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The cover for This May Sound Crazy, a collection of nonfiction essays written by Oscar-nominated actress Abigail Breslin, has been unveiled. We’ve embedded the full image above—what do you think?
According to EpicReads.com, Breslin’s pieces touch “on the subjects nearest and dearest to our hearts: love, loss, and Tumblr.” HarperCollins will release the book on October 6th. (via Paste)
Bindi Irwin as Nim, from Return to Nim's Island movie poster
I know that tying in a film to a book sequel sounds like the writer’s equivalent of a first world problem, but in fact we always need to be aware of how much we are, or want to be, swayed by other people’s comments and interpretations, from editors to illustrators, cover artists and even readers. I didn’t actually plan Nim as an eco-warrior, but the way that she and Jack live means that she’s interpreted as one. It seems so logical to me now that I have to remind myself it simply evolved naturally, as it probably would have if she were real.
My only physical description of Nim in any of the books is ‘her hair is wild and her eyes are bright.’ But of course I have my own vision of her: a wiry, dark haired, almost elfin girl, and I kept that through the first two books, even though I enjoyed imagining how Kerry Millard might illustrate something.
Kerry Millard's interpretation of Nim
Wendy Orr, Abigail Breslin, Kerry Millard
Then the films came, and there were real people, in flesh and blood, both the people I met off camera, and the way they were portrayed on screen and covers. By the time I started Rescue on Nim’s Island, I’d had 5 years of seeing Abigail Breslin being so completely Nim that it was difficult to return to my own vision.
Abigail Breslin as Nim
It was only when I’d seen Bindi Irwin on location, portraying Nim differently but equally convincingly, that I could free myself up and remember my mantra that characters are however you interpret them: if they could both be Nim, my own vision could be too.
Bindi Irwin, Wendy Orr
It took me a while to find my way with Rescue on Nim’s Island and that’s what I think is relevant to all of us. I had to really go back to basics instead of planning plots that I thought were terribly filmic, to which the film producer kept saying, ‘But that doesn’t really sound like you, or Nim.’
Geoff's Kelly interpretation of Nim
I had to slow down, dream around it, and gradually discover the story in the usual organic way that I work. I reread the first books and got into the rhythm. Nim is a year older in each book, and I felt that she was growing naturally. She’s still herself. She’s more quick-tempered than either Abbie or Bindi are in real life, though slightly less pugnacious than the Nim of the second film. She’s the girl that was obviously born of some part of me, when I started writing her in 1998. Or maybe further back, when I wrote the prototype when I was 9. So if there’s a moral, I think it’s simply, let your characters grow and develop, but always be true to who they are at core.
*This is an edited excerpt of a talk I gave at the SCBWI meeting at Flinders on 6 September, 2014.
0 Comments on Setting Your Characters Free - From Book to Film and back again as of 9/30/2014 1:45:00 AM
I've just discovered something I didn't know: that Nim's Island was featured in the very first issue of Alphabet Soup! (I did know that Nim had some fans in the Alphabet Soup editor's household, because I met one of them in a writing workshop in Perth a year or two ago.) So I am especially pleased to have done this interview, even though I really had to think about some of the questions!
Here's the start of it: Nim’s IslandandNim at Seaare definitely in our pile of favourite books. (Nim’s Islandwas featured in our first ever issue ofAlphabet Soup!) You probably know that Nim’s Islandwas made into a movie starring Abigail Breslin, and now the second Nim book has also been made into a movie calledReturn to Nim’s Island— and it’s out in Australian cinemas this school holidays. We asked the author Wendy Orr if we could talk to her about what it’s like to have your book made into a film. And here she is!
–
When did you first hear that Nim at Sea would be made into a movie, too?
Paula Mazur, the producer of the first Nim’s Island, wanted to do it as soon as she read the book when it was published in July 2007. However there were complications with the Hollywood studio and so three years ago she took it to an Australian company. They worked very hard to organise everything and in May 2012 we knew that it was going to be filmed. (Though I think everyone still had fingers crossed!) The filming started in August 2012.
There is a different Nim (Bindi Irwin) cast in this second movie. Were you allowed to choose the actors? Did it feel strange to see a different Nim?
Return to Nim’s Island comes to the big screen in Australia five years to the day after Nim’s Island; five and a half years after Nim at Sea was published, ten years after the initial contact from the film producer Paula Mazur, thirteen years after the book Nim’s Island was published, and more years than I care to work out since the first draft was written when I was nine.
So, maybe time for a quick overview:
The childhood story, Spring Island, was inspired by seeing a tiny, uninhabitable island off the coast of Vancouver Island. Being infatuated with Anne of Green Gables at the time, I wrote about a little girl running away from an orphanage; she’s joined by a boy running away from his orphanage, and together they head off to live on an island.
Years later, I was working on a book of letters between a girl on an island and a famous adventure author with a very boring life. After many false starts I remembered that story and channeled the feelings of that nine-year old writer who wanted to be independent and resourceful – and finally, the story changed its form and Nim’s Island came to life.
It was published in Australia in 1999, in the USA and Canada in 2001, and in six other countries in 2001-2. In 2003, after it was listed in Los Angeles Times best books for 2002, the Hollywood producer Paula Mazur picked it up in her local library for her eight year old son. Two weeks later she emailed to ask me for the film rights. She pitched it to several studios, had interest from four, and by the end of the year we had closed a deal with Walden Media.
The feature film of Nim’s Island was released around the world in 2008, starring Abigail Breslin as Nim, Jodie Foster as the author Alex Rover, and Gerard Butler in the dual roles of Nim’s father Jack and Alex Rover’s fictitious hero.
Nim at Sea, the sequel to the book, was published in Australia in 2007, the USA & Canada in 2008, and slightly later in another 16 countries. By then the first book had been published in 24 languages.
Return to Nim’s Island, the sequel to the film and based loosely on Nim at Sea stars Bindi Irwin as Nim, Matthew Lillard as Jack, Toby Wallace as Edmund, and John Waters as the evil poacher. It will debut on the Hallmark Channel in the USA on March 17 with the DVD released in Walmart the following day, and on cinemas across Australia on April 4. I’ll post international distribution news as I hear it.
The Nim Stories, featuring Nim's Island and Nim at Sea in one book, will be released in Australia and New Zealand on April 1.
I’m just back from the SCBWI Summer Conference in Los Angeles. I came back on the “redeye,” one of those overnight flights that fool you into thinking you’ve had a night’s sleep. So I’m into dangerous blogging territory just now. Anything can happen. I’m just sayin’.
There are noticeably beautiful people in LA. Noticeably. And you look at somebody and you say to yourself, “That must be somebody.” Which, of course, it is. Somebody. Not necessarily somebody famous.
I am terrible at spotting celebrities. The only time I ever spotted a celebrity was one Thanksgiving in Sardi’s Restaurant years ago. Yul Brynner walked in wearing full King and I regalia—bare-chested, with pantaloons.
Exactly. Not much gets past me.
Somebody told me they saw Abigail Breslin of Little Miss Sunshine fame sitting in the hotel lobby. According to IMDB, she is up 35% in popularity this week.
Probably because she was spotted by over 1100 SCBWI members who then went to the IMDB page.
I signed up for the SCBWI Pro Track this time, which includes perks such as lunch with editors and being honored at a wine and cheese reception/book sale. Here I am at the book sale signing away next to Samantha Berger. Somehow, Samantha talked the bartender out of a second glass of wine for each of us…
Highlights included keynotes by M.T. Anderson, Carolyn Mackler, Jon Scieszka, and Rachel Vail. Rachel had us all mopping away tears.
And I must be in love with M.T. Anderson (or Tobin, as we 1100 really close friends call him) because I took seven pictures of him.
Those who spoke about the future of the publishing business were of three minds: 1. this is the best of times, 2. this is the worst of times, and 3. I have no idea what’s gonna happen. I’m in the group that gets tired when I hear about it.
Other things energized me. I learned some key technical enhancements at Bruce Hale’s session on Skyping the School Visit. I loved the panel on Narrative Nonfiction, which included Elizabeth Partridge, Tanya Lee Stone, and Deborah Heligman, whom I know from Kindling Words
0 Comments on Flyin' Into Los Angeles...SCBWI-LA as of 1/1/1900
“Z-bot to Hana. This is a Gamepowa Video Alert. Transmitting.”
“Errrr.. Report, Z-bot?”
“Data located by secondary criteria directive from Ranko Yorozu, ninth grade student. Keywords ‘tough girls’ returned two versions of Nim’s Island movie trailers. Standing by with secondary transmission.”
“Yeah uhhh.. heh heh heh… I told Z-bot to find some games for tough girls.”
“Yeah Ranko used my communicator to talk to Z-bot and I said I like adventure movies too!”
“Looks like a cool movie. Let’s go with it.”
“Yay!”
“Hana computers set to continuous-scan. Transmit when ready, Z-bot.”
from the NY Public Library’s Spencer Collection and the children's book PAUL
From School Library Journal, 1994:
Paul has written a song, but his parents are too busy to listen. So, he decides to search out his "magic grandmother" and sing it for her. Wearing his magic hat, he meets a flying pig, a blue-eyed caterpillar, a policeperson, the North wind, a singing cat, and four wolves, all of whom help the boy to find the woman and to bring this stilted, contrived story to its merciful end.
By: Maryann Yin,
on 4/6/2015
By: Wendy Orr,
on 9/29/2014
When did you first hear that Nim at Sea would be made into a movie, too?
Return to Nim’s Island comes to the big screen in Australia five years to the day after Nim’s Island; five and a half years after Nim at Sea was published, ten years after the initial contact from the film producer Paula Mazur, thirteen years after the book Nim’s Island was published, and more years than I care to work out since the first draft was written when I was nine. 
The childhood story, Spring Island, was inspired by seeing a tiny, uninhabitable island off the coast of Vancouver Island. Being infatuated with Anne of Green Gables at the time, I wrote about a little girl running away from an orphanage; she’s joined by a boy running away from his orphanage, and together they head off to live on an island. 
Nim at Sea, the sequel to the book, was published in Australia in 2007, the USA & Canada in 2008, and slightly later in another 16 countries. By then the first book had been published in 24 languages. 
Return to Nim’s Island, the sequel to the film and based loosely on Nim at Sea stars Bindi Irwin as Nim, Matthew Lillard as Jack, Toby Wallace as Edmund, and John Waters as the evil poacher. It will debut on the Hallmark Channel in the USA on March 17 with the DVD released in Walmart the following day, and on cinemas across Australia on April 4. I’ll post international distribution news as I hear it.
By: Cinda Williams Chima,
on 8/3/2010
Those who spoke about the future of the publishing business were of three minds: 1. this is the best of times, 2. this is the worst of times, and 3. I have no idea what’s gonna happen. I’m in the group that gets tired when I hear about it. 
By: Scribe Chronicler of Aventar,
on 3/21/2008
By: Julie Fortenberry,
on 8/18/2007
from the NY Public Library’s Spencer Collection and the children's book PAUL
