'The Host' Movie: Will It Live Up to the Book?
It is a truth universally acknowledged that when a literary work becomes a film, the book is always better. The limits set by movie runtime, production budget, and audience expectations often mean that vital parts of a written work are sacrificed during its translation to screen. Book fans have learned to expect a few difficulties.
But a film version of Stephenie Meyer’s novelThe Host, slated to hit theaters March 29, arguably poses even more problems than usual for a book-to-screen turnaround. Will fans of The Host, which was No. 1 on the New York Times bestseller list for 26 weeks, love it as much in its onscreen incarnation?
The Host has an intimidating set of challenges for moviemakers. First, there’s the book’s length of 619 pages, which had to be condensed into an approximate two-hour runtime. This abbreviation is especially significant when you compare the book’s length to other fantasy works that have been split into two movies. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn are each only about 150 pages longer than The Host, but both were split into two films. The word is that Mockingjay, the final volume of the Hunger Gamestrilogy, will also become two movies even though the book is a mere 400 pages, or about half the size of the final Harry Potter.
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