Based On: Making Books into Movies

David Gale - VP of New Media, MTV

I had been at MTV Films only about 6 months and these guys came up to me and said that they have this little novella that they had discovered through Tom Perrotta they had options, series of short stories called "Bad Haircut" that he had written. And then they had this sitting in his drawers a manuscript that hadn't gotten published. So they thought, ok MTV Films, it seems high school, this little book's about high school election, and it was fantastic.

Tom Perrotta - Novelist, Screenwriter

As a novelist I'm in complete charge. I have an editor, and she helps me to improve the project and I'm very interested in her reactions and her comments and her suggestions but they are just that. It's understood by everyone that it's my book. And I don't think that's the case at all within the culture of Hollywood. I think the studio thinks it's their movie. I think the directors think it's their work of art.

Anne Rice - Novelist

One of the first things that happens when you get into the meetings with the writers and the producers is they start asking you how they're going to change it, and how they are going to somehow or other fix what you did and you, it immediately, the process gets very unpleasant.

Tom Perrotta

So you as a screenwriter just one person who has a vision here and I think as a writer, as a novelist turned screenwriter are, I just have to accept that that's the case. That I'm not the sole voice and I'm not the final voice.

Anne Rice

A lot of times young screenwriters wanting to make a name for themselves will take the names of your characters and really write an original story of their own and be very upset that you don't like it. And be very hurt when you tell them, "You've ruined my work."

Tom Perrotta

I think if you're not willing to accept that you just shouldn't take it on because it can be pretty tough to deal with. I think when you're being told to do something and you're just not sure it's the right thing. I've been lucky enough to work with really good directors whose visions I'm happy to serve, in that sense. But I think that the ordinary screenwriter often finds him or herself in a position where they're being told to do something that maybe they wish they didn't. And then I think you do feel like an employee rather than an artist at that point.

David Gale

A screenplay has certain conventions. If you don't live by them then the chances are the reader's going to sort of lose interest because you have to visualize a movie and you have to imagine you're watching while your reading and you don't have to do that in a book. Sometimes books are very visual and internal. But a movie really can't be internal. It would just meander. It needs to really have the rules laid down pretty easily. Doesn't mean they should be conventional, but you know you want to live within a certain structure.

Tom Perrotta

I'd spent two years writing the novel and now I'm going to write the screenplay and sometimes that takes another year. You'd think at a certain point you'd get tired of it but there's something about the intellectual puzzle of the screenplay that keeps me going.