Last February I got an email from someone I’d never heard of, asking for permission to turn one of my stories into a short film. If I’m honest, I said “Sure, go for it,” mainly out of skepticism. It was very flattering, obviously, but I’ve received a number of emails over the years from people wanting to turn my stories into movies, or put them in anthologies, or reinvent them as Broadway musicals, or whatever. The fact is that none of these projects ever end up happening. No obloquy intended; I am as (if not more) intimately familiar as anyone with the way artistic desires and intentions basically always exceed our reach. So I said to this guy, Britt was his name, “Sure go for it, just credit the story to me and we’re good. Send me a copy when it’s done.” Thinking: Seems like a nice guy. Too bad I’ll never hear from him again.

And then Britt emailed back a few days later and said: “I’ve attached the screenplay, let me know what you like or don’t like, auditions are on Tuesday.”

What’s the emoticon for your jaw hitting the floor. It seems like there should be one. Not only was he going through with this, but he had given me had action items.

Anyways, the guy came through, and you can see the results here:

http://web.mac.com/brittp/iWeb/Site/Index.html

I think he did an amazing job. So professional! It’s hard for me to be totally objective about it; I’m still blown away that this actually happened, but also he made some fairly significant changes to the story. He had my blessing– I don’t know anything about the ins and out of making films, and I was happy to have inspired him to bring something creative and new into the world. So it’s different, but a really lovely counterpoint to my story, and I would love for other people to see it and hopefully enjoy it. Let me know what you think.