ABSTRACT
The present paper studies the process of creation through adaptations of three different Shakespeare plays. We hypothesize that film adaptations are neither artifact independent of their sources nor are they slavish copies. Instead, their creation involves design and the work of the mind in which the changes involved do not challenge the status of the source text but offer additional layers of meaning through new modes of production. The paper investigates the results of the change of setting, point of view, or the juxtaposition of several media. The major characteristics of Prospero’s Books (1991), Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (1990), and A Thousand Acres (1997) are discussed in the paper to prove that adaptations are creations that do not replace the source or challenge their status; they embed the old text and add to the story their own extra layers of meaning, however, besides being adaptations, they are also cinematic texts that can be viewed on their own, without prior knowledge of the source as well.
