How A Book Becomes A Movie

Today we’d like you to meet Jonathan Clements, literary agent extraordinaire. Jonathan has worked in the entertainment industry for over 15 years, and although he has an extensive background in the music business and the speaker circuit – including artist management, development and career consulting – he found his true calling in 2003 as a literary agent. He loves to help writers communicate their souls and passions to the masses and while he has an actual office – you can most likely find him at the nearest trendy coffee shop, multitasking on his laptop, PDA, and listening to his iPod while conducting client meetings, reading manuscripts, and well … grooving to the latest tune.  Although Jonathan prefers not to “drop names”, throughout his years he’s worked with some of the more influential types within the entertainment and publishing worlds — everyone from Greg Kincaid, Tom Osborne, Anita Renfroe and Michael W. Smith, to Columbia Records and The Chicago Tribune. Always willing to listen to a pitch, read a manuscript or talk career path, you won’t meet a more approachable agent. Just don’t forget the coffee.

We asked Jonathan to stop by and spill the beans on how a book becomes a movie.

You represent New York Times bestselling author, Greg Kincaid, and his novel A Dog Named Christmas. Can you tell us a little about the book?

A DOG NAMED CHRISTMAS is the heart-warming tale of a persuasive young man with a developmental disability, and his ability to convince his small town to take dogs from the local shelter home for the Christmas holidays.  But ultimately, there’s more to it.  The book explores the young man’s father’s inability to deal with some inner hurt from his past.  Sentimental?  Check.  Feel-good?  Check.  Holiday family classic for years to come?  Sure hope so.  Have a box of tissues close at hand.

You sold film rights to A Dog Named Christmas earlier this year to Hallmark. It will air Friday, November 27th as a Hallmark Hall of Fame movie. As an agent, what is the difference between selling a novel to a publisher and selling the film rights to a production company?

Indeed, there seems to be a vast array of contrasts – on several levels.  From the way the project is shopped and sold, to the path the creative process takes, to financial structuring, to the marketing, and more.  I guess I’d say a major difference has to do with the way projects are selected by production companies versus publishing houses.  Where a book can seem to have a bit of mass appeal — based on anything from topic to writing style — it seems a movie needs to fit a pretty specific felt need / market share / trend.

Readers are often curious about the process of taking a book – paper and ink – and turning it into an entirely different art form that can be seen and heard. Can you enlighten us to that process? Do screenwriters have free reign to change the content as needed, or do they try to stick with an author’s original intent? How close is the film version to the novel in this case?

Upfront, as an agent, I always look to sign projects that have potential for what I call multiple platform capability (beyond books … television, movies, music involvement, new digital or online formats, etc.).  Having said that, I will be the first to admit that there doesn’t seem to be a ‘normal’ scenario for these things.  Most times, there are significant changes made to storyline, plot, structure, and most often character development.  In our case, the film is extremely close to the book – and we feel very fortunate.  There seems to be such a defined skill set involved with writing screenplays v. manuscripts, with the differences almost monumental in their uniqueness.  So much so, that most films made from books are written by screenwriters, not simply the award-winning author translating his or her story to become film-worthy. Book authors typically consult with the screenwriter for direction, plotlines, and further character development.

It is very rare for a novel’s film rights to sell, and even rarer that the book is actually made into a movie. Is there a science behind these decisions, or just luck of the draw?

Ha, nice.  Truth be told, there was as much luck, timing and “lightning in a bottle” in this case as there was agenting expertise.  A production company can bite on an idea as quickly as a fully completed screenplay or a best-selling book.  We are working with another story right now, that is essentially being sold to film on an idea alone.  Obviously, selling a novel almost always requires a completed manuscript.  In the case of A DOG NAMED CHRISTMAS, the story was done (and well done … the book released on the NYTimes list with Random House / Doubleday in November 2008).  It had such large platform potential that when Hallmark was pitched the project, it just felt like a natural for them.  I referenced that I look for projects that have ‘beyond just a book’ appeal; in this case, we did feel the story could go to film or television.  But how many others can that be said of?  The author used his connections, we used ours, and the pitch was a sort of combination of the traditional with the unorthodox.

A Dog Named Christmas is Greg Kincaid’s first novel so it is quite impressive that he made the New York Time’s bestseller list, and even more astounding that the novel was turned into a film. He must have done something right. In your opinion, why did this novel resonate so deeply with readers and also those in the Hollywood?

Yes, Greg is a first time (published) author; therefore, much about his journey may not fit the ‘norm’, if there is such a thing in this business.  But I always say that in this business, it does indeed take: