also stepping outside the POV of the primary protagonist, John Blackthorne (Cosmo Jarvis).
“We really wanted to stay close to the book,” Kondo explains. “Ultimately, I think whatever invention there was, it was always interpersonal and extensions of relationships, even with the deaths that didn’t occur in the book. And so I think we invented what we had to in order to take a closer look at the smaller stories.”
Meanwhile, the stories seem to be getting bigger and bigger on TV, which Benioff says is now “more complex and expensive.” And the types of source material and IP are expanding to include board games or dolls. At this point, is anything truly “unadaptable”?
“My antenna always goes up when someone says, ‘it’s unadaptable,’” Nolan says with a laugh. “There’s an opportunity there because there’s an invitation to find the right way to fit it into the projector or TV.”
Benioff suggests that the current “championship trophy” for pulling off what should have been perceived as “unadaptable” is “The Lego Movie.”
“When I heard they were going to make a movie based on Lego, I was like, ‘That’s the stupidest idea I’ve ever heard,’” he admits. “And I’ve probably seen that movie four times.”
But Woo believes he has what would be the ultimate winner: “The adaptation that I’ve always wanted to do, or at least pitch, because I just want to see the look on their face, is the ‘Big Book of Sudoku.’ I haven’t cracked it, but if you could adapt that into a show that was an actual Sudoku —”
Weiss is sold: “That’s it — that’s the final frontier.”
