Having an original story carries an obvious benefit of it being more tailored to the medium of film, built around its possibilities and limitations (choice of actors, special effects, audio, visual storytelling). That's in theory, but in practice, when I go through my favourites, I see the two types are somewhat equally represented.
Apocalypto - original
An Event - adaptation
A Wonderful Night in Split - original
Excalibur - adaptation
Conan the Barbarian - adaptation
Viy - adaptation
Siberiade - original
The Return - original
Voyna - original
Come and See - original
Fantastic mr. Fox - adaptation
War of the Worlds '53 - (loose) adaptation
Idiocracy - original
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly - original
Fight Club - adaptation
And so on.
So, I don't have an answer to this question. While most of the big award-winning films are adaptations, I figured that's just the Academy being the Academy. So, what do you think?
Apocalypto - original
An Event - adaptation
A Wonderful Night in Split - original
Excalibur - adaptation
Conan the Barbarian - adaptation
Viy - adaptation
Siberiade - original
The Return - original
Voyna - original
Come and See - original
Fantastic mr. Fox - adaptation
War of the Worlds '53 - (loose) adaptation
Idiocracy - original
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly - original
Fight Club - adaptation
And so on.
So, I don't have an answer to this question. While most of the big award-winning films are adaptations, I figured that's just the Academy being the Academy. So, what do you think?