On Adaptations.

When talking about any adaptation people inevitably comment on how the movie is a poor substitute for actually reading the book. Fundamental in this judgment is the differences between the mediums – in books it is natural that we’re given access to a character’s observations and internal monologues, so our relationship to the character is all the closer. Beyond that, the most powerful asset books have over movies is that they have an unlimited budget with which to tell a story. Whereas a screenwriter and/or a director has to worry about the cost of a finished product, a novelist/prose artist is only limited by their imagination and perspective. In turn, the ambiguity inherent in our understanding and interpreting of words leads to a sort of interactivity between writer and reader – ultimately every reading is a work of art, as the act of reading renders a scene in a novel slightly different from person to person. Books are much more elastic and alive – there is much more “play” involved in the act of reading than in watching a movie. These strengths that books have over movies is also precisely why the publishing business is shrinking while movies thrive; there is more work involved in the act of reading than in the passivity of taking in a fully realized film.

All of those issues aside, what followers of any given adapted work also complain about is the integrity of the adaptation. How faithful was the work on screen to the work they fell in love with on the page? Many screenwriters attempt to compensate for this criticism by remaining close to the source material, and apologize when they’re forced to stray. But, in attempting to do a service to the material, they are in many ways, hurting it. Books and movies are different beasts, and we can’t act as if those differences do not exist. Monetary constraints, film conventions, and audience expectation all have to feed into how the movie is made. It can be the difference between an exciting success, or a dull failure. It is important that we do the text service, but as with the American Constitution, it’s more important that we’re faithful to the spirit of the text than we are to the word.

Having gotten all of that out of the way, let’s discuss some of the things I know I’ll have to change from the outset:

I know that I’m going to be setting the story in present day. This is just good sense all around. It is practical in terms of production cost (nobody will have to hunt around for old cars, and clothes), and it’s more appealing to the sensibilities of modern audiences. Doing this makes the film more producible, more identifiable, and more appealing.

I’ll also likely relocate Legrasse’s entire narrative to a major city, likely Boston, to more tightly focus the narrative and production in New England.

Francis Wayland Thurston will be alive. We need a conduit into the story and it only makes sense that we’re getting it through him and not through his papers. His role as a collator and investigator will be made more prominent as he is experiencing and imaging for us a narrative, which has, at the start of the story, already happened. This gives us the ability to have an on-screen character that can reflect the arc of the narrative revelation – how is he changed from before he knew all of this to after he knows of Cthulhu dreaming beneath the waves?

I also feel the need to counteract some of Lovecraft’s eccentricities here. This adaptation will have female characters. Last I checked women make up about 51% of the population, and therefore the viewing public, so it would only make sense for there to be female representation in this world. I’m thinking here specifically of making Henry Anthony Wilcox a young female art student, and of giving Thurston a fiancée, which ups the stakes for him two-fold. Firstly, it offers up someone whom he doesn’t want to lose, and at the same time, wishes to support. The inheritance he discovers is coming his way can be the beginning of a life for the two of them.

There are a few other things I’m considering right now, but I’m going to keep them to myself until I’ve decided one way or another.

Correlating the Contents of the Bicameral Mind.

I both did and did not want to be involved with NaNoWriMo. I just have too much crap going on right now to worry about a consistent word count. So instead, I thought I’d try my own little experiment that wouldn’t be contingent on finishing by a specified day. After reviewing the material that’s out there, I’ve decided to attempt an adaptation of H. P. Lovecraft’s The Call of Cthulhu.

There are a few reasons for this. Despite having multiple stories now adapted into the movie/video medium, I still feel like no filmmaker has treated the source material with the respect it deserves. It’s too easy to go cheap with horror; to show ridiculous monsters, and tits, and let that fill the holes in the story you didn’t quite tell. Lovecraft’s works aren’t about things jumping in from the edges of the frame (accompanied by grating sound effects), or teenagers having sex. It’s not about cheap scares. His horror is something more akin to atmospheric dread, as if just below the surface of everything lies the evidence of something you know just shouldn’t be. So the main drive for me, whether or not I’m a capable enough writer to rise to the challenge, is to attempt to write a serious, feature-length adaptation of Lovecraft’s most well known work.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with Lovecraft, you can read a little bit more about the man at his wikipedia page and check out a few of his stories over at manybooks.net.

The experiment is that I’m going to do this as a public process. I’m going to blog about initial ideas, planning, brainstorms, and actual draft pages. The script I’ll post in ten page increments as I finish them.

For the curious – I’m not an established writer. I’ve never made any sales. The closest I’ve ever come to any recognition is winning a couple of scholarships and placing in a few competitions. So this isn’t an attempt to educate the public on how to write screenplays; I’m not in a position to teach anyone anything. This is writing just for the hell of it. That being said, I hope to do the material justice.

And yes, I am aware that Guillermo del Toro is set to direct an adaptation of At the Mountains of Madness for release in 2010. If all goes right, it should be the first big budget, serious Hollywood adaptation of one of Lovecraft’s works. I look forward to watching it.