Keep going.’ So I did,” Selznick recalled.

That was the hardest part, and when I asked him if cutting 23 pages was enough, he said, ‘No, cut 25. “His first note to me was to cut the opening 50 pages in half. Later constructive criticism from Logan concerned a crucial aspect of screenwriting that Selznick had not always had to come up against in his novels-the art of concision. But it was his initial ‘Yes’s’ that gave me a great amount of confidence as I moved forward,” Selznick said. It wasn’t until I’d struggled my way through that draft and asked him for feedback that he began to really dig into what worked and what didn’t. “As I wrote the first draft, all of my questions to him were answered with a very encouraging ‘Yes! Try it!’ which made me feel very clever. He even told me which screenwriting program to download (Final Draft).” And so the Caldecott Medal-winning author-illustrator became novice screenwriter. “When I’m making a story I think of it in words and pictures, designed to be experienced by turning pages in a physical book.” However, John Logan-who adapted Hugo-encouraged Selznick to write the screenplay for Wonderstruck: “ really took me under his wing and offered me wonderful advice and support. Selznick, who wrote the screenplay, spoke with PW about the process of adapting Wonderstruck, the ways in which the story lent itself to a cinematic telling, and the challenges of reimagining such a distinctive narrative for film.ĭespite the pronounced visual element in Selznick’s novel, he had never anticipated that Wonderstruck would become a film: “I wrote the book thinking it could only work as a book,” he said.

Like its predecessor, Selznick’s The Invention of Hugo Cabret-which was adapted into the movie Hugo in 2011- Wonderstruck has a decidedly unconventional structure, with Rose’s story told in pencil drawings and Ben’s story told in words.

Wonderstruck book online