Research Guides: Film Studies: Adaptations

Film Adaptations

Film adaptations is the term used for the process or works adapted from literature or music.

The following subject terms can identify adaption resources within VCU Libraries collections.

Film Adaptations
Drama -- Film and Video Adaptations
English Literature -- Film Adaptations
Authors name -- Film and Video Adaptations
- i.e. Shapespeare, William -- Film and Video Adaptations

The following web resources list the literary source of films:

AFI Catalog of Feature Films
Film entries list the Source Text and Authors. Author link displays a list of films based on author's works.
Internet Movie Database (imdb)
Film entry Writer section (just below the film description) includes the source writer and title. A name search of a writer displays a biographical, quotes, trivia, and filmography.
BFI Film & TV Database
Film credits lists the writer of the literary source. Search a writer for a list of film credits (noting names of works if different than film title) and films about the writer. Also, the British Film Institute site has essays about film adaptation and prominant British author's works on film.

Film Adaptations Reference

The Complete Index to Literary Sources on Film
Call Number: Cabell Library Reference PN1997.85.G64 1999
Provides information on titles, years, directors, actors, film lengths, and origins of international and silent films based on previous books, plays, short stories, or poems.
Encyclopedia of Folklore and Literature
Call Number: Cabell Library Reference PN41.E48 1998
The more than 350 alphabetically arranged entries include writers and literary works that use folklore as a resource or source. The work concentrates on European and Western themes, including classical Greek and Roman.
Shakespeares after Shakespeare: An Encyclopedia of the Bard in Mass Media and Popular Culture
Call Number: Cabell Library Reference PR2880.A1 S63 2007
Includes sections on types of media to which Shakespeare has been adapted, each beginning with an overview essay, followed by sections on individual plays. (2 Volumes)
The Encyclopedia of Novels into Film
Call Number: Cabell Library Reference PN1997.85.T54 2005
Alphabetically arranged entries for film adaptations provide the date of release, the production company, and the director and screenwriter, and discusses the plot of each film.
The Encyclopedia of Stage Plays into Film
Call Number: PN1997.85.T544 2001
Films into Books: an analytical bibliography of film novelizations, movie, and TV tie-ins
Call Number: Cabell Library Reference PS374.M55 L37 1995
International Guide to Literature on Film
Call Number: Cabell Library Reference PN1997.85.I67 1994
Writers on the American Screen
Call Number: Cabell Library Z5784.M9 L28 1986