Adapting for the Screen panellist profiles

Giles Foden, author
Giles Foden was born in Warwickshire in 1967 but grew up mostly in Africa. After taking an English Literature degree, he was Harper-Wood Student in Creative Writing at St John’s College, Cambridge. In 1993 he became assistant editor of the Times Literary Supplement. Between 1996 and 2006 he worked on the books pages of the Guardian, during which period he published his debut novel The Last King of Scotland, which won the 1998 Whitbread First Novel Award. He is author of two other novels -- Ladysmith and Zanzibar — and a work of narrative non-fiction, Mimi and Toutou Go Forth. In 2006 Foden was awarded an AHRC Fellowship in the Creative and Performing Arts at Royal Holloway, University of London. In 2007, the Oscar-winning film of The Last King of Scotland was released.

Giles is a Professor of Creative Writing at UEA. He was the Harper-Wood Student in Creative Writing at St John’s College, Cambridge, and in 1993 became assistant editor of the TLS.  Between 1996 and 2006 he worked on the books pages of the Guardian, during which period he published The Last King of Scotland, which won the 1998 Whitbread First Novel Award and was released as an Oscar-winning film in 2007.  He is the author of three other novels – Ladysmith, Zanzibar, and most recently Turbulence – and a work of narrative non-fiction, Mimi and Toutou Go Forth.  He was one of the judges of the MAN Booker Prize for Fiction in 2007. 
John Wrathall, writer
John Wrathall wrote the screenplay for the Nazi-era drama GOOD, adapted from the play by C.P. Taylor and starring Viggo Mortensen. An official selection at the Toronto and Rome film festivals, it was released in UK cinemas in 2009 (Lionsgate). 

John’s most recent credit is the roadtrip thriller The Liability starring Tim Roth, Jack O’Connell, Peter Mullan and Talulah Riley, due for UK release in January 2013 (Revolver). He is currently doing a rewrite on Twist, a modern-day adaptation of Dickens’s classic novel Oliver Twist, to be filmed in 2013.

Apart from writing screenplays, John has worked as a film journalist, and continues to act as a consultant for the British Film Institute on magazine and digital publishing. He lives in Essex.
Christabelle Dilks, screenwriter and script editor
Christabelle came to drama commissioning having worked as an
actor at the National Theatre and directed short films. During
a particularly rich period for drama at Channel 4, she was part
of the small team commissioning original serials and single
dramas from Queer as Folk to Shockers. She worked on several
major adaptations, both from novels and real life accounts,
such as Longitude, Shackleton, Sword of Honour. At the BBC she
storylined adaptations of the first series of the Inspector Lynley
Mysteries, and later, storylined and script edited dramas adapted
from accounts of historical events: Krakatoa, Lusitania, Suez,
Chernobyl, Rome, and most recently, a feature film script adapted
from the novel Salt. She has also written two feature scripts.

Key credits: Longitude, Shackleton, Krakatoa, Rome, The Sinking of the Lusitania, Surviving Disaster, Casualty 1906.
Stuart Hazeldine, writer/director
Stuart Hazeldine sold his first script at the age of 24 and he has
since become an in-demand assignment writer by the Hollywood
studios. He performed uncredited rewrites on the sci-fi thrillers
Knowing and The Day The Earth Stood Still, adapted
Milton’s epic poem Paradise Lost  for Legendary Pictures, and
he is currently co-writing the Moses bio-pic Gods and Kings
for Warner Bros. and director Steven Spielberg. He was BAFTA-
nominated in 2010 for his debut feature as writer, producer and
director, the psychological thriller Exam.

Key credits: KNOWING, PARADISE LOST, GODS AND KINGS, EXAM
Crispin Buxton, Location Manager / Line Producer

Since working on The Last King of Scotland Crispin established a production company in Kampala which has acted as Uganda producer on numerous broadcast documentaries and is working closely with public and private sectors to promote the country as Film destination. After 15 years Location Management in the UK, Crispin is now also working as a Line Producer and developing projects of his own.

Key credits: Location management: The World's End, The Trial of Tony Blair, The Last King Of Scotland, Shooting Dogs, Eastern Promises, Red Light Runners
Uganda Producer: God Loves Uganda, Kidnapped Abroad, The John Akii Bua Story
Line Producer: Mauasm, Jhootha Hi Sahi
Sue Hayes
Sue Hayes is a creative economic development specialist with a unique focus on the film and media sectors. She has particular interest in assisting economic development, trade & industry as well as cultural departments and agencies to develop, build and sustain services for the creative services sector.

As the London Film Commissioner for ten years, she was able to turn London’s reputation as being an extremely difficult city in which to make a production, into one seen as a key global location.

She now provides support and consults with, government and film offices at national, state, provincial and city levels..

Prior to working with Film London she worked as an independent producer, a researcher and journalist.
Peter Dally, New Media Law, LLP
Peter specialises in providing commercial advice to clients in the media and entertainment sectors, particularly in film and television finance production and distribution. His clients include, feature and
documentary film producers, television producers and film financiers. From 1998 to 2009 he was head of the Film and Television team at Bird & Bird.

His recent film work includes a film adaptation of Claire Tomalin’s The Invisible Woman to be directed by Ralph Fiennes, Nicolas Refn’s Only God Forgives starring Ryan Gosling, The Veteran, Summertime, brilliantlove, Minuscule, Self Made, Better Things, Religulous, Match
Point, Ghosts, I Want Candy and Boogie Woogie; his television work includes the long running series Doc Martin, Man to Manta, The Last Lemur, Lion Man and Workhorse.

He is currently working on a number of high profile projects including a film adaptation of the Lost Child of Philomena Lee (Steve Coogan and Jeff Pope), Bypass (Duane Hopkins), Nureyev: the Life based on the biography by Julie Kavanagh, The Georgians a TV series to be written by Amanda Foreman, Betsy Tobin’s Crimson China and an Anglo/Spanish co production of Driving over Lemons.

A number of Peter’s clients are documentary film makers, such as Nick Broomfield (Battle for Haditha), Vikram Jayanti (The Agony and Ecstasy of Phil Spector) Esteban Manzanares (The Trail of Saddam Hussein) and Ben Lewis (The Great Contemporary Art Bubble).

He has acted for a number of financing clients including Natixis Coficiné, Rarebird, Scotts Atlantic, Berliner Bank, Invicta Capital, Magna Films and CP Medien.

In 1990 he became involved in business training for film producers and between 1991 and 1994 he led a team of lawyers at a series of East/West Producers Seminars in London, Warsaw, Prague, Budapest and Bucharest.

Since then, in addition to working full time as a practising entertainment lawyer in London, he has worked consistently with the Media Business School. He served as an expert at the Film Business School and the Television Business School. He designed and has taught the Legal and Business Affairs Module for the European Master in Audiovisual Management (MEGA Plus) since its inception in 1997 and is a member of the course evaluation committee.

He has also lectured at a number of other leading training organisations including the UK National Film and Television School, the Erich Pommer Institute, La Fémis and the Filmakademie Baden-Wurttemberg.

Peter is also a member of the Advisory Board of The Script Factory, a unique script evaluation and training organisation based in London. He is also a regular speaker at industry events and has spoken at media industry conferences in London, Amsterdam, Vienna, Cannes, Rio de Janeiro and Los Angeles.

Recently Peter was appointed as an arbitrator to the World Intellectual Property Organisation’s film and media expedited arbitration scheme.
New Media Law LLP, Third Floor, 3-4a Little Portland Street, London, W1W 7JB
www.newmedialaw.biz
Panellists are listed below with links - we will post up more profiles as we receive them

Session One: Adapting Literature for the Screen: What is it about books & plays that attracts film-makers?
Dr. Chris Gribble, CEO, Writers’ Centre Norwich in conversation with Giles Foden, author Last King of Scotland and Professor of Creative Writing, UEA 

Session Two: Adapting Literature for the Screen: the Creative Challenges
Peter Bloore Senior Lecturer in Creativity at UEA and produced screenwriter
Christabelle Dilks writer/script editor and former commissioning editor Channel 4 Drama   
Stuart Hazeldine, screenwriter Paradise Lost, Moses and director of Exam
John Wrathall, screenwriter Good based on the play by C.P. Taylor

Session Three (followed by Q&A) Adapting Literature for the Screen: the Practical Challenges 
Crispin Buxton, Location Manager, The Last King of Scotland 
Steve Clark-Hall Co-Producer Sherlock Holmes
Peter Dally, Entertainment Lawyer, New Media Law 
Sue Hayes, Consultant to the Creative Industries, former London Film Commissioner 
Yasmin McDonald, Rights Executive, AP Watt (London based)