"There and back again...": An appreciation of film adaptations using social network analysis

Abstract

In recent years the film industry has been achieving high box office rates with its released films, many of these films being adaptations of works consecrated in literature, such as The Lord of the Rings, in addition to the income obtained directly from the adaptation, the industry also gains from products derived from this adaptation, and thus becoming a promising market with great opportunities. From these precepts, this study aims to carry out a comparative analysis of the sociability of the universe present in the book The Hobbit written by J. R. R. Tolkien and in its film adaptation, directed and produced by Peter Jackson. And so answer: How can the adaptation of literary works for the cinema create changes in the original work? This analysis will take place through the analysis of social networks, in order to demonstrate the possible changes made by the adaptation and understand how such mutations can impact the film market. The data collection was done from the Reading of The Hobbit and the reading of the scripts of the film trilogy of The Hobbit (An Unexpected Journey, The Desolation of Smaug and The Battle of the Five Armies). After identifying the network of both the book and the films from the reading of their scripts, and with the comparative analysis of the networks identified with the graphs of the social networks, it showed how the adaptation tells in a different way the story transmitted by the original, thus achieving the objective of this work, and the ways in which this affects the market.