Process of Adaptation
From a legal standpoint, when a literary source has not passed into the public domain, rights must be arranged for the adaptation to be performed legally. Plagiarism occurs in every genre, and throughout history, but such literary rights violations can be challenged in court. In the case of Hollywood films, judgments for the plaintiff can run into the millions of dollars, but these have typically been for outright theft of a screenplay idea rather than for fraudulent adaptations (see Buchwald v. Paramount).
Because of the importance of telling a tight story with a limited number of characters, short stories often make better sources for adaptable material for the screen and stage than do novels. For the stage much the same applies except that theater audiences tend to accept and prefer works of a more conceptual, thought-based nature, meaning their preferences need to be considered when selecting a work for adaptation, but also when determining how best to adapt it. The stage imposes physical limits of size and technology. Not every illusion that can be made to appear real on the movie screen can be made to appear so on stage.
Read more about this topic: Literary Adaptation
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