Lost in Translation, or Rediscovered Meaning: A Comparative Study on Books Turned into Movies or Screenplays

Everyone has had the experience of walking out of a theater after seeing a movie or a play based on a book and saying, "The book was so much better." This unit gives your students an opportunity to understand better the process of translating a book into a movie or screenplay: what parts might get lost in translation and what parts have a chance to be developed further by the tools available in a movie that aren't available within the four corners of a book. This understanding will be driven by the opportunity to speak with a Screenwriter who has written such a movie, an Actor who has played a role in such a movie or screenplay, an Author, and, finally, a Movie Critic that evaluates and judges movies on their ability to make the jump from paper to film.

1. Professional Actor

2. Screenwriter

3. Novelist

4. Movie Critic