Screen writer

Read all about it - or don't, says DONALD CLARKE

UNTIL quite recently, the dear old Guardiannewspaper used to run a questionnaire that asked prominent sportspeople what they were "currently reading".

How quaint. The devisor still lived in that age when it could be assumed that any literate person would always have a book “on the go”. It might be Alistair Maclean. It might be Thomas Pynchon. But you, dear citizen, were sure to be reading something.

When the hundredth successive cricketer replied with a confused shrug, the column was dropped.

For more evidence of the way attitudes have changed, glance at the “hobbies” sections of similar, surviving questionnaires. Again and again, alongside paragliding, brass rubbing and beret collecting, we encounter the dread word “reading”.

Since when did that activity become a hobby? Once this would be akin to listing breathing, digesting or passing wind as a recreational pastime.

What does this have to do with movies? Well, until recently, the studios still believed that sales of mainstream novels could propel millions of readers towards the resulting big-screen adaptations.

Observe that a full 25 per cent of the all-time box-office top 20 is taken up with Harry Potter films. Yet, though extravagantly produced and studded with top-flight actors, these slavish, slack pictures have little to offer those uninterested in the novels. It is, without doubt, JK Rowling’s readers who have ensured the films’ success.

Consider the runaway triumph of the first two films based on "novels" by Dan Brown. Whereas the Harry Potterpictures receive the odd good notice, critics were merciless in their evisceration of The Da Vinci Codeand Angels Demons. The result? The first took in $750 million, the second made about $500 million. Again, it is fans of the dreadful, dreadful books who are buying tickets for the dreadful, dreadful films.

The case seems closed then. Adapt any successful book and, however appalling the resulting film, you will surely generate some sort of sizable hit.

Really? Peruse this list of recent bestsellers: Cold Mountain, The Lovely Bones, Eat, Pray, Love, The Road. We could go on. The film adaptations varied considerably in quality: The Roadwas extremely good, Cold Mountaintolerable, The Lovely Bonesand Eat, Pray, Lovegenuinely ghastly. But all performed below expectations.

The truth is that a kind of oligarchy has developed in popular literature. A tiny group of authors sells astronomical numbers, while virtually all the others (even those deemed successful) struggle to buy a loaf of bread. Regarding the success of the Harry Potterfilms or the Dan Brown films (or the Twilightfilms, for that matter) as a guide to film production strategies is akin to measuring the average man's ability to catch a bus by studying videos of Usain Bolt.

Ring the mourning bell. In this one field of human endeavour, the power of the book has vanished.