John Hillcoat Quotes

I think it's always a challenge to adapt a beautiful literary work into a fresh and alive film.

After Strangelove I also started work on an adaptation of The Collector.

To be quite honest, I've been very blessed when I've worked with Hollywood. The studios that have purchased my work to be adapted to film have really liked the work and wanted to stay as close as they could to what the book was.

After I sold my screenplay adaptation of 'Rain Fall' to Sony Pictures, I had no more creative involvement.

When you're lucky enough to have a good film made of your novel - and 'Never Let Me Go' is, believe me, a heartbreakingly good film indeed - you get wonderfully talented individuals each focusing on their special area.

I am very lucky: not very many writers can say they genuinely like the film of their book. However, I do.

Yes, there is some thought about making a film of My Name Is Asher Lev.

I always felt once it goes into movie land, the book belongs to someone else.

You don't often get a proposal to do Tolstoy for a really interesting director - that's easy to say yes to.

When I write something, I want the best director to direct it. And that's not going to be me. So when David Fincher comes along and wants to direct 'The Social Network,' when Bennett Miller comes along and wants to direct 'Moneyball,' or when Danny Boyle wants to direct 'Jobs'? Hallelujah. I want them directing it.

For the film 'Saat Khoon Maaf,' which was adapted from my story 'Susanna's Seven Husbands,' I did collaborate on the screenplay. I even took a small role in the film, of a priest.

As an author, you can't expect a movie to be an illustration of the book. If that's what you hope for, you shouldn't sell the rights.

Authors of books are not given very much control over the films that are made from their books.

I've made seventeen or eighteen films now, only two of which have been original screenplays, all the others have been based on short stories or novels, and I find the long short story ideal for adaptation.

I think books and movies are going to go a long way together in the future. I think we writers are very important material for directors.

When I write a novel, I am God at my own typewriter, and there is nobody in between. But when I write a screenplay, it must be a compromise because there are so many elements which are outside the writer's province.

'Catch-22' was a nightmare to make, and everybody was unhappy except me.

There were many films made for both cinema and television, and in general I don't connect them very much with our books. I have one favorite: 'The Man on the Roof' by director Bo Widerberg, which was based on 'The Abominable Man.'

In some instances, I would say the writer does deserve equal billing with the director. In other instances the director - especially if he wrote part of the script himself - is clearly more the author of the movie.

I would love it if anyone gave me the job of adapting 'The Great Gatsby,' but nobody ever does.

It took 17 years to get 'Rambling Rose' made from the time Calder Willingham wrote the script adapted from his novel. Ed Scherick, the producer, was interested in it. Martha Coolidge was interested in directing it.

My first project was 'Hunchback of Notre Dame'. I co-produced that.

Hope E. L .James doesn't think I'm being a prankster. I really want to adapt her novels for the screen. Christian Grey is a writer's dream.

I have written my own screen version of Pern, but had no buyers yet.

I felt like I haven't had the typical experience of a novelist whose book becomes a movie.