Novelist Walter Mosley, most famous for his hard-boiled crime novels, has formed his own production company, called B.O.B. (Best Of Brooklyn) to handle adaptations of his books for the big and small screen.
Personally, I can see why he's doing it, and how it's probably a good idea for him, his books, and his career. He's written over three dozen novels and short stories, mostly in the crime/mystery genres, but he's also dabbled in science-fiction and other genres. Several of his works have been adapted for the screen, most famously 1995's The Devil In A Blue Dress starring Denzel Washington, so he knows the perils, pitfalls, and just plain perfidy of trying to get a book made into a movie.
Unless your book is part of a fast moving best selling phenomenon like Harry Potter or Twilight, where moving quickly is essential to cash in on the fad a studio or production company could spend years, literally years, simply deciding whether or not they want to make the movie in the first place.
And even if they do decide to make your book into a movie, after that comes the possibility of even more years pissed away, watching your literary creation being torn apart to appease the whims of producers, directors, and movie stars.
That's not all. Studios prefer to develop best-selling novels into feature films. However, if they don't fit into the traditional Hollywood summer blockbuster mold, the project runs the risk of developing a form of creative paralysis.
Also, some books don't really fit into the feature film mold because of their sheer narrative girth. They might be better off as a TV mini-series, but usually get mashed and bashed severely to fit into a two-hour running time.
By forming his own production company Mosley is giving himself much more control of the adaptation process. He can actively seek out collaborators that understand and appreciate his work, connect works with the right medium be it the big screen, or television, and have more say over the fate of the money that's due him.
So I say good luck to him. Hopefully he'll create a new and successful model for authors to follow in their dealings with Hollywood.
Devil in a Blue Dress was a great little noir film. It knew what it was and was very good at being that.
ReplyDeleteAnd Don Cheadle was absolutely terrifying as Mouse. He needs to get together with Denzel again.
Unless your book is part of a fast moving best selling phenomenon like Harry Potter or Twilight, where moving quickly is essential to cash in on the fad a studio or production company could spend years, literally years, simply deciding whether or not they want to make the movie in the first place.
ReplyDeleteThat's not always true. They're already getting that Life of Pi film out this year.
Life of Pi is the exception to the rule because it was a big award winner as well as a big seller. It has "Gimme An Oscar" written all over it.
ReplyDeleteYes, but still, already an adaptation of a novel that came out in 2001? Surely a record, and way to strike while the iron is hot. Good work, Hollywood.
ReplyDeleteIt's still over 10 years in development. During the Golden Age the time between purchasing the rights to a book and getting it out on screen was measured in months not years, and definitely not in decades.
ReplyDeleteSorry, I was actually trying to be humorously sarcastic, albeit none too successfully.
ReplyDeleteSorry I got so pissy, but the mind numbing & costly inefficiency of the development process just gets my dander up.
ReplyDeleteBelieve me, I hear you.
ReplyDeleteDevil In A Blue Dress should have been enough of a hit to make Washington the star of a series of Easy Rawlins films, but unfortunately it made $10 million less than its $27 million budget, so that wasn't to be. It's brutal math, but it's hard to argue with the simple Hollywood logic that films that lose money don't spawn sequels. (I can't think of any exceptions, can you?) This was, of course, in the days previous to DVDs and streaming, so maybe an Easy Rawlins series would have stood a better chance today, and maybe Mosley will be able to see that happen. I'm not hopeful, however - the demographics that can make novels like Mosley's bestsellers don't work the same way for film.
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