Why Literary Works Are So Popular on Screen
If you think you’re seeing more adaptations of literary works on big and small screens, you’re right. Why the surge?
While books have always provided rich source material for movies, TV and web series, this feels like a particularly fertile time for such adaptations.
On the small screen, think of The Handmaid’s Tale and Alias Grace, both based on Margaret Atwood novels, the comedy Son of a Critch, inspired by creator Mark Critch’s memoir, Essex County, an adaptation of Jeff Lemire’s graphic novel, Three Pines, based on Louise Penny’s series of novels, or the perennial favourites Murdoch Mysteries and Heartland — both of which claim literary source material. On the big screen, books also mean big success. Recent examples include Paying For It, based on the Chester Brown graphic novel, and Darkest Miriam from a Martha Baillie novel. Those last two were nominated at the 2025 Canadian Screen Awards. And then there’s Women Talking — Sarah Polley’s take on the Miriam Toews book that earned Polley an Oscar for best adapted screenplay. We Forgot to Break Up and Blackberry also sprang from books.
It's a boom time for such adaptations in Quebec, too, where we’re about to get adaptations of Michel Jean’s Qimmik directed by Anik Jean, Alain Farah’s Mille secrets mille dangers directed by Philippe Farlardeau, Jean Barbe’s Comment devenir un monstre directed by Charles-Olivier Michaud, and Sébastien Dulude’s Amiante directed by Yan Giroux.
While there is little Canadian data to illustrate the trend, research from France’s Centre national du livre (National Book Centre) indicates that, in that country, nearly one in five audiovisual productions (18 percent) is adapted from a literary work, and production of TV series based on books increased by 112 percent from 2015 to 2021.
Quebec’s Happy Camper Média is familiar with this territory. The animation studio/production house has already adapted the children’s books L’Agent Jean!, Mini-Jean et Mini-Bulle, Les Dragouilles and La petite Dragouille for the small screen.
Its 50-person team — up from just eight in 2019 — is now hard at work adapting the Savais-tu? book collection into video shorts that will be released at the end of the year. They’re also working on a film version of L’Agent Jean!
Books give you a leg up
According to Happy Camper president and executive producer Renaud Sylvain there’s a good reason behind the wave of literary adaptations. The development process is accelerated when adapting a book because demand already exists and the public knows what to expect.
“What goes on as part of the L’Agent Jean! and Dragouilles worldview is no mystery,” Sylvain says. “Those books sell in the hundreds of thousands of copies. Anyone working in the children’s fiction market knows what’s up in terms of content, literature, games and the like. And these brands are red hot.”
But even with the perks of adapting books, Sylvain says it’s crucial to change the existing material so that it translates to the screen.
“If we skip the adaptation process, there’s a real risk that the content will not meet viewer expectations. A comic book story isn’t told in the same way as an animated version. You’d need a full feature film to do justice to a 112-page L’Agent Jean! comic book,” he says, adding their screen version is just seven minutes long. “The animation in L’Agent Jean! is inspired by the characters in [author] Alex A.’s comic books, but the scripts are all original.”
Funding for adapting literary works
If the number of book-to-screen adaptations is up, Sylvain says it may be thanks to an initiative called the CMF-SODEC Predevelopment Program for Television Series Based on Literary Adaptations.
The program was launched by the Société de développement des entreprises culturelles (SODEC) and the Canada Media Fund (CMF) in 2020 to support drama, documentary and children’s fiction series based on adaptations of Quebec literary works that do not yet have broadcaster or distributor support, or development funding.
Of the 56 projects supported between 2020 and 2024, 13 have reached the development or production stage — more than one in five. Mireille Darveau, CMF’s director of French content, says that’s an exceptional performance record. Manuel de la vie sauvage, Frida, c’est moi and Les expériences de Mini-Jean are among the projects produced so far.
Thirty-seven companies in the Montérégie, Capitale-Nationale, and Montreal regions have received support.
The detective novels behind the success of Murdoch Mysteries
The Canadian series Murdoch Mysteries and Heartland are among the most-watched English-language programs in the country and speak to the success of adapting literature for the screen.
Christina Jennings is president and chairman of Shaftesbury, the production company behind Murdoch Mysteries for the past 21 years. She remembers the day her interest was piqued by the detective novels written by Maureen Jennings (no relation).
“They were sitting on the corner of my desk when a writer/director came into my office and mentioned that he had read those and thought there was something in them. I love history and I am a voracious reader, so I dove in,” she says. “Since I love history, the idea of showcasing Toronto in the 1890s really intrigued me. Would anyone want to watch this show?”
Jennings knew changes were needed to make Detective William Murdoch’s story click with TV viewers. One change was to make forensic scientist Dr. Julia Ogden, a minor character in the novels, into a main character who works closely with Detective Murdoch.
Of course, an adaptation’s success is never guaranteed. But Jennings says drawing inspiration from novels by authors like Margaret Atwood (Shaftesbury has adapted seven of her works) improves the odds.
“Ultimately, the final adaptation has to stand on its own two feet,” she says. “Its success will be determined by how well the screenwriter, the director, the actors, the producers and all the rest of the team have done their jobs.
“And one cannot underestimate timing. Sometimes, it is just the time for a project. The zeitgeist. And sometimes that can work against you.”
A new chapter for Premier trio
Raphaël Codebecq is the lead writer of the young-adult series Premier trio (First Line), about the lives of young hockey players. Its third season will be broadcast on ICI Tou.tv starting May 8, and on Radio-Canada in the fall.
Codebecq agrees that adapting a work of literature has to include changes. For example, with Premier trio he decided to forgo the diary format writer Nadia Lakhdari used in her novels.
“There was work to be done on the format to make it really work in television and film,” he says. “We’re getting to better understand how to adapt things, to focus on what has the best potential to be interesting on screen. This may explain why we’re hearing less negative feedback about adaptations than before.”
One danger of adapting a popular book is not respecting the creator’s worldview. This wasn’t a problem with Premier trio, since author Lakhdari had the final word on all creative choices and even contributed as a screenwriter.
“My characters have particular traits or values that are so fundamental that if certain liberties are taken with them, they will cease to be who they really are,” says Lakhdari. “For example, I insisted that the relationship between my two protagonists, Xavier and Chloé, remain innocent because that’s how it is in the novels.”
Because the first season of Premier trio was inspired by the first three books in the collection, the storylines evolved more quickly on screen. “In the end, it was kind of funny that the books became an adaptation of the series,” says Codebecq.
A win-win situation
Unlike original productions, adaptations require producers to obtain the rights to a work of literature, otherwise known as optioning a book or entering into an option agreement. How much those rights cost depends on several factors.
“An option could go from as little as nothing for the first year to tens of thousands for a one-year option,” says Jennings. “Is the author new to the field? Is the author known in Canada? The world? Do you have a personal connection with the author? Who is the team that is adapting?”
A screen adaptation can also increase readership of the book. According to Sylvain, a property tends to be more successful when adapted for various platforms, especially with younger consumers who want to experience stories across various media — books, podcasts, series.
“Why are there more adaptations of literary works today,” asks Sylvain. “Because everyone wins.”
