Adaptation of Literary Works in Films Communications & Media Essay (Essay Sample)

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Adaptation of Literary Works in Films
The adaptations of literary works into films can be traced back in the history of film making. It is like every single film was made of a novel or other literary works these days. According to John Harrington book, Film And/Is Art, approximately 35% of the movie ever made have been adapted from novels, and this estimate can move to 65% or more with the inclusion of other literary work such as plays and short stories. Typical examples are the numerous versions of screenplays drawn from the Sherlock Holmes books and equally more from Romeo and Juliet literary works. Almost all classic literature sources studied in schools by students have been adapted to TV shows in different versions, formats, settings and in multiple languages. The relationship between literature and film is inseparable as they are compatible such that the sequence of scenes on screenplays narrates a story that is equivalent to the words on a page of a novel. Therefore, With the underpinnings from the TV Series, The Wire and examples from other movies, films are a detailed visual novel that reveals unexpected connections, unravels hidden causes, manifests outcomes of various characters, and explores the universe in reality. In fact, The Wire is just a novel in a television form or a televised novel.
The Wire written by David Simon somewhat looks like a show drafted to highlight the social fabrics of a Baltimore city as it covers topics such the educational system, politics, crime, and police bureaucracy. The movie decided to lend itself into borrowing the works of H.B. Ogden, the forgotten writer behind the Victorian novels. Ogden wrote a series of fiction pieces that were collectively known Victorian masterpiece of The Wire. Ogden commenced the syndication of his books in 1846, which was published in 60 batches in a span of 6 years (Wells-Lassagne 74). Each batch consisted of 30 pages with the illustrations of Baxter Black on the covers and selling for one pound. People compared Ogden to Charles Dickens as both had started as journalists before diverging to authorship. However, Ogden works did not reach as many readers compared to Dicken’s Corpus. For this reason, the material plunged into the risk of the oblivion of academic as it had been overlooked and ignored by scholars and popular culture as well (Wells-Lassagne 72). Despite Ogden’s masterpiece receiving gross literary injustice throughout the 19th century, the case was different towards the 20th century as it inspired the now most smart and legendary TV series The Wire (2002-2008).