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When books to film don't work

16.04.07

It is easy for authors to get carried away by the glamour and money when Hollywood calls, warns the Indepndent. "It is also very dangerous, according to the novelist Deborah Moggach. 'When producers want you, it's a seduction. They take you out to dinner and tell you you're wonderful, but once they have got their leg over that's it,' she says brutally."

Less than two per cent of optioned films make it to the screen, and those that do usually have long gestation processes - Anthony Minghella's adaptation of The English Patient took more than 10 years to finance. Only a handful of UK production companies have enough clout to guarantee that a film gets made. These include Working Title, Ecosse Films, FilmFour, Slate Films and DNA Films (the latter two were responsible for The Last King of Scotland and Notes on a Scandal, while Ecosse is behind the cinema release of Brideshead Revisited out next year).

Independent

Books film Hollywood

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