Book-to-screen adaptations continue to become more frequent in Hollywood

By Bianca Dishmon

Art by Evie Bartlett

An up-and-coming theme in Hollywood is book-to-screen adaptations. In genres spanning from comedy to drama to horror, book-to-screen adaptations seem to be Hollywood’s next big thing. One of the newly released, highly anticipated book-to-screen adaptations was Denis Villenueve’s “Dune”. 

“Dune”, written by Frank Hubert, is a science fiction book that details the experience of Paul Atreides as he and his family move from Caladan, their home planet fueled by air and water, to Arrakis, the desert planet. The 2021 adaptation features actors such as Timothée Chalamet and Zendaya and focuses on the first of the three portions of the novel. 

Upper School English teacher, Mrs. Love is not typically a big fan of book-to-screen adaptations because she finds that there is “something wonderful about words on a paper and creating a story on the page that you can’t do when it’s on-screen” and books allow you to “appreciate a [story] more.” 

While Mrs. Love enjoyed the movie’s set designs and costumes, she “would not have paid to go see it in the movies” and prefers the 1984 David Lynch “Dune'' to the recent adaptation. 

For Upper School English teacher Mrs. Goodman, “Dune” is a story of great importance to her since “[she] and her dad read [the books] together when [she] was a kid”. Mrs. Goodman is “very excited” to watch the “Dune” adaptation with her dad, but she also believes that “Dune'' is a “really hard book to make into a movie because the plot line is so complicated”. 

While previous adaptations of “Dune” have not been as successful nor have gotten great reviews, Mrs. Goodman hopes the 2021 adaptation will be “decent… with all the technology [that] is available and do justice to the otherworldliness of [“Dune”] and stay true to the story”. 

“Dune” is currently in movie theaters and will be streaming on HBO Max until November 21.