Beaufoy Adapting Raw Shark
SciFi . com/scifiwire

Simon Beaufoy, screenwriter of such films as The Full Monty and Slumdog Millionaire, told a group of journalists that he has finished a draft of a screenplay based on the book The Raw Shark Texts, a novel by Steven Hall that deals with the metaphysical erasure of memory.

"OK, get this," Beaufoy said in a group interview on Nov. 6 in Beverly Hills, Calif., where he was promoting Slumdog Millionaire. "It's about conceptual sharks that eat your memory. It's like Memento and Jaws and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Just pair it all up. It's the most amazing flight of imagination I've read for 20 years."

If the premise was a tough sell in print, it was an even more challenging prospect in the visual medium of film. "Conceptual sharks are tricky," Beaufoy said. "It's really hard, but really fascinating. It's all inside someone's head. I just wanted to do something very different. That's how I stay fresh and interested, is to move to something completely different. I've only just finished the draft, but I have made attempt of it somehow so you'll see."

With his work complete, pending any eventual rewrites, it is still a director's job to figure out what conceptual sharks look like. Beaufoy just dealt with the plot. "Yeah, I just write, 'Shark attacks.' It's not my problem."

Whether or not Beaufoy's script attaches a director or cast, he remains a fan of Hall's novel. "[The title] is a pun on the Rorschach test, the inkblot test. It's full of all that. It's extraordinary. You will never have read anything like it, so I really recommend it. You might only get halfway through and go, 'OK, that's enough madness.' But it is genuinely original. It's brilliant."

The Raw Shark Texts is published by Canongate in the United States. –-Fred Topel

it'll definitely be interesting to see what he does with what is so "literary" a work. kind of like trying to adapt david foster wallace or finnegan's wake. and the JAWS homage is gonna just look like a direct rip-off.

Ok, i report back:
The book was amazing.
The film was fantastic.
There were very few similarities.
Now, i'm not sure if the film was adapted from, or based on the book, but it was very difficult to make connections between the two.
They were both wonderful in their own ways, but very, very different.
If anyone wants examples, i can give a bunch. Don't want to spoil anything though.

Yeah absolutley,
The format of "answer question according to previous experience" is way more structred and apparent in the book than it is in the movie. Each chapter is divided into a sum of money to be won, ie. 1,000 - 2,000 - 1,000,000
With each chapter came a different story basically, of what went on in Ram's life. (yes, in the movie he is Jamal, but in the book he's Ram Mohammed Thomas). Each chapter was basically its own story, and the last page of the chapter is the playing of the show, the question, and his answer. So when you get to the end of the chapter and encounter the question, you KNOW he knows the answer because you know the relation to his life.
The plotline of Latika is very scarce in the book. It only comes out in the second half of the book. So when i saw previews of it as a "love story" i was a little confused.
Salim, in the book, is two years younger than Ram[Jamal] and is an absolute sweetheart. Pretty much as innocent as can be.
In the book, there is an Australian family, a Catholic priest, espionage, a child with mental disabilities, something that can be defined as slavery almost, a famous movie star... all left out of the film.
The one part that is closest to the events in the book is the tour guide part (my favorite part in both the movie and book!)
I don't really know how to go into it, but the entire plot of the book was basically altered...
The book and the movie should really be seen as seperate entities basically. They are really soooo different.
I HIGHLY recommend the book. It is honestly such a good story. The view of India and the slums is so vibrantly defined in the book, the characters met and the life journey of Ram is just so great... and the ending makes your heart melt :)
Read the book...
But don't expect it to be like the movie, or you'll be letting yourself down.

A few other things i forgot to mention before,
Salim and Ram are not brothers, Ram is an orphan and Salim is a Muslim in a highly Hindu society (bad news for him)
Alot of the story is centered around a REVENGE PLOT.... (ooooh...cue dramatic music!)
And the host of the quiz show has a hidden agenda... (i won't say any more)
And there's a character Gudiya who is really important to the story, both in Ram's recounted past, and in his present/future time.
That movie star in the beginning is way more linked to the story than he appears to be.
in the book, Ram DOES know the answer to the rugby question ;)
And yeah, in the book, romance isn't the biggest part (or at least it wasn't in my reading), it was more about the tough times of a child in the worst slums of Asia.
I feel like i'm bashing the movie adaptation, but really, i'm not!!!

I do wonder about the attitude of a book-must-be-made-into-a-film; some people seem to view a film as a book's ultimate realization of it's self.

At the other end of the spectrum are people like Alan Moore, who wants nothing to do with the film adaptations of his works, going so far as to give his share of the films' royalties to the respective artists who originally worked with him.

To what extent does the visual and aural experience of a film add to a novel? Or, does having seen the film overpower your own perception of the novel? Can you read a book without hearing the actors?

I liked what Neil Gaiman said about his novel, Coraline, when it was still in production as a film in 2005:

"Because it's Henry Selick, and I like him and I trust him. Because if it's good (and I can't convince myself to share your absolute pessimism about this) it will make me very happy to sit and watch it, and if it's not good it truly won't hurt the book. Coraline will be fine, safe between its covers, and not a word of her story will have changed."

But still, I do wonder if perhaps it's better to read the book before seeing the film (movie scripts being adapted into books, as they do with James Bond, being a different matter altogether).

From The Independent:

"Simon Beaufoy, screenwriter of 'Slumdog Millionaire', who is now working on a film adaptation of Steven Hall's book 'The Raw Shark Texts', settled on this project, a conceptual book about memory as a metaphor for Alzheimer's, to seek out the most impossible book to adapt into a film. "Another one I considered was a book about a woman who fell in love with a black hole," he said. Beaufoy wants to make more films based in Mumbai and plans to work with Danny Boyle again. Slumdog Millionaire II?"

Steven, question:

We haven't really heart anything about this movie (other than our own speculation).
Is it because:
a) nothing is happening as of yet,
or b) they're just being super secretive about it?
(you don't have to give anything away. Just nod once of a), and twice for b). No one has to know!)

There is only one director that can bring this film to life and thats Michel Gondry!

Just finished reading the book and its the most original and compelling read that has ever assaulted my senses. Before I booted up Final Draft I wanted to see if an adaptation was already in the works. While I was a bit disapointed to see someone beat me to it, I'm glad it's Beaufoy (although a Charlie Kaufman adaptation would be brilliant.)

As far as directors go my wish list of people with the innovation and vision to make a faithful adaptation are:

Michael Gondry
Christopher Nolan
Danny Boyle