Screenwriting 101: Simon Beaufoy

“With adaptations, all I promise the author I’ll do is remain true to the spirit of what they wrote. The first book adaptation that I did, I loved the book so much that I transposed the book, almost word for word into a screenplay. It was a disaster and never got made. I realized that isn’t the way to do it. Most of the authors I’ve adapted are very at home with the idea that everything will change as long as the soul of it doesn’t. As long as the feel you get from that piece of work chimes with the original work. People who love the book are not at home with that and are quite often extremely cross. But that’s the only way to do it I think, it’s an entirely different medium. You’ve only got 90 minutes or two hours, you have to be very bold and rather brutal in adapting things.”

— Simon Beaufoy

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