Philippa Boyens 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.

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...