My DIY film/writing school

Films coming from non-fiction books

I'm noticing a lot of non-fiction books getting film deals lately.

By 'a lot' I mean I can only think of two specific examples right now: How Starbucks Saved my Life which Tom Hanks has just got attached to, and Marcus Buckingham's film about achieving your goals. (Okay, that's probably not going to be a story type of film, but by the sounds of it a feature length film anyway.)

Oh, and also Malcolm Gladwell's Blink. And Wired magazine has a few more ideas.

I'm continually amazed at how we can sabotage our own success by compartmentalising. I'm a non-fiction writer, but with New Zealand's rather dark and non-commercial film culture, I assumed I'd have to unleash my own inner Sam Hunt before I could be a successful screenwriter. The short films I saw from NZ were dark, depressing, and to me, largely meaningless.

Now I'm finding to my joy and delight that I can be myself, and myself may be the creator of some very marketable properties in the hopefully not-so-distant future.

posted by Simon @ 6:16 pm