Pieces of April

In the late 1980s, Hedges, who adapted What's Eating Gilbert Grape, first had the idea for the screenplay Pieces of April--about a 20-something living in Manhattan's Alphabet City who tries to bridge an estranged relationship with her mother who's sick with cancer. Getting the movie made""was its own particular adventure,"" he writes in his introduction. He and his colleagues started production on Pieces of April three different times before it finally got off the ground, with InDigEnt, a company that makes digital films on a shoestring budget. This companion to the movie (which stars Katie Holmes and Patricia Clarkson) offers, in addition to the screenplay, stills, an interview with Hedges (he wrote and directed the film) and cast and crew credits. Hedges calls Pieces of April""probably the purest experience I may ever get to have in the movie business,"" and this book serves as a compact tribute to that experience.