Todd Field's adaptation of the novel Little Children by Tom Perrotta posed a lot of problems as he tried to cram the entire novel into a feature film ... so he rewrote it, literally. He hated the ending, and made some major changes, collaborating with Perrotta, who also shares a screenwriting credit on the film. They both worked together to make significant changes in order to adapt the book for into a film.

This isn't the first adaptation for either. Field wrote and directed Oscar-nominated In The Bedroom , which was based on an Andre Dubus short story. However, Dubus died two years before the film came out, which made it impossible for Field to colloborate with him. Perrotta's novel Election was adapted into a movie written by director Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor. Perrotta didn't work on that script, however, since it was the first one of his novels to be optioned, and the movie development went into high gear and was in theaters only a few months after the book came out.

As Martha reported last month, Michael Chabon's Mysteries of Pittsburgh is finally slated for production, and already there's controversy. The book, Chabon's debut novel, is a coming-of-age story, and while it lacks the polish and near-perfection of Chabon's later works, especially Wonder Boys and The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, it's still an engaging little tale, brimming with the promise of Chabon's potential as a storyteller.

Now that the film is actually in pre-production, there was the little matter to sort out of where to film. One might think, since the title is Mysteries of Pittsburgh, that Pittsburgh would be the obvious location for the shoot. Pittsburgh City Councilman Doug Shields, however, is accusing Pittsburgh Film Office Exec Director Dawn Keezer of encouraging the producers of Mysteries to shoot the film in Los Angeles instead.

Why, one might rightly ask, would someone whose job is ostensibly to support filmmakers in shooting films in Pittsburgh be encouraging filmmakers to shoot in Los Angeles? Apparently, the Board of the Pittsburgh Film Office voted last week to allow Keezer to relocate her position (largely funded by the taxpayers of the state of Pennsylvania) to Los Angeles, so she can marry her boyfriend. Not that that's the sole reason why Keezer would encourage filmmakers to film outside of Pittsburgh, but it does seem a little odd that the exec director of an office promoting filmmaking in a specific city would be pushing for a film to shoot elsewhere. Fortunately, the producers of Mysteries decided to ignore her advice and, the shoot is set for Pittsburgh anyhow.

The film is being helmed by Dodgeball director Rawson Marshall Thurber, and cast at this point includes Max Minghella (Art School Confidential, Syriana) as the story's protagonist, Art Bechstein, along with Sienna Miller and Peter Sarsgaard.

[via The Amazing Website of Kavalier and Clay]