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Author Gretchen McNeil on How a Bookseller Helped Ten Go From Page to Screen
Young adult novels have been attracting Hollywood’s attention since before the category existed (The Outsiders, anyone?), and in recent years, many of the most successful box office hits and buzziest television series have come directly from the YA shelves. Page to Screen is a series in which authors whose novels have been adapted for the screen share their unique perspectives on the process. Some have little to no involvement, others are writing scripts and sitting in monogrammed chairs on set, but all have experienced seeing their work in a new way.
Today, author Gretchen McNeil shares the story of how her 2012 novel Ten made it to the screen almost exactly five years after its publication. The book was was first optioned back in 2013, but that option expired…and then a producer walked into a bookstore.
Two years later, the movie—retitled Ten: Murder Island—is headed to the small screen. Catch it on Lifetime on Saturday, September 16, at 8 p.m. ET.
Check out previous Page to Screen posts here.
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What’s the story behind Ten’s option?
It’s a great story, the kind you couldn’t script if you tried. My agents got a call from out of the blue from a producer who had stumbled upon the book. He was in Portland for business and had gone to Powell’s Bookstore for some reading material. In chatting with one of the booksellers, he mentioned he was a film producer and asked her what book she’d love to see made into a movie.
She handed him Ten.
Which is awesome, and I am eternally grateful to that bookseller, but at that point, which was in 2015, I had zero expectations that options lead to actual adaptations. I’d had a previous option on Ten, plus three different options on Possess, and one on 3:59. And since then, I’ve had the BBC option Get Even and Get Dirty, plus an additional option on Possess and one for I’m Not Your Manic Pixie Dream Girl. See? Options feel sort of common! So when this one happened I shrugged, said, “Sure!” and promptly forgot about it.
And how did this option work?
There are different types of options—those with money up front and those without, which are known as shopping deals. When you’re paid for an option, usually the first payment is applied to the eventual rights buy fee, and if the option is extended (which means they pay you again) that second payment is not applied to the rights buy.
As far as the rights buy, it’s usually tied to the production budget—a percentage of the budget with a floor and a ceiling. Then there are back end points, a small percentage of what the film or series makes in perpetuity (i.e., reruns, digital sales, etc.) in the contract as well.
Money-wise, all I can say is that I am a midlist author, and I make midlist author money, regardless of book advance or film option. But let’s be frank: Ten is the kind of book that doesn’t require a $100 million budget, and I believe that’s one of the reasons it actually happened.
When did the project start to feel real?
The producer-writer-director Chris Robert came to Los Angeles to do casting about a year after the option. We had drinks and he showed me headshots of the actors he was considering for T.J. Fletcher. At that moment I was like, “Whoa, this is real.”
Before that, it was all very quiet. Like I said, I’d forgotten it was happening! Which is probably the best thing, mentally and emotionally, when you option a book. Because you have to keep going, writing the next one, plotting another, always hustling. Never put all of your writing eggs in one basket!
How involved were you along the way?
Not even a little involved. I found out that they were filming when someone tagged me in an article about it. But honestly, that’s fine. What the hell do I know about making a movie? Let the experts do it!
Did you visit the set?
I couldn’t. They were filming in December in upstate New York and I just couldn’t get there. I’ll go for the next one. But I have met one of the actresses—Annie Q from The Leftovers, who plays Kumiko. She’s lovely.
What do you think of the movie?
I haven’t seen it yet! Part of me doesn’t want to until it airs. And part of me isn’t sure I’ll be able to watch it at all. I mean, it’s so freaking surreal. These characters, these places—will they look the way they do in my head? And if they don’t, will I be horribly disappointed? Probably not, but still. It’s very weird.
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Does the movie feel like a totally different creative project?
It feels very separate at this point. That might be because of the timeline—the film airs almost exactly five years to the day from when the book came out. And I finished writing it a year before that, so we’re talking six years (and six more novels that I’ve written) since then, so the distance between them is tangible. But that may change once I see it!
So you may be watching it for the first time with the rest of us. Exciting! What’s next from you?
My next book, out August 7, 2018, from Disney/Freeform, is called #MURDERTRENDING. It’s about a reality TV star who gets elected president of the United States and then sells the criminal justice system to a reality TV producer and together they create Alcatraz 2.0, an island where convicted criminals are sent to live until they are hunted down by serial killers and their deaths are filmed and streamed live on an app for your phone or tablet. COULD NEVER HAPPEN, RIGHT? The protagonist is a 17-year-old, falsely convicted of murdering her stepsister, who is sent to Alcatraz 2.0 and has to survive long enough to figure out who framed her and why. And it’s a comedy. I love it.
I’ve also been working on some scripted projects, which have been making the rounds, and there is some other news about a film option for one of my books that I’m sitting on until I get the thumbs up that the project is a go. So stay tuned!
Ten: Murder Island airs on Lifetime, Saturday, Sept. 16 at 8 p.m. ET.