ADAPTING NOVELS, NON FICTION BOOKS AND OTHER PEOPLE'S SCRIPTS.
 
I'm a collector of articles on HOW TO MAKE IT BIG IN HOLLYWOOD, am an aspiring screenwriter, have been for decades. I studied Theatre Arts at UCLA, acted in films and TV  then got married & quit the biz, But one day 10 years four children and a divorce later, I met a handsome screenwriter and we hit it off. I got to audit his classes at Loyola, Sherwood Oaks and U.S.C.. He was a well known industry script adapter , script fixer. He could talk 'story' structure and spot glitches til the cows came home. He adapted a play, Becket, turning it into a film with O'Toole and Burton . Boston Strangler was a non-fiction book, it became a fantastic drama and cop procedural .This guy could turn your sister's diary into a great flick. He had oscars for PANIC in the STREETS, tho it was his wife's and his idea only, not a script. Who knew you could get oscars for ideas? Kazan directed that one. That film got him in the door. He had to wait a decade for the other oscar,  for adapting  Becket. He also adapted MADWOMAN OF CHAILLOT which starred Hepburn and the non fiction "BOSTON STRANGLER" and dozens of others. He rewrote JEREMIAH JOHNSON from an earlier script by its director John Milius (of Red Dawn fame.)

So I learned a lot about story structure and the process of taking ONE media and turning it into another. This is something young scribes want to understand as 'specking' out scripts from novels IS a way in to the industry for unknowns. WGA writers , guild members cannot adapt a novel on spec. They have to option the rights to the novel. Or the producer does and he hires and assigns some scripter. But this is the way a sharp mind can spot a great novel and do it and audition at every damn film corp in the city!

One writer told me  that while ADAPTING is the way for a NON WGA scribe to break in. HE DOES NOT HAVE TO OPTION the book. Another disagreed. There's the danger they'll look at your script, see it's a great idea and hire an industry writer. I say, "so?" It's still a great audition tape & nobody's gonna put you in jail if you are NON WGA. Say that you see a novel that has FAB DIMENSIONS. Speck it out fast as probably that novel is making the rounds and has been since months before its actual publishing date as was the case with EYE OF THE NEEDLE by KEN FOLLETTE which I took to a big producer George Litto, who loved it. But... too late Litto.

Do your script fast! Be motivated! This is a great 'show around' script to get you thru the usually closed doors. Who knows, they may hire you for another job they have lying around, you get to be some indie's stringer. Or 'go to.' They want financing so they get a cheap scripting by you, who've shown yourself to be competent!

Important thing is, in first meetings with producers, you show how you made novel BETTER. That it had weak elements which you FIXED. Being a story fixer is HOT! Anhalt did little else.

CUCKOO'S NEST was specked out by some kid far from California. Kirk Douglas and Michael got hold of that script and optioned it. Had the kid do a rewrite all of this paid but I believe the final writer was WGA and don't recall what happened to the orig fellow who saw a flick in that great book. But the fact he rode that novel IN TO A STUDIO means he could take meetings on the HOLLYWOOD COMMUNITY PHONEBOOK, anywhere for years after! Whether he did or not I don't know.

The important thing is to sort out chaff in novel and 'fix it' for film. Twice I've seen movies be much better than novel. L.A. Confidential and Devil's Advocate with Pacino. The novels were a mess. Scripter sorted stuff out that you literally could not have seen in the orig novel which was CHAOTIC as in the case of  LA CONFIDENTIAL. On one of the blogs below a writer says 'that movie is a master class in adapting.' Get the novel used on ABEBOOKS.com for a buck and study it. Also Devil's. That novel is sooo very blah. You read the Devil's advocate and you can barely stay awake but the ideas were in there. The scripter was just brilliant and then add PACINO! WOW! Those two films were NOT specked out but they were sorted out. By a more organized mind than the inspired (in both cases,) book-author..

However, I gotta tell you, a  WRITER TOLD ME the following: "You need to get an author's permission to adapt their novel whether it has been published or not if it's protected under copyright law. If you don't you're breaking the law. A screenwriter shouldn't try to sell an adaptation if they don't have an agreement in place with whoever owns the right to material. If someone is interested in your script and you can't produce a writer's agreement you're screwed and they aren't going to be very happy with that screenwriter. Also you have to make sure the author or whoever you are dealing with really has the rights to the material. Personally I would want to see every agreement the author ever entered into before I would agree to adapt the novel.

Even if a producer hires me I want to see their agreement with whoever and all other agreements. FWIW this is what a producer will want to see if they are interested in making the film.

I've been writing adaptation for a few years now and I'm currently working  on my thirtieth one. I've had a little success doing them but I've had a few horror stories as well that could have been avoided if I knew better. Anyway I strongly suggest anyone that wants to do adaptations to go for it because I think it is a great way to break into the business. However a lot of things can and will probably go wrong if you don't do things right from the get go.

If a screenwriter contacts an author or publisher and finds out a producer has already secured the movie rights it could be worth contacting the producer and letting them know that you are interested in adapting the novel. FWIW that is how I ended up getting hired to write the HOT STUFF adaptation. Also if someone adapts a novel it isn't that difficult to attach a director with some good movie credits and that will really help you sell the script. Anyway this is just some informatin based on my own personal experience so I could be completely wrong about everything.

If you are interested in writing adapted novels let me know off this net page or list. Since I specialize in the I come across deals now and then. I do have WGA representation and I do have contacts in the business as well " (Whoops? I saved his words, not his name or email addie. Never mind, just hang out at the Farmers' Market writers' table near SPANISH KITCHEN, any morning.
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PART II.GOOD ADAPTATION BAD ADAPTATION

One REALLY PERSNICKITY critic I read online said that "Absolute Power" (a Novel Adaptation by prestigious William Goldman,) was a terrible film. He said "It ranks in the “why’d he bother” category of Clint Eastwood’s career. It’s not a great movie, it’s not even good, but it’s not egregiously bad either. It is just there, for better or worse, and truth be told, I’d rather watch a bad Eastwood outing than this blah nothing." Now, I liked that film, thought central idea of a burglar in closet seeing the President murder a whore and his staff helping him hide it... was a great high concept premise, original, and IMPOSSIBLE, but maybe not.(See CLINTON DEAD, list of over 100 bodies)

William Goldman talks about how arduous shaping the script from David Baldacci’s novel was, how it necessitated whole-scale elimination of vital characters and plot all in the name of shifting the focus from what is essentially an ensemble piece to what would become a star vehicle for Eastwood’s part, master thief Luther Whitney.

I’m all in favor of this process and trashy bestsellers like ABSOLUTE POWER ( Mr. Baldacci’s debut novel certainly qualifies) often make the best movies because you can gut the interiors and perform a total overhaul.

Problem was, THE HERO Whitney dies halfway through the novel, so SMART GOLDMAN left him alive. And expanded Hackman's part to go all thru the flick whereas he doesn't in the movie. Goldman and Eastwood’s decision to reconfigure the film around Luther works.

Goldman's solution doesn’t kill off Luther, and he tries to keep LUTHER PACY where he can't really give him anything of consequence to do–hence all the running. This is hardly dynamic character work, but it makes sense (wanted men flee), and it lets Goldman tread water while he struggles with his big story problem:

“How do I have Luther save the day without writing any significant material for Eastwood to play?”

I’m presupposing that if you’re William Goldman, your time is so jam-packed with wistful recollections of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid delivered to anyone in ear-shot that you can’t be bothered to write anything fresh. It’s a major issue for a film like this.

Goldman’s solution: he has Luther tell millionaire-philanthropist Walter
Sullivan the truth about who really murdered his wife. Roll Credits.

Forget that Luther is able to breach Sullivan’s defenses so easily to
stage this little pow-wow. Forget that Sullivan believes Luther
unhesitatingly, despite Luther’s mile-long criminal rap sheet and
overall thievery. Forget, even, that this move further emasculates
Luther; once Sullivan learns the President was responsible for his
wife’s death, it is he who violently confronts him, and not, you know,
the freaking hero of the picture.

No, what I have a problem with is that it takes Luther more than ninety
minutes to wrap up what could have been settled in maybe five minutes.

Assuming, of course, that Sullivan believes Luther immediately (and we
have to make that leap because this is a bad movie), then why does
Luther wait until the end of the picture to clear things up?

It’s not as if Luther is biding his time, gathering his case against the
President. None of his evasions bring him closer to the truth, or to
Sullivan, or to anything resembling satisfying thriller progression.

He knows from the jump who the Big Bad is, he’s got the key piece of
evidence that can put him away for good, and so he…runs in circles until
realizing the movie has to end at some point? This from the guy who
wrote Butch Cassidy and Misery and Marathon Man and Harper and The
Princess Bride? Are you kidding me?

It’s a special movie whose last ten minutes can render most of its
previous 110 completely irrelevant. Attaboy, Absolute Power!"

NOT MY WRITING. I FOUND THIS. AND I LOVE ABSOLUTE POWER THE FLICK, and LUTHER HAD TO BE A STAR GOOD GUY to get FUNDED AS A FLICK and HEY they left the HEART AND SPINE! THIEF, BELOVED DAUGHTER, AMERICAN VILLAIN PRESIDENT.  What a novel premise!

signed Anita Sands Hernandez ADDIE: astrology at earthlink dot net

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THE ACTIVIST should utilize the internet and become  a POSTER which is what ANITA SANDS HERNANDEZ, Los Angeles  Progressive, Mother of 4 and career Astrologer does. She researches edgy, 'telling' articles, posts them and POSTS them at her website then sends the URL out to her TWITTER friends, her FACEBOOK readers and to her extensive EMAIL lists, --to people who she's noted are thinkers, do-ers and are likely to pass the information on.  The themes? HOLISTIC HEALING without doctors, but also for CATS AND DOGS  ,  TRUTHS the GOV WILL HIDE & NEVER TELL YOU,  The  FUTURE, WHAT'S COMIN' AT YA! FRUGAL LIFE STYLE TIPS,  and ALL the things you'll need to do to SURVIVE the COMING GREAT DEPRESSION,  Also cottage industries galore, like ARTISANRY FOR EXPORT, EARN EUROS... (and more.. see the dozen themes below) Anita is at astrology@earthlink.net ). Get a 35$ natal horoscope "my money/future life" reading now + copy horoscope as a Gif file graphic! No smarter, more accurate DESTINY/ career AND LOVE reading out there!

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