The “8 PM News” offers an overview of the transition of bookstores to the big screen on the occasion of the Book Fair. Did you know that one in five movies is inspired by a novel? From “The Three Musketeers” to “The Count of Monte Cristo,” passing through the works of Pierre Lemaitre or the Asterix comics: the market for adaptations is experiencing phenomenal success, often with fierce battles to negotiate the rights.
This text is part of the transcript of the above report. Click on the video to watch it in full. In cinema, some of the greatest stories start in books, from classic novels to contemporary bestsellers. They are increasingly featured on the screen. According to a recent study, one in five films is based on a book. The winning formula of the moment is here. Take a popular classic, add a star face, multiply by a huge budget. The result? For “The Count of Monte Cristo,” for example, more than 12 million viewers worldwide and an audience rediscovering the original work.
“There are differences between the book and the film adaptation. It intrigued me, I wanted to see what the differences were in the book,” says a young viewer. “In movies, not all the details written in books are there, so it allows me to savor the story a bit more,” says another.
But sometimes, the biggest successes in theaters overshadow the book. In 1993, Spielberg resurrects dinosaurs and revolutionizes cinema. “Jurassic Park” breaks all records, grossing a billion dollars. “If you want to create something very convincing, you need to bring every member to life. If I hadn’t been able to make these dinosaurs as real as filming an elephant today, I would never have made this film,” the filmmaker stated at the time. But before Spielberg’s masterpiece, there is a book and a fierce battle to obtain the rights. Author Michael Crichton is already a sought-after commodity. Hollywood grabs his novel before its release.
“We have lots of studios starting to fight, we have James Cameron who wants the rights to make it a horror film, an ‘Alien’ in ‘Jurassic Park’. He said, ‘I was just hours away from seeing it, but Spielberg got it before me.’ Spielberg really almost got down on his knees,” explains Mélanie Toubeau, a cinema journalist, and content creator. A dinosaur story bought for almost a million and a half dollars.
Today, the race for adaptations is not only in Hollywood. Frédérique Massart, director of audiovisual rights at Gallimard, is the editor who sold the rights to three successful books. Today, she will try to convince producers with “investigations, a bit of comedy, thrillers, crime novels, etc. These are books that will sell more easily,” she points out.
Sarah Reese Geffroy, director of literary adaptations at Studio Canal, buys the rights for the studio that produced these films and will have to outdo her competing producers: “Today, audiovisual rights go very quickly, often even before the publication of a book,” she emphasizes. A crucial and timed meeting. Publishers have 30 minutes to impress nearly 300 producers. “Once the novel is out and successful, that’s when everyone positions themselves. It’s often war,” says Julie Billy, a producer.
A battle, but in the end, a win-win market. At the box office, there is a 33% increase in admissions for adaptations. And in bookstores, sales also rise. For “Consent,” Vanessa Springora’s book, for example, sales skyrocketed by 500% after the film’s release. Some writers are particularly popular among filmmakers. Agatha Christie ranks on the podium with around thirty films. Next is Stephen King, the king of thrillers. And the top spot goes to a monument: Shakespeare, with a thousand audiovisual adaptations.
And then there are others, those that cinema has long neglected. Written in 1954, it is a book considered unadaptable by Hollywood. The rights were sold in the 50s, but the manuscript of “The Lord of the Rings” changed hands several times. A 1,000-page novel, too long, too complex. Several projects were abandoned: “The most famous, the one that made the most noise, would have involved the Beatles. Paul would have played the Hobbit Frodo, George would have played Gandalf, and John would have played maybe Gollum. But the project failed due to rivalries between Paul and John in assigning roles,” specifies Vincent Ferré, literature professor, and Tolkien specialist.
But the story will turn out well. In 2001, Peter Jackson turned “The Lord of the Rings” into a global success. At the time, he admitted, “I knew from the start that I wasn’t making this film for the thousands of book fans because in reality, no one expected to see this film one day. So I made it for a single fan: me.”
Successful novels fueling cinema. 2026 will be no exception: classics and contemporary stories will have a new life on the big screen.
