Do Movies Influence Novels?

I love movies.  I’ve always enjoyed all genres of movies – especially mysteries, suspense and thrillers. Oh, and cop thrillers of course.  I’ve often wondered if my movie enthusiasm has helped to shape my writing style and subject matter I choose to incorporate into a novel.

It’s true that many movies are adapted from books.  But what about movies triggering characters and storylines for novels?  Writers have written stories from newspaper headlines.  It’s just the idea of some high profile case or newsworthy article that can trigger an avalanche of ideas.

After I wrote and completed my first Emily Stone Novel, Compulsion, I had a few readers tell me that the warehouse scene made them think of the warehouse in the 1970s blockbuster The French Connection.  Wow, I thought that was a huge compliment because it’s one of my absolute favorite cop films.  If you haven’t seen this movie, I strongly suggest checking it out. Then I started thinking about it.  Did I have that image in the back of my mind and I drew from my memory of it?  We view so many images from television, movies, news reports, and the Internet.  It’s possible that I needed an image ingrained in my subconscious and “poof” The French Connection warehouse came to mind when I needed a creepy, desolate warehouse…  I won’t tell you anymore because I hate spoilers.

Here are two photos from The French Connection… Now this is a very spooky, dark, isolated warehouse.  Would you want to be trapped here?  What kind of storyline would you create from this warehouse image?

 I started going through some of my favorite movies like The Abyss, The Flock, Lethal Weapon, L.A. Confidential, Marathon Man and many more… There are powerful performances and storylines in these films that help to embrace the imagination of writers.  I like to think of it as visual brainstorming. 

What are some of your favorite or most memorable scenes from a blockbuster film?

Blog: www.authorjenniferchase.com/
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Crime Watch Blog: www.emilystonecrimewatch.wordpress.com/
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Books: Compulsion = Dead Game = Silent Partner = Screenwriting