PODCAST: Globe nominee Hampton on adapting 'Atonement' to film
Oscar champ Christopher Hampton ("Dangerous Liaisons") adapted the popular British novel "Atonement" to the screen "with great difficulty and with many, many tries over a long period of time with help from (book author) Ian McEwan and with director Joe Wright who knew exactly what he wanted, which is always a huge help for a writer."
That's what he told me back in September at the Toronto Film Festival where "Atonement" debuted to rapturous response from journos and film-industry chiefs. Listen to our podcast chat — CLICK HERE to Download the MP3 File. (Note: You may need to hold down your computer's control key while clicking.)
When he tackled the writing task at first, many other Hollywood scribes considered the book unadaptable, so when I asked Hampton how many revisions he toiled at, he said at first, "Maybe 17 drafts," then added that six were probably "proper."
By comparison, "Dangerous Liaisons" was "a three-week job," he added, somewhat jokingly, but, in that case, he'd already written the Broadway play "Les Liaisons Dangereuses" (which he'd adapted from the book by Choderlos de Laclos), so he was intimately familiar with the source material and its dramatic subtleties. Of "Atonement," he said, "I'd written a draft before I met (Joe Wright) and I'd done certain things. I had the authorial voice over all the way through, which is kind of an obvious way of dealing with complex problems. Joe said, 'Let's try and do it without voiceover. Let's try and do it without explaining everything.'"
That advice turned out to be shrewd since it best conceals the knock-your-block-off surprise ending, which gives "Atonement" much of its oomph. Now the script is a Golden Globe nominee, competing against "Juno," "No Country for Old Men," "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" and "Charlie Wilson's War." Next, it's a strong contender for bids from the Writers' Guild of America and Oscars.
Hampton won the WGA and BAFTA awards in 1987, in addition to the Academy Award. At the Oscars that year, "Dangerous Liaisons" beat "The Accidental Tourist," "Gorillas in the Mist," "Little Dorrit" and "The Unbearable Lightness of Being." In all, "Liaisons" was nominated for seven Oscars, including best picture (it lost to "Rain Man"), but won two more: costumes and art direction.
Winning the Oscar was "wonderful," he said. "It was kind of bizarre. I sort of was in denial until I heard my name. (Then) I bumbled my way through," since this writer had not penned an acceptance speech ahead of time.
Hampton wasn't nominated for "The Quiet American" in 2002, but his script paid off with a best-actor bid for Michael Caine.
Hampton won a special jury prize from the Cannes Film Festival in 1995 for a movie he both wrote and directed, "Carrington," which explored the relationship between painter Dora Carrington (Emma Thompson) and author Lytton Strachey (Jonathan Pryce) during World War I. Pryce won best actor at Cannes and Thompson won best actress from the National Board of Review. "Carrington" was nominated for best British film at BAFTA, which also nominated Pryce in the actor's race.
Hampton's Broadway play "Les Liaisons Dangereuses" was nominated for seven Tony Awards in 1987, but "e happened to hit a year where August Wilson's 'Fences' was the opposition and won everything," he recalled. "We all came to New York bright-eyed and bushy tailed, then we all went home again."
