Working together
BETHLEHEM AUTHOR/DIRECTOR COUPLE COLLABORATE ON ‘INHERITANCE’ MOVIE
Dani Shapiro is a successful writer from Bethlehem who has written best-selling memoirs, “Slow Motion,” “Devotion,” “Hourglass” and “Inheritance,” and the novels, “Family History” and “Black & White.” Her newest novel, “Signal Fires,” was released in October, and is about a car accident that creates secrets that shape many of the characters over the years.
“It’s the story of a constellation of characters who live on a particular street in a suburb north of New York City and it spans 50 years, though those years are not chronological,” Shapiro said. “They are told in chapters that alternate different characters’ points of view over time.”
Shapiro is in the midst of a 16-city book tour. And while she has been busy promoting the new book, it’s a former work that has also been getting a lot of attention lately. In the works is a film adaptation of “Inheritance,” Shapiro’s memoir that centers on her discovery after taking a DNA test on a whim, that the man she’d known her whole life as her father was not biologically related to her.
“When ‘Inheritance’ was about to come out, I got a call from a great producer, Pam Koffler, one of the principals of Killer Films, and she had read an early copy and loved it and really wanted to develop it,” Shapiro said. “They brought in a screenwriter who wrote a draft, but it’s a tricky book to adapt.”
Enter Shapiro’s husband, noted director/ screenwriter Michael Maren, who saw the original draft wasn’t getting much traction and wrote his own version.
“People weren’t responding to it; it was sent to some directors and actors, and this was during COVID,” he said. “I was in the middle of shooting a film and I decided to take a crack at rewriting it since there wasn’t a lot going on.”
When he was finished, the producers sent the new draft to noted Polish director Agnieszka Holland, who signed on to direct. The project as yet has no start date, but the couple hopes things will be ready to go in 2023.
“Independent film is a weird animal; we haven’t spoken that much about casting yet,” Shapiro said. “These films get built one step at a time and Killer Films is meticulous and careful, and they’re not going to put a huge amount of brainpower and time into a project they don’t think will be made, so we are just in the process now.”
Working together isn’t anything new for the couple, who have been married for 25 years.
“Michael and I have very different styles in terms of collaborating,” Shapiro said. “I’ve written eight books since we’ve been together and Michael is always my first reader and I often share work with him as I’m working on it. I’m usually his first reader as well, but I have to pry it out of him. He waits until he is somewhat happy with a piece of work before he wants anyone’s interest.”
The reason for the different styles, Maren said, is his wife is a very organized person who starts on page 1 and moves through the story, while he may start on page 40 and puzzles his way around the script.
“Dani’s built a foundation and puts the walls up, where I just throw a clump of mud on the ground and try to shape it,” he said. “That makes it harder to share things as I go along.”
And while working on a film where two of the main characters are based on Dani and Michael themselves could be something of a fraught situation, the couple has such trust in one another that it was never a worry.
“I don’t think there’s anyone who is more suited to this adaptation than Michael because it’s a tricky story to tell; it’s not straightforward, and Michael knows intimately the story to its core,” Shapiro said. “Agnieszka Holland is such an extraordinary director and I feel in both of their hands, this will turn into a powerful film.”
Shapiro’s “Signal Fires” has also been optioned as a TV series and she will be writing the pilot episode, and is excited to be continuing to live with these characters in a new forum.
It’s a busy time for Maren as well, as he has a new film coming out later this year. The film, “Little White Lie” is based on the novel “Shriver” by Ridgefield writer, Chris Belden. Michael Shannon and Kate Hudson lead a starstudded cast that also includes Zach Braff, Peyton List and Don Johnson.
“It’s a comedy of mistaken identity; it starts out at a college on the West Coast which is holding a literary festival but is having a hard time attracting writers,” Maren shared. “There’s a writer named Shriver who has been missing for years, and Kate Hudson’s character believes she tracks him down, but really it’s a handyman who lives in New York City.”
Naturally, when he shows up at the festival, not knowing a thing about why he’s really there, laughs ensue. The film is slated to be released in March.
Even with both Shapiro and Maren busy with their respective ventures, the couple still finds time to work together and are kicking around ideas for future projects.