Phantom adaptation: Eucalyptus, the Adaptation Industry and the Film that Never Was

The author opposes the usual comparison between the book and the film, which, in her opinion, leads to moralistic judgments. She criticizes the mainstream of adaptation studies, whose representatives focus on formalist interpretations of texts and proposes a new direction for the discipline. In her study, she traces the preparations of an unfinished film project and reveals the structures of the book and adaptation industries. The never-made film Eucalyptus gives Murray the opportunity to trace the book's selection, publication, and the search for funding for a film transcription in the context of a failed project. In conclusion, the author generalizes this materialist method: she then sees the main field of adaptation studies in contextual analysis.

Keywords: film adaptations of literary works, film science and research, film theory, film projects