Comparing the dog-eared pages of a well-read paperback to miles of letterbox-cropped movie film is often the difference between love and hate.
Although a common occurrence, the transition of best-loved books to blockbuster films frequently inspires strong feelings from some novel enthusiasts. The slightest interpretive variance from print to screen could potentially alienate an entire audience.
Reader anticipation for the Nov. 16 opening of \Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone,"" based on J.K. Rowling's best-selling book, put a great deal of pressure on the film's producer to remain faithful to the novel. The Associated Press reported that Rowling was a highly involved consultant on the project.
""I was as nervous a producer as you could imagine,"" said producer David Heyman of showing Rowling the film.
In spite of possible backlash if the film has a different interpretation, a well-known book title could save movie producers millions of dollars in building brand recognition. Indeed, the relationship between books and the movies they inspire is complex.
Studio heads have long depended on books for an established fan base, said Tino Balio, UW-Madison communication arts professor and Academy Award-winning historian of the American film industry.
""Hollywood has always used best-selling novels and plays as sources for motion pictures,"" he said. ""Films that have been based upon stories receive recognition and approval from audiences in other media, and a best-selling novel is a great source for motion pictures because it is indeed pre-sold.""
Today's movie-producing studios are frequently part of large multimedia conglomerates, Balio said. Therefore, producers have an easier time getting access to books.
""Major motion picture companies not only produce films, [but] they distribute films, they publish'they do lots of things,"" he said.
Unlike Rowling, most authors do not have very much control over their books as they become motion pictures. According to Amanda Henry, arts reporter for the Wisconsin State Journal, an author's power in the novel-to-movie process comes from how well the book is known.
For authors that are not heavily involved in the transition of their books to film, Henry said it may be better for them to view the movies based on their novels as separate pieces of art from their books. This way they might be less disappointed with interpretative differences.
""I suspect that it would be very hard to look at the screen and to see something ... and think, 'That's not how I wrote it,'"" she said.
Sometimes an author can earn more selling a novel's motion picture privileges than by publishing it, Balio said. Making a living as a novelist is very difficult, and he said spiteful allegations of novelists selling out by their peers are infrequent.
""It's the hope of every novelist that a producer will pick up the rights to the film because this is very lucrative,"" Balio said. ""Unless you've had the opportunity to say no [to selling the movie rights to a novel], I don't think you can accuse anybody else of selling out.""
Soren Schoff, head buyer and manager at Canterbury Booksellers, 315 W. Gorham St., said talk in literary circles of selling movie rights is definitely present, but mostly good-natured.
""I think sometimes there's resentment, but [it is] cloaked with humor,"" Schoff said.
Scott Tobias, movie and book reviewer for The Onion A.V. Club, also said he thought there was frustration among some authors prompted by Hollywood's powerful influence over the book world.
""I think there's a general resentment in literary culture that it's lost any kind of impact,"" Tobias said. ""I think everybody would like to see books have a larger impact on culture than they do.""
However, the influence of movies on books may be overestimated. Individual titles of novels, more than the movies based on them, dictate book sales, Schoff said. Some books that are very popular before their film counterparts are released saturate the reading market and don't change much in the way of sales with the film's release.
""[A movie] doesn't automatically do anything,"" Schoff said. ""Book selling is still something of an art, not a science.""
Beyond financial impacts of movies based on books, most readers fear how, if at all, films change the perception of the novels on which they are based.
""The hard-core fan base feels ownership of the story and doesn't want to see the movie ruin it,"" Schoff said.
A movie's casting and filming locations may alter perception of the book through vividness and liberal interpretation of a novel, Balio said. For instance, strong scenic elements in a film may compromise a reader's original visualization of the text if he or she sees the movie. Similarly, the film's star may present special needs to the screenplay.
""[Moviemakers] might have to develop and modify the characters in the film to correspond to the presumed strengths of the stars who will be in the film,"" Balio said. ""[Moviemakers] might even have to revise the film or change the storyline of the characters to conform to the stars who will be in the film.""
Most people understand that the simplification of a novel is inevitable in order to fit the time constraints of a movie, Schoff said, but readers are most upset by fundamental changes, in which filmmakers repair flawed endings and characters.
A film has to be taut and economical in its expression, Tobias said. But he said people put too much value on a film's faithfulness to a book. The goal of filmmakers is to ""streamline and re-imagine"" stories, ""not simply replicate them.""
Tobias said filmmakers such as John Cusack with ""High Fidelity"" and Martin Scorsese with ""The Age of Innocence"" allowed elements of personality to enter their interpretations of the books.
""The personality of people behind a movie really comes through in the material, and it becomes theirs,"" Tobias said.
Still, the effects of film interpretation on novels worry some readers. For Henry, the visual elements of ""Harry Potter"" the movie started to cloud her own imagination of ""Harry Potter"" the book.
""It's unfortunate in some ways that children reading ['Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone'] in the future will not go through that experience that's so much a part of reading a book, in which you kind of conjure up the world in your mind,"" she said.
