Introduction: The Art of Adaptation in Film and Video Games

ABSTRACT

Dennis Cutchins (2018) Studying the transformative journey of content from one genre or medium to another is of interest to academics, members of the public who are avid consumers of media, and practitioners of adaptation—and we are all practitioners, whether delivering a message by email originally intended to be spoken, or adapting a book (like S. A. Corey’s science fiction novel Leviathan Wakes) into a television series (like Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby’s The Expanse) into a video game (like The Expanse A Telltale Series). Thomas (2021b) also discusses Star Wars video games as part of a wide-ranging interview with acclaimed game designer Ryan Kaufman, who is currently VP of Narrative at mobile game studio Jam City, and former Creative Director at Telltale Games. (2020) study three texts relating to Finnish forests—the film Tale of a Forest (2012), the book Tale of a Forest (2013), and a series of short documentaries called Tales from the Forest (2013)—with a focus on how each works as an environmentally conscious narrative. The film, for instance, presents images of primeval Finnish forests (which can be considered nostalgic and escapist, but still promote awareness about ecological issues), while the book and documentary series take alternative approaches, such as discussing contemporary forestry practices in an attempt to educate audiences.