Writing in someone else's world
For a long time, I couldn't imagine adapting novels. I had no interest in spending my time in the worlds of someone else's creation. In the meantime I've adapted four!
Adapting novels? Are you kidding me?! Why would I spend time adapting somebody else’s creations when I could write my own stories? That was my thinking before I did my first adaptation and - man oh man - has that ever changed since then.
When the first adaptation opportunity came around and I didn’t exactly jump at it. At the same time I didn’t shy from it either - I saw it as a challenge, something new, a chance to explore new territory, a place my writing muscle hadn’t traveled to before. I wrote a proposal on how I would adapt the novel in question - and I ended up getting the gig. Now, having worked on several novels already, I see it altogether differently. Adapting a novel is by no means less creative work than shaping a spec script - if anything, the challenge is even greater.
It’s obvious just how different this kind of writing is from creating your own worlds. There’s a given setting, there are characters and passions and plots and layers - it’s enough to make your head spin because, more often than not, any given novel will give you more than 400 pages worth of pre-created glory. Cramming that into a film? You either need a sledgehammer - or craft (and, hopefully, talent). With my first adaptation I found myself having great fun re-reading the novel several times, highlighting things that stuck - visuals I instantly saw, moments that moved me, stuff that I (as the audience) simply had to see on film. With that same highlighter I happily slashed through a ton of backstory, scenic descriptions, internal conversations. So much of most novels thankfully purely belongs to the novel and has no place on screen. When I finally looked at my highlighter’s markings, circling and crossing results, I found that I didn't have to worry/think about half the novel’s pages.
Getting any screenwriting gig is hard - getting the chance to adapt novels is, I’d say, even harder. The reason is obvious - novels are often optioned and/or bought because they’ve been successful, because they have an in-built fanbase. So of course any producer hopes to get some level of security by hiring a proven screenwriter. That, of course, leads to a false sense of security at best. Naturally the producer should look for a great writer - but that writer should also have the right passion for the novel. It should never be just a job - never. In my experience, producers go out to agents and ask them to suggest writers for the adaptations. A number of writers will then craft proposals on how they would adapt the novel. From those proposals a producer usually gets a pretty good idea where the right passions lie - and whether or not they are aligned with the producer’s vision.
Parts of such an initial proposal offer dramatic changes from the novel - it doesn’t work any other way. Unless you turn the novel into a miniseries, the time available will require you to drop subplots and characters. You’ll need to drop entire story lines, you'll need to sacrifice some of the novel’s beauties (not just killing your own darlings, as the famous saying goes, but someone else’s darlings). When you put your suggestions for dramatic changes into a proposal, you risk alienating the producer and/or author of the novel. But that’s a risk you have to take - do not try to please. You may hit the nail on the head with your take, you may not - but either way the producer will see that you’re a writer with a passion, with strong and well articulated opinions about the novel - and with plain ole’ guts. That may get you the job, or it may not - but it’ll definitely leave a good impression and that may come back to greet you sometime in the future with another gig.
Whatever the changes, however dramatic they may be, what should always remain, firmly embedded, is the essence of the novel. Usually that’s the thing that attracted the producer to option/buy the rights to the novel - and attracted you to adapting it. That essence can be a thought, a message, a state of mind, an iconic character - that essence should always be there, pure, the spirit in the room. Other than that, nothing’s entirely sacred, really. A great many changes need to happen to turn the novel into an exciting film. Some of them are painful. The producer knows that, the author of the novel knows that.
Just as the first draft of your screenplay will never be the shooting script, the novel will never be the film. From the novel, through the adaptation and finally onto the screen - there’s a world of collaboration and compromise, a world of good laughs and fierce fights - all in the knowledge that, hopefully, everyone working on the project wants the same thing - to create the very best film possible.
And in case you’re wondering about the experiences with the adaptations pictured above - here a quick glimpse:
The Coffee Trader: After years of work, there’s a glorious script collecting dust. As it happens ever so often, finances never came together and so this costly project never got off the ground. The novel’s wonderful, the script’s a marvel (not my words - but I do agree) and I keep hoping that, one fine day, Hollywood will discover it.
Brother Grimm: A meeting with the producers, then with the author in Scotland, led to one of those rare collaborations where everyone was, from the get-go, on the same page. One of Germany’s major networks picked it up in 2010 and it led to the start of a very successful series of films based on the author’s novels.
Blood Eagle: I also adapted the next film in the series, based again on Craig Russell’s work. Again, a dream of a collaboration with a great production company. As mentioned, sometimes things just align - with the producers, the director, the actors. It premiered in 2012 and three more in the series have been made since.
Dead Simple: After years of trying to turn it into a TV series, author Peter James decided that his iconic cop Roy Grace should get the silver screen treatment, and that he would produce. With my second draft I did make some strong choices that didn’t work for the author/producer and so my work ended there. I’ve been glad to see that, years later, ITV did produce a TV series and finally brought Roy Grace onto the screen (even if I’d have loved to see him on the big screen).
