Why hasn’t GREEN DARKNESS been made into a movie?

Fans of GREEN DARKNESS, including both of us, have asked and re-asked that question. We had heard from the publisher that we were not the first ones to take out a screenplay option on the novel.

Why weren't the previous optioners successful? 

While there may be no answer, we can’t help but wrack our brains with the question. We came up with  a few theories:

1) Perhaps they didn't try hard enough? 

2)Maybe they didn't love the book the way we do.

3)When the book was first published, reincarnation was a new and perhaps frightening philosophy. Since then, people have come to accept it and even if they may not believe in it themselves, they recognize that others do. Many films have dealt with the subject.

4)While this may annoy many lovers of the book, the bald fact is that Celia is not terribly likeable. She continues to pursue Stephen in the past even though he tries to keep her at arm’s length. 

5)The novel's method of returning to the past is a real stretch of the "willing suspension of disbelief". We've dealt with that differently and in a more believable way, but to do so we've made a significant shift in the story telling. It's a change that makes the story deeper and more emotional, we feel.

6)The most obvious reason? Cost. But we've taken steps to keep the costs down as well. 

Ultimately, it will be the test of time and our resources to prove whether we were right.

Plunging ever onward~~

Angela & Marla

STANDING ON A LEDGE -- LOOKING UP!

Let the bells ring out, and the small banners fly -- our little blog about adapting the novel GREEN DARKNESS into a feature screenplay hit the 5,161 viewership mark on April 3rd.

We can add Argentina, China, Sweden, Latvia, Poland, Turkey and Afghanistan to the countries from which our fans check out our blog.

Angela and I often feel like we're climbing our own form of Mount Everest. We have obviously left the base of the mountain, but we can't quite see the pinnacle -- in our case that could be two things/events  a. signing an option agreement with a producer or b. watching our screenplay-turned-feature-film on the big screen at the premiere.

So we'd call having our blog pass the 5000 mark our first 'base camp' along the climb. (Finding the number of yearly tourist visits to Ightham Mote, Cowdray Castle, and Naworth Castle was an estimated 500,000 was like having someone toss us down an extra safety rope coated with encouragement!)

This base camp is a safe ledge area where we stop for a breath, look up at what we have to achieve next.

We've come so far, it's true, but we never look back -- always look ahead!

Stick with us. Give us a push as often as you can. We will get the GREEN DARKNESS movie made!

Cheers

Marla & Angela

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 –

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!