Jeffery Eugenides’ first novel, The Virgin Suicides, appeared on the scene in 1993. In 1999 Sofia Coppola adapted it for the screen in her directorial debut of the same name. Coppola wrote the screenplay for the film and was fiercely protective of the project. She was concerned that Nick Gomez’s script (the director who had a shot at writing the screenplay before she did) had upped the sex and violence quotient and would not be an authentic representation of the book. "The Virgin Suicides" is an exemplary feat of adaptation; Coppola’s screenplay stays faithful to the book, transporting significant chunks verbatim. Her script, which distills the book down to its most vital parts, is not so much a rewrite as a visual re-imagining of Eugenides’s written world.
Jeffery Eugenides’ first novel, The Virgin Suicides, appeared on the scene in 1993. In 1999 Sofia Coppola adapted it for the screen in her directorial debut of the same name. Coppola wrote the screenplay for the film and was fiercely protective of the project. She was concerned that Nick Gomez’s script (the director who had a shot at writing the screenplay before she did) had upped the sex and violence quotient and would not be an authentic representation of the book. "The Virgin Suicides" is an exemplary feat of adaptation; Coppola’s screenplay stays faithful to the book, transporting significant chunks verbatim. Her script, which distills the book down to its most vital parts, is not so much a rewrite as a visual re-imagining of Eugenides’s written world.
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