THE ART OF ADAPTATION

THE HELP

Point of view
An exceptional window into the human soul that will shake you to the core and change your life.  This meaningful and emotionally rewarding experience is unique in its honesty. If ever you questioned life, living and the differences that divide, The Help is a welcome wake-up call that serves as a reminder of how important it is to have friends that will support you through the best and worst of times. It's one of those rare films that sneaks up on you and crawls deep into your heart.  It poignantly addresses important social issues without casting judgment and allows its vibrant characters to unashamedly display their weaknesses.  Tate Taylor's direction is heartfelt and his well crafted screenplay gloriously magnifies   Kathryn Stockett's critically acclaimed No. 1 New York Times best-selling debut novel. The cast shines in their respective roles, particularly Viola Davis as Aibileen, the heart and soul of the film, and Octavia Spencer as out-spoken Minny Jackson. Equally brilliant is Bryce Dallas Howard as the bitch from hell, with Jessica Chastain unforgettable as the wounded and lonely, fish-out-of-water Celia. The Help is a film you have to see and one you will most definitely revisit with friends and loved ones. Reviewed by Daniel Dercksen Rating 5/5

The story
Set in Jackson, Mississippi during the 1960s, "The Help" chronicles the relationship between three different and extraordinary women who build an unlikely friendship around a secret writing project that breaks societal rules and puts them all at risk.
Eugenia "Skeeter" Phelan just graduated from Ole Miss and is intent on getting a job as a writer. Unlike the girls she grew up with in Jackson, Mississippi, Skeeter wants a career and is quite content to put marriage and children on hold--much to her married friends', and her mother's, constant consternation. When she lands a job writing the Miss Myrna cleaning-hints column for the local newspaper, she seeks help from Aibileen, her best friend's maid and finds herself embarking on a clandestine project, spurred on by a book editor in New York and inspired by the moving stories she uncovers.
Aibileen Clark has been a housekeeper all her life, working in the white homes of Jackson, Miss. She has raised 17 children for her employers and one son of her own, who was tragically, and unnecessarily, killed in an accident. Saddened by the loss of her only child, Aibileen draws strength from both her faith and her best friend Minny.
With quiet courage and dignity, Aibileen fulfills her duties as the Leefolt family's maid, caring for their little girl, Mae Mobley. When Skeeter enters her life, Aibileen finds herself opening up and telling her stories for the first time in her life--even though the seemingly simple act brings with it the great risk of retaliation.
Out-spoken Minny Jackson is a 33-year-old housekeeper who has a reputation as the best cook in Mississippi. She works for Hilly Holbrook (Bryce Dallas Howard), but an act of defiance finds her fired and traveling to the outskirts of Jackson to work for lonely, fish-out-of-water Celia Foote (Jessica Chastain). Minny is Aibileen's best friend and helped her get through her grief over losing her only son. Though strong and independent, Minny nonetheless is the voice of reason, as well as a healthy skeptic, when it comes to Skeeter's project. 
A remarkable sisterhood emerges from their improbable alliance, instilling all of them with the courage to transcend the lines that define them, and the realization that sometimes those lines are made to be crossed--even if it means bringing everyone in town face to face with the changing times.
Deeply moving, filled with humor, hope and heart, "The Help" is a timeless and universal story about the ability to create change. The film is both inspirational and empowering, featuring relatable, funny, courageous characters, who by finding their unique voices triumph and become the heroes of their own lives.

TATE TAYLOR (Director/Executive Producer/Screenplay by) was born and raised in Jackson, Mississippi and graduated from the University of Mississippi. After spending time in New York he moved to Los Angeles to pursue his film career.
In 2004 Taylor made his directorial debut with the critically acclaimed short film "Chicken Party", which he wrote, directed and starred.  "Chicken Party" went on to win eight festivals and placed at 12 more.
"Pretty Ugly People" was Taylor's first feature length film, which was released theatrically in the fall of 2009.  Written and directed by Taylor, this dark comedy was shot on location in Montana's Glacier National Park, Chicago and Los Angeles and presented a complicated shooting schedule and ensemble cast which gained Taylor further notoriety as a director and writer to watch.
Taylor has established a mentoring program based in Mississippi with Kathryn Stockett, author of "The Help," that provides creative and structural mentoring for writers and filmmakers.
As an actor, Taylor has a long history of creating outstanding performances and was most recently seen in the 2010 Sundance "Grand Jury" Prize-winning feature, "Winter's Bone."

KATHRYN STOCKETT (Author of "The Help") was born and raised in Jackson, Mississippi. After graduating from the University of Alabama with a degree in English and creative writing, she moved to New York City, where she lived and worked for 16 years. She currently lives in Atlanta. "The Help," Stockett's first novel, was on the New York Times bestseller list for 103 weeks, six of those weeks were at number one.

Casting
One of the biggest responsibilities in casting "The Help" was living up to the book readers' expectations. Everyone who loves the book loves the characters, and the filmmakers felt a great obligation to the readers to bring them to life in an authentic way, while at the same time casting with an eye for reaching the audience who had never read the book and bringing them into the world of "The Help." Read more

Mississippi as a character
"The Help" is set in Mississippi, and although a fictional story, it takes place during one of the most important eras in our country's cultural history--the changing times of the 1960s. Read more

Creating the look
It was important that Tate Taylor be surrounded not only by a cast that would support his vision, but also that he have a really talented crew to create the authenticity he wanted. Chris Columbus, Michael Barnathan and Mark Radcliffe had worked with Director of Photography Stephen Goldblatt ("Batman Forever," "Closer") on "Percy Jackson" who in turn had worked with Tate Taylor's choice for a Production Designer Mark Ricker on "Julie and Julia." For costume design they chose Sharen Davis, who had been nominated for an Academy Award® for her work on "Dreamgirls." Read more

From page to screen
As friendship is so vital to the story of "The Help," so was friendship vital to how the film became a reality. Director/Screenwriter Tate Taylor and Kathryn Stockett, author of the book "The Help," were childhood friends who grew up together in Jackson, Miss., in the 1970s. 
Taylor and Stockett's longtime, trusting friendship formed the basis of the film's journey and along the way they added another friend, Jackson native Brunson Green, to their mix, who Taylor had met at a blues festival in Jackson some 18 years prior. Then another friend, Octavia Spencer, joined their pack. Taylor met Octavia Spencer in 1996 when they were both production assistants on "A Time to Kill."
After the movie wrapped, Taylor and Spencer packed up and moved to Los Angeles together. Taylor, Green and Spencer all hung out in Los Angeles, with frequent visits from Stockett, who was off getting married, having a baby and living in New York City.
After taking five years to write the novel, which Stockett started right after 9/11 when she was in New York, and facing over 60 rejections from literary agents, Stockett was close to giving up when she gave it to Taylor for a read. As Taylor recalls, "I started reading the manuscript and was blown away. I was moved by the truth of the story, about these unlikely women coming together to create change in Mississippi in 1963. I called Kathryn and just said, 'This is fantastic. You cannot give up…this will be published. If it doesn't, I'll make it into a movie.'"
The authenticity of the story of "The Help" resonated with Taylor from the moment he opened the manuscript. "This was our childhood. Kathryn and I weren't quite raised like the characters in the book because we were raised in the '70s. But our mothers were single moms who had to work. And they, like the women in the story, needed to get help with the children. Kathryn and I like to refer to the women who raised us as our co-mothers. Mine was Carol Lee and hers was Demitri."
Excited by the prospect of making "The Help" into a film, Taylor started the ball rolling by sending the manuscript to their mutual friend, producer Brunson Green.
Green recalls, "I was in New York and Tate said 'I am going to send you this book. Read it immediately. We need to make it into a movie.' I read it on the flight home and I was crying on the plane. It reminded me of my Grandmother's housekeeper Mary and their rich, lifelong yet complex relationship."
With Stockett's blessing, Taylor, with the help of Green, acquired the film rights to "The Help" and Taylor began to adapt the novel into a screenplay.
Taylor definitely had a feel for the material as he committed himself to bringing the complex, inspiring and surprisingly humorous novel to the big screen. "These women would not be allies at that time for reasons of race and class," says Taylor. "It's easy to be quiet. You think that there is no benefit from speaking up, or maybe you are just lazy and want to go with the status quo.  But, I think what this book shows people, and I hope the movie will show people, is that the smallest thing can affect change."
The challenge for Taylor in writing the screenplay was to be honest to the voice of the novel and condense it into a two hour movie. As Taylor comments, "The technical issue for me was getting the first 200 pages of the novel into 20-25 minutes of the script. But, I know this material. I read the book about 13 times and I would circle the things I really liked in the novel.
"Once I starting writing, it just began to flow. Kitty [Kathryn Stockett] and I have the same sense of humor and we tell stories the same way. She was generous enough to let me run things by her."
About a year later, in 2009, "The Help" was published by Penguin Books. Spurred by passionate word-of-mouth from readers, "The Help" stayed on the New York Times bestseller list for 103 weeks, six of which were in the No. 1 spot. 
Tate Taylor happened to be traveling through Alabama with Kathryn Stockett and Brunson Green following a book signing in Jackson, Miss., and en route to Atlanta, the last stop on the book tour, when Stockett received a call from her publisher. They quickly pulled over at a truck stop to hear the news from the publisher--"The Help" was debuting on the New York Times bestseller list. 
Green recalls, "I snapped a photo of them celebrating in front of the truck stop with their Smirnoff Ices.  Kathryn was literally on the phone with her publisher and very excited."
At that point, Taylor and Green worked actively to find a veteran producer to partner with them on "The Help." They realized that their primary filmmaking experience had been in the world of independent film, so they looked at bringing in another producing partner with studio credibility.
"We started with baby steps, in the development of the script, in getting the right partners.  We really needed someone who had the legs, someone who had done huge movies like 'Harry Potter' and that was Chris Columbus and 1492," explains Taylor.
And it was only natural that Taylor would take the project to Producer Chris Columbus as he had known him for some time. When Taylor asked him to read the book, Columbus agreed. "I read the book and it was phenomenal," Columbus says. "It was so complex and socially relevant for our time."
Columbus was also impressed with Taylor's screenplay and felt strongly that Taylor was the best choice to direct the project. As he explains, "Tate's the only guy who could have directed this movie because he lived in this world; he grew up with these people. He understands every detail, every nuance. And that's what you look for in a director."
The next step was to find a studio that would support the filmmakers' vision of turning "The Help" into a feature film. This was not an easy process as Taylor and the producers found themselves also meeting rejection, just as Kathryn Stockett had with the book. 
Then what they all worked and hoped for happened. "DreamWorks came in and really supported Tate directing the film and that really was the kick off," says Columbus.
"DreamWorks' Stacey Snider [Partner, Co-Chairman, CEO] said, 'I can't let this go,"' Columbus recalls. "And it was because of Stacey and Steven Spielberg, who stepped in and agreed to make the movie, that we were able to fulfill Tate's vision."
Green adds, "DreamWorks came on board, which was phenomenal. They care about the filmmakers and they don't want them to feel compromised in any way. They give the director the freedom to tell his story."
Just as the novel attracted millions of readers around the world, the filmmakers are hopeful that the novel's universal themes will resonate with moviegoers. "I think the key to the book's success is that the subject matter is finally being told from the point of view of the most obvious people, which are these women. I think it takes us back to a time and place that has been forgotten and that is still really important to us," says Taylor.



The art of adaptation

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