"Beyond" Novelization

[The Wormhole]

I guess maybe they won't make one for star trek beyond because the script was subjected to too many changes and last minute additions while filming and doing reshoots.

Which is nothing new for these movies. Abrams massively overhauled mind meld between Kirk and Spock Prime in Trek XI just two weeks before the film's release, resulting in the destruction of Romulus being much different than it was in the working script available to IDW when they were writing the Countdown comic.

Okay, Beyond's reshoots are a bit more drastic (they even cast a new character created specifically for the reshoots). But, the decision not to do a novelization was likely made before these reshoots were done. The reshoots were done in the winter. Based on how soon prior to STID's release ADF was contracted to do the novelization (October 2012) the final decision not to do one for Beyond would have been made in December 2015.

Besides, how many movies these days even get novelizations? TFA is the only one in the past year I'm aware of, and that's likely related to Star Wars being such a merchandising blitzkrieg. Aside from books movies are based on getting new covers to tie-in with the movies, I don't recall anything else.

 

[Kor]

Besides, how many movies these days even get novelizations? TFA is the only one in the past year I'm aware of, and that's likely related to Star Wars being such a merchandising blitzkrieg. Aside from books movies are based on getting new covers to tie-in with the movies, I don't recall anything else.

Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny. They made a novelization of the mediocre movie instead of translating the excellent original Chinese novel that the movie was supposedly based on.

Kor

 

[The Wormhole]

Well, I never even heard of the movie, so no surprise I didn't know it had a novelization.

 

[tomswift2002]

You're arguing why it's worthwhile for readers, though, not worthwhile for Paramount. Calling it stupid is implying that it's worthwhile for Paramount and they made a bad decision in cutting it, and to defend that you'd need to defend it from Paramount's side, not the reader's side. Do you have any evidence that it's actually financially viable for Paramount to fund and publish a novelization? Any numbers or figures?

First of all, it wouldn't be Paramount funding the writing and the publishing of the novel, it would be the publisher (Simon & Schuster for the first 12 movies), plus the publisher would need to pay Paramount a licensing fee to get the rights to write a book based on the movie. But for Paramount the novels are a way of promoting the film, and a way to get some cash flow.

And as we've seen in the past with Star Trek reference books, Paramount and CBS have moved the rights to those books around to different publisher's since Simon & Schuster stopped their run of reference books in 2002, while S&S has retained the rights to the fiction novels based on the different series. But S&S has had to sign separate contracts for those series, so for instance, had S&S not picked up the Voyager contract in 1995, today we could very well see the Voyager books being published by Random House, with strict rules saying that only certain characters from the other series could or could not appear in the stories or certain planets. Or it could even be that the Voyager stories would only be allowed to be "new" stories that occur within the TV timeframe. So in this instance, for whatever reason, whether it was a request from the film's producers or something else, Paramount has cut off their cash flow from a promotional tie-in.

 

[Christopher]

But S&S has had to sign separate contracts for those series, so for instance, had S&S not picked up the Voyager contract in 1995, today we could very well see the Voyager books being published by Random House, with strict rules saying that only certain characters from the other series could or could not appear in the stories or certain planets.

I'm not sure of that. I don't know for a fact, but my impression has been that Pocket's license has traditionally been all-inclusive, that anything Trek is fair game by default -- the Abramsverse being an exception to that rule, as it belatedly turned out.

 

[Therin of Andor]

http://www.thetrekcollective.com/2015/11/book-bits-new-covers-new-ebooks.html
According to this article there's not going to be a novelization.

There has definitely been a trend away from media tie-in novelsations (and comic adaptions) across the board in recent years.

I assumed a "Batman v Superman" novelization was overdue, but it seems there isn't one. A YA prequel, which popped up before the movie's premiere, but no novelization.

 

[Christopher]

I assumed a "Batman v Superman" novelization was overdue, but it seems there isn't one. A YA prequel, which popped up before the movie's premiere, but no novelization.

There probably aren't enough words in the movie to fill out a novelization. It's been reported that Superman/Clark has only 43 lines in the entire movie, totalling a mere 452 words.

 

[Therin of Andor]

There probably aren't enough words in the movie to fill out a novelization. It's been reported that Superman/Clark has only 43 lines in the entire movie, totalling a mere 452 words.

That's hilarious!

 

[Stevil2001]

Film novelizations aren't entirely dead: Interstellar had one, the new Independence Day flick will have one.

 

[Idran]

This is a couple years ago, but I saw earlier that Pacific Rim had one too.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

It's unfortunate that STB won't get a novelization, but look at it this way: At least there's no chance that we'll get one written by Diane Carey.

 

[The Wormhole]

It's been reported that Superman/Clark has only 43 lines in the entire movie, totalling a mere 452 words.

Which actually is pretty typical for a Superman movie. I remember reviews for Superman Returns complaining that despite playing the lead and titular character, Brandon Routh had the least amount of dialogue out of anyone in the main cast.

 

[Christopher]

Which actually is pretty typical for a Superman movie. I remember reviews for Superman Returns complaining that despite playing the lead and titular character, Brandon Routh had the least amount of dialogue out of anyone in the main cast.

And that wasn't a very good Superman movie either. They've got to stop giving Superman movies to people who don't know what to do with Superman besides shoving him aside to focus on other characters. Superman shouldn't be this rarefied, detached figure hovering above us. He was created as a populist hero, a champion of the little guy against oppressive authority. For all his power, he's not a living god, he's just a farmboy from Kansas who's trying to be a good neighbor. He should be very relatable and approachable.

 

[Hartzilla2007]

he's not a living god, he's just a farmboy from Kansas who's trying to be a good neighbor.

They did that in Man of Steel and people bitched.

 

[Leto_II]

Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny. They made a novelization of the mediocre movie instead of translating the excellent original Chinese novel that the movie was supposedly based on.

"Would you mind if I listen to my book-on-tape? I’m kind of a bookworm. This is the novelization of the movie Precious: Based on the Novel Push, by Sapphire."

 

[Christopher]

^The movie Enemy Mine was based on a short story by Barry B. Longyear, but the movie itself was novelized, presumably because the story was too short. The novelization was credited to "Barry B. Longyear and David Gerrold," but sources conflict on whether Gerrold collaborated with Longyear or wrote the whole thing.

 

[Kor]

Well, I never even heard of the movie, so no surprise I didn't know it had a novelization.

You didn't miss much.

There was some hubbub over Crouching Tiger 2 being released on Netflix and in select IMAX theaters, with the major theater chains refusing to show it (in the US, anyway).

It's like a lame made-for-TV sequel to the original.

Kor

 

[JD]

This is a couple years ago, but I saw earlier that Pacific Rim had one too.

I actually own that one, and ones for The Dark Knight Rises, Godzilla (the new US movie), Man of Steel, and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, but I haven't read any of them yet.

 

[Leto_II]

^The movie Enemy Mine was based on a short story by Barry B. Longyear, but the movie itself was novelized, presumably because the story was too short. The novelization was credited to "Barry B. Longyear and David Gerrold," but sources conflict on whether Gerrold collaborated with Longyear or wrote the whole thing.

Another one is the movie Total Recall (the 1990 version), which received a novelization by none other than Piers Anthony (the film itself of course based on a PKD short story).

 

[Daddy Todd]

Speaking of novelizations, this is interesting.

http://www.wnyc.org/story/secret-life-novelizations/