Stages of Adaptation

This chapter outlines the stages of adaptations of literary sources for screen and stage. The process of selecting scenes, finding focus, transforming and eliminating characters, and adding scenes is the necessary stages that result in an autonomous discourse that possesses its own logic. Informed by theories of dramaturgy as well as the rules of screenwriting, this section offers the criteria for selecting scenes from The Fortress and transforming its plot and characters into a unique film discourse structured around cinematic characters.