Book to Screen

(calm music) - Us is about a failed marriage and about Douglas Petersen's quest to try and get it back together again.

He has an opportunity to do this, because the two of them, along with their son Albie are about to embark upon a grand tour of Europe.

- The really sad thing about it, is that there's nothing seriously dramatic about reasons that she wants to leave.

There's no affair, abuse, neglect.

It's very subtle and complicated.

- Douglas I've been thinking about leaving.

[David] It's hard when a book is known and loved Especially when you're the author you of course have an obligation.

I think, to do the book [Hannah] He has that loyalty, to his readership, and to the original novel.

We knew that he was going to protect it and stay faithful to the things that really mattered to him as an author.

[Tom] I think it's not that easy adapting your own book.

He's very close to it, obviously, but it also meant that we have this brilliant writer writing for screenplays.

And it's someone who understood the story from the inside out.

- I think we should still go.

- On holiday?

- For Albie's sake.

- We're going on holiday for the sake of the kid.

- Why not?

You've done all that planning, and it'd be good for you and Albie to spend some time together.

- I was a screenwriter before I was a novelist.

So I had some idea of the differences between the two mediums and what works best on the page, what's harder on the screen, and the sacrifices you have to make, when you're adaptable.

[Geoffrey] And obviously there are bits where, you know, you can't shoot the whole book because it would be way too long.

[Saskia] I can see how kind of very deep understanding of experiences or perceptions from the characters.

He would translate that into a completely different scene which didn't exist within the book, but which was utterly true to what he was trying to achieve.

So I think you get a sort of extra level of depth to it [Tom] In the book you have a narrative voice, which comments on the action.

In an adaptation you can't have that voice.

[David] As a novelist, you can very easily slip into a character's thoughts and emotions.

A lot of the funniest moments in the novel are funny because they're being told to us by Douglas.

And when you stand them up and act them out, they're funny in a different way.

And if they're still funny, that's great.

You can keep them.

And if they've lost their comedy because they've lost their voice, then you'd have to lose them.

- Albie!

- What happened?

- I got mugged by a jellyfish.

- Where?

- Up in the car park.

Where do you think?

[Sofie] For an actor, This is just such a treat because it's character based and all the characters are so well written [Saskia] Even though there was a mountain of work to get through.

It was always a pleasure learning the scenes and working on this.

Because the writing was so fantastic.

[David] Most romantic comedies tend to end with, you know if you go all the way back to Shakespeare, they end with a marriage.

It's a first love story, that ends with a kiss.

And that's with the couple getting together, and then we press stop.

And I suppose Us is an attempt to keep the camera rolling to see what happens in the next 5 or 10 or 15 years to see what happens when a two becomes a three to see how couples deal with the difficulties the challenges in the case of us the tragedies that await them along on the way.

(upbeat music)