Kneejerk reaction: suspicion and vague displeasure.
I feel like turning that book into a movie would be like turning, I dunno, the computer game Myst into a movie. Half of the fun of Griffin and Sabine is the active reader involvement.
Or, anyway, that's how I remember feeling when I read it one zillion years ago.
Anyway, the relevant article is here:
Los Angeles based independent production house, Renegade Films, announced today that they have acquired the rights to the epistolary novels, Griffin & Sabine: An Extraordinary Correspondence. The 1991, best-selling series, written and illustrated by Nick Bantock, will be adapted into a feature film that travels through the three novels: Griffin & Sabine, Sabine’s Notebook and The Golden Mean. It is the first time the Griffin & Sabine trilogy has been optioned for film.
Bantock is in favor of the project, and judging from this old interview, it sounds like he'd have had to be super-confident in Renegade to let the rights out of his hands.
So we'll see.
Uh. That seems bad. How on earth would you make those books into a movie and not have it be awful? I re-read them last year, remembering how neat I thought they were back then.
Posted by: dangermom | 23 October 2013 at 10:16 AM
We just got an offer to interview him about a new writing book he's written in the style of that sort of art-narrative pastiche he's so good at... but this... Yeah. Knee jerk suspicion and unhappiness.
Posted by: tanita | 23 October 2013 at 12:10 PM
The highlight of my career as a parent to teenagers: I gave my son's then girlfriend the first Griffin & Sabine book for some reason lost to me. She lent it to a friend who then read it in class and gasped out loud when she reached the end.
I saved no young lives, shaped no young souls, but I introduced Griffin and Sabine to my teenage son's social circle. That is enough. I can rest.
Posted by: Gail Gauthier | 23 October 2013 at 12:39 PM
Super confident or super in need of a cash infusion, because it's definitely been a long time since he's had much of anything going on, although he does have something coming out next year.
Posted by: Lisa | 23 October 2013 at 10:26 PM
@Lisa: Thank you for voicing that thought so I didn't have to. Because my mind definitely went there, but then I felt WEIRDLY GUILTY about actually saying it out loud. (Or, well, writing it down. You know what I mean.)
Posted by: Leila | 24 October 2013 at 07:22 AM
Oh, my mind always goes there with book/movie deals. They almost never work out well, but the money is super-tempting. Best-case scenario, they paid him a large advance, he invests wisely, they never get around to making the movie, and he's all set.
Posted by: Lisa | 24 October 2013 at 02:28 PM
Don't put anything past Hollywood. They don't care if it translates well; they just want the name recognition of the title. Don't forget they made a film out of the game Battleship.
Posted by: Kelly | 25 October 2013 at 04:28 PM
of his work i would make a film of _the venetian's wife_ first, it seems like it would translate so much better there are a wealth of intriguing, mysterious, sometimes shady characters and a cute guy in new orleans. what's not to like?
Posted by: emily | 30 October 2013 at 02:05 PM