Hollywood and the great arts plunder

This weekend, sci-fi fans across the region can finally catch up with the alien investigators who kept us on the edge of our seats through much of the nineties when they reunite in The X-Files: I Want To Believe.

Although the cult television series, the brainchild of Chris Carter starring Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny, only ended in 2002, it's been a whopping 10 years since agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully were last seen on the big screen. The first X-Files film, released in 1998, made $187 million (Dh686m), including $103m from outside the United States.

The show is only the latest in a recent trend of hit TV products being recast into movies, itself part of a larger movement that has seen Hollywood increasingly draw on material from other media. Studio executives have been looking to novels and short stories for decades now – and the works of authors such as Jane Austen have been plundered time and again. But now we're seeing an explosion of films based on television series and comic book heroes, as the industry seems harder pressed than ever to offer original ideas.

The new X-Files movie follows close on the heels of the successful adaptation of another hit television show, Sex And The City, which brought back Sarah Jessica Parker, Kim Catrall, Kristin Davis and Cynthia Nixon. The series that traces the lives of four New York women topped the US charts when remade as a chick flick, pulling in over $55.7m in the first week alone, almost double the industry estimates. Costing $65m to produce, it has made $372.4m in total since its May 30 release.

Get Smart, based on the popular 60's hit series that satirised the secret agent genre, has taken in $180m worldwide as of July 30. Starring Steve Carell and Anne Hathaway, the $80m film is currently in UAE cinemas.

And now come whispers that the success of movies like these has inspired Jennifer Aniston and Courtney Cox to turn their show Friends into a movie. After the popular sitcom ended in 2004, there has been much talk of a reunion. It appears the six stars of the show – among TV's highest-paid actors ever – are readying a big screen return to their roles.

The popular show ran an astonishing 10 seasons, its final episode famously drawing 52.5 million viewers in the US and 8.6 million in the United Kingdom. By some accounts, the project is already in development with a film expected to hit cinemas in 18 months. Warner Bros' Jayne Trotman, UK-based director of publicity, has mixed reports that the studio is producing the film, or that there is a film at all – but in keeping with Hollywood intrigue, that could just mean all the stars haven't signed on yet.



Search for ideas

So is it time for Hollywood executives to admit they've run out of original ideas and are resorting to tapping into the success of anything they can lay their hands on, including television series and graphic novels?

Students of comparative media will insist that books, comics, television and cinema are all different media and that it isn't fair to compare them. Although the trend dates as far back as 1928, when the first Oscar for Best Writing Adaptation was given away, our era of digital technology is challenging all boundaries. A big-budget movie inspired by a video game – Prince of Persia – is just one example.

As the race for viewers continues to dominate the dialogue, major film studios are sheltering beneath big-tent franchises such as this summer's spate of superhero sequels.

More are on the way. From director-producer Robert Rodriguez's slasher adaptations of Red Sonja and Conan to a DVD series based on the Incredible Hulk, at least 22 comics-based movies will hit cinemas by December. Another 25 are to be released next year and a similar number in 2010, according to IMDB.com. All are hoping for the kind of revenues generated by other superhero films such as The Dark Knight. The latest Batman movie, which opened on July 18, crossed the $300m-mark faster than any other movie – across genres – in history. It has since pulled in over $462.2m, and is still only in its second week in many markets, including the UAE.

The three editions in the Spider-man franchise, for instance, top the list of comic book adaptations, plugging in at $403.7m, $373.5m and $336.5m in order of release. (The Dark Knight, of course, scotches the theory that sequels don't perform as well as the original.)

And data from 80 comic-to-movie adaptations dating to 1978 show such a film can expect to average $94.7m in revenue, according to boxofficemojo.com.

Emotional connections

Going one better are movies made from fantasy novels. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of The King (2003) took in $1.11bn, second only to Paramount's Titanic on the list of all-time earners. Together, the three LOTR films tot up a mind-boggling $2.91bn, 10 times the $280m budget. And Harry Potter hasn't merely made author JK Rowling rich; the four films featuring the boy wizard grossed $3.6bn globally – on a production cost of $505m.

But why are these films so successful? Why is it that original scripts can't seem to find much favour in Hollywood anymore? Indeed, if you count the Pirates of the Carribbean franchise as being inspired by another medium (to borrow the title from the Academy Awards), albeit a theme park ride, only three films in the all-time list of top 10 films by revenue are based on original ideas: Shrek 2, Star Wars: Episode 1 – The Phantom Menace, both franchises, and of course, Titanic. (Although with the amount of material history's most famous shipwreck has already spawned, including countless books and at least three other movies, James Cameron's film can hardly be described as being based on an original idea.)

But drawing on pre-existing material for a movie allows filmmakers to tap into and exploit the fans' often emotional connection with favourite characters. Every woman secretly identifies with one of the four SATC characters, so it's a no-brainer that these same women will want to see how their heroines deal with age and other unmentionables.

Indeed, it isn't unusual to see movie-goers all dressed up as their favourite characters lining up for admission to the first screening of a popular cinematic adaption.

Most importantly, an established product, whether a theme park ride or a novel, has already been tried and tested. With the cost of a major motion picture topping $100m, producers naturally want to hedge their bets as far as they can.

One need only look to the revenues generated by hit books such as the Harry Potter series to understand their lure for film studios. In fact, there hasn't been a film based on an original screenplay to make the list of top grossers in the last decade.



Arabwood follows suit

Will an Arabic television series ever fare well on the big screen?

Masood Amralla Al Ali, Artistic Director, Dubai International Film Festival, thinks not. "Arab series are so different from the US ones. There, the focus is on the characters and the story is built around situations they are in. Here, series are based on a fixed storyline with changing characters, like Mexican and Indian shows," he says.

He offers the example of one hit show, Altowabi, that was rather unsuccessfully remade as a movie. "I have also heard talk of a Freej movie, which will be interesting." Another Arabic series, Rajol Wa Sit Settat, has lasted two seasons and its team is now planning a big screen venture (PT)



Derivative fare: past, present and future


Gone With The Wind Writer Sidney Howard and director Victor Fleming turned Margaret Mitchell's Civil War romance novel into the best-loved film ever. Released in 1939, it won eight Oscars, taking in $1.4bn in today's money.


All Quiet On The Western Front One of the top epic films of all time, this 1930 war movie is based on the Erich Maria Remarque novel and was a Best Picture Oscar winner. It was remade into a TV movie in 1989.


My Fair Lady George Cukor's 1964 classic starred Audrey Hepburn and Rex Harrison. It is based on George Bernard Shaw's 1913 play, Pygmalion, which has been adapted into a successful Broadway show and numerous movies, including 1990's Pretty Woman.


Wayne's World This 1992 film is one of the most successful expansions of a TV sketch. Inspired by Saturday Night Live, the movie took in $183m on a budget of $20m, adding a lot to our vocabulary, including "Party On" and "Not". The sequel was also a hit – Not.


Mission Impossible Before the mega franchise turned Tom Cruise into one of Hollywood's most bankable actors, the TV series, starring Peter Graves, kept CBS happy for seven years from 1966. A fourth film is set to release in 2010.


Charlie's Angels Producer-actor Drew Barrymore and director McG adapted the hit seventies show, starring Farrah Fawcett-Majors (above), to film in 2000. A 2003 sequel followed, and both brought in over $250m.


The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy Best remembered as a book you read in school, this international multimedia phenomenon was first a 1978 BBC radio series. It made it to film in 2004, but only took in about $104m.


Mamma Mia! Phyllida Lloyd's summer blockbuster is a curious case of adaptation, being recast from a Broadway musical, which itself is based on the syrupy pop songs of seventies group Abba. It has taken $141m since its July 18 release.


Prince Of Persia Jake Gyllenhaal and Gemma Arterton star in Mike Newell's adaptation of Ubisoft's swashbuckler 2003 video game (above). Scriptwriter Jordan Mechner says the film, due out next year, takes cool elements from the game and crafts a new story.


Star Trek The 11th film in the franchise beams into cinemas next May. JJ Abrams's film stars Leonard Nimoy and depicts Kirk and Spock as children. It is a prequel to the original series, whose ratings were terrible and only became a hit after it went into syndication. (KJF)

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