Word: filming
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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However, there do seem to be some consistent problems in making novel-based films. Often when adapting a novel to film, sacrifices must be made in plot, character and, to some degree, style. Most novels are simply too long or too complex to be satisfactorily encompassed by a two, or perhaps three-hour film (even a single Shakespearean play, such as Hamlet, can last up to four hours in its entirety...
...Sometimes the novel is overwritten enough that, when chopped into its composite elements, it makes for an enjoyable film that remains somewhat true to the book's original plot, as witnessed in the critically acclaimed L.A. Confidential. Occasionally, despite a terrible novel, a masterful director can be successfully reworked into a great movie, such as the aquatic thriller Jaws. But usually, a great work of literature finds itself dismembered and crammed into a limited space of two hours. While they can still be great movies, and even capture the true spirit of the works they are based on, the audience...
...However, short stories seem to translate well to film, sometimes becoming something even better than the original work. Where a novel must be condensed, short stories must be expanded, gaining a more complex plot, more characters and more detail. Also, most short stories develop an overarching theme rather than character, so the film version can spend more time on the development of these characters...
...Disney animated films are the best example of this. Disney takes short fairy tales and imbues them with character, lengthens the plot and often makes it more complex, and (unfortunately) inserts a happy ending every time. (It's only in the last decade that Disney has begun to attempt adapting novels, with varied results.) Some other examples of short tales being made into good, or at least successful, films include 2001: A Space Odyssey (expanded after the film's production into a whole novel) and The Lawnmower Man. John Campbell's short sci-fi story The Thing spawned a classic...
...Burton's film, however, gleefully embraces the existence of the Horseman; the trailer begins with the decapitated equestrian removing 12 pounds of ugly fat from a local. Furthermore, Ichabod Crane is no longer a mild-mannered, homely schoolteacher but a snobby constable from New York City, played by Johnny Depp. Many new characters have been added, including several new supernatural denizens of the superstitious town. The result is what promises to be a dark, complex, and, as always with Burton, thoroughly weird and wonderful film, a cross between Edward Scissorhands and The Nightmare Before Christmas, with just a hint...