{"id":5278,"date":"2012-05-10T18:10:52","date_gmt":"2012-05-10T17:10:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/\/?p=5278"},"modified":"2012-05-10T18:10:52","modified_gmt":"2012-05-10T17:10:52","slug":"film-adaptation-with-michael-ondaatje","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/film-adaptation-with-michael-ondaatje\/","title":{"rendered":"Film Adaptation with Michael Ondaatje"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Ondaatje_01_body\"

Michael Ondaatje I spent six years writing the book, the last two years of which were spent creating the only structure I thought it could have. So to turn around and dismantle that structure and put the head where the tail was\u2026 There\u2019s no way I could have been objective and known what should go, what should stay.<\/div>\n
WD Were you involved in the initial script development?<\/div>\n
MO Quite a lot. Anthony Minghella, Saul Zaentz and I met every time there was a draft, and I think we worked well and adventurously together. The script felt \u201cnew,\u201d and was not a \u201cshadow\u201d of the book. Because all three of us were working on something new it was a much more exciting project. I was amazed, right from the beginning, how Anthony got the voices, when Barnes meets Katherine and says, \u201cOf course, I know your mother,\u201d that sense of class knowledge of each other was caught perfectly. In any case, each time there was a new draft, we would meet up. It was a real education in terms of how a script gets tighter and tighter. Film is much tougher. I don\u2019t think I could write a great chapter and then give it up because of the book\u2019s overall time limitations, as you sometimes must do with entire scenes in film. That\u2019s like a bad joke for a writer.<\/div>\n
WD I run into so many people who, when they hear I\u2019m involved with the film, say, \u201cOh, I loved the book.\u201d And I get this sinking feeling, not out of disrespect to the movie, but that somehow they\u2019re not going to see the book, not even a version of the book. They\u2019ll see something that grew out of it.<\/div>\n
MO I feel the film has become something quite distinct, with its own DNA.<\/div>\n

Michael Ondaatje: \u00a0I spent six years writing the book, The English Patient<\/strong>, the last two years of which were spent creating the only structure I thought it could have. So to turn around and dismantle that structure and put the head where the tail was\u2026 There\u2019s no way I could have been objective and known what should go, what should stay.<\/p>\n

WD: \u00a0Were you involved in the initial script development?<\/p>\n

MO: \u00a0Quite a lot. Anthony Minghella, Saul Zaentz and I met every time there was a draft, and I think we worked well and adventurously together. The script felt \u201cnew,\u201d and was not a \u201cshadow\u201d of the book. Because all three of us were working on something new it was a much more exciting project. I was amazed, right from the beginning, how Anthony got the voices, when Barnes meets Katherine and says, \u201cOf course, I know your mother,\u201d that sense of class knowledge of each other was caught perfectly. In any case, each time there was a new draft, we would meet up. It was a real education in terms of how a script gets tighter and tighter. Film is much tougher. I don\u2019t think I could write a great chapter and then give it up because of the book\u2019s overall time limitations, as you sometimes must do with entire scenes in film. That\u2019s like a bad joke for a writer.<\/p>\n

WD: \u00a0I run into so many people who, when they hear I\u2019m involved with the film, say, \u201cOh, I loved the book.\u201d And I get this sinking feeling, not out of disrespect to the movie, but that somehow they\u2019re not going to see the book, not even a version of the book. They\u2019ll see something that grew out of it.<\/p>\n

MO: I feel the film has become something quite distinct, with its own DNA.<\/p>\n

Read the full article HERE<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Film (apart from the adapted novel) must become something quite distinct, with its own DNA.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11959,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"nf_dc_page":"","_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[48,47],"tags":[715,718,25,26,27,28,30,31,32,1194,33,34,35,36,37,38,39,40,1195,41,42],"class_list":["post-5278","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-movies-character-development-screenwriting-screenplay-script-blog","category-random-thoughts-pop-culture-political-movie-television-blog","tag-adaptation","tag-anthony-minghella","tag-character","tag-characters","tag-emotional-toolbox","tag-etb","tag-film","tag-films","tag-laurie-hutzler","tag-michael-ondaatje","tag-movies","tag-nine-character-types","tag-screenplay","tag-screenplays","tag-screenwriting","tag-script","tag-scripts","tag-scriptwriting","tag-the-english-patient","tag-tv","tag-writing"],"acf":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/30710870_10211699141895539_4496568718662303744_n.jpg",960,720,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/30710870_10211699141895539_4496568718662303744_n-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/30710870_10211699141895539_4496568718662303744_n-300x225.jpg",300,225,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/30710870_10211699141895539_4496568718662303744_n-768x576.jpg",768,576,true],"large":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/30710870_10211699141895539_4496568718662303744_n.jpg",960,720,false],"ttshowcase_normal":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/30710870_10211699141895539_4496568718662303744_n.jpg",125,94,false],"ttshowcase_small":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/30710870_10211699141895539_4496568718662303744_n.jpg",75,56,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/30710870_10211699141895539_4496568718662303744_n.jpg",960,720,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/30710870_10211699141895539_4496568718662303744_n.jpg",960,720,false],"Image Size 500x500":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/30710870_10211699141895539_4496568718662303744_n.jpg",500,375,false],"woocommerce_thumbnail":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/30710870_10211699141895539_4496568718662303744_n-300x400.jpg",300,400,true],"woocommerce_single":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/30710870_10211699141895539_4496568718662303744_n-600x450.jpg",600,450,true],"woocommerce_gallery_thumbnail":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/30710870_10211699141895539_4496568718662303744_n-100x100.jpg",100,100,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Laurie Hutzler","author_link":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/author\/admin\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Film (apart from the adapted novel) must become something quite distinct, with its own DNA.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5278"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5278"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5278\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11959"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}