The Art of Screen Adaptation

Description

Producers and audiences are hungrier than ever for stories, and a lot of those stories begin life as a book - but how exactly do you transfer a story from the page to the screen? Alistair Owen puts all key questions to some of the top names in screenwriting, including Hossein Amini (Drive), Jeremy Brock (The Last King of Scotland), Moira Buffini (Jane Eyre), Lucinda Coxon (The Danish Girl), Nick Hornby (An Education), and more. Exploring fiction and nonfiction projects, contemporary and classic books, films and TV series, The Art of Screen Adaptation reveals the challenges and pleasures of reimagining stories for cinema and television, and provides a frank and fascinating masterclass with the writers who have done it - and have the awards and acclaim to show for it.

Alistair Owen is the author of Smoking in Bed: Conversations with Bruce Robinson (one of David Hare's Books of the Year in the Guardian), Story and Character: Interviews with British Screenwriters and Hampton on Hampton (one of Craig Raine's Books of the Year in the Observer). He has chaired Q&A events at the Hay Festival, Edinburgh International Book Festival and London Screenwriters' Festival, and his platform with Christopher Hampton in the Lyttelton Theatre to celebrate Faber's 75th anniversary was published in Faber Playwrights at the National Theatre. Alistair has written original and adapted screenplays, on spec and to commission; contributed film reviews to Time Out and film book reviews to the Independent on Sunday; and recently completed his first novel, The Vetting Officer. His next nonfiction project is a book of conversations with novelist, screenwriter, playwright and director William Boyd, for Penguin.

Alistair Owen's well-judged questions elicit valuable in-depth responses -- Alexander Larman * Observer * Alistair Owen has done writers a huge service with this book... Refreshingly free of jargon, this is highly accessible to writers at all stages of their careers' -- Elinor Perry-Smith * Lock and Load, Brides of Christ * An essential and brilliant read for all screenwriters. An instructive and illuminating read for all novelists. Required reading for anyone with a glint in their eye about a career as a working writer. Highly readable and full of in-the-trenches advice from masters of their craft -- Stephen Volk, writer of Ghostwatch and The Awakening Fantastic. Fascinating, invaluable read for authors, screenwriters and film (and TV) buffs, full of great interviews and insights. Absolutely perfect - a book I've needed for years -- John Featherstone, author of Hangman's Got The Blues Every bit as good as @alistairwriter's Story and Character and his books on Bruce Robinson and Christopher Hampton -- @SabotageFilms on Twitter