Tonya Hancock asked Isaac Marion:

Did it irk you when they ditched R's tie in the movie? Does it drive you insane when they change central details of your story?

Isaac Marion I judge a movie as a movie. I understand that there are big differences in the mediums and what works in one doesn't always work in another. The biggest difference is the limited space--there just isn't room to fit all the layers and details of a novel. In the book, R's clothing is part of the question of who he was, which was presumed to be some kind of uptight corporate drone. He sees in the blurry remains of his memories a dull, passionless life in keeping with his new life among the Dead. In the book, it makes sense. In the movie, that would be a lot of heavy introspection to deal with while they're trying to get on with the romance. It was narrative dead weight for the type of film they wanted to make, so it made sense to put him in clothes that require no explanation.

With the changes in general, it really comes down to what kind of movie it is. For a movie to be an accurate representation of how I see the book, it would have to be more of a weird, dark indie romance in the vein of Eternal Sunshine. If that were the kind of movie they set out to make, then I'd have more complaints about their changes because they would be wrong for the film. But since they set out to make a lighthearted comic drama aimed at a young audience, their changes were absolutely correct for that film. Imagine watching two acts of a sweet, funny, feel-good fable and then suddenly Julie's dad loses his mind and tries to kill his daughter and lets himself be eaten by a skeleton while his daughter watches in horror. Record scratch noise!

Of course I would have loved to see the story on screen in the shape I had in my head, but once they decided they had different goals, I supported them making whatever changes they needed to make that movie work.

Also, for the record, I don't know if the movie I had in my head would ever have worked. Even the lighthearted version was kind of a hard sell to the public, but I don't think the world was ready for a serious personal drama about zombies. The comedic tone of the trailer went a long way in convincing people to give this weird idea a chance.

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