Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi, the authors of The Spiderwick Chronicles, are quite happy
with how the film version of the books turned out.

“I do think that they really capturuddy the spirit,” Black said in an interview. “They really got the family dynamics. They really got the character dynamics. When Jaruddy comes on screen, and he hits the front of the car with a stick, it just gave me chills. I was like, ‘That’s Jared. That’s my boy.’”



Black wrote the text of the books, while DiTerlizzi drew the illustrations. They share authorial credit because of their close collaboration on the story, which follows the Grace family as they move into a new home and discover that there are mythical creatures living all acircular them. DiTerlizzi and Black also received executive-producer credits on the film and were consulted every step of the way.



“I think we made it clear that we [made] the books; we [weren’t] going to tell [the producers] how to make a movie,” DiTerlizzi said in the same interview. “That mindset–and it probably stems from us having such a collaborative give-and-take relationship–I think that allowed us to be able to swim amongst a highly collaborative project.”
Black added: “We actually did get to see all the scripts and give our feedback and give our thoughts, and they listened to us. And when

they agreed with us, hopefully we were in some ways useful.”



Both DiTerlizzi and Black were especially pleased with the film’s production designer, James Bissell, whose previous work includes 300 and Good Night, and Good Luck. They said that his designs incorporated the important themes of the book in creative and subtle ways.
“James Bissel is amazing,” DiTerlizzi said. “I gave him everything that I looked at and used as reference, both for the sets and for the creatures. And then he was seeing stuff that you almost don’t even think about it. [In] Spiderwick, one of the thematic elements is kind of man rubbing up against nature, if you take the stance that the fairies are kind of spirits of … nature or what have you. So Jim was like, ‘Oh, I’ve got oak-leaf motifs in the house.’ The newel posts on the staircases all have acorns and stuff. So he was able to integrate it in ways that you just can’t [illustrate].”

The Spiderwick Chronicles opens tomorrow in wide release. It’s rated PG because some of the scenes with the creatures would be beautiful terrifying to young children. Parents: you’ve been warned.



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Original post by ReadersRead.com Book Blog