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 –

Why Go The Adaptation Route?

I had a conversation with my sister yesterday- - she had a number of questions about this whole adaptation route that Angela and I are undertaking. Perhaps you are wondering the same things...

Novelists are free to use as many words as they want or need. The average novel is 250,000 words. The author of a novel can describe people, places, and events in detail that goes on for pages, allowing the reader to revel in the flowery phrases and grow to feel like they're actually there. Novelists should still show more than tell, but can indulge somewhat more in telling the reader what they want them to experience. Dialogue can be sparser and the plot's progression as slow as a melting glacier with subplots aplenty. That's how some novels end up being over 600 pages.

The difference between a screenplay and a novel is about 230,000 words!

Screenwriters don't have the same luxury. We only have 110 pages to paint a world and draw the viewing audience in, to cheer for our hero/heroine and boo the bad guys. We have to show not tell - show the plot's progress, show the personality of our characters and convey inner thoughts in increasingly unique ways.

In adapting a novel to the silver screen, our main job is to find the heart of the story, the deepest core. To do that, we may have to make decisions that might infuriate fans of the story's earlier form - the original novel. But that is what adaptation is all about -- bringing our vision of the novel to a wider audience in the form of a feature film.

Film producers have been remaking old TV series, even old movies for a long time now. They like nothing better than to adapt a comic book with a huge fan base into either a live-action film or an animated movie.

We decided producers couldn't be aware of every bestselling novel, so we took the proverbial bull by the horns and optioned the rights to adapt GREEN DARKNESS into a screenplay. When it comes time to market it to producers, and they read our script, we want them to be asking themselves how they possibly missed snatching up this great story.

We thought outside the box...and we were very lucky.

Do you believe enough in your writing ability to take the same leap?

Until next time -

Marla