Adaptations

...are harder than original scripts. Good article.

clipped from news.yahoo.com Filmmakers face book-to-screen challenge LOS ANGELES - David Benioff was sitting on a plane, having a perfectly pleasant conversation with an elderly passenger about his job as a screenwriter, when he mentioned that he was working on an adaptation of "The Kite Runner." "She grabbed my arm and said, `That's my favorite novel. Don't change a word!'" Screenwriters like Benioff are acutely aware of the inevitable comparisons between book and movie, and face the daunting challenge of telling a cinematic story that will resonate with audiences while remaining somewhat true to the source material. "You've got to boil down 130,000 words to a screenplay containing 20,000 words," the author said in the "Atonement" production notes. In determining what to cut and what to keep, "Lust, Caution" co-writer James Schamus says the key is to remember always that you're making a movie.