Have you a comprehensive list of motion picture adaptations of novels,
including movie title and any title change, release year, author,
screenwriter(s), and awards since 1939. Web links searched thusfar
provided only limited course-study listings. Not interested in a list
of books or references about the film trade. Follow-up fee
possible for anecdotal material surrounding adaptations.

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Request for Question Clarification by bobbie7-ga on 05 Dec 2002 13:53 PST

Hi Heartfuldragon,
I found a website where when choosing any given year from 1980-2003,
you obtain a list of movies released in that year, which includes the
name date and author of the book it was based on. Although this list
would only be from 1980 to the present, there would be over 790
movies.
Would you be interested in this information?
Thanks
--Bobbie7-ga

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Request for Question Clarification by bobbie7-ga on 05 Dec 2002 14:01 PST

I forgot to add that I could assemble the list for you in a word
document sorted by movie title or by movie release year.
--Bobbie7-ga

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Clarification of Question by heartfuldragon-ga on 05 Dec 2002 16:33 PST

Hi Bobbie -

I know the Mid-Continental Library site. It leaves over 40 years not
covered, however. ZuZu's site is interesting as well, though not
comprehensive. And yes, if you find the mother of all resources, a
Word table would be perfect. Great first pass. Few know MCL.

Tom

Hi there,

The mother of all movie resources is undoubtably the Internet Movie
Database. The subscription version, IMDB Pro, has an advanced search
which can find almost anything, and order the results many different
ways. After playing with it for a while I found how to get a list of
movies which are adaptations of novels.

1. Sign up for IMDB Pro by visiting http://www.imdb.com and clicking
on the link at the top right of the page, labeled "Free Trial!, IMDB
Pro". The trial requires a credit card, and is free only if you cancel
your subscription within 14 days.

2. After completing the signing up process, got to Advanced Search /
Title Query.

3. Deselect all boxes in Production Status except for "Released"

4. Deselect all boxes in Type of Title except for "Movies"

5. Enter 'based-on-novel' (including the quotes) in the Keywords field

6. At the bottom of the page, under Display Options, choose how you
would like the results ordered (I selected "Release Year" in the last
drop-down box, and chose Reverse Sort). Click on the appropriate radio
button below "Sort"

7. Click on "Run Query!"

The results of my search showed 13,269 movies, so you might want to
refine the search to better suit your purposes. If you need any help
with that, just ask me in a clarification.


Search Strategy
---------------

I visited the Internet Movie Database and browsed.


Best wishes,
robertskelton-ga

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Request for Answer Clarification by heartfuldragon-ga on 06 Dec 2002 10:18 PST

Hi Robert -

Thanks for your prompt response. I'd not thought of an IDMb Pro trial.

Even with your instructions on-screen, however, am unable to replicate
your search results. The search produces 0 films. Some modifications
of keywords pulled up 76-79 films, but nothing like 13,000.

Further, there really are no IDMb menu items to elicit novelist and
screenwriter, in addition to title and release year. Do you see a
pattern that would include these items? If not, I still have no
comprehensive listing and must call up films individually for the
entries. Mail to my screen name at yahoo, if you like.

Tom

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Clarification of Answer by robertskelton-ga on 06 Dec 2002 14:44 PST

It sounds like you are in the regular IMDB. You need to go to
http://pro.imdb.com/search/ and click on Create Title Query.

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Request for Answer Clarification by heartfuldragon-ga on 06 Dec 2002 15:11 PST

No, I was in Pro. Turned out to be a server error. Am now largely able
to duplicate your results . It's simply that I will need to call up
each of 13,690 films on an individual basis, which is what I wanted to
avoid -- boy, did I want to avoid that...

Anyway, thanks for your answer. If you have any further suggestions,
let me know.

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Clarification of Answer by robertskelton-ga on 06 Dec 2002 15:53 PST

Just a couple of things you may not have noticed:

It appears that when the original novel has a different title to the
movie, the novel's title will appear next to the author's name in the
Main Details - if there is no title then it is the same as the movie.

In the Advanced Search it is possible to select all the awards in the
drop-down box by using the Control key when you click on them.

Apologies for misinterpreting the requirements of your question.

Rob.

The researcher's suggestion for a resource was both timely and useful
in a global sense. However, it did not materially address the central
point of the question, nor was the clarification process of value.