It is clear that book adaptations have been a constant at Hollywood studios for years. And although many leave a lot to be desired compared to the original work, there are some exceptions that provoke applause from fans of the book.
He talked about this George R.R. Martin, writer of the Song of Ice and Fire saga, through his blog, where he has given his opinion on the adaptations. The author believes that “one in a thousand adaptations is worse than the original work”, but in recent years there has been an exception that has surprised many: Shogun.
“No matter how important a writer is, no matter how great the book, there always seems to be someone on hand who thinks they can do it better, eager to take the story and “improve” it… Although they never improve it. Nine Hundred Ninety-nine times out of a thousand, they do worse. Every once in a while, however, we get a really good adaptation of a really good book, and when that happens, it deserves a round of applause. I recently came across one of those cases. when I binge-watched the Shogun series. I think the author would have been satisfied. Both the old and new writers honored the source material and gave us great adaptations, resisting the urge to 'make it their own.'”
Martin acknowledged that he had doubts about Shogun when he first heard about her. The author assures that the original work written by Clavell impressed him a lot, and he had found the 1980 adaptation very good. That is why Martin was not so sure that this series could equal any of the two works made previously.
As he says on the blog, Martin was pleasantly surprised after watching the FX adaptation with Disney+, so he is now looking forward to seeing more about the second season of the series and, above all, looking forward to it. The same production company decides to adapt more of Clavell's novels.
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