Producers and audiences are hungrier than ever for stories, and a lot of
those stories begin life as a book--but how exactly do you transfer a
story from the page to the screen? Do adaptations use the same creative
gears as original screenplays? Does a true story give a project more
weight than a fictional one? Is it helpful to have the original author's
input on the script? And how much pressure is the screenwriter under,
knowing they won't be able to please everyone with the finished product?
Alistair Owen puts all these questions and many more to some of the top
names in screenwriting, including Hossein Amini (Drive), Jeremy Brock
(The Last King of Scotland), Moira Buffini (Jane Eyre), Lucinda
Coxon (The Danish Girl), Andrew Davies (War & Peace), Christopher
Hampton (Atonement), David Hare (The Hours), Olivia Hetreed (Girl
with a Pearl Earring), Nick Hornby (An Education), Deborah Moggach
(Pride & Prejudice), David Nicholls (Patrick Melrose) and Sarah
Phelps (And Then There Were None). Exploring fiction and nonfiction
projects, contemporary and classic books, films and TV series, this book
reveals the challenges and pleasures of reimagining stories for cinema
and television, and provides a frank and fascinating masterclass with
the writers who have done it--and have the awards and acclaim to show
for it.
