Yesterday I was watching a YouTube video which made mention of a novelization of last year's Halloween reboot film, a book which I had no idea existed despite being a huge Halloween fan. I ran out right away and bought a copy, but this got me to reflecting on the whole novelization thing.

I know that the whole existence of movie novelizations has been largely treated with disdain and derision by more literary writers (and readers), and not exactly unfairly so much of the time. There have been plenty of terrible ones, quickie cash grabs on the part of the studio seemingly cranked out in 3 weeks or less where the author barely did more than turn the script's actions and dialogue into simple prose form. But then on the other end of the spectrum you get ones like Star Wars Episode III which, no matter how you feel about the movie itself or the SW prequels in general, is a genuine work of art.

Like most things, I think the vast majority lie in the middle and even mediocre ones can nonetheless be entertaining to some extent. I just know that growing up in the 80s, they were a big part of my reading experience. My bookshelves back home contain not just the original novelizations to the original Star Wars trilogy and the Star Trek movies, but countless others as well....Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Rocky IV, the Batman movies, a few of the Superman movies, Close Encounters, the Jaws sequels, the original Halloween movies, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, even things like Karate Kid Part II and Spaceballs (!) (Yes, Spaceballs had a novelization).

They seem to be largely extinct now, though. The Star Wars movies still get them, of course, but the last Star Trek movie in 2016 did not, the first in the series to get no novelization. I don't think most superhero movies from Marvel or DC get them anymore either----back in the day, even the animated Batman: Mask of the Phantasm did!

Maybe they're just extraneous now. You don't need the extra way to experience a movie you love in the meantime because it'll be available to watch in your home 10 weeks after it premieres in theaters. Plus many of the biggest franchise movies of the last 15 years like Harry Potter and the Hunger Games movies were already based on books anyway.

They used to be a HUGE deal to me. I experienced the world through my visits to bookstores when I was young (my Mom would go to the mall or something, and I would go with her to go to the bookstore, the video arcade, the toy store, etc.)

I usually bought and read movie novelizations for any movie that was a big sci-fi or adventure blockbuster. I read novelizations for everything from E.T., to Star Wars, Last Starfighter, Gremlins, you name it. I often read them before I got a chance to see the movie.

I don't think I've purchased one since the Keaton Batman movie first came out.
But I have noticed that Audible periodically was offering me short audio-book versions
of the 20+ Marvel movies as they came out. So someone is making and buying them yet.

I was also a huge fan of these things. If there was a movie coming out I wanted to see, I'd read the novelisation first if I had the chance.

I recall reading things like Tron, Gremlins, E.T., etc. I even used to read novelisations of Knight Rider episodes.

The last time I read one was for the novelisation of the Ang Lee Hulk movie. It was better than the movie in many ways and went into more detail. Peter David did a good job of setting things up and there was a whole sub plot that wasn't gone into too much detail about in the movie (about Banner being watched as a result of his Father experimenting on him, etc).

I'm not sure why I stopped reading them after that. They were once a big deal to me, but with the internet making movies available (by whatever means) so quickly maybe they've become obsolete as you suggest? I don't know.

Oh yeah, Peter David writes (or wrote?) great novelizations. I didn't read his Hulk, but really enjoyed all 3 of his Sam Raimi Spider-Man novelizations. Would have loved to see him take a crack at a Star Trek one.

And oh yeah, I loved the Gremlins book back in the day!

Recent purchases for me have been the Nolan Batman ones, the first Transformers movie one, and Pacific Rim.

This decade I've bought The Dark Knight Rises, Star Trek Into Darkness, and the Star Wars ones, but that's it, I think.

And now Halloween, which is almost 400 pages, a staggering pagecount for a slasher movie adaptation.

The only one I have ever read was for Clash of the Titans.

I loved that one as well.

Sometimes novelizations differ from the movies.In Chris Claremont's Novelization of X2,Jean Grey survived after saving her teammates,although she was left blinded.No doubt Claremont was working from an earlier draft of the screenplay.

I love it when they do a novelization based on a movie, based on a book.

I don't remember what movie it was, but I swear I remember there being some novelization that left out the final scene to preserve the movie's twist ending. You had to go online and print out the last couple pages or something.

Loved it. Read that one long before I was able to go see the movie.

I'm sure Li'l Jay will remember the Campbell Black adaptation of Raiders of the Lost Ark. I recall reading that, even though I don't remember it in detail. Did the Scorcher concept originate in that novel (or in another version of the story)?

That possibility was probably already ruled out, but I don't recall exactly what the origin of the Scorcher belief was thought to have been.

I read it, and I tracked down a copy recently to check the scorcher theory. I posted that in the Scorchy thread, and my ultimate conclusion was that may have been the source of it. I don't know how it can explain the worldwide phenomenon that swept the world, but the last line of the book says the crate was beginning to hum.

It was reported in 2016 in the Scorched Crate Thread, on this page, with photos.

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=79405&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&hilit=scorched&start=528

Sidebar: If you're interested, Prof, the Trek novelizations thread now has two posts from me about Vendetta.

You should go there so we can talk about how great Vendetta is.

I have always enjoyed them as well. I picked up last year's Halloween, and this year I got a Happy Death Day/ Happy Death Day 2U 2-fer, which adapted both movies (of course!) in one volume. They are so rare these days that I almost want to support any I come across. Peter David and Max Allan Collins were always pretty dependably good. Most novelisations tend to work from earlier drafts and have scenes, sub-plots, and even characters that were cut from the final film.
Another thing I liked in novelizations from the 70s and 80s was the insert of 8-12 or so pages of photos from the movie bound into the middle of the book. Before the days of VCRs it was a nice way to revisit the movie. They seemed to be totally gone by the 90s. I recently started collecting paperbacks by Stephen King that came with the film photos. So far I have managed to find Carrie, Cujo, Christine, Night Shift (Children of the Corn was the movie featured in that volume) and the Dead Zone. I am not sure what other paperbacks had the film tie-ins like that. I don't recall the Shining having a photo insert, and the only other film adaptations of King's work that were released in the 80s that might potentially have the photo inserts were Firestarter, Stand By Me, and Pet Semetary.
Anyway, sorry, that's a little off-topic!

That's a great novelization.

I mean I've never read it, but it must be.

Thank you!

I've bumped that thread so that the Scorcher debate can continue.

I liked Alan Dean Foster's novelizations. I also liked his Midworld books, but they were the inspiration for Avatar so that's disgraceful.

and when I say books, I mean book. As is traditional.