《分歧者》：青春小說改編潮最后的春天？

近年來，除了超級英雄漫畫的改編電影大行其道，青少年科幻小說也正以風靡之勢群起。俘虜青少年的小說文學說穿了離不開愛情、科幻或魔幻情節(jié)，而依照那些小說改編的電影，借著龐大的粉絲群和震撼的視覺效果似乎總能賺個盆滿缽滿。例如電影版的《哈利·波特》七部曲，其輝煌的票房成績與口碑如今仍令其它類似的青少年文學改編影片難以攻破。而其后還有《暮光之城》，盡管相較于前者，后者的口碑褒貶不一，但還是無礙“粉絲”貢獻出可觀的票房。

然而就在制片商一擁而上企圖在這片青少年市場上分一杯羹時，人們卻突然發(fā)現(xiàn)，在《暮光之城》之后，各種吸血鬼題材的影片卻紛紛遇冷。于是各大電影公司不得不開始重新審視自己心目中“人傻錢多”的金主——青少年，開始思考到底青少年小說改編電影是否可以一再簡單復制？

反烏托邦的《分歧者》可以說是“饑餓游戲”時代無數(shù)借鑒者中的突圍先鋒，雖然那說到底也不過是又一部集合青春元素的勵志言情小說。首部制作表現(xiàn)不俗，但是這次成功，對于這座看似挖不完的金礦——青少年改編電影，隨著青少年題材的一再翻炒，會不會是這波風潮最后的春天呢？

——Mac

In the best-selling novel Divergent， Beatrice “Tris” Prior， the rebellious 16-year-old heroine， must fight a 1）totalitarian system to save society from civil war and mass murder.

When the $85 million film adaptation opens March 21， Tris has an even bigger mission： to help rescue the sagging teen publishing and movie industries.

Divergent， starring Shailene Woodley， Kate Winslet and Theo James， is under enormous pressure to deliver a hit. After a string of disappointing teen-fantasy adaptations last year， studio executives are looking to Divergent as a 2）gauge of the public’s appetite for yet another big blockbuster series. Many in the publishing industry are also hoping Divergent will help boost young-adult book sales， which fell last year after years of seemingly unstoppable growth.

For now， 3）Lionsgate Entertainment is betting that Divergent has all the necessary ingredients to become a mega hit. The Divergent trilogy， by 25-year-old writer Veronica Roth， has sold more than 16 million copies since the first book was published in 2011. The story is set in Chicago in a distant future. Society is divided into factions based on moral virtues—bravery， kindness， honesty， selflessness and wisdom—and teenagers are required to take an 4）aptitude test to help them determine which faction they should join. Those who don’t fit into a single faction， like Tris， are labeled “divergent.”In Hollywood-ese， it’s The Hunger Games meets The Breakfast Club.

Ticket presale tracking forecasts that the film will 5）pull in $50 to $60 million its opening weekend， putting it 6）in league with the first Twilight movie. Strong foreign sales for the book series—which is published in 44 languages—suggest that the movie could perform well abroad. And production on a sequel， Insurgent， is already scheduled for May.

The latest crop of teen film adaptations have mostly been critical and commercial bombs. Apart from The Hunger Games： Catching Fire， which grossed$424 million domestically last year， theatergoers seem to be growing weary of big 7）tent-pole fantasy franchises—even if their book sales were strong.

Richelle Mead’s hit series Vampire Academy， a supernatural romance set at a boarding school for vampires， has more than nine million copies in print. But the film made just $7.8 million at the box office. Other heavily 8）hyped adaptations of best sellers also 9）fizzled. The Host， based on Stephenie Meyer’s science-fiction novel about 10）parasitic aliens， brought in just $27 million. Cassandra Clare’s The Mortal Instruments： City of Bones， about a demon-fighting teenage girl， sold $31 million in tickets， failing to recover production costs. Those films were unable to excite their core fan bases of teen readers， much less 11）lure adults to theaters.

Erik Feig， motion picture group copresident at Lionsgate， the studio behind the Twilight and The Hunger Games films as well as Divergent， says the studio has grown wary of 12）formulaic teen fantasy-movie pitches ever since 2008’s Twilight.

Mr. Feig said he initially 13）rolled his eyes when an executive pitched him Divergent， thinking it sounded just like Suzanne Collins’The Hunger Games. When he learned more about the story， especially the idea that society is divided into factions determined by personality 14）archetypes， he was intrigued. “That was an idea I had never really heard before，” he said.

If the Divergent movie is a hit， it could help 15）jump-start teen book sales. Children’s books stood out as the fastest-growing publishing category in 2011 and 2012， 16）buoyed by a growing adult audience and a string of boxoffice hits that brought in tens of millions of new readers.

But lately， the 17）meteoric growth has started to level off for the first time in years. Some book industry analysts say young-adult sales dipped because there wasn’t a single mega franchise dominating pop culture in 2013—a theory some industry experts call “The Hunger Games effect.”The sales bump from The Hunger Games movies was so strong in 2012 that it lifted the entire category.

“The movie gave the books a huge boost and brought it to the phenomenon level，” says David Levithan， publisher and editorial director of Scholastic， which publishes The Hunger Games. “Suddenly we were seeing men in suits reading it on the subway. That’s what separates something from being a success in the YA range to being a phenomenon across all levels.” As the “Hunger Games” frenzy faded last year， sales sank.

In the case of Divergent， the movie has been 18）integral to the series’ success from the start. Ms. Roth was 21 and just about to graduate from Northwestern when she sold the series in the spring of 2010. She had no fan-following to speak of. Summit Entertainment， now owned by Lionsgate， 19）optioned the novel before it was published and used its marketing muscle to quickly turn an unknown debut author into a household name. They had a significant tool at their disposal： direct access to fans of Twilight and The Hunger Games. Lionsgate 20）plugged Divergent as a buzzy new romance on its Twilight Facebook page， which has 45 million fans. The studio also passed out free copies at the premieres for the final Twilight film and The Hunger Games： Catching Fire.

The book became an instant best seller， and Ms. Roth quickly produced two more， Insurgent and Allegiant. Allegiant， the final book in the series， broke first-day sales records at 21）HarperCollins last October， selling 455，000 copies the day it came out. That month， Amazon put out a news release saying that the Divergent trilogy was outselling The Hunger Games by five to one. Ms. Roth’s books now occupy four of the top 20 spots on Amazon’s best-seller list.

With the 22）penultimate Hunger Games movie due out this fall， and several more big adaptations 23）in the pipeline， the fantasyfranchise trend shows no signs of grinding to an abrupt 24）halt. Studios have recently 25）snapped up hot teen titles like Sally Green’s novel about a conflicted teen witch， Half Bad， Rick Yancey’s alien invasion story， The 5th Wave， and An Ember in the Ashes， a debut fantasy novel by Sabaa Tahir.

“Everyone is hopeful， because so many books have been optioned，” says Ben Schrank， president and publisher of Razorbill， a youngadult imprint of Penguin Random House.“These new movies need to work， and then there will still be teen movies next year.”

在暢銷小說《分歧者》里面，十六歲的叛逆女主角比阿特麗斯·“特麗絲”·普萊爾必須與專制政權(quán)對抗，以拯救社會免遭內(nèi)戰(zhàn)和大屠殺的危難。

這部投資達到8500萬美元的小說改編電影于3月21日上映，從那時起，特麗絲便肩負起一項更為艱巨的任務(wù)：幫忙拯救沒落的青少年讀物出版及電影工業(yè)。

為了成功突圍，《分歧者》的主演謝琳·伍德蕾、凱特·溫絲萊特以及提奧·詹姆斯背負沉重的壓力。經(jīng)過了去年一系列讓人失望的青少年科幻改編電影后，制片廠高層指望《分歧者》能成為一個風向標，試探公眾的口味，從而開發(fā)下一個系列大片。許多出版業(yè)人士同樣希望《分歧者》能有助刺激青少年書籍大賣——經(jīng)過了多年似乎不可阻擋的增長趨勢后，其銷情在去年卻有所回落。

而當下，獅門電影公司在《分歧者》上壓了賭注，認為其擁有成為票房大片所需的全部元素?！斗制缯摺啡壳怯?5歲的作家維羅尼卡·羅斯所創(chuàng)作，自從2011年第一部面世以來，銷量已超過1600萬冊。故事背景架設(shè)在遙遠未來的芝加哥。社會以道德倫理分為不同派系——無畏、友好、誠實、無私以及博學，每一個青少年都要參加能力測試來決定他們的所屬派系。那些不能被歸類到任何一個派系的人，例如特麗絲，就被烙上“分歧者”的標簽。在好萊塢電影類別里，這是《饑餓游戲》與《壞學生俱樂部》的綜合體。

票房預售跟蹤調(diào)查預估電影在上映第一周能有五到六千萬美元的票房進賬，與首部《暮光之城》電影旗鼓相當。鑒于該系列小說被翻譯成44種語言出版，強勢的海外銷售情況預示這部電影在國外也將表現(xiàn)不俗。而其續(xù)集《叛亂者》也準備好在五月開拍。

最近的青少年改編電影大多數(shù)都口碑不佳，并成為票房毒藥。除了去年的《饑餓游戲之星火燎原》在國內(nèi)票房達到4.24億美元外，觀眾似乎對于大型的圈錢科幻系列電影日趨厭倦——盡管原著小說的銷售勢頭強勁。

蕾切爾·米德的暢銷系列小說《吸血鬼學院》，是以一所吸血鬼寄宿學校為背景的超現(xiàn)實愛情小說，銷量已超過了900萬冊。但是改編電影的票房才只有780萬美元。其他大肆炒作的暢銷小說改編電影也表現(xiàn)低迷?！端拗鳌贰木幾运沟俜夷荨み~耶關(guān)于寄生外星人的科幻小說，票房僅僅270萬美元?？ㄉ鹤坷た巳R爾的《天使圣物：致命契約》，講的是一個降魔少女的故事，電影票房僅有310萬美元，連制作成本也賺不回來。那些電影連原著的核心“粉絲群”——青少年讀者——都吸引不來，更遑論讓成年觀眾買賬了。

獅門電影公司制作了《暮光之城》、《饑餓游戲》以及《分歧者》，作為其電影部聯(lián)合總裁的埃里克·費格說，公司其實自2008年的《暮光之城》起，就對格式化的青少年科幻電影題材心生厭倦了。

費格先生說剛開始在一位主管向他推薦《分歧者》的時候，自己對其嗤之以鼻，認為那不過是又一部蘇珊·柯林斯的《饑餓游戲》罷了。當他對故事有了更深入的了解，特別是基于性格原型把社會分類的那個想法，他就被吸引住了?！斑@樣的想法我之前真的從沒聽過。”他說。

如果《分歧者》的電影能大賣，這樣能夠有助于刺激青少年讀物的銷量。兒童類書籍在2011年和2012年異軍突起，成為了出版業(yè)中增長最快的版塊，推動力在于成年讀者的增加以及一系列票房大賣的熱片帶來的數(shù)以千萬計的新讀者。

但是最近，那曇花一現(xiàn)般的漲勢開始首次出現(xiàn)下滑。一些圖書業(yè)的分析人士說青少年讀物銷量下滑是因為2013年沒有一部巨著能夠在流行文化中取得統(tǒng)治地位——一些行業(yè)專家稱這樣的理論為“‘饑餓游戲’效應(yīng)”。《饑餓游戲》電影所帶來的收益在2012年相當可觀，帶動了整個青少年讀物版塊銷量的整體提升。

“電影能給書籍極大的推力，將其帶到暢銷大熱的地位，”大衛(wèi)·利維森說道，他是學者出版社的出版人以及編輯總監(jiān)，該出版社負責出版《饑餓游戲》?！昂鋈婚g我們看到了穿西裝的人在地鐵里面讀這本書。這就是某種標志，用以區(qū)分是僅僅在青少年圈子里取得成功，還是在全民范圍內(nèi)廣受歡迎?！?而隨著去年的“饑餓游戲”熱潮消退，銷售額下降。

對于《分歧者》來說，這部電影從一開始就為后面續(xù)集電影的成功打下了基礎(chǔ)。羅斯小姐當時才21歲，在2010年春天推出這個系列的時候，她才剛準備從西北大學畢業(yè)。對于她來說，根本沒有“粉絲”可言。頂峰娛樂，現(xiàn)在隸屬于獅門電影公司，在此書出版前就買下了版權(quán)，運用其市場助力，迅速地把這位不知名的新手作家捧成了家喻戶曉的名人。他們有一樣重要武器任其支配：與《暮光之城》以及《饑餓游戲》的“粉絲”直接接觸。獅門電影公司在其《暮光之城》的臉譜網(wǎng)頁上大肆宣傳《分歧者》，為這個全新的浪漫故事制造話題——這個網(wǎng)頁是450萬“粉絲”的基地。電影公司還把《分歧者》拿到《暮光之城》最后一部以及《饑餓游戲之星火燎原》的首映上，向觀眾免費贈書。

這本書立馬就登上了暢銷書榜，而羅斯小姐迅速地推出了另外兩部：《叛亂者》與《赤誠者》?！冻嗾\者》——這個系列的最后一部，打破了去年十月哈伯柯林斯的首天銷售記錄，推出當天就賣了45.5萬冊。當月，亞馬遜推出了一則新聞，說《分歧者》三部曲的銷量高于《饑餓游戲》，比例是5：1。羅斯小姐的書現(xiàn)在占據(jù)了亞馬遜暢銷書榜前二十名的四個位置。

隨著電影《饑餓游戲》的倒數(shù)第二部在這個秋天上映，其他幾部大制作改編電影正在拍攝當中，這股科幻電影風潮并未展現(xiàn)出任何想要戛然而止的跡象。制片廠最近爭相搶購熱門的青少年小說版權(quán)，例如莎莉·格林的《了了》——關(guān)于一個矛盾的年輕女巫的故事，里克·燕西有關(guān)外星人入侵的《第五浪潮》，以及沙巴·塔希爾的首部魔幻小說《灰燼余火》。

“每個人都希望滿滿，因為那么多書都被買斷版權(quán)，”本·斯科蘭說道，他是海雀出版社的總裁以及出版人，海雀是企鵝蘭登書屋圖書集團負責青少年讀物的出版商?！斑@些新電影必須取得成功，明年才會繼續(xù)有青春電影上映?！?/p>