NEW YORK, Jan. 22 (UPI) -- Turning a mediocre book into a good movie is much easier than adapting a beloved novel, according to "Mystic River" scribe Brian Helgeland.
"An original comes more out of you, so there are more difficulties involved yanking that out of yourself," he told reporters in New York recently. "But an adaptation is tricky because you're kind of in a straight jacket as far as trying to be true to the book and at the same time put it into a movie form -- especially if the book's good and you really like the book.
"Ironically, I think it's much easier to make a good movie out of a mediocre book, especially a book people aren't familiar with. ... but a good book ... it's harder to make a good adaptation because you're constrained by things that you have to be true to to make everybody happy."
The Writer's Guild of America nominated Helgeland's script for best-adapted screenplay of 2003 Thursday.
