George RR Martin, who wrote the books that inspired Game of Thrones, has taken a swipe at TV and film adaptations.
The author has said that TV shows and movies rarely live up to any source material in his most recent blog post.
George began by reminiscing on being part of a 2022 panel with Neil Gaiman – the creator of the comic book series Sandman, which Netflix adapted into a series. At the New York event, the pair spoke about disliking when Hollywood makes ‘illegitimate’ changes.
‘Very little has changed since then. If anything, things have gotten worse,’ he has now written.
‘Everywhere you look, there are more screenwriters and producers eager to take great stories and “make them their own.” It does not seem to matter [who] the source material was written by.’ He then listed authors whose work has been adapted including Stan Lee, Charles Dickens, Ian Fleming, Roald Dahl, and Jane Austen.
‘No matter how major a writer it is, no matter how great the book, there always seems to be someone on hand who thinks he can do better, eager to take the story and “improve” on it,’ he continued.
‘They never make it better, though. Nine hundred ninety-nine times out of a thousand, they make it worse.’
However, the House of the Dragon creator does point out that there can be exceptions to the rule, and he considers Shōgun to be one of them. He enjoyed both the 1980 mini-series and the recent release on Disney Plus based on James Clavell’s historical novel.
‘Both old and new screenwriters did honor to the source material, and gave us terrific adaptations, resisting the impulse to “make it their own,”’ he said.
George’s fantasy novel series A Song of Ice and Fire (the first book was titled A Game of Thrones) was adapted into Game of Thrones by David Benioff and D. B. Weiss for HBO. It ran from 2011 to 2019, with 73 episodes broadcast over eight seasons and received 59 Primetime Emmy Awards.
The series was widely praised for the performances from actors including Kit Harrington as Jon Snow, and Emilia Clarke as Daenerys Targaryen, character arcs, and movie-like production.
However, the grand finale was quickly and vociferously dismissed as the ‘worst in TV history’ by some viewers. As George is yet to finish writing the fantasy book series, it was not based on his words. A Change.org petition was even created, urging HBO to remake the season with ‘competent writers’ – and 1.8 million people signed it.
George is credited as a producer and consultant on Game of Thrones but claims he was shut out in later, reports Variety.
‘By Season 5 and 6, and certainly 7 and 8, I was pretty much out of the loop,’ he previously said.
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