Storytellersunplugged

Greetings and salutations, dear readers. Coming to you live from seedy, I mean sunny, California, this is your friendly neighborhood filmmaker with this month’s Storytellers Unplugged column.

Instead of continuing the Parallel column I started last month, I’d like to switch gears and talk about something else very interesting that is cooking. Parallel is going very well. This month has been devoted to lawyers and signing contracts and that would make for a very dull column. Filming is planned for first quarter 2006 and next month I’ll be back with an update on the project.

For now, I’d like to talk about a little project that’s in the works that you might not have heard about yet…

LETTERS FROM HADES!!!

That’s right. The brilliant Jeff Thomas was kind enough to allow me to option his magnificent novel in hopes that we could bring it to the big screen for all to see. Well, ladies and gents, this month has seen that come a few steps closer to reality.

For those who don’t know exactly how things like this work, here’s the general rule of thumb.

When Stephen King and John Grisham release books they are bought in galley form for millions of dollars months before they are ever released. When Bret Easton Ellis’s Lunar Park hits bookstores next month, it will already have been bought by a movie studio many moons ago. Small press writers fly under the radar and their work, usually better than everything on the bestseller list, is not seen by studios unless word of mouth and substantial press brings it to the attention of some guy working for a production company or studio who can barely read an interview in the latest issue of Playboy, much less actually finish a book.

That’s why it’s up to writers, directors, and producers who appreciate those heavy things they sell at Barnes & Nobles to find the hidden gems that aren’t reviewed in Entertainment Weekly. Namely, geeks like me who would rather read the latest issue of Cemetery Dance or the newest Leisure title than read Variety or the Hollywood Reporter.

I read a lot of horror fiction. I probably go through a book or two a week. And I am always reading in the hopes of stumbling across a potential film project. There are a lot of wonderful books floating around. But a great book doesn’t necessarily equal a great movie. There are many, many, many good books that should not be made into films because they are simply not movies and never will be unless you turn them into something completely different than the author intended. There are also many books that have been made into bad films. The Bonfire of the Vanities, anyone? Goodbye Columbus? Just about every Stephen King adaptation. Once every blue moon, a good book is turned into an equally good movie. Check out this month’s The Constant Gardner, with Ralph Fiennes, based on John le Carre’s excellent novel. Check out Anthony Minghella’s The English Patient and The Talented Mr. Ripley. Check out The Shawshank Redemption, Rosemary’s Baby, The Godfather, Waking the Dead, Requiem For A Dream, etc. There’s a slew of great movies out there based on books.

Well, when I read Letters From Hades, I was convinced after one reading that it could be a terrific film, as subversive as Fight Club, as moving as Shawshank, set in a world as visually stunning as Lord of the Rings.

I passed the book to my agents, who promptly agreed. I contacted Jeff, I begged him and offered numerous sexual favors for the ability to shop his book around with myself attached to adapt it. After reading Parallel, he promptly agreed and didn’t even take me up on my offer of sexual favors, which was nice of him.

This week, Original Artists, the agency that reps me took the book, artwork, and my treatment for the film out to a number of amazing production companies. Basically, when you take a script or book out you don’t go to studios, you go to production companies with strong track records that have a first look deal with a studio. You partner with the right company and they will take you and the project to the studio in the hope that the studio will purchase the project and make the movie.

All the companies my agents brought it to were Parallel fans. Almost all of them flipped over the book, and as of today… We have an amazing production company on board to produce the film. They have a first look deal at New Line, which I believe is the only studio that would do this book correctly without compromising the theology behind it, and the production company are currently producing several high profile films including Bruce Willis’s next flick.

This has been a good week. Jeff and I have made a great team thus far.

The next step…

The production company is taking the book to some big directors, we’ll attach a director, and then take the package (book, writer, director, production company) to New Line and ask them to buy the book from Jeff, pay me to adapt it, and make the movie.

So far so good. I’ll keep everyone updated as things progress.

If all goes smoothly, I can adapt Hades while prepping to direct my first feature, Parallel.

Keep those fingers crossed, my friends.

-JOSH BOONE