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A novelization (or novelisation) is a derivative work novel that adapts the story of a work created for another medium, such as a film, TV series, stage play, comic book, or video game. Film novelizations were particularly popular before the advent of home video, but continue to find commercial success as part of marketing campaigns for major films. They are often written by accomplished writers based on an early draft of the film's script and on a tight deadline.
The first ever video game to be novelised was Shadowkeep, in 1984. David Cuciz: GameSpy Interviews – Alan Dean Foster. The Writing Game, August 2000
Even after the advent of home video, film novelizations remain popular, with the adaptation of Godzilla (2014) being included on The New York Times Best Seller list for mass-market paperbacks. This has been attributed to these novels' appeal to fans: about 50% of novelizations are sold to people who have watched the film and want to explore its characters further, or to reconnect to the enthusiasm they experienced when watching the film. A film is therefore also a sort of commercial for its novelization; the film's success or failure affects the novelization's sales. Conversely, film novelizations help generate publicity for upcoming films, serving as a link in the film's marketing chain.
According to publishing industry estimates, about one or two percent of the audience of a film will buy its novelization. This makes these relatively inexpensively produced works a commercially attractive proposition in the case of blockbuster film franchises. The increasing number of previously established novelists taking on tie-in works has been credited with these works gaining a "patina of respectability" after they had previously been disregarded in literary circles as derivative and mere merchandise.
If a film is based on a novel, the original novel is generally reissued with a cover based on the film's poster. If a film company also wishes to have a separate novelization published, the company is supposed to approach the author who has "Separated Rights". A writer has these rights if he contributed the source material (or added a great deal of creative input to it) and if he was moreover properly credited.
Novelizations also exist where the film itself is based on an original novel: novelist and screenwriter Christopher Wood wrote a novelization of the James Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me. Although the 1962 Ian Fleming novel was still available in bookstores, its story had nothing to do with the 1977 film. To avoid confusion, Wood's novelization was titled James Bond, the Spy Who Loved Me. This novel is also an example of a screenwriter novelizing his own screenplay. was published under the name of George Lucas but his script had been novelized by the prolific tie-in writer Alan Dean Foster.
Acquiring editors looking for a novelizer have different issues. The author may not have all of the information needed; Foster wrote the Alien novelization without knowing what the Xenomorph looked like. The contract may be very restrictive; Max Allan Collins had to write the novelization for Road to Perdition only based on the film, without the detail he had created for the graphic novel of the same name that the film is based on. Rewrites of scripts may force last-minute novelization rewrites. The script for the 1966 film Modesty Blaise was rewritten by five different authors. The writer or script doctor responsible for the so-called "final" version is not necessarily the artist who has contributed the original idea or most of the scenes. The patchwork character of a film script might even exacerbate because the film director, a principal actor or a consulting script doctor does rewrites during the shooting. An acquiring editor who intends to hire one of the credited screenwriters has to reckon that the early writers are no longer familiar with the current draft or work already on another film script. Not every screenwriter is available, willing to work for less money than what can be earned with film scripts and able to deliver the required amount of prose on time. Even if so, there is still the matter of novelizations having a questionable reputation. The International Association of Media Tie-In Writers concedes that by saying their craft is "largely unrecognized". Writers Guild of America rules require that screenwriters have right of first refusal to write novelizations of their own films, but they rarely do so because of the lack of prestige and money.
Some novels blur the line between a novelization and an original novel that is the basis of a film adaptation. Arthur C. Clarke provided the ideas for Stanley Kubrick's . Based on his own short stories and his cooperation with Kubrick during the preparation and making of this film adaptation he wrote the which is appreciated by fans because the film provides little exposition, and the novelization fills in some blanks. David Morrell wrote the novel First Blood about John Rambo, which led to the film adaptation of the same name. Although Rambo dies at the end of his original story, Morrell had a paragraph in his contract stipulating he remained "the only person who could write books about Rambo". This paid off for him when the changed the ending and decided for a sequel. David Morrell accepted to carry out the novelization and negotiated unprecedented liberties which resulted in a likewise unprecedented success when his book entered The New York Times Best Seller list and stayed there for six weeks.
Simon Templar or James Bond are examples of that have been popular for more than one generation. When the feature film The Saint was released in 1997 the creator of this character (Leslie Charteris) had already been dead for four years. Hence its novelization had to be written by another author. Ian Fleming on the other hand had official successors who wrote contemporary "Post-Fleming" James Bond novels. During his tenure John Gardner was consequently chosen to write the novelization of Licence to Kill in 1989 and also the novelization of GoldenEye in 1995. John Gardner found his successor in Raymond Benson who wrote besides several original Bond novels three novelizations including The World Is Not Enough.
Writing skill is particularly needed for challenging situations common to writing novelizations of popular media, such as lack of access to information about the film, last-minute script changes and very quick turnaround times. Collins had to write the novelization of In the Line of Fire in nine days.
Although novelizations tend to have a low prestige, and are often viewed as "hackwork", several critically acclaimed literary authors have written novelizations, including Arthur Calder-Marshall, William Kotzwinkle and Richard Elman. Best-selling author Ken Follett, early in his career, also wrote a novelization, and so did Isaac Asimov, later in his career. While increasingly also a domain of previously established novelists, tie-in writing still has the disadvantages, from the writers' point of view, of modest pay, tight deadlines and no ownership in the intellectual property created.
The International Association of Media Tie-In Writers is an American association that aims to recognize the writers of adapted and tie-in fiction. It hands out annual awards, the "Scribes", in categories including "best adapted novel".
Episodes of were adapted into short stories by the noted science fiction writer James Blish. Each volume of the stories included a number of the short story adaptations. Alan Dean Foster would later adapt the follow-up animated series into the Star Trek Log series.
Mel Gilden wrote novelizations of Beverly Hills, 90210, merging three episodes into one book. As he explained, this approach required him to look for a joint story arc.
Peter O'Donnell, who scripted the Modesty Blaise comic strip, later authored novels featuring the character not directly based on the stories presented in the strips.
S. D. Perry wrote a series of novels based on the Resident Evil video games and added tie-ins to the novelizations, covering all the mainline titles in the series up until Resident Evil Zero.
Eric Nylund introduced a new concept for a novelization when he delivered a trilogy, consisting of a prequel titled , an actual novelization titled and a sequel titled .
Raymond Benson novelized the original Metal Gear Solid in 2008 and its sequel , while Project Itoh wrote a Japanese language novelization of also in 2008 (with an English adaptation later published in 2012). Itoh was set to write novelizations of and , but his death in 2009 resulted in these projects being handed to Beatless author Satoshi Hase and a new writer named Hitori Nojima (a pen name for Kenji Yano) respectively. Kojima would go on to write Metal Gear Solid: Substance (a two-part alternate novelization of the original Metal Gear Solid and Metal Gear Solid 2), as well as the novelizations of and Death Stranding (a game which he helped write the script for).
Peter O'Donnell's novel Modesty Blaise was a novelization of a refused film script. In this case the creator of the main character had written the script alone, but later on other authors had changed O'Donnell's original script over and over, until merely one single sentence remained from the original. The novel was released a year before the film and unlike the film it had sequels.
Frederick Forsyth's 1979 novel The Devil's Alternative was based on an unfilmed script he had written.
Cormac McCarthy's 2005 novel No Country for Old Men was adapted from a screenplay the author wrote. This allowed the Coen brothers to stick "almost word for word" faithfully to the book when adapting it back into a screenplay for the acclaimed 2007 film of the same name.
Occasionally a novelization is issued even though the film is never made. Gordon Williams wrote the script and novelization for producer Harry Saltzman's abandoned film The Micronauts.
| Back to the Future | Back to the Future (1985) | George Gipe | Berkley Books | Novelization of the film. | |
| Back to the Future Part II (1989) | Craig Shaw Gardner | Novelization of the film. | |||
| Back to the Future Part III (1990) | Novelization of the film. | ||||
| Bad News Bears | The Bad News Bears (1976) | Richard Woodley | Dell Publishing | Novelization of the film. | |
| The Bad News Bears in Breaking Training (1977) | Novelization of the film. | ||||
| The Bad News Bears Go to Japan (1978) | Novelization of the film. | ||||
| Blade Runner | (1982) | Les Martin | Random House | Novelization of the film. | |
| (1995) | K. W. Jeter | Bantam Books | Sequel novel to the original film. | ||
| (1996) | Bantam Spectra | Second sequel novel to the original film. | |||
| (2000) | Gollancz | Third sequel novel to the original film. | |||
| Dollars Trilogy | A Fistful of Dollars (1972) | Terry Harknett | Tandem | Novelization of the film. | |
| For a Few Dollars More (1965) | Joe Millard | Award Books | Novelization of the film. | ||
| The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1967) | Novelization of the film. | ||||
| A Dollar to Die For (1967) | Brian Fox | Original novel. | |||
| A Coffin Full of Dollars (1971) | Joe Millard | Original novel. | |||
| The Devil's Dollar Sign (1972) | Original novel. | ||||
| Blood for a Dirty Dollar (1973) | Original novel. | ||||
| The Million-Dollar Bloodhunt (1973) | Original novel. | ||||
| E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial | E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) | William Kotzwinkle | Berkley Books | Novelization of the film. | |
| (1985) | Sequel novel, published three years after the original film. | ||||
| Friday the 13th | Friday the 13th Part 3 3-D (1982) | Michael Avallone | Tower & Leisure Sales Co. | First novelization of the film. | |
| (1986) | Simon Hawke | Signet | Novelization of the film. | ||
| Friday the 13th (1987) | Novelization of the 1980 film. | ||||
| Friday the 13th Part II (1988) | Novelization of the film. | ||||
| Friday the 13th Part III (1988) | Second novelization of the film. | ||||
| Friday the 13th: Mother's Day (1994) | William Pattinson (as Eric Morse) | Berkley Books | Camp Crystal Lake series; the fifth installment was published as e-book; self-published by the author. | ||
| Friday the 13th: Jason's Curse (1994) | |||||
| Friday the 13th: The Carnival (1994) | |||||
| Friday the 13th: Road Trip (1994) | |||||
| Friday the 13th: The Mask of Jason Voorhees (2011) | None | ||||
| Freddy vs. Jason (2005) | Stephen Hand | Novelization of the film. | |||
| Jason X (2005) | Pat Cadigan | Novelization of the film. | |||
| (2005) | Black Flame | Jason X series | |||
| (2005) | Nancy Kilpatrick | Black Flame | |||
| (2005) | Alex Johnson | Black Flame | |||
| (2006) | Nancy Kilpatrick | Black Flame | |||
| (2005) | Scott Phillips | Black Flame | Friday the 13th series | ||
| (2005) | Paul Woods | Black Flame | |||
| Friday the 13th: Hate-Kill-Repeat (2005) | Jason Arnopp | Black Flame | |||
| Friday the 13th: The Jason Strain (2006) | Chris Faust | Black Flame | |||
| (2006) | Stephen Hand | Black Flame | |||
| Ghostbusters | Ghostbusters (1984) | Larry Milne | Coronet Books | Novelization of the 1984 film. | |
| Ghostbusters: The Return (2004) | Sholly Fisch | I Books | Non-canon alternate sequel to Ghostbusters and Ghostbusters II. | ||
| Halloween | Halloween (1979) | Curtis Richards | Bantam Books | Novelization of the 1978 film. | |
| Halloween II (1981) | Dennis Etchison | Zebra | Novelization of the film. | ||
| (1982) | Jove Books | Novelization of the film. | |||
| (1988) | Nicholas Grabowsky | Critic's Choice Paperbacks | Novelization of the film Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers. | ||
| Halloween: The Scream Factory (1997) | Kelly O'Rourke | Boulevard Books | Original novel. | ||
| Halloween: The Old Myers Place (1997) | Original novel. | ||||
| Halloween: The Mad House (1998) | Original novel. | ||||
| Halloween (2018) | John Passarella | Novelization of the 2018 film. | |||
| Halloween Kills (2021) | Tim Waggoner | Titan Books | Novelization of the 2021 film. | ||
| Halloween Ends (2022) | Paul Brad Logan | Titan Books | Novelization of the 2022 film. | ||
| Happy Death Day | Happy Death Day & Happy Death Day 2U (2019) | Aaron Hartzler | Anchor Books | Two novelizations in one volume. | |
| Herbie | The Love Bug (1969) | Mel Cebulash | Novelization of the film. | ||
| Herbie Rides Again (1974) | Novelization of the film. | ||||
| Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo (1977) | Vic Crume | Scholastic Book Services | Novelization of the film. | ||
| Herbie Goes Bananas (1980) | Joe Claro | Scholastic Book Services | Novelization of the film. | ||
| (2005) | Novelization of the film. | ||||
| Indiana Jones | Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) | Campbell Black | Del Rey Books | Novelization of the film. | |
| Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) | James Kahn | Ballantine Books | Novelization of the film. | ||
| Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) | Rob MacGregor | Ballantine Books | Novelization of the film. | ||
| Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008) | James Rollins | Del Rey | Novelization of the film. | ||
| It's Alive | It's Alive (1977) | Richard Woodley | Ballantine Books | Novelization of the film. | |
| It Lives Again (1978) | James Dixon | Ballantine Books | Novelization of the film. | ||
| Jaws | Jaws 2 (1978) | Hank Searls | Bantam Books | Novelization of the film. | |
| (1987) | Berkley Books | Novelization of the film. | |||
| James Bond | James Bond, the Spy Who Loved Me (1977) | Christopher Wood | Jonathan Cape | Novelization of the film. | |
| James Bond and Moonraker (1979) | Novelization of the film. | ||||
| King Kong | King Kong (1932) | Delos W. Lovelace | Grosset & Dunlap | Novelization of the 1933 film. | |
| King Kong (2005) | Christopher Golden | Pocket Star Books | Novelization of the 2005 film. | ||
| Living Dead | Night of the Living Dead (1974) | John A. Russo | Warner Paperback Library | Novelization of the 1968 film. | |
| Return of the Living Dead (1977) | John A. Russo | Dale Publishing | Alternate sequel novel to the 1968 film; later adapted to film as The Return of the Living Dead (1985). | ||
| Dawn of the Dead (1978) | George A. Romero Susanna Sparrow | St. Martin's Press | Novelization of the 1978 film. | ||
| The Living Dead (2020) | George A. Romero Daniel Kraus | Tor Books | Original novel. | ||
| Mad Max | Mad Max (1979) | Terry Kaye | Circus Books | Novelization of the film. | |
| Mad Max 2 (1981) | Carl Ruhan | QB Books | Novelization of the film. | ||
| Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985) | Joan D. Vinge | Warner Books | Novelization of the film. | ||
| A Nightmare on Elm Street | The Nightmares on Elm Street Parts 1, 2, 3: The Continuing Story (1987) | Jeffrey Cooper | St. Martin's Press | Novelization of the 1984 film and the sequels Freddy's Revenge and Dream Warriors. | |
| The Nightmares on Elm Street Parts 4 & 5 (1989) | Joseph Locke | Novelization of the films The Dream Master and The Dream Child. | |||
| Wes Craven's New Nightmare (1994) | David Bergantino | Tor Books | Novelization of the film. | ||
| The Omen | The Omen (1976) | David Seltzer | Futura Books Signet | Novelization of the 1976 film. | |
| (1978) | Joseph Howard | Novelization of the film. | |||
| The Final Conflict (1981) | Gordon McGill | Novelization of the film. | |||
| Omen IV: Armageddon 2000 (1983) | First of two novels set after The Final Conflict, unrelated to the 1991 film . | ||||
| Omen V: The Abomination (1985) | Second of two novels set after The Final Conflict. | ||||
| The Oz Books | The Scarecrow of Oz (1915) | L. Frank Baum | None | Reilly & Britton | Novelization of the 1914 silent film, His Majesty, the Scarecrow of Oz. |
| Tik-Tok of Oz (1914) | Novelization of the 1913 play, The Tik-Tok Man of Oz. | ||||
| Return to Oz (1985) | Joan D. Vinge | Ballantine Books | Novelization of the film. | ||
| Alistair Hedley | Puffin Books | Junior novelization; published as part of the "Young Puffin" series. | |||
| The Pink Panther | The Pink Panther (1963) | Martin Albert | Bantam Books | Novelization of the 1963 film. | |
| The Return of the Pink Panther (1975) | Frank Waldman | Ballantine Books Futura Books | Novelization of the film. | ||
| The Pink Panther Strikes Again (1976) | Novelization of the film. | ||||
| The Pink Panther (2006) | Max Allan Collins | Novelization of the 2006 film. | |||
| Planet of the Apes | Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970) | Michael Avallone | Bantam Books | Novelization of the film. | |
| Escape from the Planet of the Apes (1971) | Jerry Pournelle | Award Books | Novelization of the film. | ||
| Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972) | John Jakes | Novelization of the film. | |||
| Battle for the Planet of the Apes (1973) | David Gerrold | Novelization of the film. | |||
| Rambo | (1985) | David Morrell | Jove Books | Novelization of the film. | |
| Rambo III (1988) | Novelization of the film. | ||||
| The Shaggy Dog | The Shaggy Dog (1967) | Elizabeth L. Griffen | none | Scholastic Book Services | Novelization of the 1959 film. |
| The Shaggy D.A. (1976) | Vic Crume | Fawcett Publications | Novelization of the film. | ||
| Species | Species (1995) | Yvonne Navarro | Bantam Books | Novelization of the film. | |
| Species II (1998) | Tom Doherty Associates, LLC | Novelization of the film. | |||
| Witch Mountain | Return from Witch Mountain (1978) | Alexander Key | Westminster Press | Novelization of the film. | |
| Race to Witch Mountain (2009) | James Ponti | Novelization of the film. |
| Flight into Danger (1958) | John Castle and Arthur Hailey | Souvenir Press | none | 1958 | Novelization of the CBC play of the same title; later adapted as the television film Terror in the Sky (1971). |
| Boy Dominic (1974) | Geoffrey Morgan | Armada Books | 1974 | Based on the Yorkshire series of the same title. | |
| The View from Daniel Pike (1974) | Edward Boyd and Bill Knox | ||||
| Intimate Strangers (1974) | Alan Wykes | New English Library | September 1974 | Novelization of the LWT series of the same title. | |
| The Organization (1974) | Philip Mackie | ||||
| Arthur of the Britons (1975) | Rex Edwards | Target Books | 1975 | Original novel on the Harlech series of the same title. | |
| Victorian Scandals (1976) | Peter Wildeblood | Arrow Books | 1976 | Original novel on the Granada series of the same title. | |
| Danger UXB (1979) | Michael Beaker | Pan Books and Macmillian London | 1979 | Original novel based on the Thames Danger UXB. | |
| Quest of Eagles (1979) | Richard Cooper | ||||
| The Omega Factor (1979) | Jack Gerson | ||||
| The Ravelled Thread (1979) | John Lucarotti | Puffin Books | |||
| The Further Adventures of Oliver Twist (1980) | David Butler | Futura Publications | 1980 | Novelization of the ATV serial of the same title. | |
| Automan (1984) | Martin Noble | Target Books | 1984 | Novelization of the pilot episode of Automan. | |
| By the Sword Divided (1983) | Mollie Hardwick | ||||
| The Bounder (1983) | Eric Chappell | ||||
| The Outsider (1983) | Hugh Miller | ||||
| Morgan's Boy (1984) | Alick Rowe | Sphere Books | 1984 | Novelization of the BBC One series of the same title. | |
| Mitch (1984) | Roger Mark | New English Library | 1984 | Novelization of the LWT series of the same title. | |
| Charlie (1984) | Nigel Williams | ||||
| Lytton's Diary (1985) | Ray Connolly | ||||
| Connie (1985) | Ron Hutchinson | ||||
| The Collectors (1986) | Evan Christie | Novelization of the BBC One series of the same title. |
| Battlestar Galactica (1978) | Battlestar Galactica (1978) | Glen A. Larson and Robert Thurston | Novelization of the pilot episode "Saga of a Star World". | ||
| Battlestar Galactica 2: The Cylon Death Machine (1979) | Novelization | ||||
| Battlestar Galactica 3: The Tombs of Kobol (1979) | Novelization | ||||
| Battlestar Galactica 4: The Young Warriors (1979) | Novelization | ||||
| Battlestar Galactica 5: Galactica Discovers Earth (1980) | Glen A. Larson and Michael Resnick | Novelization of the episode of the same title from Galactica 1980. | |||
| Battlestar Galactica 6: The Living Legend (1980) | Glen A. Larson and Nicholas Yermakov | Novelization | |||
| Battlestar Galactica 7: War of the Gods (1980) | Novelization | ||||
| Battlestar Galactica 8: Greetings from Earth (1980) | Glen A. Larson and Ron Goulart | Novelization | |||
| Battlestar Galactica 9: Experiment in Terra (1980) | Novelization | ||||
| Battlestar Galactica 10: The Long Patrol (1980) | Novelization | ||||
| Battlestar Galactica 11: The Nightmare Machine (1980) | Glen A. Larson and Robert Thurston | Original novel | |||
| Battlestar Galactica 12: "Die, Chameleon!" (1980) | Original novel | ||||
| Battlestar Galactica 13: Apollo's War (1980) | Original novel | ||||
| Battlestar Galactica 14: Surrender the Galactica! (1980) | Original novel | ||||
| Ben Casey | Ben Casey (1962) | William Johnston | Lancer Books | ||
| Ben Casey: A Rage for Justice (1962) | Norman Daniels | ||||
| Ben Casey: The Strength of His Hands (1963) | Sam Elkin | ||||
| Ben Casey: The Fire Within (1963) | Norman Daniels | ||||
| Buck Rogers in the 25th Century | Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (1978) | Addison E. Steele | Novelization of the pilot film. | ||
| Buck Rogers: That Man on Beta (1979) | Novelization of an unproduced teleplay from the series. |
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