From Bid Time Return to Somewhere in Time: Matheson as adapter, adaptation as transformation, and the perks of infidelity

Ben Kooyman

doi:10.5565/rev/brumal.84

From Bid Time Return to Somewhere in Time: Matheson as Adapter, Adaptation as Transformation, and the Perks of Infidelity

Autores/as

Ben Kooyman University of South Australia

PDF (EN)

Resumen

Este ensayo examina la adaptación cinematográfica de la novela de ciencia ficción Bid Time Return (1975) de Richard Matheson. La película se titula Somewhere in Time (1980), con guión de Matheson, dirigida por Jeannot Szwarc y protagonizada por Christopher Reeve y Jane Seymour. Si bien Bid Time Return obtuvo el World Fantasy Award, muchos de los lectores de Matheson, como el mismo autor ha indicado, pensaron que no era su mejor obra, y ni la novela ni su adaptación cinematográfica tuvieron éxito comercial. Sin embargo, tanto el texto literario como la película cuentan con seguidores fieles. Somewhere in Time incluso ha generado su propio club de fans: la International Network of Somewhere in Time Enthusiasts. Además esta película es digna de atención como transformación crítica del texto original.

Palabras clave

Richard Matheson, Bid Time Return, Somewhere in Time, adaptación.

Citas

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Biografía del autor/a

Ben Kooyman, University of South Australia

Ben Kooyman graduated from Flinders University, South Australia in 2010 with a PhD in English. His dissertation examined directorial self-fashioning in film adaptations of Shakespeare by Laurence Olivier, Orson Welles, Franco Zeffirelli, Kenneth Branagh and Lloyd Kaufman. He currently works at the University of South Australia as a Language and Learning Adviser. Research interests include horror cinema, film and adaptation studies, and Shakespeare on film. Notable book chapter and journal article publications in these fields include essays on Stuart Gordon, John Landis, and Masters of Horror; Eli Roth’s Hostel Part II and Karyn Kusama’s Jennifer’s Body; and film adaptations of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. His first book,Directorial Self-Fashioning in American Horror Cinema: George A. Romero, Wes Craven, Rob Zombie, Eli Roth and the Masters of Horror, was published in early 2014. This book examines the ways in which horror filmmakers in the new millennium have utilised the various media outlets at their disposal to cultivate and disseminate their public personas.