I remember reading them back in the early 90s (Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, Far and Away, Back to the Future). They don’t seem to be a thing anymore (or am I just not noticing them).
As an aside I remember liking them but I was a preteen at the time so maybe they were terrible and I just liked the movies.
You must log in or register to comment.
The Testaments by Margaret Atwood is a Handmaids Tale spinoff published after the show was aired. I actually think it was better written than Handmaids Tale.
I loved The Testaments
They still make them. I’ve read quite a few of them. They’re usually far from being literary masterpieces but they’re a fun guilty pleasure for me. Right now I’m reading a novelization that just came out this year for the show Firefly. It’s just fun being back in that world.
Marvel made some of its movies into kids books recently, I think I saw Far from Home and winter soldier for Probably age group 8-10 or something like that.
Some, but less so than in the heyday.
There’s often Star Wars ones, I know (which, I mean, with how much SW merch there is, no one should be surprised at that).
I remember the glory days of them in the 70s and 80s.
There would be the novelization. Then the YA novelization. Then the photostory. Then the photobook. And then the audio storybook of the movie (on an LP) with a book.
Terminator has an American novelization and a British novelization. Written by separate authors.
It used to be routine for me to see the movie and get the novelization. If only I’d watched more movies but I was never a big movie goer.
I know the new Halloween trilogy got novelizations!
If you’re looking for a surprisingly good one, Spider-Man (2002) was kinda fun. It ties a lot of things together and has nice details, like Peter writing letters to his dead parents and using them as a moral sounding board, Uncle Ben watching Peter’s wrestling match on tv and other fun stuff like that
There was one for Million Ways to Die in the West, written by Seth MacFarlane himself. He’s a pretty decent writer, and there’s a few scenes that weren’t in the final film.
Tarantino wrote one for Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, although that was an intentional nostalgic throwback to the heyday of novelisations.
I remember as a kid I had a novelisation of Jurassic Park. Not the book that movie was based on, but a novelisation of the actual movie. I remember liking it quite a bit.
The Doctor Who novelisations are famously good, and for many fans of the original (Classic) run of the show, the novelisations are more memorable than the show itself. Any of the ones written by Terrence Dicks are especially good.
The novelisations of the Star Wars prequels are better than the movies, especially Revenge of the Sith. They take the great ideas George Lucas had in that trilogy and iron out the stilted execution.
They’re from an era when movies weren’t available on demand. It was harder to find a movie again after it left theatres, so novelisations filled the gap. They’re still around, but far less necessary than they used to be.
No, sorry. They’re just doing novelizations of tik-tok videos now.
The X-files has a novelization of the movie (I have it of course) and there was a series of YA books that were episode novelizations. I don’t remember all the titles they did but I know one was Eve.
I think the most recent one I read was for the Force Awakens, so they certainly made it into the mid teens. I’ve always enjoyed them, too. I’m not as big on movies as books (the trend of movies being so dark/ badly lit does not get along with my desire to see what’s going on) so I read a lot of novelizations. I quite liked the one of Ever After. Pacific Rim’s made some interesting choices (like having the two leads kiss) that annoyed me.
I love movie novelizations, don’t even care about the quality tbh. I just think they’re fun.
The Labyrinth one is excellent, I think it eventually came back in print after a long time out of print. I see them occasionally, probably much more in YA or middle grade though.
Something I often wish for is a well-written novelisation of Horizon: Zero Dawn, complete with dialogue from the game, working with the studio to ensure the main and side quests are in a suitable order. It’s a brilliant story, loads of lore about the past and present, great characters. But loads of people will never experience it because it’s a game - like my mum, who’s hopeless with consoles. But she loves The Wheel of Time, GoT, Star Wars etc., so a novelisation of Horizon: Zero Dawn would be right up her street. I’d explain the story to her in my own words, but it wouldn’t hit nearly as hard as playing it did.