Adapting the Novel for the Screen

With my new novel Deadpan now available to order online at Amazon and, best of all, directly from its courageous publisher Heresy Press, I thought it would be appropriate to consider the relationship between novels and screenplays.

My own screenwriting teacher, USC’s late and legendary Irwin R. Blacker, used to ask his classes the following: “When adapting a novel for the screen, what does the writer owe the original material?”

He required a one-word answer, which we had to recite in unison.

“Nothing!”

What writers owe, whether scripting an original screenplay or one based upon material from another medium, is the best movie they can write.

To whom is that debt owed?

The audience.

For writers contemplating adapting a novel to the screen, my most fundamental recommendation is: Don’t do it.

Instead, write an original screenplay.

In recent decades the most depressing aspect of Hollywood has got to be its reluctance to produce anything original. Every movie seems to be a remake, a sequel, a prequel, or an adaptation of a novel, a video game, a comic book, a newspaper article, even a board game or toy.