In conjunction with the Met Film School (London), the Iskandar Regional Development Authority (Malaysia) and Pinewood Iskander Malaysia Studios, I delivered a master-class on adaptations to a group of Malaysian filmmakers at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Kuala Lumpur, 17-19 September 2014. Running alongside Content Malaysia’s KL Converge conference, I got to meet and work with […]
Sydney Writers’ Festival – Three Australian Storytellers Conquer the World: Small Start, Global Finish
In a panel discussion on what makes a story universal, film producer, Ross Grayson Bell (FIGHT CLUB), talks to: award-winning author Graeme Simsion, about the success of his novel THE ROSIE PROJECT; author Hannah Kent about her sensational, debut novel, BURIAL RITES, which has just been optioned in Hollywood by Jennifer Lawrence, and film producer […]
Walkleys Storyology Conference – Bringing the James Hardie Asbestos Cover Up to the Screen
With the boundaries between fact and fiction becoming increasingly blurred, how do we then reconcile the needs of telling a good story with the demands of being true to the facts? Particularly when those facts deal with the deaths of innocent workers and customers at the hands of a powerful corporation. Join ABC reporter Matthew […]
Inside Film – Adapt or Die: Why Screen Adaptations Work (Interviewed by Sam Dallas)
While adaptations are popular in Hollywood – with franchises such as Harry Potter and The Twilight Saga constantly taking huge box office dollars – they aren’t so common in Australia. According to Matthew Hancock’s Mitigating Risk research paper (published in 2010 through AFTRS’ Centre for Screen Business), of the 200 Australian dramas released between 1999 […]
Byron Bay Writers’ Festival – Screen and Heard: Adaptation for Film
Ross chairs a panel at the Byron Bay Writers’ Festival this weekend on adaptation along with a panel of industry heavyweights including: Greg Haddrick, award-winning co-creator of UNDERBELLY and producer of CLOUDSTREET, living legend, David Williamson GALLIPOLI and YEAR OF LIVING DANGEROUSLY, director Gillian Armstrong, MY BRILLIANT CAREER and LITTLE WOMEN and Tristram Miall, STRICTLY […]
Sydney Writers’ Festival – Adaptations: Have We Lost the Plot?
73% of all Academy Award Winning Best Pictures are adaptations. So why then do we do so few? Of the 200 Australian films released between 1999-2008 only 38 were adaptations. With a vibrant local literary scene and a resurgent film industry riding high on the successful adaptation of MAO’S LAST DANCER, we bring together: director, […]
Sydney Writers’ Festival Panel – Adaptations: Have We Lost the Plot? (Review by Neil Peplow)
Gillian Armstrong was in fine form when posed with a question from the audience as to whether the world ‘needed’ another adaption of LITTLE WOMEN… On a gorgeous, balmy, Sydney Sunday afternoon a capacity crowd turned out for the AFTRS sponsored panel on adaptations at the Sydney Writers’ Festival. Chaired by Ross Grayson Bell, AFTRS Head […]
Byron Bay Writers’ Festival – Fit to be Seen: Adaptation for Film
Ross Grayson Bell developed and produced FIGHT CLUB, adapted from Chuck Palahniuk’s novel of the same name. It is often twinned in discussion with AMERICAN PSYCHO, the instant cult classic adapted from the groundbreaking fiction from Bret Easton Ellis. In fact, every one of Bret’s novels and anthologies has been turned into films. Hannie Rayson […]
Pedro Almodovar Comes on Board THE MAN WHO FELL IN LOVE WITH THE MOON
Pedro Almodovar, who previously held the option on Tom Spanbauer’s pan-sexual Western, has agreed to develop a new draft of Craig Lucas’ adaptation with the eye of making it his first English-language film. Set in Idaho at the turn of the last century, the story tells the tale of an abandoned, part-native American boy who […]
Participant Productions picks up EVIDENCE OF HARM
No evidence of harm does not equate with no harm having occurred! Today I closed a deal with Jeff Skoll’s Participant Productions to produce a film adaptation of David Kirby’s non-fiction book, EVIDENCE OF HARM, about the mercury in vaccines and the autism epidemic in the U.S. Brian Cowden is attached to write.