Category Archives: To the Big Screen

Certain books have the potential to take the leap to To the Big Screen. Maybe it was the plot. Maybe the appealing personality of the main character.

In this category, I will write about those stories that are going to be adapted into movies. Or have already been.

I will consider what made them successful. Why there considered being a movie, and what made them at made them so special in. I will also tell you the differences between the book and the movie in case they are.

This is a way to know if you should watch a movie. Or also, to know about the novel that inspired such movie. Who knows?

To the Big Screen May 18, 2021 1 Comment

Why was the Ascendant movie canceled?

Are you waiting for the Divergent 4 movie so to know how Triss’ story ends? oh, well, this is awkward then… the last movie in the series, Ascendant, was canceled! yes.. but why? keep reading to find it out!

Also, you’ll probably want to know how this story ends, right? after watching 3 movies you’ll be wondering about the ending of this tale. We have a great suggestion for you!

Given that the Divergent 4 movie will not be filmed, read the books instead to know the ending!

The books of this series are way more entertaining than the movies, therefore reading them is the perfect way to know the ending of this story. There are lots of things that are not shown in the movies, so here you have the books as an altenative to watching the Divergent 4 movie: Ascendant.

1. Divergent

3.Insurgent

3. Allegiant

You might be wondering how come if there are 3 books in the series then there were going to be four movies. The reason is the producers decided to split the last book into two movies. A common move in the Hollywood industry, we’ve seen it too in the Harry Potter movies for example. Or worse, in The Hobbit.

There are actually more books in the series (companion novels though), you can go to this post and find out what is the order for the Divergent series.

What happened so the Divergent 4 movie was never filmed?

In order to answer this question, it is necessary to take a look at the performance of the 3 Divergent movies. So it will help you to understand why Ascendant was canceled.

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The Divergent Series 3-Film Collection [Blu-ray]

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The First Divergent movie had a budget of $85 million and grossed $288 million worldwide.
The second film, Insurgent, was filmed having a budget of $110 million, grossing $297 million.
The third and last Divergent movie, Allegiant, has a budget of 110 to 142 million, grossing 180 million.

Did you notice already? as you see, the budget for the movies in this series gradually. However, despite this increase in the budget, the grossing in the third movie is way lower than the previous ones.

Was the drop in box office revenues what caused Divergent 4 not to be filmed?

It was one of the reasons, that’s for sure. The third Divergent movie performed way below the expectations of the studio owners, Lionsgate. Additionally, when the 3rd movie of the Divergent franchise was released, this studio was yet recovering from the flop of another of their films, Gods of Egypt.

All these factors together, including the bad reviews from both the audience and the critics, whose general thought was that the plot was unoriginal, and lacked character development. lead to the project being canceled. This reminds us of another film adaptation that had a similar outcome, The Vampire Academy, yes, this project was canceled too, if you want to read these books take a look at this post with Vampire Academy series order.

Luckily, not all the film adaptations of the books in this genre were not as unfortunate. Here you have some movies that actually had a great performance in the theatres:

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The Hunger Games: Complete 4 Film Collection

The Maze Runner Trilogy 1-2-3 [Blu-ray]

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Twilight Saga 5 Movie Coll [Blu-ray]

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Back to the Divergent 4 movie drama, the producers actually wanted to give the fans of the series an ending. And, since risking on filming the Ascendant movie was out of the question, they decided a tv series would be a good idea. However, you’ve never heard of a tv series narrating the story of Divergent, have you?

The reason why Ascendant was not made as a tv series either

After the movies being canceled, some of the actors involved in the filming were not very enthusiastic about the idea of filming a tv series instead. This is the case of Theo James (Four, or Tobias) and also Zoe Kravitz, who said they were not interested in this alternative.

Regarding Shailene Woodley (Triss), she said she wanted a worthy ending for her role and the series. However, given that the Divergent 4 movie was not filmed, and neither was the tv series, her wishes were not fulfilled.

Additionally, if you have already read the books in the series then you can take a look at this list with books like The Divergent series, we hope you find a new great novel for you to enjoy!

Did you like the Divergent movies or do you think they don’t do justice to the books? leave a comment telling us what you thought of these movie adaptations, and if you would have watched the tv series or not.

To the Big Screen April 1, 2021 1 Comment

This is why The Mortal Instruments City of Ashes movie was not filmed

If you are trying to watch The Mortal Instruments movie 2 it is time for you to know that it was canceled. But don’t be sad, because we will tell you a great way for you to know how Clairy Fay’s story goes on.

The reason why the sequel, the film City of Ashes, was never filmed is quite shocking, given that these urban fantasy books are really popular. Keep reading to find out what happened.

Given that you can’t watch The Mortal Instruments 2 City of Ashes movie here’s a cool alternative

It is terrible when you like a movie that is part of a series and the project gets canceled. However, you are lucky this time, because these films are a movie adaptation of a bestselling book series, so you can read them and keep enjoying this urban fantasy world! here you have them all, you can click on the cover to get them or read the reviews by those who already enjoyed this series:

1. City of Bones

Click to see Offers & Reviews

2. City of Ashes

Click to see Offers & Reviews

3. City of Glass

Click to see Offers & Reviews

4. City of Fallen Angels

Click to see Offers & Reviews

5. City of Lost Souls

Click to see Offers & Reviews

6. City of Heavenly Fire

Click to see Offers & Reviews

In case you want to know more about the books, here you have a post with the City of Bones books in order. You might be wondering how come a film based on a book that is a bestseller can not be succesful. So, it’s time to know the boxoffice numbers that the first The Mortal Instruments movie did.

Why wasn’t the Mortal Instruments movie 2 never filmed?

The producers had planned to released at least three movies, after City of Bones it was the turn for the movie adaptation of City of Ashes. However, it was never filmed.

And to know the reason, let’s take a look at the numbers that the movie The Mortal Instruments City of Bones got:

Budget: $60 million.
Worldwide boxoffice: $90 million.

In addition to this, the studios spent another 60 million on worldwide advertising. Therefore, the grossing not only was way below the expectations, but the film was not even able to recoup all the money invested on it.

As a result, the producers decided to cancel The Mortal Instruments movie 2. A sad decision, but actually pretty common, something similar happened to the Eragon sequel, another canceled project that went way below the expectations.

The reason why it failed

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One of the main reasons why this film flopped is the fact that the plot is way different from the book in which it is based on. Therefore, the fans of the book series were not very pleased with this adaptation.

Because of this, the Mortal Instruments: City of Bones received negative reviews, having a score of 33 out of 100 on Metacritic. As a result, the project was canceled. However, in 2014 it was announced that a tv series would be made, rebooting the series. If you want to watch it for free you can do so, since it’s available on Primevideo.

The tv series had a better reception, and it also got numerous award nominations. Despite this, it was canceled after three seasons. Having a succesful film or tv series adaptation is not as easier as it may sound, but it can happen, take the case of Sookie Stakhouse, its tv adaptation was so popular that now lots of fan address this series as the True Blood books.

Well, now you know why there will never be a Mortal Instruments 2 movie. Quite sad, isn’t it? but at least you have the books, so you can actually now what will happen with Clairy Fay!

Did you enjoy the movie? leave a comment telling us if you liked it, and if you have read the books or plan to do so.

To the Big Screen December 2, 2019 2 Comments

Will Fablehaven become a movie?

Do you want the Fablehaven movie to be a thing? Fablehaven is a bestselling series composed of five books written by the American author Brandon Mull. This series is addressed to children and has a sequel series called Dragonwatch which is currently being written. This fantasy story is published in more than 30 foreign languages, a successful series no doubt. As a result, a lot of fans are asking why isn’t Fablehaven a movie coming out?

Are there Fablehaven movies?

Whenever a book series starts selling well this draws the attention of Hollywood. Making a movie adaptation of a bestseller novel is a great way for a studio to ensure they have a big audience that will, as long as your adaptation is decent enough, watch their production.

As a result, producers option the movie, that is, a particular producer company pays the author in exchange to make sure nobody else can make the movie (for a set period of time). Then, lots of steps ( screenwriting, choosing a director, etc…) and decisions to take that may lead the movie to be produced or not.

In the case of this series, the rights to Fablehaven were purchased by Schaffer Studios in 2012. During that time it was even said that the Studios had teamed up with Brandon Mull on the Project. However, as of 2019, there is no Fablehaven movie.

When will Fablehaven the movie come out?

So far there is no news that a Fablehaven movie will come out. In case this changes, this article will be updated showing the release date.

Meanwhile you can take a look at this post with the Fablehaven series in order, it also includes the new series: Dragonwatch.

Don’t you think it would be great if Fablehaven turned in a movie? hope there is good news soon!

Take a look at Percy Jackson movies if you want to know why they were cancelled.

Discover more on Wottaread.

To the Big Screen November 1, 2019 No comments

Why was the Golden Compass film series canceled?

The Golden Compass film series is a movie adaptation of Phillip Pullman’s bestselling series His Dark Materials, one of the most popular series among children. Despite having such a huge fanbase the first movie of what was supposed to be a multimillionaire project didn’t meet the expectations. The Golden Compass flopped and the sequels were canceled, but why? was the movie that bad? or there was something else? What if I told you this movie was boycotted and this meant in one way or another that The Golden Compass film sequels were never filmed?

The Golden Compass box office numbers

Let’s take a look at The Golden Compass box office numbers first, the movie had a budget of $180 million, an amount that is significantly higher than most of the big fantasy productions. Most of the fantasy movie adaptations have a budget that is usually less than $150 million, that is the case of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone ($125 million), Percy Jackson: Lightning Thief ($95 million) or The Lord of The Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring ($93 million).

Despite the huge budget of the film, the Golden Compass box officed $372 million. Yes, it recouped its production costs but such numbers were way far from the expectations. The film was produced by New Line Producers, a production company that had just had a huge success producing The Lord of The Rings directed by Peter Jackson.

The Golden Compass film cast

Dakota Blue Richards as Lyra Belacqua.
Nicole Kidman as Mrs. Coulter.
Daniel Craig as Lord Asriel.
Sam Elliott as Lee Scoresby.
Eva Green as Serafina Pekkala.
Clare Higgins as Ma Costa.
Charlie Rowe as Billy Costa.
Christopher Lee as the Magisterium’s first high councilor.
Tom Courtenay as Farder Coram.
Derek Jacobi as the Magisterial emissary.
Simon McBurney as Fra Pavel, a Magisterial agent.
Jack Shepherd as master of Jordan College.
Magda Szubanski as Mrs. Lonsdale.
Edward de Souza as the Magisterium’s second high councilor.
Paul Antony-Barber as Bolvangar Doctor.
Jason Watkins as Bolvangar Official.
Jody Halse as Bolvangar Orderly.
Hattie Morahan as Sister Clara.

So many good stars here isn’t it? Why wasn’t the Golden Compass a success? let’s take a look at the critics.

The Golden Compass film reviews

Here are the scores of The golden Compass Film at two of the most popular review-aggregation websites for film and television:

Metacritic Score: 51.

Rottentomatoes Score: 42.

Not the best score to be honest, the critics’ consensus in Rottentomatoes says the following

Without the bite or the controversy of the source material, The Golden Compass is reduced to impressive visuals overcompensating for lax storytelling

We will get to the controversy later. Let’s focus on the rest, the visuals were actually pretty good in fact, but the film didn’t follow the original source, lots of scenes were not included in the film or were markedly changed.

These changes were obviously not well received by the fans of the books, but they were not the only one weren’t fond of the movie… there was some controversy.

The Golden Compass controversy

Let’s get back to the books, the world of His Dark Materials is dominated by the Magisterium, a powerful church might resemble too much to the Catholic Church. The Magisterium is a malevolent abusive organization that will not hesitate to resort to torture or even murder.

As you might have realized, because of this resemblance to such a fictional evil organization some Catholic groups were not fond of Phillip Pullman’s story. In fact, the novelist has been accused several times about using his most notorious work, His Dark Materials, as a way to criticize religion and especially Catholicism.

The producers of the movie, being aware of this issue, tried to soften this version of the Church as well as not focusing as much on religion (despite the fact that both were key themes of the novels).

The director, Chris Weitz, said that the Magisterium portrayed in the film would represent all dogmatic organizations. Such decisions were not well received neither by the fans of the novels or anticensorship groups, but New Line Cinema wanted to make sure their adaptation would move away as much as possible from having the antireligious tone that His Dark Materials novels have.

Was this enough? No.

The Catholic League called for a boycott of the Golden Compass

Despite the attempts of the producers and the director to soften the religious theme of the adaptation the Catholic League called for a boycott.

The League president acknowledged that the Golden Compass film adaptation was not so focused on religion, and it was true, both religion and God (“the Authority” in the books) were not be referenced directly during the film. Even so, he said the film would encourage children to read the novels promoving so atheism for children.

Here you have an excerpt of the call for a boycott:

The Catholic League is calling for a boycott of “The Golden Compass”; the movie opens December 7. It is based on the first book of a trilogy titled, His Dark Materials.
The author of this children’s fantasy is Philip Pullman, a noted English atheist. It is his objective to bash Catholicism and promote atheism. To kids. “The Golden Compass” is a film version of the book by that name, and it is being toned down so that Catholics, as well as Protestants, are not enraged.
The second book of the trilogy, The Subtle Knife, is more overt in its hatred of Catholicism than the first book, and the third entry, The Amber Spyglass, is even more blatant. Because “The Golden Compass” is based on the least offensive of the three books, and because it is being further watered down for the big screen, some might wonder why a boycott is warranted.
The Catholic League wants Christians to boycott this movie precisely because it knows that the film is bait for the books: unsuspecting parents who take their children to see the movie may be impelled to buy the three books as a Christmas present. And no parent who wants to bring their children up in the faith will want any part of these books.
We are launching a major educational campaign designed to alert the public to Pullman’s game plan. To that end, we have prepared a booklet, “The Golden Compass: Agenda Unmasked.” It contains snippets of what reviewers have said about the film and the books, as well as revealing comments made by Pullman himself; it also contains a synopsis of the trilogy. In short, the booklet is not what we are saying about Pullman’s work—it is what he and others have said about it.

You can see the full document here.

Was the boycott effective? is this the reason there are not The Golden Compass film sequels?

According to New Line Cinema, the sequels had been placed on hold because of financial concerns during the global recession (this was in 2008). However, the actor Sam Eliott ( Lee Scoresby in the movie) stated the following:

The Catholic Church … lambasted them, and I think it scared New Line off.

On the other side, Philip Pullman said that the sequels would not be made due to the first film’s disappointing sales in the United States.

We can’t know how many people didn’t go to the theatres to watch the Golden Compass because of this call for a boycott. Even so, in a sort of way, the boycott was effective: he fact that New Line Cinema decided to change the plot and soften the religious theme of His Dark Materials made it less appealing for the fans, also, given that the subsequent books are even more driven into religion this might have made New Line Cinema think it was financially too risky.

Hope you found this article interesting. Did you watch The Golden Compass? do you think The Golden Compass film sequels should have been filmed?

Also, take a look at this article: why Percy Jackson movies floped.

Discover more on Wottaread.

To the Big Screen September 13, 2019 3 Comments

Spiderwick Chronicles movie 2: this is why there was never a sequel

Did you Watch The Spiderwick Chronicles movie? A feature film of the book series by the same name written by Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black. How come Spiderwick Chronicles 2 never came out? This is why it never had a sequel.

Also, if you enjoyed this story you will want to know eveything about this story. And if that’s the case, you are very lucky because we have a great surprise for you:

Since Spiderwick Chronicles film 2 does not exist check out this alternative

There is a lot about this series that you yet don’t know, and what a better way to discover all of those than reading the books? they are amazing, way better than the movie adaptation.

Here you have them all, you can get them or read their reviews by clicking on ech of them: