Is 'The First Fifteen Lives Of Harry August' Being Adapted Into A Movie?

Question

Heard rumors about a film based on Claire North's 'The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August'. Any reliable news on this potential movie adaptation for the time-loop novel?

mearidc · Answer

For now there is no film adaptation of ‘The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August’ but it is a book which has formed the basis of many rumors over the years. Most recently I’ve been reading August Rain: A Mafia Trinity Novel. The story follows a man who, quite unwittingly, becomes the middle man between three warring mafia families. The tension comes from the fact that each of the families believe he is one of their own. It’s a bit of a complex puzzle but it has the central character navigating the around impossible situations and that is very satisfying to read.

Jade · Answer

There have been rumors of a film adaptation of Claire North’s ‘The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August’ on and off for years, but none have come to fruition yet. While many would love to see Harry August’s life on screen, the time-looping story is very rich in character development, and therefore would be quite hard to bring to life on film.

The interest in a film version has been registered by some independent production companies but larger studios are hesitant to take on the complex non-linearity of the book’s plot. Harry August is a timeless story of redemption containing a complex fate that is to be relived again and again. Perhaps one day a brave studio will follow the lead of Cloud Atlas and produce this cinematic masterpiece – until then we’re left to rewind the hope and keep watching for signs of it coming to fruition.

Yvette · Answer

I would love to see Harry August’s life played out on screen. It’s a sci-fi/historical drama that would make a great TV movie, given the right pruning. Tilda Swinton as the Kalachakra would be wonderful, and Tom Hardy as Harry would be amazing too. The book has been optioned for film many years ago but as we all know, in Hollywood, things move slowly and I’m yet to see any progress on this front. Until then, more re-reading and speculating for me.

Charlie · Answer

No word yet on an adaptation of this, but hopefully not for much longer – its unique premise is too good to pass up in this time of time loops everywhere (hence the recent success of Russian Doll). The book’s huge and devoted fan base would be killed by an inaccurate adaptation, so hopefully they get someone great like Denis Villeneuve to handle the dense, philosophical elements. Indicative adapted films tend to debut at independent film festivals around the world. Keep an eye out for those!

Knox · Answer

I’m not sure an adaptation of The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August would work. The book largely consists of Harry’s internal monologues and slight variations on the same scene, neither of which are easily translated to film. It would require a script of the same depth and complexity as Arrival, and I’m not aware of any filmmaker working within mainstream cinema who is capable of that. As it is, the book has gained a cult following, and so might just attract some interesting, independent filmmakers. But until an announcement is made, it’s all just mute hope in a few book clubs and a Reddit thread.

Johnson Iechad · Answer

Honestly, I hope not. This is one of those rare books which is perfectly suited to the printed word. The internal monologue, the compulsive cataloging of events over long periods of time, the sprawling and circular structure, would all be lost in translation. Much of the tension in the book comes from Harry’s observations on the world around him, and his wisdom is weary and accumulated over long centuries. You couldn’t make a successful film of this – it would have to be laced with external action and be turned into some kind of generic sci-fi thriller. I’d rather read the book again than have it dulled down in this way.

Adaptations of complex novels often attempt to “improve” upon the original and thus simplify it in order to appeal to a broader audience. The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August is complexity at its most beautiful, a novel by a writer for other thinkers, not blockbuster cinema.

Maria Alejandra Rangel · Answer

Adapting the structure of the book to the screen would be the main challenge. Do you adapt it in a linear way, following the consecutive lives of the main character, or thematically intercutting between the lives? In a film, you would have to reduce the fifteen lives of the main character to a narrative thread, leaving out most of them. The film would presumably focus on the main character’s childhood deaths, his scientific work and his final confrontation with Vincent. However, this would also mean losing the meditative and accumulative effect of the lives of the main character in the book. This could be preserved in a limited series of episodes that each focus on a life or theme of the main character.

An episode could be dedicated to Dr. Naimon as a successful doctor, and to Vincent Naimon as he deteriorates in an asylum. This is how a limited series could preserve the sense of time in the novel, while a movie is all about compression. This story would be severely impaired by such a format.

Nora Aquino · Answer

And then there’s the rights issues. The book was originally published under the pseudonym of Claire North, and sometimes authors sign film and TV rights under their real names and other works under their pseudonyms. I have no idea if that’s the case here, but it’s another potential hurdle to overcome. And if a studio picked up the option and then that studio merged with another or the people who optioned it left the company (as I believe happened with Paramount), it could easily get lost in the mounds of papers.

This is not just a matter of creative impediments to get a project made. It’s also corporate bureaucracy and in big companies a project needs an internal champion who advocates for a project during regime changes or when corporate priorities change. Projects get killed on a spreadsheet without an internal advocate.

Payal Pradhan · Answer

If Hollywood were to make a film of this book it would probably ruin it by making a Hollywood ending – a scene of clear victory, a complete transformation, even a radical break from the cycle of events as they have been unfolding. As it is the end of the book is beautifully ambiguous and suggest a change within a repetition of similar events, a slight variation on a pattern. In trying to be true to this a studio could feel that this wasn’t satisfactory and that a more conventional ending was required. One change would be enough to destroy the impact of the whole of the story and to undermine its themes.

This would give me such anxiety as the ending of the book is so important and so it would have to be done well. If they took the ending and tried to make it more positive or ‘concluding’ for the audience it would ruin the whole book. How faithful they are to the ending of the book would be the main test of whether I thought they did a good job with an adaptation of this.

Aslaman Musama · Answer

I think it would be a really interesting production design challenge to make sure that you’re showing the same location, such as his childhood home, over different decades of wear and tear. And then, time-travel geeks will get to look at every single frame to make sure everything is 100% accurate. I think that sort of detail would really attract some of the most obsessive filmmakers and designers out there, which is hopefully a good sign – sometimes the most challenging projects attract the most passionate people to make them.

Check the credits for Production Design and Costume Design. Whoever is brought on board for that type of period-specific work will immediately reveal whether or not this is a project that the filmmakers are actually going to treat with care.

Jesebel Perez · Answer

I saw Claire North mention this in an interview a few years ago. She said she was optimistic but anything in development takes a long time and there are a lot of people involved that she has no control over. I got the sense that she would be interested, but not actively campaigning for a film. That seems like a sensible view – authors get very attached to the idea of their work being filmed and it rarely lives up to their expectations. The book is her legacy, so I hope she remains detached from any Hollywood plans.

Of course Claire will have some input but in the end it's the studio's and the director's baby. Many authors fall in love with the idea of a movie being made of their book, only to be disappointed in the end. But in this case I'm sure Claire will have done a great job of choosing someone who truly loves the book as much as we fans do.

DemonKing oh yeah · Answer

Thanks for the feedback. My initial reaction is that it is better as a book but a great limited series could be really good too. We shall see. A book is much better than any current TV offering right now so I shall have to go back and re-read it.

Is 'The First Fifteen Lives Of Harry August' Being Adapted Into A Movie?

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