Daniel Dercksen shares a few thoughts with Cape Town screenwriter Ann Peacock, whose latest screenplay is Nights in Rodanthe.

As a screenwriter born in South Africa, you have found international success. Was it difficult breaking into the international arena?
Yes. But it is very difficult for anyone, regardless of where you come from. I hate to say it, but breaking into the movie business is mostly dependent on a combination of luck, contacts and a modicum of ability. (It's not about genius). I was not a trained screenwriter and had no experience - or contacts - in the movie industry. For fun I did a screenwriting course at UCLA Extension that consisted of 6 saturday morning classes. I was very lucky to have an excellent teacher GOLDA DAVID who taught us the technique of writing a screenplay. After that, I was on my own with nothing but hope. My lucky break came when my husband (at that time a neurosurgeon in Los Angeles) operated on the child of a famous patient who was represented by the major talent agency in Los Angeles. To cut a long story short, it was through this 'contact' that I got my first screenplay read by someone who had the power to make things happen. As a result, I was taken on as a client by Creative Artists.
Work did not appear overnight, however. It took many years before someone took a chance on an uncredited writer like me and hired me to write a screenplay in 1996. I always say: you just need one job and you're away. After that first job I have continued to be hired to write screenplays. I think my story is fairly typical - overnight success is extremely rare. Most of us just struggle along and keep going and with a bit of luck get somewhere.

What attracted you to write the adaptation of NIGHTS IN RODANTHE?
I wanted to write a love story (because I hadn't done one) and the challenge of doing something that no one thought could work. This was the story of two strangers who fell in love over a period of four days - there was no action, no fancy special effects, no other characters of note. Just two people stuck in a house over a weekend. I spent six months trying to persuade the producers it could work. They were terrified it would be dead boring. I used Bridges of Madison County as a model and felt that if the characterization was strong enough, we could pull it off. And we did.

Was it difficult to adapt the novel?
No writer writes alone and I had fantastic producers who helped bring the best out of the script. A good producer forces you to keep mining the characters and this is what we did until we got it right. It took multiple rewrites over a few years.

What was your approach in adapting the novel?
I looked at what was at the heart of the novel - a simple love story and I focused on the characters of the two people. I tried to see what that 'magic' is that happens when two people - who are not looking for love - inadvertently stumble upon it. (Of course, building on Nicholas Sparks' characters).

Were you involved in the film process?
No. And that is the way I prefer it. I don't think there is much of a role for a writer once shooting has started. By that time, the director has taken 'ownership' of the story and has clear ideas about how the script should be. It continues to evolve as the actors speak the lines - some things don't work, some things do. Sometimes they want something rewritten. For the most part, that can be done with the collaboration of the director, the actors, the producers, the script editor etc.

Have you always wanted to be a writer?
No. When I was young I thought I might be an artist (because I could draw) or an actress (I liked speech and drama), but actually I had no clear ambitions until I later on when I got a law degree. Then, all I wanted was to be a prosecutor - which I couldn't do because I had five children and that job was not compatible with family life.

Tell me about your Cape Town days?
My husband worked at Red Cross as a pediatric neurosurgeon, we had five children, we ran lots of marathons and I got a job teaching Roman Law and Jurisprudence at UCT Law Faculty which I absolutely loved. Those were very very happy days. It took me about twenty years to stop grieving for leaving South Africa.

What screenplays are you working on at present or are in development?
In current development are two of my scripts: THE FIRST GRADER (BBC FIlms) which is the story of an eighty-four year old Kenyan man who showed up at school when the Kenyan government passed a law that gave all Kenyans the right to free primary school education. The other one is INDIGO AND THE UNICORN PROPHECY, a fantasy, set in post-Katrina New Orleans - about the transforming power of music. I have just finished writing a ghost love story based (very loosely) on a book called A CERTAIN SLANT OF LIGHT and am currently writing ODYSSEUS with the South African born director, Jonathan Liebesman with whom I collaborated on THE KILLING ROOM,  an indie political thriller. My next project is an adaptation of the John Grisham novel, THE PARTNER. After that, I will be adapting the best selling novel, THE MEMORY OF RUNNING.

Your views on the film industry in South Africa and why it is so difficult for South African films to break into the international market?
It's not about the quality of film making - the South African movie business is FULL of talent. They are as good as anyone. It's more about making South African films more 'accessible' to outsiders. What I mean by this is what Tsotsi was able to do - there was a universality about the story that transcended the particular, so anyone, anywhere could identify with it. You didn't need to be a South African to understand it. I think that is what will help South African films be successful elsewhere.

ANN PEACOCK was born and raised in South Africa. After teaching Law at the University of Cape Town, she emigrated with her family to Los Angeles, where she began writing screenplays.  Peacock's most recent screenwriting credits are the thriller "The Killing Room," the comedy drama "Kit Kittredge: An American Girl," the 2007 Hallmark Hall of Fame television movie "Pictures of Hollis Woods" and the family fantasy adventure "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe." In 1999 she earned an Emmy Award for the teleplay for "A Lesson Before Dying."  The HBO original drama also won the Emmy for Outstanding Made for Television Movie and garnered five additional nominations.  Peacock's previous projects include the PBS telefilm "Cora Unashamed," adapted from a Langston Hughes short story, and the John Boorman feature film "Country of My Skull," which premiered to acclaim at the Berlin International Film Festival.

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Copyright © 2008 Daniel e. Dercksen/ The Writing Studio
Published with permission in The Good Weekend Argus, November 16, 2008