after the novel...
When Nick Hamm approached me and said he wanted
to make a film of my novel After the Hole, and that he
wanted me to write the screenplay for it, the whole
experience had a kind of dream-like quality to it. That
was over six years ago, when I was still at university.

The Hole, as it came to be known, proved a tricky script
to write. I tried, and had to drop it to concentrate on my
Finals. Several other writes made attempts, but often
found the subject matter of the original novel too much
of a stumbling block. (The source material is both pretty
disturbing and, in its ending, very un-Hollywood.)

Finally it's been done. This is much more a case of the
world becoming ready for the story than the story taking
six years to write: fashions have changed, and cinema
audiences now (post Blair Witch and the like) are much
more prepared to be exposed to films which, ten years
ago, might have been deemed too traumatic or bleak to
make it to screen. Not every film has to have a happy,
gung-ho ending any more - which is just as well,
because The Hole certainly doesn't fit that mould.

Though the script of The Hole differs in structure from
the novel After the Hole, this is pretty much an
inevitable part of the transition to screen. The
screenwriters of The Hole screenplay, Ben Court and
Caroline Ipp, have taken the original idea and treated it
in a cinematic rather than novelistic manner, with, I think,
great success. The impact of the story remains the
same: it's the manner in which the story has been told
that's changed, which is, of course, exactly the point of
making a film in the first place.
In the six years between Nick optioning the novel and hearing that it was actually going into production, I'd rather lost track of the
film. Every so often I'd hear something about it, but I don't think I really believed that it was ever going to struggle out of
development. But then, in January 2000, everything seemed to take off with remarkable speed and certainty. Hard on the heels
of the news that Cowboy Pictures were going ahead and putting the project into production, and that Pathe were putting up
money for it, came details of casting.

I was tremendously excited to hear that Thora Birch, who I'd loved in American Beauty (where she plays Kevin Spacey's daughter)
was being asked to play the lead character, Liz. (A few years ago, I'd have had Christina Ricci at the head of my wish-list.) Thora's
screen presence in American Beauty was one of the highlights of the film, so this was great news. From that point on, the project
doesn't seem to have looked back.

I went and spent a day looking over the shoulders of camera operators when the crew were shooting at Downside, the school
which was standing in for 'Our Glorious School' (which is, as you'll know if you've read the frequently asked questions page, in turn
standing in for Charterhouse, where I went to school - unfortunately, Charterhouse was already in the grip of another film crew
shooting another drama, or everyone would have preferred to shoot it there). It's always enjoyable to be both part of something
like this and yet not to have any responsibility for it: you can sit back and watch the process of shooting without any of the nerves
or tension that you know are plaguing the people for whom this is the moment when it all has to go right. (For the writer, that
moment passes once the script is finished and shooting starts. For me, it had passed even earlier - when I left the project in other
hands to do my exams.) On the day I visited, it was raining outside, so huge Kleig lamps were at all the school windows, pouring in
golden summer 'sunlight', while crew operators with smoke machines were running round tingeing the air with that hazy,
soft-focus look that comes on pollen-drenched summer days. (This, you may have guessed, being one of those scenes before
the Hole, when everything is still 'bright and good at Our Glorious School'.)

Something I think the film really gains over the novel is the depth of background to the characters that it generates. In the book,
we meet these people once they're locked down the cellar, and catch only brief glimpses of their lives and pasts outside it. But the
long, involved process of generating a script and talking through the motivations and personalities of the characters really has
made a difference to them, and what we get on screen is far more thoroughly developed than I managed with the novel. (I
remember thinking very clearly, back when I was trying to write a script for it myself, that if I went back and wrote the book again, I'd
have five times the material I had had before. Going over a script time and again can't help but push your understanding of your
characters far further than you'd have the time and patience to attempt on your own, and other people's ideas contribute their own
impetus to the process as well.)

When the film opens late in April, I'll be fascinated to see what effect it has on me. I feel both that I know this territory inside out, and
that it's completely new to me. This is, after all, my story; but changed, and developed, and taken beyond where I took it. My real
interest is in how that all strikes me when I have a lapful of popcorn and the lights go down. Well, bookmark the page, come back
sometime in May, and I'll let you know...