story adaptation
Book becomes film
A story adaptation is a creative work that retells or reimagines an existing narrative in a new form or medium.
A novel becomes a film, a play becomes a musical, a fairy tale becomes a graphic novel.
The term implies transformation rather than mere reproduction—adapters make choices about what to keep, cut, or change: The film adaptation took liberties with the book's ending.
Adaptations may be faithful or loose, updating settings, combining characters, or shifting perspective while preserving recognizable elements of the source material.
- novelizationAdapting films into books
- stage playLive theatrical work
- fanfictionAmateur work using existing characters
- ensemble castMultiple principal performers equally
- screenplayFilm's written blueprint
period piece · audiobook · parody · mashup · graphic novel · radio drama · web series · modernization · documentary film · abridgment · reimagining · book to screen · remake
- creative libertiesartistic license, poetic license, liberties, creative liberties, fictionalization
- book adaptationsnovelization, movie tie-in
story adaptationoriginal content
Freshly created material
source material · original screenplay · source text · primary source · original composition
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