The Dark Side of the Earth: May 11th, 2011

At the weekend Tess Berry-Hart turned in the first draft of her sample chapters and synopsis for the novelisation of The Dark Side of the Earth.
It must be nearly a year since Carl first introduced me to Tess as a potential author for the tie-in novel. We immediately discovered a shared interest in period literature, particularly the works of Jules Verne and P. G. Wodehouse, and I hugely enjoyed her teen sci-fi novels Escape from Genopolis and Fearless. In January we gave her the go-ahead to produce the sample chapters and synopsis, as part of a cross-media package we are trying to build around the film.
Reading her material, I was delighted to find she had got the tone spot-on, interpolating a conventional third person narrative with first person diary entries by the heroine, Isabelle. The fantastic details Tess has introduced fit perfectly with the world I envisaged; in fact, more than one of them will probably find their way into the next draft of the script. It’s great to see that she really understands and appreciates the underlying mechanics of the story to such an extent. It made me realise just how compressed everything has to be in a film, whereas a novel can give the characters and storyline much more room to come to life.
So many talented people have worked on this project now. I really hope we can get somewhere with it in Cannes and introduce a worldwide audience to their wonderful work. Carl flies out tomorrow and I follow on Sunday morning. Like last year, you can expect daily vlogs, but maybe this time I’ll drag some other people in front of camera rather than just rambling on by myself.
See you at the weekend.

The Dark Side of the Earth: May 11th, 2011