Writing Outside the Lines

In a post in October, I mentioned that I discovered that James Clavell of Shogun fame wrote the screenplay for The Fly with Vincent Price and I got to thinking about some other movies I knew with screenplays written by authors better known for other works.

After suffering an heart attack in 1964, Ian Fleming decided to try his hand at writing a children's spy story. Originally published as three separate books, they were later published together as Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. In 1968 the movie musical was released (and now you can see stage musical based on the movie). The movie boasts music and lyrics by the Sherman brothers Robert and Richard, the same team that Disney used on many projects and movies including Mary Poppins and The Jungle Book.

I found the book to be dreadfully boring. Perhaps that is because I read it as an adult, and after seeing the movie numerous times (it used to be a Thanksgiving Day afternoon broadcast tradition of sorts). The screenplay was co-written by Roald Dahl, author such children's classics as James and the Giant Peach (1961), Charlie and Chocolate Factory (1964), The Witches (1983), and Matilda (1988). The movie actually feels more like one of Dahl's stories then Flemings', with a dark humor, and role reversals between children and adults.

Interestingly, Dahl also worked on the screenplay for for the Bond film You Only Live Twice (1967).

Michael Crichton, known for books like The Andromeda Strain (1969), The Great Train Robbery (1975), and Jurassic Park (1990) that were made into movies and television shows, also wrote screenplays for movies such as Westworld (1975) and Twister (1996) and episodes of television's ER (1994-2008). He also was involved in many of these projects as director and/or producer.

Earlier this year my son and I watched all five movies in the Planet of the Apes cycle (and the Tim Burton movie remake). The first one from 1968, which was based on Pierre Boulle's book Planet of the Apes (1963) actually has held up pretty well for being 40 years old. (Much better then the subsequent four that had lofty ideas but degenerated in quality and diverted more and more from the original source material.)

The book is more of social commentary like Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels (1926), and less of an action adventure story that the movie is. While it has it's own twist ending, it is different then the movies. Once you realize that Rod Serling, writer Twilight Zone in print and on television, was involved with the screenplay, the atmosphere and ending of the movie falls right into place.

I would love to add more to this list. Let me know if you know of other screenplays for movies or television shows that were written by authors who may be better known for their work in other media or genres.

And now, the rest of the story ... (part II)

(a continuation of part I from the previous post, looking at continued works of authors after they have passed away, starting with the list)

• While various authors have written novels with Ian Fleming's James Bond, Sebastian Faulks was commissioned to write Devil May Care (2008)
• Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson have written several prequels and a couple of sequels to Frank Herbert's Dune novels
• Roger Zelazny's estate authorized John Betancourt to write a five-prequel series to Zelazny's ten Chronicles of Amber books (this Dawn of Amber series was cancelled after the four books)
• Robert Ludlum's estate gave permission to Eric Van Lustbader to write new Jason Bourne stories (and three have been published)
• Robert Jordan's widow selected Brandon Sanderson to finish the last book in Jordan's Wheel of Time series (which is still in progress and unpublished)

Honestly, I have only read one series of these authorized continuation books in this list, so I can't comment on most of them specifically.

I did have the misfortune of listening to the Legends of Dune trilogy [The Butlerian Jihad (2002), The Machine Crusade (2003), The Battle of Corrin (2004)] This trilogy takes place thousands of years before Dune (1965), to explain how the technology, social structure (including ruling families and other organizations) and culture in the Dune universive began. If I had other audio books to listen to at the time I probably wouldn't have finished these.

Some of it could have been the reader, but beyond that I found the stories to be cliche ridden and void of the plot complexity, thought provoking themes and ideas, and realistic characters and character development that Frank Herbert had in his Dune novels (well, OK, most of his Dune novels - at least the original trilogy and the fourth). With these I felt like I was listening to the first attempt of an author from the 1950's to write a space opera. I kept hoping that each book in the Legends trilogy would get better than the previous, but they didn't. (If I had to recommend one of the three to read upon pain of death, it would be the middle one though. But you have been warned.)

As you might guess, I doubt I will read or listen to any more Dune books by these two. I have read and enjoyed other books by Brian. Perhaps the collaboration of these two authors actually produces something a minuscule of a fraction of the work as their individual and independent worked combined. I assume Brian Herbert worked from notes or outlines his father created at some point, but I started to wonder more and more how much Brian, or Kevin Anderson, followed or modified those notes. I would have preferred an original timeline with notes to these bloated doorstops.

Where am I going with all of this? I would guess that it boils down to if the new author manages to continue with the characters, worlds, or ideas in a way you would feel the original author would, you will like the book. And this is going to vary from author to author, and story to story. With stories that are your favorites, I would guess you are going to be less likely to enjoy the new versions.

I wish Colfer the best of luck with his book (even though I think Terry Prachett might have been a better choice). As Colfer has written six Artemis Fowl books I would imagine he is use to getting both criticism and praise for each new book in that series, which should prepare him for the response from Adam's Hitchhiker fans.

Regardless of what you think about a non-Adams Hitchhiker book, or about Colfer as the choice, I hope that this exposes the Hitchhiker universe (and everything) to more people so they can experience the original books themselves where they might not have otherwise.

What are some other official, authorized or commissioned sequels or prequels of contemporary authors would you add to the list? How do you feel they did with the characters, worlds and ideas they were working with? I am interested to find out.