If not for a bad movie, I might have let someone else do this.
I've been asked why, after all these years, I'd return to my first bestseller to shoulder the task of hammering it into a script for a graphic novel. The sentiment---if somebody wants to adapt it---great. But let them do the work.
Why indeed devote time and effort to playing with your old fiction when you've got people waiting for something new?
As I said---the movie.
I'm not sure how many of you are aware that back in the 1980's, Paramount Pictures released a film version of The Keep written and directed by Michael Mann. It resembled my novel in name only.
Since I no longer get crazy whenever it's mentioned, I feel safe saying a few words about it now.
A novel needs to be changed when it moves to the screen, I know that. It's a visual medium, no inner monologues--what you get is what you see. Subplots have to go, characters must be combined. But when you've got a novel that is an international bestseller, you should be smart enough to realize that it must have something going for it. You don't rip out it's heart and display a hollow carcass.
The film, released in December of 1983, was a critical and commercial disaster---half-star and one-star ratings, with headers like, "You can keep The Keep" and "Keep away from The Keep".
I remember the last line of Jeffrey Lyons' review on TV: "It could have been wonderful."
And that's the real heartbreak of the film: All the ingredients were there for a classic---great cast, great set designer, a special effects wizard, truly, it could have been, should have been wonderful.
It's almost impossible to explain what it was like as the author to sit through the first half-hour of that film and watch all the things I had envisioned in the book play out in color; equally impossible to describe watching the whole thing start to crack and fall apart, a very bitter experience.
The film is all but forgotten---Mann never seems to mention it when talking about his past work. I've heard rumors that he's holding up release of the DVD(which is fine with me). But as a novel, The Keep remains untouched, never out of print since it was published in 1981. Consider this a sort of twenty-fifth anniversary edition.
I must confess, the film did help sell some books---the few people who saw it were so confused they went out and bought the novel to see what the hell was going on.
Back to the question: Why did I script the graphic novel?
Because I consider this visual presentation of The Keep my version of the movie. What could have been...what should have been.
But I have to admit, the adaptation was an eye-opening experience. I better appreciate the difficulty of compressing the events of this novel into pictures with words. I mean, there's a lot going on. For the first time in almost a quarter century, I have a little sympathy for Michael Mann's predicament. A little. (Let's not get crazy here.)
You can still find the film online and in some video stores. If you're feeling brave, watch it after finishing the graphic novel. See which version you prefer.
You decide. My work here is done.
