《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，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，人們卻突然發現，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對抗，以拯救社會免遭內戰和大屠殺的危難。

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：幫忙拯救沒落的青少年讀物出版及電影工業。……