George R.R. Martin has experience with adaptations. The author watched as HBO adapted his Song of Ice and Fire books for TV as Game of Thrones, contributing a few scripts along the way. HBO is currently in the midst of adapting his book Fire & Blood for the small screen as House of the Dragon. There have been some bumps in that road; after the second season aired, Martin aired out some of his issues with how the show was adapting his book, and the resulting fracas was big enough for HBO to release a statement to calm things down.
And now, Martin is out promoting In The Lost Lands, a new movie based on his short story of the same name. Speaking to Collider alongside the Milla Jovovich and Paul W. S. Anderson, who starred in and directed the movie, Martin admitted that he's gotten "in trouble" for talking about adaptations in the past. But for him, adaptation is a very personal subject.
"These are my children, these stories I create," Martin said. "And you have two choices when you sell them for adaptation: you can try to get involved or you can just [say], 'alright, I wrote a book, they're making a movie, it's a different thing.' And sometimes it's good to do one and sometimes it's good to do the other."
Sometimes, a writer gets the experience of getting to see their story adapted well, which can feel "very special":
"[I]f it's good, and if it's good in the way that you wrote it, it's like your dreams have come alive. These children of yours, these fictional children; there they are on the screen. I can't describe how great a feeling that is, how exciting it is."
Sometimes, it even happens that someone makes substantial changes to something you wrote and it turns out better. Martin gave the example of the depiction of King Viserys I Targaryen in the first season of House of the Dragon: "[H]e's a very minor in my book. But they got Paddy Considine to play him. )And he was robbed, he should have won an Emmy. He was really amazing. Amazing.) And his character... his Viserys is so much better than my Viserys. It made me want to go back and rewrite the book, but I didn't. That can happen too."
"I know writers who have gone to the premiere of their movie and gotten up and walked out."
But then there's the opposite experience, where a writer sees their work adapted on the screen and finds it's lacking. "There's also the downside, where you watch the movie and it's not your children; they've done something," Martin said. "I know writers who have gone to the premiere of their movie and gotten up and walked out. They just can't take it, because there is such a strong personal relationship there."
Overall, Martin has been in this business long enough — and been a fan before that — to have perspective on this issue. "I think when you're adapting, if you respect the original material, you should stay as close to it as possible. And if there's a reason for change — and many times there are reasons for change; a lot of them are budgetary or they're practical concerns of what you can do, what you can't do — make changes for good reasons."
Martin also has perspective on where his books fit into all of this. He cites the experience of author James M. Cain, the writer of The Postman Always Rings Twice, who when asked what he thought of what Hollywood had done with his books, replied, "Hollywood hasn't done anything to my books. There they all are, up on the shelf."
"That is the answer you give sometimes," Martin said.
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