JUST LIKE HEAVEN

How involved were you in the making of the film Just Like Heaven?

I wasn't involved in the adaptation of the film, the writing of the screenplay or the choice of actors. DreamWorks were kind enough to let me to read the screenplay at every stage of its development - which I did. I didn't feel that as a first time novelist, I was really in a position to give any lessons to such an accomplished US studio!

Why were you not more involved in the making of the film Just Like Heaven?

Because it is up to the director, in this case Mark Waters, to adapt the story as he sees fit. He tells the same story as the novel, but in a different way and subject to different constraints. A film has to tell a story in 1h30mins whereas a book can tell a story over several hours. To draw a parallel - if you moved into a house, you wouldn't necessarily want the architect who had built it to dictate how it should be decorated.