D. Michael Flanagan
THE SEDUCTION OF HOLLYWOOD
Updated: Jun 26, 2019
I recently had the opportunity to "adapt" the international, award-winning novelist Valerio Massimo Manfredi's novel WOLVES of ROME into a feature film. Contracted through RiverRock Pictures, it was the second time I had adapted a novel into a screenplay. Suffice it to say, tt was no less easy the second time around.
As any writer who has attempted an adaptation knows, a good novel doesn't necessarily a good movie make. In fact, creating a solid movie from a book is almost more difficult than simply starting from scratch. A screenplay has a far different structure than a novel. Certain plot-points need to be achieved at very specific timelines. A movie has time restrictions that a book does not. Character development, story twists, objectives...they must all fall quickly in place or the movie risks confusing viewers, or worse, boring them out of their skulls.

“Two brothers are captured by a Roman unit and brought back to ancient Rome to be raised and trained as soldiers. One eventually adapts to the power and pleasures of the empire, the other...keeps a silent vow to one day destroy it from within.”