This is the story of how a book becomes a movie.
Actually, it’s the story of how a book became a movie, because it doesn’t always happen this way. Obviously, director Rob Reiner doesn’t often call the author of the source material out of the blue on Halloween to chat about his enthusiasm for the project, but you could probably figure that out without much effort.
Less obviously, that author—in this case, local Wendelin Van Draanen—doesn’t typically get included in the Warner Bros. publicity press push, appearing on a Hollywood panel with the aforementioned Reiner, the producer, and Reiner’s co-writer for the screenplay.
Nor is that author expected to throw a red carpet premiere party on her Central Coast home turf—and if she does, it’s less than likely that she’ll get the four young stars of the film to drive north from L.A. to attend not one, but two screenings.
But all that did happen, so treat this as an atypical tale of a novel’s journey into theaters instead of an easily duplicated blueprint.
“From the time I started writing Flipped until it actually became a book, it was at least a year and a half, two years,” Van Draanen said.
A few years after Flipped was published, a company optioned it, which basically means it put up some money in exchange for the rights to develop it into a movie.
“It’s like having dibs on it,” Van Draanen explained.
Those dibs can last for months or years. In Flipped’s case, the option ran for six months, after which the company optioned it again. And again. And again.
“It’s easy to have this string along six months at a time, but it became six years,” Van Draanen said. “You can’t hold your breath that long.”
Along the way, she explained, agents talked about how difficult it is to actually turn books into movies, famous folks attached or detached themselves from the project, murmurers murmured, rumors milled around, and checks periodically got signed. In short, it was easy to eventually get desensitized and think cameras would never actually start rolling.
And in some cases—a lot, really—they don’t. Flipped seemed to be heading that direction, especially when the company that first optioned it pulled out of the movie business, Van Draanen said. She wasn’t too broken up, however.
“It certainly wasn’t a matter of me ever banking on this happening,” she said.
Then Reiner called. Turns out some years back his son read Van Draanen’s story of a girl and a boy learning about life and love, and he enjoyed it. He recommended it to his dad, with whom it struck a chord. Reiner thought about adapting Flipped into a movie, turning back the novel’s modern setting to the early ’60s, and waited.
When the first company didn’t renew its dibs, he snapped up the project and called Van Draanen on Oct. 31, 2009.
“The interesting thing to me is that you write a book and you hope that people buy it … but you have no idea who’s reading it,” she said. “And you don’t sit at home thinking, ‘Oh, maybe Rob Reiner’s son is reading my book.’ That doesn’t cross your mind.
“It’s a very cool feeling to just sit back and think that thought,” she allowed, though she added, “You can’t live your life thinking that thought, because then you wouldn’t be writing anything.”
Once Reiner took over, the project moved into high gear. Van Draanen said everyone involved was welcoming, positive, and inclusive, attitudes she attributes to Reiner, who set the tone from the top and passed down his love for the book.
Van Draanen got to visit Ann Arbor, Mich., where much of the movie was filmed. She met the actors and the location scout and others, all of whom were enthusiastic about her, about her book, and about the movie.
But the process hasn’t just been meeting movie stars, visiting sets, and chatting with Reiner. A movie tie-in edition of the book necessitated help from Van Draanen, who contributed an interview and helped with other new content. Her publisher, Random House, also decided to try something new with the Flipped e-book, adding behind-the-scenes material like interviews, movie excerpts, and even three songs Van Draanen wrote (that she hoped Castle Rock would include in the Flipped soundtrack until she learned the music would all come from the ’50s and ’60s ).
She attended the Hollywood premiere and participated in the Associated Press panel. On top of that, she coordinated two fancy-dress red carpet events at Fair Oaks Theatre in Arroyo Grande—a matinee for local youth, who got tickets through local schools and libraries; and an evening event for people in her life. The four young leads from the movie (Madeline Carroll, Callan McAuliffe, Israel Broussard, and Stefanie Scott) attended and signed hundreds of books for the guests.
“This Flipped experience was way better than I thought it would be, because the reaction to me as an author was much more welcoming than I expected … because I think the author can be a pain in the rear,” Van Draanen said.
“What I take away from this is that it’s really important to appreciate the good things as they come. I just feel really lucky that this has happened this way, because I’ve heard enough stories about this not happening this way.
“In my case … it’s a small film, the budget isn’t huge, it isn’t supposed to be a blockbuster, but it has been so full of goodness for me,” she said. “It feels really big to me, because it’s all been good.”
So what’s next? Watch for a new book, The Running Dream, about a young runner who gets a prosthetic leg. And fans of Van Draanen’s popular Sammy Keyes mystery series will finally get a new installment after the longest break between books in that series’ history.
“I tend to work really hard on the next book, toward the next thing,” Van Draanen said. “I don’t tend to take time to enjoy the moment, but in this case I’m trying to make myself do that because this is something I don’t expect to ever have happen again.” m
Executive Editor Ryan Miller likes Flipped, Stand By Me, and This is Spinal Tap. Contact him at rmiller@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Aug 26 – Sep 2, 2010.