IN HOLDING PATTERN BUT STILL ACTIVE

As the title suggests, our screenplay adaption of GREEN DARKNESS has slipped into another holding pattern on its journey to fruition on the big screen.

But that doesn't mean there's a lack of activity. To the contrary. Angela and I have renewed our option on the rights to the novel with the publisher... we are find our footing in the maze that is the world of entertainment lawyers and their roles in the Biz... 

We did indeed complete our consultations with screenwriting mentor Bill Boyle (see our April 22nd blog) to our great satisfaction and his delight with the project (we are delighted that Bill's delighted)...

And thanks to you readers, we wanted to update you on where in the world the blog views originate. From the highest number of views to the lowest - the U.S., Canada, United Kingdom, Spain, Russia, Argentina, Australia, Germany, Malaysia and France. The admin stat reports don't include all locations, however we remember many views from Romania, Brazil and the Ukraine.

If you're astonished that Russia, Australia, Malaysia, Romania, and the Ukraine have shown up in our stats, imagine how we feel - Surprised! Pleased! Grateful!

Your encouragement keeps our spirits raised on those days when our energy reserves momentarily flag over promoting our project.

Ever onward to our goal -

Marla & Angela

TRULY AN INTERNATIONAL PHENOMENON

As we approach what could be our last consultation session with our screenwriting mentor, Bill Boyle, over our screenplay adaptation of GREEN DARKNESS, we decided to do a more comprehensive dig into the publication history of the best-selling novel.

It turned out that there wasn't one single site online with all of that information. So we compiled data -

English has been the primary language for publication. However, the popularity of this classic historical romance also caught the attention of publishers internationally. The book has been translated into French, Spanish, German, Portuguese, Chinese, Korean, Turkish and Dutch. Two other variations were created that further widened the book's marketplace - books in large print and books on tape.

Whether the publisher was Houghton Mifflin, Hodder & Stoughton, Chicago Review Press, Fawcett Crest, Buccaneer Books, Emece Editores, Random House, Inc., Ulverscroft Large Print, The Book Club, Corgi, Coronet, Amereon or Books on Tape, GREEN DARKNESS has been published in some form almost continually from its first edition in 1972 to the most recent in 2009.

Considering that every edition can have multiple printings, it’s no wonder we can’t discover a final tally for the total number of books sold!

   

It would be equally difficult to determine the number of copies that were bought, read, enjoyed and passed on to friends so they could relish this tale.

Talk about a built-in international marketability factor for our screenplay!

Until next time -

Marla Hayes & Angela Falkowska

FOR THE LOVE OF GREEN DARKNESS

"Is Green Darkness a film?"

"Is there a Green Darkness movie?"

“Was Green Darkness ever made into a movie?”

Those kinds of questions have been repeatedly googled, weekly actually, ever since our blog started -- and probably long before that!

Our reaction is, well, frankly, mixed... we're thrilled that there is obviously interest in seeing the novel brought to the big screen... we're pleased that the novel is still held dear in the hearts of its vast number of readers... we're satisfied that our adaptation project and blog are still being talked about in book and movie circles around the world (we’ve had 1963 hits of our blog and many others on the FB page)... and we're encouraged to keep slogging along the road to bringing our screenplay to producers' attention…. 

Getting a producer to appreciate the hunger of the novel’s fans is the key!

As to what we've been doing to achieve that goal since our last posting -- we continue to work with screenwriting mentor, Bill Boyle.

“Angela and Marla are an exceptional screenwriting partnership that has an truly organic understanding of the screenwriting craft. They exhibit as a team a very shrewd and entertaining approach to their screenplays as expressed in ‘[Green Darkness]’ which is a complicated piece of work that flows from scene to scene skillfully and seductively.“  Bill Boyle

Thank you, Bill for those kind words! It's been a creatively exciting process-- gradually revealing our baby to a working pro who has never read the book and who sees our script as something that must stand on its own merit.

HOORAY: We pat ourselves on the back for finding a way to justify changing the title of our script back to GREEN DARKNESS from our working title PREORDAINED.

It wasn’t easy! 

Anya Seton quoted a poem in the foreword that contained the words, but that wasn’t good enough for us. 

Does anyone remember the controversy over VANILLA SKY?? We didn’t want to go that route. 

But we’re happy to say we’ve solved the problem –at least for ourselves. You’ll have to be the judge when you see the movie. And we’ll be awaiting those comments!

Let the tweaking continue as do the improvements –

MEDIUM AND A MESSAGE

Sometimes it takes years for a script to be produced. We hope that's not to be the case with our script, but the end result is all that matters.

It's taking time to complete the rewrite for several reasons. Our mentor has other obligations, plus we're not in a financial position to engage him or anyone full-time. The rewrite is being done 10 pages at a time in coordination with our mentor. After each critiquing session, we try to make the changes as quickly and as effectively as possible. Then we wait for our next scheduled working session. Our mentor does his best, but he's a busy man with projects of his own and is now teaching at UCLA as well.

So while it may feel like it's taking forever to tweak our script, we are working to make it the best adaptation possible.  We just want all our readers to know that we haven't given up.

The rewrite is moving along very well.

Damn, if the story doesn't just grab me by the throat every time! If I could just pluck it from my brain and onto the screen, we'd be done. It's too bad paper and film have to be involved! Until someone invents a brain reading machine, we're stuck with our "Medium".

Take heart, dear readers and have patience.

 

See you soon~~

If It Doesn’t Purr, Try Another Stroke!

It’s been a long month, or is it now two since our last update? One loses track of time.  Summer has nearly gone and folks in the biz are back at their desks. We’re still following up at intervals and so far have received a couple of “sorry haven’t gotten to it yet” replies. Meanwhile, we must all be patient. Gaaak!

We have a request: If you’re a screenwriter who is submitting to producers, would you please STOP THAT and give them a chance to catch up and read ours? Just kidding!!  It would be nice if people had enough time to read every script though, wouldn’t it? Maybe in a perfect world…

Is ANYTHING ever perfect? Is any SCRIPT ever perfect? For that matter, is any MOVIE? Is our script a diamond, so highly polished it blinds you? We’d like to think so. We’ve adhered to the original material enough to please the devoted fans. We’ve woven the story into a tight narrative with subtext, mythology and symbolism. We’ve stroked our theme until it… Can you hear it purring where you are? Well, then maybe we’re not stroking the right way yet.

So, Marla and I are going to plunge into another rewrite. Not because we’re convinced that our script is imperfect, but rather we feel it might still be enhanced, purr-wise. We felt it was time to get some further consulting and a coach.

We’ll probably improve many aspects as we go through the process again.

In the end, it may not be the quality of our writing that stands in the way of a sale. Just between us, my friend, I can admit we’ve got a lot of experience behind us.  The stumbling block may be the premise, the root of the story—the novel. The way the movie business works, we have to find a chain of champions who each individually believe in reincarnation and will promote a story based on that belief. The majority of people on our planet do. So you’d think our chances should be good. Fingers crossed? What, are you superstitious? You betcha!

Battling the current—till next time~~

Speeding Right Along -- No Cruise Control Yet!

We thought we would share with our readers some of the comments our adaptation script of GREEN DARKNESS has gathered along the road to being optioned. We're still driving in the fast lane of that highway of dreams -- 12 producers are reading the screenplay --             
hopefully at this very moment --



PRODUCERS:

“Given the red-hot status of the book, I’m sure you will find a great home for this project.”

“well-written; liked premise”

“script well-crafted & strongly written”


FANS:

C.B. Green Darkness is an eternal novel, repeatedly a Best Seller, your wonderful script is destined to become a Wonderful and Successful Movie, mmm, Poducers should be bright ... & fast enough to seize this golden opportunity!

D.E. I can't tell you how thrilled I am to see this wonderful work of fiction brought a bit closer to the big screen. I've read the book at least 40 times in the past 39 years since it was first published.  I am so psyched for this movie to be made!

C.B. I cannot express with words how exciting it's following your work

D.J. I've read the book twice over this holiday break, loved the story and can't wait to see it on the big screen!

K.S. Just found your blog and I’m so excited you’ve taken on this adaptation!

C.S. I am so excited that you are going to bring my all-time favorite book to the big screen! …I think as long as you make sure people know that it was originally Green Darkness, you’ll fill those theaters!