ABSTRACT
There are a number of valid reasons for altering original material in adaptation. First, to improve it-at least, so the adapter insists. I have rarely known a writer who didn't believe he could gild the lily-sometimes a little, often a good deal. (Every writer is an editor at heart.) As a matter of cold fact, this holds true even for the writer of the original material. I have been involved in the development of several screenplays written by the authors of the works from which they were adapted. In most instances the results were catastrophic. Sometimes the author chose to zero in on the least cinematic portions of his novel, but more of ten boredom, or what is currently called "bum-out", came into play.
