Fran Walsh Tagged Articles at Cinematical

First things first: "From Page to Screen" is a new column I'm trying here at Cinematical. Each week I'll discuss in detail a book that serves as the source material for either an upcoming or a past film adaptation. In the case of forthcoming films, I'll talk about the prospects for the adaptation: the challenges of bringing the particular book to the screen, the casting, the plot, the literary intangibles that so often wind up missing from the resulting movies. In the case of past films, I'll discuss the adaptation's approach to its source: what changed, what stayed the same, what worked and what didn't. Oh, and I'll actually have read the books.

I never tire of repeating my simple philosophy when it comes to adaptations: books are not movies. What works on the page won't always work on the screen. To demand total faithfulness to the book is folly, and will usually lead to a crappy movie. (This is also the case, by the way, for "true stories" and biopics -- people's lives, no matter how interesting, don't always, or even often, make for good films.) But that, I think, makes my task here more interesting rather than less. What does it take for an adaptation to work -- as a film in its own right, or as a translation of the source material?

The idea for this came from a number of discussions I've had here on the site. People are passionate about the books they love, and protective of them. The adaptation process is fun to talk about -- and even more fun when you've read the book and can have an informed conversation. I hope you'll join me, and I plan to be active in the comment threads.

I said we would get news before long. I just thought it would be more exciting than this.

Entertainment Weekly sat down with Del Toro and managed to get a few quotes from him on his involvement with The Hobbit. It sounds like nothing is definite, not even his involvement as director. (Which explains all those "So, Del Toro is directing then?" comments I keep hearing.) On where production stands now, the hopeful director is only slightly more informed than we are. "There have been a lot of discussions of cast and crew, agreements on the direction the movies would go, and if and when I come on board. But other than that, frankly it's all immaterial until everything is signed and put on paper."

As expected, the death of New Line Cinema put a kink in the works, but not as much as anyone would think. "I think it played a role for a few days; being dramatic, I would say a couple of weeks. But the fact is [the movie is] a huge endeavor. It's about a half-a-decade of commitment. It's two movies back-to-back that are massive. So a lot has to be sorted out. All I can say is, creatively we are all in sync and eager to commit and move forward."

Peter Jackson's next film won't involve elves, talking trees, or giant gorillas. He's working on a much smaller scale (he'd almost have to go smaller at this point) with his upcoming film The Lovely Bones. He adapted Alice Sebold's much-loved novel with his writing partners Philippa Boyens and Fran Walsh - Mrs. Peter Jackson. They started shopping the script to studios this week. With Oscar-winning director Jackson at the helm, and a much smaller financial risk than his past few outings, I don't think he should have any trouble finding a partner. Unsurprisingly, the only major studio Jackson and his crew didn't pay a visit to was New Line. Jackson has been publicly feuding with New Line chief Bob Shaye over royalties on the Lord of the Rings films, which led to Jackson pulling out of The Hobbit.

The Lovely Bones tells the story of Susie Salmon, a 14 year-old dead girl whose spirit keeps watch from Heaven. She watches how her death affects her family, friends, and even the man who raped and murdered her. It's pretty heavy stuff, but Jackson insists he'll be carrying over a lot of the humor in the book as well. If you question Jackson's ability to handle material like this, let me direct you to what I think is far and away his best film -- Heavenly Creatures with Kate Winslet. The Lovely Bones sounds similar to that 1994 gem in that both contain "normal" and "fantastical" worlds. It will allow Jackson to direct a more traditional narrative while giving him opportunities to show off his numerous visual gifts. Jackson has said that the hardest aspect of bringing The Lovely Bones to life will be recreating the Heaven Susie lives in, as it was left intentionally vague in the novel. Hey, if anybody can do it...

Wow, this one really sucks and you hardcore LOTR fans will not be happy at all. Heck, I'm not the biggest LOTR junkie, but even I feel as if some gigantic ape creature just kicked me in the nuts ... repeatedly. The One Ring.net has just received an email from Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh that basically says he will not be directing The Hobbit nor this supposed second LOTR-based film. Why? Well, because he'd rather make a prequel to King Kong. (Kidding, but something tells me I'd prefer that move over the one that's going down as we speak.)

Okay, the real reason has to do with a lawsuit Jackson and company have pending against New Line that has to do with "certain accounting pratices" that took place following The Fellowship of the Ring. Recently, there was word that MGM was trying to obtain the rights to LOTR from New Line in order to make two films, one being an adaptation of The Hobbit. MGM claimed they were in talks with Peter Jackson. However, Jackson was not present for these talks, only MGM's vivid imagination was. According to Jackson, New Line will be going ahead with the films, but since Jackson refuses to make them until the lawsuit is discussed, New Line has told him they "would no longer be requiring our services on The Hobbit and the LOTR prequel." And if that doesn't jam the nail straight into the coffin inside our hearts, these final words from Jackson certainly will: "This outcome is not what we anticipated or wanted, but neither do we see any positive value in bitterness and rancor. We now have no choice but to let the idea of a film of The Hobbit go and move forward with other projects."

New Line is currently looking for another filmmaker to bring The Hobbit and that LOTR prequel to the big screen. That's the good news. The bad news? Both films will probably suck.

[via AICN]

In the last several years, director Peter Jackson has risen to the top of the Hollywood scene, becoming one of the mega power players after the smash success of his Lord of the Rings trilogy. Since the early beginnings of Microsoft's Halo game-to-movie rumors, Peter Jackson's name has been attached to the project. Now it seems as though Jackson is making the full crossover, signing a deal to help create the next Halo video game as well. Alongside his writing partner Fran Walsh, Jackson will work on two projects for the game industry, with the second project still an unknown.

Jackson is heading into the video game world with full force; he's creating a company named Wingnut Interactive in collaboration with Microsoft Game Studios. Sci-Fi Wire describes the new company as a "world-class interactive entertainment studio fusing the strength of Microsoft's technology and interactive entertainment experience with the creative and imaginative excellence of the Wingnut Interactive team."

We're seeing more and more of this, with established writers, directors, and sometimes even actors, crossing over for forays into the video game world. This is being heralded as a sign the industry is becoming "more legitimate," although some of us tend to think of it as everyone else in the world finally getting wise. Welcome to video games, Jackson, I'm glad you've found this "new" creative outlet. It should be fun to see what you bring to the table; I, for one, expect good things.