In this golden age of comic book films hitting the big screen, adapting comic book and graphic novel tales for theatrical consumption can be a hit-or-miss endeavor. For every Iron Man and American Splendor, there are Green Lantern and Man of Steel. (I welcome your hate mail.)
Not only are some comic book stories not given the attention and detail necessary for them to properly come alive beyond their four-color confines, some directors do not acknowledge that there are some things that the comic book medium can do that film can’t and don’t account for that leap.
However, this does not seem to be the case with The Scribbler, now in theaters and available on iTunes and VOD. The film is based on the graphic novel by Dan Schaffer about the multiple personality-afflicted Suki and the strides she makes to cure herself. This might be because Schaffer adapted his creation for the screen and worked closely with the movie’s director John Suits. I got a chance to chat with Mr. Schaffer about translating The Scribbler for film and how it was collaborating to make his creations come alive.
FreakSugar: What was it like to see your graphic novel make it to the screen?
Dan Schaffer: I got to see it through someone else’s eyes which is always a great experience, unless you’re Alan Moore of course. Apparently that stuff makes him crazy. But the truth is if ten different directors adapt a book, or a script, you’d get ten completely different films, that’s just the nature of art. It’s all in the interpretation, and I love John’s interpretation of The Scribbler. He took a script that was told from a crazy person’s point of view, that addressed mental health from the perspective of that person rather than from the expected societal norms, and, on top of that, the film itself is also structured from that same point of view, and he made it exactly the way it was supposed to be. That’s a pretty gutsy move in the current commercial climate and one that I appreciate. I’m extremely happy with the end result.
FreakSugar: What was the translation process of preparing the graphic novel to script form? Were there things you could or couldn’t do with the graphic novel when translating it for the big screen?
Schaffer: The book’s subjective in some areas, it’s designed that way, and that doesn’t always work in film so I had to address that. The story, on a very basic level is this: put an imaginative person in a box and they’ll find an imaginative way to get out of it. So you have The Scribbler, who represents Suki’s imaginative side, rewiring a machine that’s designed to destroy her so it gives her life instead. It’s a big, and probably very obvious, metaphor that’s fine for a little indie comic but it needed to be more literal to work as a film. The film is still ambiguous in places but, for the most part, the script clarifies some of the more obscure elements that exist in the book.
FreakSugar: What was the collaboration process like with Mr. Suits? He said you were wonderful to work with and a very giving collaborator.
Schaffer: John’s a fantastic guy to work with and a genuinely decent human being (in the film industry, who would have thought it?). He’s also a great director and I think he’s only going to keep getting better. He’s always got intelligent script notes, takes time to debate script issues, comes up with cool ideas, and actors seem to love him. I’m sure that went a long way toward pulling in such an awesome cast for this film despite its low budget and off-the-wall subject matter. Seriously, I can’t say enough good things about the guy.
FreakSugar: What part of the graphic novel was the most gratifying to see make it into the final cut of the film?
Schaffer: Seeing those characters walking and talking was amazing – Suki, Hogan and, of course, the Scribbler herself. And I was especially delighted to see Jennifer Silk in the flesh. She wasn’t in the graphic novel, she was a character I stole from an old comic I never completed so it was wonderful to see her finally come to life, and in the form of Eliza Dushku no less! There’s also that scene where Suki is standing on the wall of Juniper Tower, defying gravity. That’s my favorite page from the graphic novel and John replicated it beautifully.
Be sure to check out my interview with the film’s director John Suits and read what I thought of the movie.