“In 999 out of 1,000 cases they make it worse”

As a novelist and TV writer, George RR Martin has some experience with adaptations. After all, he was personally involved in Game of Thrones, the film adaptation of his fantasy saga A Song of Ice and Fire. At least up to a certain point.

On his personal blog, GRRM recently talked about adaptations, perhaps even secretly making fun of the two GoT showrunners, and confessed his love for a very current adventure serieswhich is also based on a book.

Game of Thrones author George RR Martin loves the new Shogun adaptation

Gorge RR Martin writes:

Everywhere you look there are screenwriters and producers who want to take great stories and make them ‘their own.’ It doesn’t seem to matter if the source was written by Stan Lee, Charles Dickens, Ian Fleming, Roald Dahl, Ursula K. Le Guin, JRR Tolkien, Mark Twain, Raymond Chandler, Jane Austen or… anyone else. […] But they never make it better. In 999 out of 1,000 cases they make things worse.

No wonder Martin writes this as an author of novels, which are obviously very close to his heart. Others say it’s the job of screenwriters and directors to change things when they change mediums and re-release under their own name. Even highly successful adaptations, like the Lord of the Rings trilogy, have done that. And let’s not forget who “appropriated” Beauty and the Beast in the 80s to reinvent it for modern television, right, George?

Martin admits, however, that he was recently incredibly impressed by an ambitious new film adaptation: the historical Japanese adventure Shogun, which is the second adaptation of James Clavell’s novel after the 1980s miniseries Shogun:

I must confess, I was doubtful when I heard they were doing a new version of the Clavell novel. It was a long time ago, a long long LONG time ago, that I read the book when it came out in the late 70s and was mightily impressed. And the 1980 mini-series with Richard Chamberlain as Anjin was, along with Roots, a Milestone of serial television; why do it again if the version was so good?

Martin continued:

But I’m glad they did it. The new Shogun is superb. […] The fascinating thing is that although the old and the new version have significant differences […]they are both faithful to the Clavell novel in their own way. I think the author would have been satisfied.

The new Shogun series appeared on US television on FX, in Germany it is streamable on Disney+It was originally intended to be a complete miniseries, but is now set to have additional seasons.

Shogun is the series surprise of the year

The historical drama Shogun is now available to stream with a total of 10 episodes. It’s not just samurai fans who are absolutely thrilled. But what makes the Disney+ series so good?

We begin our conversation with the book, which was adapted into a series in the early 80s. A further adaptation sounded like a bad idea to many. But boldly chosen perspectives and extreme attention to detail make Shogun a masterpiece.