Novelists Not Always Welcome in Hollywood

Posted on January 22, 2007

The Hollywood Reporter reports on the sad truth that novelists aren't always that welcome in Hollywood. And as for a novelist who thinks he'll be allowed to write the adapted screenplay of his novel, well, he is in for a rude shock.

Christopher Buckley, author Thank You for Smoking, talked about his suggestion that he write the screenplay when it was optioned for film. Buckley tells THR, "In my callow, jejune way I said, 'I'll give it a shot!' and you could hear the frost forming on the telephone lines. They said, 'This will be a major motion picture. We don't want to walk you through your first script.' Very early on, I realized this was no place for me to hang out."

The article suggests that the author of a book who wants a shot at writing the script needs a relationship with a production company.

If an author wants to keep his hands in the mix, maintaining a relationship with a Hollywood production company helps. Having had a good experience with Bona Fide Prods., one of the firms behind "Election" (which was adapted by Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor for a 1999 feature film starring Matthew Broderick), Perrotta took his later novel directly to his friends.
"The normal thing is to have your book optioned, and then you have a meeting with producers, but you don't know them," he explains. "In this case, they were my friends and longtime collaborators. So, I didn't say, 'Let's get Todd Field.' I just let them draw up a list of directors. Todd was on top of it."

Novelists who hope to be one of the lucky few who are allowed to adapt their own work would do well to hone their screenwriting skills along with their novel-writing skills. Having sold a few screenplays will certainly help convince producer that you are the person for the job.