Hannah Casey
asked
Matt Ruff:
Matt, Was turning your book into a screenplay ever daunting? And did you experience any anxieties throughout the process? If so, how did you manage those feelings?
Matt Ruff
I didn’t write any of the screenplays for the show. If I had, I think I’d have felt completely out of my depth, because I have no experience in TV writing. And adapting my own work would have added an additional level of difficulty, because I’m so used to thinking of Lovecraft Country in terms of the conventions of print, whereas the visual medium of TV and film is a different creative dialect. If I ever were going to try to write a screenplay, I think I’d want to do a completely original story.
With Lovecraft Country, I was happy to hand the story off to Misha Green and her writers room. I trusted them to do a great job with it, and I feel like that trust has been rewarded. And while I know it’s hard for some novelists to let go creatively, my personal take is that my version of Lovecraft Country already exists and will always be there, safe on my bookshelf, regardless of where the HBO series goes.
With Lovecraft Country, I was happy to hand the story off to Misha Green and her writers room. I trusted them to do a great job with it, and I feel like that trust has been rewarded. And while I know it’s hard for some novelists to let go creatively, my personal take is that my version of Lovecraft Country already exists and will always be there, safe on my bookshelf, regardless of where the HBO series goes.
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