From fairytale land to Hollywood Boulevard

Have you ever wondered why Hollywood has released adult versions of fairy tales like Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty (Maleficent)? Have you also wondered why we are seeing cartoons like the classical Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Aladdin being made into live action movies for the adult fanbase. If you guessed money was being the primary objective, you'd be right, but that's not what this blog is all about. This blog will introduce you to the concept of adapting fairy tales into real life situation movies and or any fantasy movie that you write.

So, what do fairy tales offer besides teaching young children about good and evil and about having a high moral compass? They all have a central controlling idea or a universal theme followed by a message that adds to the profoundness of the story. If you look at today's society, where evil is practically running around unchecked and unchallenged, where radicals are committing all sorts of crimes under the guise of "a greater good" (a utilitarian stance or view of things), or in the name of God underneath the facade they would usually project to the rest of the world. You can practically see the evil on this planet growing at an exponential rate.

So, without getting all religious or having one of those hollier than thou stance or attitude towards something or someone, how do you not so obviously communicate this in mediums like film and television? You look to fairy tales that do not mention religious, but carry a religious theme. For example, the epic star wars trilogy of films released in the late 1970s and the early 1980s, carries a christian theme without a mention of any religion or religious texts when George Lucas introduced "the force". It is subtle, but effective. With movies or screenplays of a religious nature, focus should be on the message and the profoundness of the movie rather than that of the religious nature of the movie or the characters in the movie.

I can affirm this by further saying that I have come across a lot of scripts as a reader and the ones that didn't simply make the cut. This is because they were either blunt or made a declaration of religious affiliation through one of the characters (through the main character mostly). Because we are talking about film and television, a visual media unto itself, a lot of these screenwriters cannot seem to grasp the concept of "show, don't tell" axiom that all professional screenwriters abide by.

Keep in mind that the adaptation of fairy tales that I am talking about in this blog involves writing for science fiction and fantasy movies and television shows - a genre of screenwriting that I subscribe to.

So, how did I go about figuring this out all by myself? Well, I didn't. I had a little help when I purchased and read about genre screenwriting. In this book, the author explained how fairy tales can easily be adapted into the film or television show writing effectively and he takes us through the process of how to go about doing it. I will include a link to the book right now:

Genre screenwriting by Stephen V Duncan

I'd highly recommend this book, because it is an easy read and has examples of how the author adapted fairy tales to his screenplays in similar genres.

The only thing you need to adapt fairy tales into a screenplay or any piece of fantasy work that you are involved in, you need to create a storyline with elements of a particular fairy tale that you are planning to include in the movie or television show. As far as structuring the film or television show goes, you will notice that every single one of these fairy tales, including films like the ones in the Harry Potter franchise, the Narnia franchise as well as The Shannara Chronicles (a Netflix offering), they all follow the hero's journey described and prescribed by the Joseph Campbell in his book: The Hero with a thousand faces.

You may want to study the fairy tale that you want to use in your film or television show to figure out what that fairy tale did right and what was it about that fairy tale that you like so much about. Once you have identified what it was that made that fairy tale appeal to you in the first place that made it your all time childhood favorite, figure out a way to adapt it to the screenplay, keeping in mind the audience for the film and or the television show.

So, whatever story idea you are working on and whichever fairy tale you are thinking about adapting to that story idea, write it in such a way that those elements of the fairy tale aren't so obvious that the audience finds it easy to spot and find it boring. Keep in mind that the critics will pounce at any chance to destroy your work when they find something wrong with the script.

Good luck with your venture.