Legendary stories are often found in books. Whether it's a classic literary adventure or young adult fiction books, nothing can surpass the powerful imagination of a writer as they bring entire worlds to life. Sure, movie industries can make blockbusters in a heartbeat, but sometimes they lack the substance to make the story stick to their viewers. As a result, most major motion picture distributors and producers turn to books to adapt cult classics or the latest viral literary sensation. However, to better fit the art of cinema, alterations must sometimes be made for the story to make sense on screen. Whether it's something simple as revising a line, or a major overhaul of an entire scene, once the distributor gets the license, the creative freedom is theirs for the taking. Curious to see which Young Adult book was altered to fit the blockbuster screen? Read on to find out!RELATED: These 8 Actors Transitioned From Indie Movies To Blockbusters
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Several major plot points were altered for the screen. Some of them were completely chopped off to make room for the director's creative vision. One of the revisions made for Percy Jackson & The Olympians was Luke and Annabeth's friendship. In the movie, Percy and the rest of his friends take Luke's betrayal seriously, with Annabeth Chase being more affected than most. But in the film, it made no sense for her to be upset. It was then revealed that Annabeth and Luke grew up together in the books and always looked out for each other.
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In the book, Mia Thermopolis's father is still alive, but in the movie, he is shown to have passed away due to a car crash. Meg Cabot, the author of the wildly popular book, said that this made way for Mia's grandmother and Queen of Genovia, Clarisse, to have her play a bigger role in the story. When asked why that was necessary, it was revealed to Meg Cabot that they had a competent and talented actress on board who wanted to play her - it was Julie Andrews.
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The major perspective change in the film The Hunger Games lets the audience see first-hand how the Capitol orchestrates the whole competition. In the books, Katniss narrates the story from a first-person perspective, making her utterly blind to how President Snow manipulates the Games. To give more depth to the story on screen, the movie execs expanded the role of game master Seneca Crane and had him be the focal point to show the Games' behind-the-scenes. Even Effie Trinket had an expanded role, ensuring she brought depth and levity to the rest of the story.
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The author, Jenny Han, let it slip in an interview once that a scene was entirely chopped from the script because of some copyright concerns over Lara Jean's and Peter's costumes. In the original book, Lara Jean and Peter Kavinsky attend a Halloween party as Cho Chang and Spider-man, respectively. But to avoid running into copyright claims and other issues, not to mention the hassle of getting clearance to use the scene in the first place, the movie executives just decided to cut the scene altogether.
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One of the main concerns of adapting a book into a movie is translating literary plot devices into an acting scene. This was the main problem that movie producers ran into during the film adaptation of Insurgent, the second book from the Divergent series. Author Veronica Roth explains that the box - only a Divergent with qualities from all five factions can open - was used to simplify the already complicated plot line. In the end, it gave more motivation for Jeanine to target Tris and other Divergent in the movie.
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Sometimes lines are cut in the script, so viewers won't be traumatized by the scene. In the case of the film The Giver, another dystopian story, Jonas' father is one of the people responsible for releasing - aka euthanizing - people. In the book, he receives twins in his care and is tasked to remove one of them. While doing so, he says a very chilling line: Bye-bye, little guy. The sequence was kept on screen, but the line was cut after producers deemed it too dark and upsetting for viewers.
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For those who haven't seen or read the book, the characters in the story are a very odd bunch. They're children with extraordinary abilities, including the main character, Jacob. There were many alterations to the story in the film adaptation, particularly the swapping of powers between two main characters, Olive and Emma. Olive, who originally had the peculiarity of being lighter than air, now had Emma's ability, which was the power to generate fire in her hands. Director Tim Burton had switched them because having Emma float fit her character best, and it would be more poetic.
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The widely successful book franchise, Harry Potter, and its equally successful movie adaptations of the same name is probably the most famous book-to-movie YA adaptation. But because of its numerous plot lines, conflict, and characters, it's inevitable to cut a few scenes here and there. One scene that was cut involved Neville's tragic past. Instead of revealing how his parents got tortured to the point of insanity to the main characters, Neville himself only tells his backstory to Harry. It was allegedly chopped because building a new set would be too expensive for one scene.
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The author of The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Stephen Chbosky, also wrote and directed the film adaptation of his novel. In the movie, he revised a significant conversation (aka the iconic We accept the love we think we deserve line) to reflect his maturity since writing the novel and ensure he can bring out the best in the actors. He explains that he wanted to write something that could encourage the viewers to find better love and friends and bring passion into their lives.
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In the book, Stanley Yelnats, the protagonist, loses weight while laboring away at Camp Green Lake. In the film adaptation, the scene was cut because it raised issues related to ethical concerns. Essentially, the producers would ask their young actors to gain and lose weight in a concise amount of time while filming the movie. Since movies aren't shot in sequential order, it would mean that the actor would be fluctuating his weight gain and loss a lot - depending on the scene.
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