Gauls, Yanks talk pic lit adaptations
French publishers want their work on the bigscreen
But there were pitches aplenty April 1-4 in Monte Carlo at the Intl. Cinema and Literature Forum as hopeful French publishers met with Meredith Finn of New Line, Lisa Hamilton of DreamWorks, Jayne Pliner of Imagine and Ruth Pomerance of IDT Entertainment .
Were any deals made?
Nope. Were participants thrilled with the experience? Yep.
But when you invite development execs, media mavens and scribes -- including Variety-- and put them up in A-list splendor, a lot of cross-cultural beaming ensues. Which is not to say that luxury and hard work are mutually exclusive.
A vet publishing exec who recast herself as a literary agent when her firm was gobbled up a year ago, Noelle Mouska echoes what many of the French hopefuls had to say.
"The Americans who came to the Forum are extraordinarily nice. They don't pretendt o listen -- they listen. And I appreciate their frankness. They say 'That sounds interesting for European audiences but I'm looking for the makings of a blockbuster.' "
Hamilton told Variety: "What appeals most is a property that already has American characters or can be transposed to an American setting. Something on the high concept side." Or something set in a locale most Americans could find on a map.
Hamilton says she invited several Monaco contacts to send her more extensive written materials to assess.
Joelle Bouhout, rights manager at French pub Le Seuil, admits that "only once, long ago, did our firm sell rights to the Americans -- and the film was never made."
But she was upbeat about the access to Yank scouts. "I have a story set in the Libyan desert and the archeologists are all different nationalities."
Although a few bestselling French authors are starting to rethink tradition, Gallic publishing houses rather than writers traditionally hold audiovisual adaptation rights.
Options or outright sales tend to go for relatively modest sums rather than a first- class coach on the gravy train. But the exceptions are, well, exceptional.
Gaumont paid $1.2 million for the film rights to Jean-Christophe Grange's novel "The Empire of the Wolves" with the strict proviso that cameras start rolling no later than one year and one day after the contract signing. All concerned held their part of the bargain and the Jean Reno starrer opens wide in France April 20.
Compare that domestic tale to the one transatlantic rights sale that still elicits admiration here: In 1999 "If Only It Were True" by first-time French novelist Marc Levy was sold to DreamWorks, prior to publication, for $2 million.
The film, retitled "Just Like Heaven" and starring Reese Witherspoon and Mark Ruffalo, is now in the can and slated for a U.S. release in September.
Moreover, a generational shift is under way, since the latest crop of French authors -- like their counterparts the world over -- were raised in a visual culture.
"I get more and more manuscripts that are screenplays in disguise," says literary gadfly and editor Frederic Beigbeder. "I think the Harry Potter books are so-so as literature, but they've very visual. Levy (who has published two more bestsellers since 'If Only ...') admits that he's a storyteller and not a writer. That's an unsettling trend."
For the future of French literature, maybe, but perhaps not for Hollywood.
