David Paterson Talks Bridge to Terabithia

Posted on February 20, 2007

Screenwriter David Paterson, who adapted his mother's book Bridge to Terabithia for the screen discusses how J.K. Rowling opened the door for children's authors who wanted more control over the adaptation of their books to film.

When you started to see the success of the Harry Potter films, did a light go off that the timing might be getting better?
Yeah, and the idea that maybe you can take a book that a lot of people like and make a really good movie about it. The studios finally started to get that as well. The other thing that happened thanks to the Harry Potter films was that authors started to realize they actually had power. It used to be, a lot of authors were just so grateful to have their material made into a movie, to have that extra money. What JK Rowling did, was she said, "Sure you can make a movie out of my book, but I'll be joined at your hip, and you'll do it the way I want or you won't do it at all. "
So you really credit JK Rowling with making it easier for authors to get their books made into decent films.
Well of course, the Harry Potter books were so wildly successful that she had the leverage to do that, but nonetheless it really opened the door to adapting children's literature into good films. She was one of the first authors to really say, I'm going to be involved if you're going to adapt my book.

Bridge to Terabithia is based in part on his own childhood, so Paterson was definitely familiar with the source material. Bridge to Terabithia is currently playing in wide release.