ABSTRACT
Never could William Shakespeare have imagined that his plays would be transformed into movies, yet cinematic history would lose immeasurably without the many adaptations of his works, including such acclaimed films as Laurence Olivier’s Hamlet (1948), Kenneth Branagh’s Henry V (1989), Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet (1996), and John Madden’s Shakespeare in Love (1998). Indeed, a recent subgenre of Shakespearian film consists of loose adaptations starring young adult leads, such as Ten Things I Hate about You (1999, based on The Taming of the Shrew), O (2001, based on Othello), She’s the Man (2006, based on Twelfth Night), and Warm Bodies (2013, a zombie flick based on Romeo and Juliet). Other esteemed authors whose works are frequently adapted to the screen include Jane Austen, Emily and Charlotte Brontë, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Charles Dickens, and Henry James, but these few names belie the prevalence of adaptation as a narrative strategy for the cinematic arts, in which stories originally composed for readers are reimagined for viewers. Wary of unsure investments, Hollywood studios frequently green-light adaptations of popular novels, expecting their devoted readers to eagerly buy tickets for these films. This strategy often produces winning results, as attested to by the blockbuster status of such recent book and film series as J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter, Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight, and Suzanne Collins’s Hunger Games.
