ABSTRACT
It was not written in the stars that a small novel based on an eclectic film screenplay and ghost written as work-for-hire would have such an impact on the process and practice of adapting films into novels. Thanks to the film’s box-office success, the novelization of A New Hope (1976) has arguably had a major influence on film novelizations as a genre. When David Seltzer’s The Omen (1976) unexpectedly became a financial hit and went to the #1 spot in the United States, book publishers realized that, in addition to functioning as a marketing tool, novelizations could be bestsellers in their own right. Thus, while novelizations have been around since the birth of cinema, the arrival of Star Wars cemented their institutionalization in Hollywood. That is, to the extent that this was not yet the case, the practice of novelizing the latest potential blockbuster hit became an established part of film marketing and media franchising. Moreover, the amount and visibility of science-fiction novelizations increased as science-fiction cinema boomed, while in the tie-in market, science-fiction novelizations became more prominent because more films were increasingly based on original screenplays, in contrast with the many adaptations from book to film that took place in the 1950s and 1960s.
