FADE IN:

INT. UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN LECTURE HALL

STUDENTS fill the seats of the auditorium, clacking away on their laptops or scratching with pens in their notebooks. Some consult open books. At the front of the room, pacing behind a desk and lectern, is PROFESSOR NICHOLAS DELBANCO. He is tan and dapper, wearing a suit and tie that somehow looks casual. He is holding up a novel, “The Graduate,” by Charles Webb.

DELBANCO

There is a name for this technique—this rapid back-and-forth between characters—given to us by the Greeks: “stichomythia.”

DELBANCO reads a passage of dialogue aloud, assuming the voices of the characters. From his tone, it’s clear he finds the prose execrable.

DELBANCO

(completes passage, closes book.)

Ernest Hemingway said, “The dignity of movement of an iceberg is due to only one-eighth of it being above water.”

(deadpan)

I think it’s safe to say that 100% of this passage’s meaning is on the surface.

STUDENTS chortle and shift happily in their seats. There’s a sense abroad in the lecture hall that this is something different: a professor insulting the required reading.

DELBANCO

As readers, we are struck here by the flatness, the faded nature of the prose.

From a chair to the side of the lectern, a man stands up: PROFESSOR JAMES BURNSTEIN, a screenwriter and director of the University of Michigan’s Screenwriting program in the Dept. of Screen Arts and Cultures. He is the co-lecturer of this course, “Fiction into Film,” and delivers the weekly lectures on the movie versions of the novels on which Delbanco speaks. Often, each of the professors will add to or argue with the other’s lecture.

BURNSTEIN

Nick, is it all right if I add something?

(to students)

A good screenplay is all about subtext. What Professor Delbanco is observing is that in this novel, we’re being told at every turn what the book is about.

Scribbling notes, STUDENTS nod knowingly.

BURNSTEIN

Let me ask you. What’s the most famous line from the film version of “The Graduate”?

SEVERAL STUDENTS

(shouting)

“Plastics.”

BURNSTEIN

Of course. “Plastics.” Great line. The screenplay is very faithful to the dialogue in the book, but that word is not in the novel. Everyone remembers that line. But do you remember what Mr. McGuire says next in the movie?

STUDENTS

(uncertain murmuring.)

BURNSTEIN

He says, “There’s a great future in plastics.” Future. What is Ben worried about, as the graduate?

SOME STUDENTS

His future.

BURNSTEIN

Exactly. In the screenplay, unlike the novel, the word future appears over and over. Ben’s biggest fear is that he will have that plastic future his parents are pushing him into. That’s an example of the subtext the novel is entirely lacking.

Burnstein returns to his seat; Delbanco steps back up and continues his deft evisceration of the novel.

CUT TO:

INT. ANGELL HALL — DELBANCO’S OFFICE — EARLIER THAT DAY

Delbanco reclines on a comfortable chair, facing REPORTER, who remains off-camera. Paintings hang on the walls, and bookshelves are stuffed with novels both classic and contemporary. This has been Delbanco’s office for years as he has run the creative writing program and the Hopwood Awards, both among the most prestigious college writing programs in the country. He is the author of 26 books, the judge of such contests as the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction and owner of the title Distinguished University Professor—perhaps U-M’s highest faculty honor.

REPORTER

Where did you get the idea for this class?

DELBANCO

My son-in-law [Nicholas Stoller] wrote the screenplay for “Gulliver’s Travels.” We talked about the difficulties of transposing that book to film, as opposed to such “original screenplays” of his like “Get Him to the Greek” and the forthcoming “Muppet” movie. So I was ruminating on the problem and—since I’m always looking for a new challenge in the classroom—approached Jim [Burnstein] about tackling the topic together. I’m confident this course is the only one like it taught by a pair of practicing writers.

I’ve loved the way Jim’s mind works. It’s the first time I’ve co-taught like this, and it’s wonderful to come up against another brain in public as opposed to private—to be able, I mean, to articulate our agreements and even occasional disagreements in a lecture hall.

I talk on Mondays about the text. On Wednesdays he lectures on the screenplay. Wednesday night we screen the movie, and on the following Monday in class we look back at it.

We have also managed to bring in some rather impressive guest speakers: Susan Orlean, who spoke about the adaptation of her novel “The Orchid Thief;” Tom Benedek, who wrote “Cocoon;” and Kurt Luedtke, who wrote the adaptation of “Out of Africa.” If we tackle this again—and we both hope and plan to—we’ll enlarge that aspect of the course.

CUT TO:

INT. HALLWAY OUTSIDE LECTURE HALL — AFTER CLASS

Jim Burnstein, shortish and white-haired, radiates youthful energy even when leaning against a wall. A working screenwriter with several Hollywood credits to his name—including “Renaissance Man,” starring Danny DeVito, and “AWOL,” about Ann Arbor in the 1960s, currently in post-production, which he co-wrote and executive-produced with Garrett Schiff. Burnstein not only teaches screenwriting at U-M, he has built the screenwriting program into a state treasure complete with A-list Hollywood visitors, an enormous library of scripts and DVDs and students who have gone on to successful movie and television careers.

BURNSTEIN

As a U-M alum and the parent of three kids who went through here, including my youngest, who’s a junior, I’m not interested in my comfort. I want to know what the students are getting here.

When Nick said, “What would you think about teaching this class with me?” I immediately jumped at it.

I had one professor change my life: [U-M English professor] Russell Fraser. He was teaching freshman composition, and he was pioneering it by having us read Shakespeare. I took his Complete Works of Shakespeare class my senior year. One day he said, “If Shakespeare was alive today, he’d be a screenwriter.”

I was writing plays at the time. I could not get that idea out of my head. As I was driving to law school in Madison, I still couldn’t get it out of my head. I was quitting law school even as I entered.

CUT TO:

INT: U-M CHEMISTRY BUILDING CLASSROOM — AFTER CLASS

EMILY BOZEK, a senior honors student majoring in Screen Arts and Cultures with a sub-concentration in screenwriting, and KELSEY ARSENAULT, a senior English major, are describing their experience of the Fiction into Film class with Reporter.

BOZEK

I signed up for this class because I am interested in adapting books into screenplays, and it has exceeded my expectations. You get two very wise professors imparting their years of experience to students. The way that both professors alternate lectures really helps me understand the two very different methods of writing that go into novels versus screenplays.

ARSENAULT

We don’t spend a lot of time picking out symbolism, themes, or overall meaning from the novels. We focus on how the novel translates into film. What did the filmmakers choose to keep the same? What did they change? How does this affect your ultimate understanding of the plot, characters and meaning?

BOZEK

The most energizing experience in the class for me has been listening to our professors share their writing experiences and relating them to our studies. They have met some of the writers we scrutinize and revere in lecture. There is something very satisfying about knowing that both of your professors have traveled the world, meeting literary icons and film legends, and that they are both there to pass down all of their wisdom to you.

REPORTER

The professors deliberately look not just at great films made from great books. They also picked some bad books that made good movies, and bad movies made from good books. They clearly did not like the novel of “The Graduate,” and they disagreed over the quality of “Short Cuts.”

ARSENAULT

It’s honestly a relief to hear the professor say that a novel is complete crap. It’s rare to read a novel in class that’s truly terrible but it’s also rare to have a professor dislike something they teach…It was nice to know that our professors did recognize when things were not worthy of a glowing review.

BOZEK

I cannot tell you how many times I have heard people say, when faced with a challenging reading assignment, that they are just going to watch the movie instead. This class shatters that system. We learn that adaptations and the texts that inspire them are entirely different. “Fiction into Film” is the one class where you learn to appreciate both the book and the film adaptation as different entities.

FADE TO BLACK: