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The point of original scripts when all Hollywood produces are movies based on novels?

I've done some research lately, especially on the drama genre. I don't see why anyone would bother to write original drama scripts when at least 80-95% of drama movies are based on novels, and the small percentage that aren't based on novels consists of only comedy and musicals. I decided to check out other genres as well, and guess what? I see the same pattern, especially currently. So many Hollywood movies and even indie films are based on novels , so what's the point in writing a screenplay? Might as well be a novelist.
 
I've done some research lately, especially on the drama genre. I don't see why anyone would bother to write original drama scripts when at least 80-95% of drama movies are based on novels, and the small percentage that aren't based on novels consists of only comedy and musicals. I decided to check out other genres as well, and guess what? I see the same pattern, especially currently. So many Hollywood movies and even indie films are based on novels , so what's the point in writing a screenplay? Might as well be a novelist.

Well if hollywood won't produce something original there is always the indie film scene
 
I've done some research lately, especially on the drama genre. I don't see why anyone would bother to write original drama scripts when at least 80-95% of drama movies are based on novels, and the small percentage that aren't based on novels consists of only comedy and musicals. I decided to check out other genres as well, and guess what? I see the same pattern, especially currently. So many Hollywood movies and even indie films are based on novels , so what's the point in writing a screenplay? Might as well be a novelist.
Many writers of screenplays are creative people with a story they
want to tell. They aren't writing based on percentages. Have you
researched how many screenplays are written and how many get
made? I don't see why anyone would bother writing a screenplay.
Have you done research on how many novels are written and how
many are published? Are the percentages better?

I didn't do the deep research you did but I looked at the top ten
drama films of 2016 by box office, popularity (IMdB) and critics
(Rotten Tomatoes) and found that 4 in 10 were adaptations. That's
not 80-95%, that's less than 50%.

I'd love to know more about your research. Is this 80-95% based
on all of the 2000's? Did you include only studio films? How did you
define "drama"? You might be mathematically correct. However you
don't seem to understand the creative mind of a writer.
 
And story telling has been around a little longer...

So I don't understand your statement, "Originality is key in writing. "
You just said whatever we think is original, isn't. If we can't be original
then originality is NOT key in writing.
 
It is key because people want new ideas and it's not good to plagiarise. But I am also saying in the same breath, that it's hard to do so because of how long film has been in existence. Whatever you create has been done already. It's how you twist it. Your version of the idea to make it creative.
 

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Newspaper articles and tabloids are very much alive.

False.

They're dying. For a while, it was a seemingly-slow death. The pace is increasing, especially with newspapers. Hell... Gannett is eliminating most all local employees from the papers they own and consolidating to central/regional offices. This leaves almost nobody on the local beat, so it's all turnkey reporting from the wire with no local reporters who know the local politics, charities, social events. They're cutting out anything and everything they can just to minimize overhead.

Only the papers in the big cities, like the LA Times (owned by Tronc), have escaped the massive bloodletting, but have still seen considerable restructuring.

The New Orleans Times-Picayune isn't even printed in Louisiana anymore. It comes out of Mobile, AL. Most of the staff were cut in the Baton Rouge and New Orleans beureaus. The facility that prints the Times-Picayune also prints 2 or 3 other papers in other states. The news articles show up oj the websites first, then selections are pulled from there for the print versions.

Newspaper subscriptions are only a tiny percentage today of what they were 15 years ago. Our local paper has people outiside Wal Mart Neighborhood Market and at the mall frequently trying to drum up subscriptions, and they're literally begging people to subscribe for pennies an issue.

Papers are trying to reinvent themselves for digital comsumers, but even that's not paying the bills. On the other hand, there are outlets like HuffPo that are strictly online, but they keep their overhead low by relying mostly on free contributions rather than paid submissions.

Magazines are facing many of the same challenges with dramatic falls in subscription sales. Newsweek is a prime example, and it died but then returned as a slimmed-down shell of what it used to be. National Geographic laid off all its staff photogs and much of its other staff.

So, I have no idea what you consider "alive and well", but print is barely the former and absolutely not the latter.
 
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The ideal situation is write an excellent novel and write the screenplay too.

I did the opposite. I wrote a screenplay and self published it as a novel on Amazon.

If a good novel has some buzz it's pretty easy for Hollywood to want to adapt it.

Also, if you think about it, Hollywood is bombarded by screenplays. Which, are so numerous that it is impossible to read them all. The book industry however doesn't have the same level of pressure on it. Which is why book adaptations are more popular among studios than direct to screen screenplays.

I bet when the talent sees a random screenplay they feel like vomiting, but a book is like a trojan horse.

You know Fight Club is a pretty good adaptation of a book. The book is not long itself, and really doesn't contain a whole lot more than the screenplay.

Conversely, I was always disappointed on the adaptation of Goosebumps books for TV as the books are not terribly different than screenplay format. Double Spaced, 120 pages (but the books are only dvd sized as opposed to the size of a notebook) All you would have to do is rotate the location descriptions and the speech prompts and you would have a screenplay.
 
Also, if you think about it, Hollywood is bombarded by screenplays. Which, are so numerous that it is impossible to read them all. The book industry however doesn't have the same level of pressure on it.
Is this true? The publishers are not bombarded with manuscripts at the
same level as Hollywood?

I have very little knowledge of book publishing. Do you know the rough
numbers; manuscripts vs. screenplays?
 
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