Screenwriting : Novelise your scripts by Ben Trebilcook

Hi 32-ers,. It's been a while since posting, but I do check in occasionally and have surprisingly managed to do today, seeing as 'Mini Ben' arrived just a few days ago.

I wanted to applaud RB and the 32 team for recognising the rise in adapting one's screenplay into a novel. Yes, usually a job that is done in reverse for those hired to do so, however it is fast becoming not just a trend, but what I feel is a wise move for screenwriters, especially those new in approaching this game.

A brief background on me. I'm a screenwriter / producer / author and teacher from London. I've been writing for over twenty years now and have worked on low budget to the larger scale madnesses. I've produced schlock horror and sci-fi projects, as well as a handful of shorts. When I was a child and a teen I 'acted' and now a fully fledged adult, I pop up every so often here and there.

Recently, I gained global attention with a Die Hard 6 spec I wrote, set in Tokyo, Japan. Bar a handful of trolls, it attracted tremendous positive attention - a few sales of other scripts and assignments, too off the back of the various press. Now, regarding the Die Hard train, I've been on board it before, twenty years prior. Pre-internet even. With that said, I was urged by a respected studio executive to 'protect myself' regarding the story of my Die Hard script somehow. "Turn it into a goddamn book or the story will be stolen, I promise you! That will happen. You've been burned before, I'd hate to see you go through that again."

I'm fortunate to have many professional and truly successful author friends who I immediately sought to bend their ears over this. I had already released one novel and each author pal suggested I go the same route with my 'Old Habits Die Hard' script, book-wise. The script had gone through various guises over the years regarding characters, so it wasn't particularly difficult to change John McClane for my own original leading man, not to mention a handful of other 'Fox-owned' characters. That was an easy task and one that had been done many times over - as I previously toyed with it being a non-DH / generic action script down the line.

Fast-forwarding, the novel has been out for little under a year and is doing relatively well. I'm not stupid, there are and will always be stories that are similar to others, especially movie-wise. Be it an Armageddon and a Deep Impact and there are countless Die Hard clones out there. Van Damme's Sudden Death, Air Force One, Con Air, Speed, Under Siege, Olympus Has Fallen, White House Down, The Raid, but MY script was tailor-made to be the 'last' Die Hard'. A final instalment.

The studio exec followed with: "OK, I know journalists, like Schmoes Know and Collider have praised this script, even Steven E De Souza Tweeted to say it was excellent, so if there was a DH movie like yours, people know it was first conceived by you, but well done, you preserved your story. Almost like copyrighting it."

He continued by instructing I do the same with a project I've been trying to get made for ten years now. A female driven spy picture, pitched as a 'female Bond'. I did that novelisation job again and it worked. It has added tremendous weight to the project and has some hugely globally recognised talents requesting it. Not that it means anything will come off, but - it's like making a trailer to a movie you want to make in order to attract investors, or doing a comic-book, or producing some concept art.

It doesn't harm, it can only help and if anything else - it keeps you being creative.

See Stage 32's webinar on this type of thing. Have a good weekend, all. Ben

Twitter: @BenTrebilcook