Adapting Ira Levin: A Case Study

Few people may have heard of Ira Levin (1929–2007), but many will recognise the various titles of his novels—A Kiss Before Dying (1953), Rosemary’s Baby (1967), The Stepford Wives (1972), The Boys from Brazil (1976) and others—from their film adaptations. Three of these novels—A Kiss Before Dying, Rosemary’s Baby and The Stepford Wives—have in fact been adapted twice, the most recent being a two-part 2014 television serialisation of Rosemary’s Baby, directed by Agnieszka Holland. This chapter focuses on these three novels to explore what they offer to some of their adaptors; it also remarks on the novels themselves, to chart common threads and structural elements. I shall look at just how closely some of these screen adaptations reproduce or ‘remake’ these novels, and also comment on the significance of Levin’s legacy in a context where such adaptations often ‘define our first experiences or encounters with their precursor work of art’ (Sanders 2006, p. 158).