George R.R. Martin Slams TV And Film Adaptation ( Photo Credit – IMDb )
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Game Of Thrones author George R.R. Martin has a bone to pick with film and TV adaptations of books that, according to him, fail to live up to their original source material. In a new blog post, the author expressed disappointment in film and TV adaptations failing to emulate the books properly.
Martin, whose Game Of Thrones books birthed a successful HBO series, did not name the shows or movies that failed to do justice to the source material. However, he did recall a panel with Neil Gaiman, the creator of the comic book series Sandman, which Netflix adapted into a series.
While recalling the experience, George R.R. Martin stated, “If anything, things have gotten worse.”
The 2022 Netflix series Sandman was slammed by critics, with USA Today calling it “Excruciatingly slow and dull if not outright boring,” show that failed to live up to Gaiman’s revered novel.
George R.R. Martin then went on to slam screenwriters and producers eager to take the stories from the book and ‘make them their own.’
George R.R. Martin noted that despite the writer’s greatness or the book, “there always seems to be someone on hand who thinks he can do better, eager to take the story and ‘improve’ on it.”
George R.R. Martin mocked producers and screenwriters who defend the on-screen adaptations as “‘The book is the book, the film is the film,’ adding “they will tell you as if they were saying something profound. Then they make the story their own.”
The Game Of Thrones author noted, “They never make it better, though. Nine hundred ninety-nine times out of a thousand, they make it worse.”
However, George R.R. Martin is not disappointed by all the TV adaptations. Martin said he was impressed by the FX series Shogun, which lived up to the book’s hype. “I am glad they did, though. The new Shogun is superb,” he said.
