The movie Atonement is raking in the awards and nominations right now in this current, dampened, award season - and looks like it will manage a strong finish in the imminent BAFTAs. In an interview over at The New Republic, McEwan talks about how it feels to have one’s work adapted for the big screen.

In particular, I thought I would pick out this segment:

I’m sure I’d be possessive if I allowed myself to get involved in the writing of the script. There’s a lot to be said for not doing that. I did it once with The Innocent and John Schlesinger, and it was a fairly difficult process because everyone–the director, the designers, actors, everyone–had their own ideas and came piling in. And you are suddenly knocked off your perch as the God in this machine.

As someone who has written in both mediums (I will offer the disclaimer “not professionally” here), I can appreciate the challenges presented by writing the script. Story structure is critical, and the need to be as concise as possible in depicting the necessary elements, while omitting what is not essential - all the while maintaining the interest of the audience. This often leads to fundamental changes from the original written work, often by re-ordering the sequence of events as they are depicted, absorbing lines of dialogue into different scenes, and even switching important dialogue to a different characters. This is almost impossible to achieve as the author of the original piece, I suspect due to their understandable emotional attachment to their work. Conversely, the thought of someone else getting their hands on ‘your baby’ can be equally daunting.

McEwan goes on to discuss some of his past work, his beliefs, and talk about the kinds of subjects he likes to read about as well as write. It is invariably an insight to hear what an author reads. Find the TNR interview here.