Adapting for the Screen
Paul Thomas Anderson, Joel and Ethan Coen, Christopher Hampton, Ronald Harwood and Sarah Polley breathe new life into the written word
By Mallory Potosky
URL: http://www.moviemaker.com/screenwriting/article/academy_award_2008_adapted_screenplay_nominees_20080214/
Louisa May Alcott’s novel Little Women has been made for the screen no less than ten times since being published in 1868. It's inevitable that people would want to visually develop the world they had vicariously lived through. But just because it remains one of the most beloved books of all time doesn’t mean that its screen versions have fared as well. When adapting a novel, “determining what to keep and what to lose is unquestionably an angst-inducing exercise,” writes Christina Hamlett in MovieMaker’s Complete Guide to Making Movies 2008. “The bottom line?” asks Academy Award-nominated screenwriter Mark Fergus (Children of Men), “Film is about choices. It’s a brutal medium and the more hard choices that are made, the better the movie.” The nominees for this year’s Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar have undoubtedly found a happy balance.