Meyer on The Seven Per-Cent Solution.

In this thoughtful 1981 event of the Writers Guild Foundation focused on adaptation, director-writer Nicholas Meyer discusses issues encountered in adapting his novel The Seven Per-Cent Solution to the screen. There also is interesting coverage of the novel versus film of Brian Garfield's Death Wish and Meyer's film Time After Time that pitted H.G. Wells against Jack the Ripper. Says Meyer:

I feel that if you are taking the life of someone famous as being worthy of making a film about, he or she is worth making an accurate film about. It is peculiarly revolting to me to watch biographical films that have felt the irresistible need to improve the lives of their subjects in order to render them sufficiently palatable or entertaining to an audience.

Meyer also states, "I am troubled by the fact that we now place more emphasis and importance on packaging than what is being packaged
. . . . Where does dramatic license end and vandalism begin?"

Of related interest: I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere podcast interview with Meyer

Brian Garfield at Alaska Book Festival.

Brian Garfield, best known for novels such as Death Wish and Hopscotch, appears at this weekend's Alaska Book Festival in Fairbanks to discuss screenwriting (today) and The Thousand-Mile War, his book on the Aleutian campaign during World War II (tomorrow). Go here for the festival schedule.

I'm a big fan of the collection Garfield edited for MWA—I, Witness—which recounts personal encounters of MWA members with crime.