CTEC Media Production – Y2

AfL: Unit 10 – Media Adaptations

Task 1: Case Studies
Produce a detailed comparative analysis of a range of media adaptations. You must explore a minimum of three case studies.

Case Study 1: Ender’s Game

Original Text Original Target Adaptation New Target Audience Key Changes in genre, style, form etc. Legal/ethical Issues
Audience
Ender’s game was the target audience The book was the target audience the movie remains science fiction This film was rated PG by
originally a graphic for the book and adapted from a for the movie however from the book → graphic the BBFC.
novel written by graphic novel was book to a graphic remained the same novel → movie there have been This is the intellectual
Orson Scott Card in teenagers and novel and then to a trying to reach the some minor changes in the story. property of Orson Scott
15th january 1985 young adults with movie. The graphic teenage audience the style has also remained the Card will have needed to
an interest in novel released 23rd and keeps the same with the main plot being the give permission for this
science fiction september 2013 science fiction same. there have been very adaptation to have been
and the movie was focus but adds limited changes from the original. made and the company
released later that more to the the took up the task of
year 25th october element of a adapting the novel into a
2013. the movie romance between film will need to have paid
had a budget of two of the royalties to Orson Scott
$115million characters to Card.
interest a female
audience

Notes on overall success of the transmedia adaptation:

Popularity / Wider audience / New franchise / Financial Success / Reviews etc
the film adaptations were not received well, they were given very average reviews and were said to not be anything special. There was also a game
being planned based off of the “battle room” scene from the franchise which was made iconic by the film. This project however was suspended
indefinitely when the film and graphic novel did not gain as much attention as they were expected to. The budgeting for this film adaptation was
$115million and it only just made profit making only $125million. This film had many major actors including Harrison Ford, Ben Kingsley, Asa
Butterfield and more.The film flopped because of the plot.
it did not stay true to the novel’s plot differing in places and seemingly forcing relationships to make characters more significant however it had the
redeeming feature if having a very good plot twist.
CTEC Media Production – Y2
AfL: Unit 10 – Media Adaptations

Case Study 2: The Call Of Cthulhu

Original Text Original Target Adaptation New Target Audience Key Changes in genre, style, form etc. Legal/ethical Issues
Audience
The Call Of Cthulhu This short story This is a story that The target There is a large difference Lovecraft never claimed
was a short story was targeted at was then produced audience for this between the short story Lovecraft rights on the Cthulhu
originally written young adults with a as a silent film in film was very made and the film later directed mythos and he
for the Lovecraft mind for fantasy 2005. general and not at by Andrew Leman. encouraged others to get
universe by H.P reading. This was released as ass specific as One iconic difference is the involved in creating it
Lovecraft. originally This short story June 6, 2005 and the Lovecraft short introduction of visuals for the with him. It is for this
released in was made with the had a run time of story. film. Lovecraft always left his reason and because he is
February 1928 it intention of only 47 minutes. The new target stories up to interpretation which no longer with us that
was published in creating a mythos This adaptation audience was once Andrew Lemon used to its full there is no tribute that
weird tales which with many short received a 7.3/10 again young adults potential. Both interpretations try needs to be paid to
was an American stories in it. These on IMDB. however giving to remain true to the Lovecraft. The film also
Magazine that include stories of It was requested to visual psychological horror franchise. received an age rating of
specialized in the Necronomicon appear in several representation “15” by the BBFC.
fantasy and horror and many others. large film festivals there was no need
fiction stories. This this meant that the including the for people with a
was the founding short story was not Slamdance Film more imaginative
story of the only meant for the Festival and the side.
Cthulhu mythos. people who Seattle
wanted to read a International Film
psychological Festival where is
horror fantasy but sold out both
also people screenings.
interested in
adding their own
thoughts into the
mix as much of the
CTEC Media Production – Y2
AfL: Unit 10 – Media Adaptations
books can be left to
interpretation.
Notes on overall success of the transmedia adaptation:
Popularity / Wider audience / New franchise / Financial Success / Reviews etc
This film was notoriously popular when it came out in America, it filled up every single booking it had at film festivals across America. It also received
immense support on the internet with IMDB giving it a rating on 7.3/10 and it has held a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes for over 10 years now.
This film was created with the intention to make it look like it came directly from Lovecraft’s time. This is why the director made the creative decision
to make the film in black and white, another added benefit that came with the black and white cinematography was that it meant that the filmmaker
does not have to pay attention or add extra detail to the set. it was also decided that there would be no audio for this film. The director believed that
everybody who had read the Lovecraft book had their own idea on how Cthulhu looked and sounded and so he did not want to destroy anyone’s idea
of what he was like but he also didn’t want to pander to the audience who had already read the short story. This is why he cut the audio, this way he
wouldn’t have had to made Cthulhu’s roar which in turn meant he wouldn’t have to change how people thought he would have sounded.
There is no online information on the budget of the film and there is also no information on the profits that the film made. There was no sequel
planned or made for this film, it was only made to pay tribute to Lovecraft’s mythos and it was said that the director Andrew Leman tried to keep it as
close to the short story as possible. Obviously there were some changes that needed to be made because of how the film was created but the general
consensus is he did a very good job at recreating the famed Lovecraft story.
CTEC Media Production – Y2
AfL: Unit 10 – Media Adaptations

Case Study 3: Alien Vs. Predator

Original Text Original Target Adaptation New Target Audience Key Changes in genre, style, form etc. Legal/ethical Issues
Audience
This adaptation “Alien” was an 18 The adaptation The target The new adaptation has This was age rated 15 by
comes from 2 on released and “Alien Vs. audience remained attempted to follow the trend of the BBFC and the
different released as a Sci-Fi Predator” was very much the horror that its parent films did. copyright permission is
franchises. these horror film with the created in 2004 and same and remained However more often than not the given to the studio as they
being the “Alien” aim to catch a was once again a rather niche. This is horror was traded out for action created both of the
franchise and the somewhat niche horror film. This because instead of trying to make the two alien franchises that took
“Predator” audience of people new adapted making a new species fight instead of creating combined to create this
franchise. interested in both franchise takes unique story it tension. This meant that the adaptation.
Both of these science fiction and place with the relies on you franchise differed from what the There are no royalties that
movies were well psychological universe of both knowing the original Alien movie was about are needed to be paid as
received when they horror. franchises which background for the but it suited the later films in the the studio own all the
were released with then in turn meant aliens in the movie franchise and the style chosen rights to the characters
“Alien” receiving a “Predator” was that the two and therefore it within the first AVP movie suited and the franchises.
score of 8.5 and rated a 15 despite thought to be requires that you the Predator films also.
“Predator” scoring being a lot more separate universes have at least some
7.8 on IMDB. violent. This again became one. knowledge of the
“Alien” was tried to appeal to The success of this past “Alien” and
released in an audience with adaptation is very “Predator” series.
November 1979 an interest in Sci-Fi dependant on the
and “Predator” however this time fans of each
released in January they were to be franchise wanting
1988. Both having more interesting in to see the movies
small budgets science fiction come together.
under $20million. mixed with action.
CTEC Media Production – Y2
AfL: Unit 10 – Media Adaptations

Notes on overall success of the transmedia adaptation:

Popularity / Wider audience / New franchise / Financial Success / Reviews etc
This adaptation was immensely popular amongst fans of both the alien and predator franchises. However it tanked the box office only scoring a 5.6 on
IMDB. The film was met with some major criticisms as fans claimed that it didn’t follow the trend that they had come to know with the franchises that
were involved in the film. Critics said that the characters where very shallow and underdeveloped who didn’t impact the story very much at all, it was
said that if you didn’t know the universe you wouldn’t know the significance of some of the most important characters in the film. It was also said to
have a very thin plot with several plot holes that aren’t ever really addressed.
This film changed the pacing for the franchises that it was involved with making it more about big aliens fighting one another than about the people
like the franchises originally were about. with the character development being so thin it meant that the only thing that the film had going for it was
the aliens fighting and because the humans were in the plot they got in the way of everything meaning you couldn’t enjoy the brawls or any of the
scenes where the characters are stuck in moral dilemmas because you don’t know enough about them.

Despite its bad reviews it did very well in the box officer making $172million with a budget of only $70million. It also went on to produce a sequel
which did worse than this opener to a new franchise and killed the adaptation entirely.