What true crime stories *shouldn't* be adapted?
the true crime that's worth your time
As discussed on Best Evidence yesterday, the latest attempt to adapt H.H. Holmes-centric novel The Devil in the White City has tanked. As I read through the decade-plus of coverage of various runs at the book, I grew more and more convinced that the main reason the many deals over the years have fallen apart are because adapting Erik Larson’s ambitious work of historical fiction is a mammoth task. And mammoths, as we know, are in short supply these days.
And there might not be a good way to provide a faithful adaptation that satisfies book fans and those familiar with the facts. Perhaps it’s better to just let it be a book, I suggested Tuesday, and after I did I started thinking about all the other cases and properties that — were the world built around art, ethics, and merit — should also be left as they are, free of fictionalized dialogue and a star-studded cast.
Sometimes, it’s not too hard, it’s just because a story has aged dreadfully — or because questions have since arisen that puts a lot of the facts in a new light. For example, a free-wheeling adaptation of I, Tania, a take on Patty Hearst’s abduction pitched as “a crazed, bawdy, and seditious charge through pop culture, politics, and the meaning of fiction itself” feels like a tough sell now that we understand a bit more about coercive control.
Other times, a property might be so good as-is that a big or small screen fictionalization compromises it. New York’s The Watcher is an example of that for me, a wildly engrossing piece of journalism that, were it adapted faithfully, would probably be kind of boring! So instead we got the goofball Netflix series, which if fine if you just had a grownup gummy but that’s about it.
So, to you, my friends: What cases, books, podcasts, stories or longreads should — for the sake of quality viewing — be spared the Hollywood treatment? — EB