Education this week is a weekly newsletter for parents navigating schools

in Chicago and the suburbs from reporters at WBEZ and the Chicago Sun Times.

Sign up now just in time for back to school at WBEZ.org slash education news.

From WBEZ Chicago, this is Nerdette. I'm Greta Johnson. We did it. We made it to another weekend

and to the final installment of our series Undercover, at least for now.

It might seem like everything on TV or at the movie theaters these days is based on a book.

And that is not just your imagination. Vulture reported on 60 book adaptations in 2022 alone.

And after all, some of the biggest blockbusters and franchises in film history are adaptations of books.

So what makes a film or TV adaptation great? And how do all the people involved think about

their duty to the book, while making something totally different?

Over the past couple of episodes, we have talked about some of the different ways a book comes to life.

The thing you hold in your hands and the version you might listen to.

Today, we are talking all about the story on the big or little screen.

Today, we are going to uncover the business of book adaptation. We'll talk with an actor,

a producer, a TV critic, and of course, a couple of authors about how it all works.

Let's start from the beginning. Before a book is reborn as a movie, it has to be optioned.

That's when a production company or actor or someone in the biz buys the rights to make the story.

They're saying they have dips. It's basically a rental that can last a year or more.

And of course, that costs money. The cost of an option can totally vary. It depends on a lot of

factors, so they can range from anywhere from $500 to hundreds of thousands of dollars.

For the most part, though, it's not a life-changing amount of money.

Cynthia DePri Sweeney is the author of The Nest, which was optioned shortly after the book came out in

...