The Role of Music in Novel to Film Adaptations
Music plays an important role in every film, but especially novel to film adaptations. Film Composers must take extra care in scoring these movies because the music fills in the gaps and gives us more insight into the plot. In film adaptations, music is often used to fill us in on what we may have missed from reading the novel. Music adds overall cohesion in these films that would otherwise seem like they were missing something. The music can be used as an insight into characters thoughts, emotions, feelings and even their personality. The music in The Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons does just that and also plays the role of another character, the narrator.
Hans Zimmer composed the scores to both The Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons. Both these films are based on the novels with the same titles by author Dan Brown. Angels and Demons was released by Dan Brown in 2000. This was not a success until he released The Da Vinci Code in 2003. This novel immediately became a New York Times’ bestseller and has sold over 80 million copies. Both novels feature the same main character, Robert Langdon. The film adaptations, both directed by Ron Howard and starring Tom Hanks, were released in opposite order, The Da Vinci Code being released in 2006 and Angels and Demons released in 2009. Dan Brown was born in 1964 in New Hampshire. His family was both musical and spiritual. His interest in puzzles and mysteries comes from his family. They would spend hours working on puzzles and going on elaborate treasure hunts. Brown graduated from Amherst College and spent a year studying in Seville, Spain. His first career was as a singer/songwriter. He produced two albums that each only sold over one-hundred copies. His first book, Digital Fortress, had very little success. It wasn’t until The Da Vinci Code that Dan Brown became an international success. All of his books are thriller fictions that take place during a 24-hour period and take the reader on a
Hans Zimmer composed the scores to both The Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons. Both these films are based on the novels with the same titles by author Dan Brown. Angels and Demons was released by Dan Brown in 2000. This was not a success until he released The Da Vinci Code in 2003. This novel immediately became a New York Times’ bestseller and has sold over 80 million copies. Both novels feature the same main character, Robert Langdon. The film adaptations, both directed by Ron Howard and starring Tom Hanks, were released in opposite order, The Da Vinci Code being released in 2006 and Angels and Demons released in 2009. Dan Brown was born in 1964 in New Hampshire. His family was both musical and spiritual. His interest in puzzles and mysteries comes from his family. They would spend hours working on puzzles and going on elaborate treasure hunts. Brown graduated from Amherst College and spent a year studying in Seville, Spain. His first career was as a singer/songwriter. He produced two albums that each only sold over one-hundred copies. His first book, Digital Fortress, had very little success. It wasn’t until The Da Vinci Code that Dan Brown became an international success. All of his books are thriller fictions that take place during a 24-hour period and take the reader on a
Bibliography: Axelrod, Mark. I Read it at the Movies: The Follies and Boibles of Screen Adaptation. Portsmith, NH. 2007. Dan Brown Official Website. www.danbrown.com. (accessed March 5, 2010.) Geraghty, Christine. Now A Major Motion Picture Film Adaptations of Literature and Drama. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2008. Jenkins, Greg. Stanley Kubrick and the Art of Adaptation: Three Novels, Three Films. McFarland & Company, Inc. 1997. Leitch, Thomas. Film Adaptation and Its Discontents: From Gone with the Wind to The Passion of Christ. The Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore. 2007. McFarlane, Brian. Novel To Film: An Introduction to the Theory of Adaptation. Carendon Press, Oxford. 1996. The Official Fan Page of Hans Zimmer. www.hans-zimmer.com. (accessed March 3, 2010.)