Adaptation and Adaptability: Multiple Authors and Studio Authorship in SoulMate

Abstract

AbstractThis article examines a China-Hong Kong co-produced film adaptation, SoulMate, within sociocultural, industrial, and organizational contexts. It argues that, first, the film adaptation’s authors are not limited to the agents who adapt the source material. The production company explores and exploits a variety of authors, including extrinsic names to the work, as symbolic resources to serve the discourse surrounding the film; and the adaptation status makes a special contribution to that process by multiplying authors and by generating cross-references. Second, film adaptation has a specific and significant bearing on the adaptability of production houses that encounter changing sociocultural and industrial environments. This article hopefully broadens the understanding of film adaptation in alternative historical periods and industrial contexts other than Hollywood with a simultaneous effort to propose new approaches to the study of Chinese-language film adaptation. It also attempts to expand the discourse of authorship in film adaptation studies and in film studies more generally by identifying filmmaking entities, in addition to directors, producers, and writers, as adaptive co-authors and non-conflicting stakeholders in the business of film adaptation.