Craig Titley: “Adapting Percy Jackson Was Best Experience”
Craig Titley, our beloved screenwriter who adapted The Lightning Thief onscreen, was interviewed by JG-TC.com. And boy, did he give some great answers! He gave the explanation to the question of “Why oh why did they make the actors in their late teens/early twenties?????” He said it was to differentiate Percy Jackson from Harry Potter. In Harry Potter, we saw the actors grow up from being 11 to now being in their late teens early twenties. Sure, the actors will be nearing their thirties by the time Percy Jackson is done, if they do it every couple of years.
My feeling, is that if The Lightning Thief does well (Hoping for it!!!) they should film the next four films back to back. Sure it will be quite exhausting and crazy, but maybe, just maybe it would work.
Now onto Mr. Titley:
Q: Have you ever adapted a novel for a screenplay before? If so, how does this compare?
A: A lot of the screenwriting work I do is adapting novels and source material — going all the way back to when I adapted the “Scooby-Doo” cartoon series for film, and as recently as my “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea” adaptation (of the novel by Jules Verne) for (director) Sam Raimi.
The challenge with adapting is always striking the right balance between respect for the source material while taking the necessary liberties to transform it into a whole new medium. It is generally impossible to stay true to the entire narrative structure of the source material so you try to be true to the spirit of the material and to what made it work and resonate with people in its original format.
But at the end of the day, the book is the book and the movie is the movie. They are two different beasts entirely. There is no such thing as just “filming” the book. If only it were that easy!
With “The Lightning Thief” the main difficulty was that it was rich with imaginative material, enough to fill at least two movies, so it became a matter of deciding what stays and what goes because it can’t all fit within the framework of a two-hour movie. Once those choices are made, there are ripple effects that have to be addressed, involving new material to “bridge the gaps” and that’s where you have to try to remain true to the spirit of the original as you are creating brand new stuff for the movie. It is both a creative challenge and a logistical challenge.
Q: Did you work much with Rick Riordan?
A: I did not meet Rick Riordan and, as of now, have yet to meet him. This is pretty much standard in the business. Because of the necessary changes that have to be made when adapting I think it would be daunting to have the author of the books looking over your shoulder, because once the writing starts you have to service the movie — the vision of the director, the studio’s parameters (budgetary and otherwise).
I know of some novelists (not Mr. Riordan) who are so precious and unrealistic about their material, that they want it to remain exactly the same as they wrote it, which is impossible. I would be the same way if I wrote a novel! I’d probably be like J.D. Salinger (may he rest in peace) and say “hands off!” But if you want to see your book or play or graphic novel or whatever turned into a motion picture the reality is: Things have to change.
But as I said, the trick is to change things without it feeling like a whole lot has changed. For example, people forget how much Peter Jackson had to change (J.R.R. Tolkien’s) “The Lord of the Rings” novels when he adapted them. Characters were combined, plot elements were moved from one book to the next, entire subplots and characters were jettisoned, but at the end of the day the movies still feel “The Lord of the Rings.“
I hope we have accomplished the same thing with “The Lightning Thief” adaptation.
Q: What was it like working with director Chris Columbus?
A: Working with Chris Columbus was a pure joy. He has boundless energy, a boundless imagination and great instincts. Plus he is an accomplished writer himself so any time I would get stuck, instead of just banging my head against the wall, I’d send him an e-mail and within a couple of hours I’d have a detailed response. “What if we try this…” and it would be a brilliant solution. It certainly made my job a heckuva lot easier. I’m spoiled now.
My relationship with Chris can actually be traced back to the old Kerasotes theater in Mattoon. It was there, while watching “Young Sherlock Holmes” (which Chris wrote) and I realized that this same guy wrote three of my favorite films — “Gremlins,” “The Goonies” and “Young Sherlock Holmes!” Years later, one of my earliest jobs in the film business was working for Joe Dante, who directed “Gremlins.” I had access to all of Chris’s drafts of the script (as well as to his various drafts of “The Goonies” and “Young Sherlock Holmes”) and actually taught myself to write from reading his script. Then, after I finished writing my very first script, it made it into the hands of Chris Columbus and his company and they gave me an office in their building on the Fox lot and I wrote two movies for his company (one of which was “Cheaper by the Dozen”).
Cut to: Years later when the Percy Jackson novel came across Chris’ desk, he sent it to me to see if I’d be interested in adapting it (it also helped that he knew that I was getting my PhD in mythological studies at the same time so it seemed like the perfect fit), and now here we are. From the Kerasotes to Hollywood and back to the Kerasotes, where this time I’ll have my name on the screen right along with Chris’.
It’s rather surreal for me to see how this has come full circle.
Q: The “Percy Jackson” novels are in roughly the same genre as the “Harry Potter” books. In fact, there seem to be many similarities between “The Lightning Thief” and the first few “Harry Potter” books — a trio of slightly rebellious kids (including the smart girl and the goofy male sidekick) who attend a learning facility for likewise gifted children sets out to solve a mystery involving a missing artifact. So, did these similarities with “Harry Potter” present any specific challenges in adapting “The Lightning Thief?” If so, what were your solutions? Any great worries about inevitable comparisons between the film versions of both series?
A: Chris and I were both very sensitive to the inevitable “Harry Potter” comparisons (Chris obviously even more so because he directed the first two Potter films) so early on we made a conscious effort to de-Potterize “Percy Jackson” as much as possible.
One way was fairly easy: Follow the general narrative of the book! “The Lightning Thief” is essentially a road movie unlike the Potter films, which are generally confined to Hogwarts.
The second slightly bolder thing we did was up the ages of the main characters. In the book, Percy is 12 years old. We made him closer to 17. Instead of starting with the cast as kids and having them mature into young teens as they do in Potter, we decided to have them begin as teens and mature into young adults.
This change in age also created a tonal shift for the whole film, taking it from the G world of the book to the PG world of the film.
At the end of the day, I think we did I good job of differentiating it from the Potter films. Obviously comparisons will be made, but I think the film stands on its own and feels very fresh and unique.
Q: Overall, what are your thoughts on the film? In other words, how did it turn out?
A: I was quite impressed with the final film. And boy does it move. It is non-stop, the fastest two hours I’ve spent in a theater in a long time. Usually, when you are involved in a film and you see it for the first time, you can never get caught up in the actual movie because you’re seeing all the work that went on behind-the-scenes, the changes made in the editorial process, etc. But I honestly got so caught up in the film that I forgot I had worked on it!
Even though I knew what was going to happen next because I wrote it, I found myself “forgetting” and getting caught up in the excitement of it all. That is a testament to Chris’ directing and storytelling skills.
Q: Where does this rank in terms of your accomplishments in the film industry to date? Why?
A: This is the first film where I received sole screenplay credit, which is a pretty big deal out here (in Hollywood). It’s the Holy Grail of every screenwriter and a hard thing to accomplish.
It was also the most pleasurable writing experience I’ve ever had, mainly because I loved the world (of Greek gods and monsters), loved the characters, but more importantly because Chris Columbus was so much fun to work with and had such a clear vision for the film.
Q: Any worries about opening against “The Wolfman?”
A: Don’t get me wrong, I love the Wolf Man character and I love the original Universal film and I wish them much luck, but Wolfie, I’m sorry to say, you will bow before Poseidon on Feb. 12!
[Source: jg-tc]
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