Between January and the end of March, two movies based on Ron Rash novels will have their theatrical release. The film version of Serena (2008), which made a number of best fiction lists, including PW's, will be in theaters on Friday (March 27). Magnolia Pictures released it on iTunes and VOD on February 26. An earlier Rash novel, The World Made Straight (2006), directed by Survivor producer David Burris, launched theatrically and on VOD January 9.
Were you surprised by the recent interest in turning your books into film? How have movies in general influenced your work?
I have been very surprised, because I have never written a novel with any expectation a film might be made of it. I have, however, always loved to watch movies, and I am sure they have influenced my novels in ways I don’t consciously realize.
Variety calls the Serena movie an “anti-romance.” Do you think that this is an apt description of the book as well?
I would define Pemberton and Serena’s romance as one doomed by miscalculation. Serena, not unlike Gatsby with Daisy, has created such unreal expectations of her beloved that he is certain to fall short of those expectations, which Serena will view as a betrayal.
Having a book turned into film can sometimes be a mixed blessing. In your case you will have had two theatrical releases within months of each other. What impact has the making of the movies and now their release had on your life and your writing?
The movies have had little impact on my life. I continue to put in the same number of writing hours each day. I have had a few more media requests. The biggest change has been bringing new readers to my work, for which I am grateful, not just for myself but also for Ecco, who published Serena when no one else in New York wanted it.
As a historical novelist—as well as poet and short story writer—were you concerned with how the books would be adapted, particularly World Made Straight, in which you relied on the history of your own family during the Civil War?
I made a decision early on not to read either screenplay. I answered a few questions from the screenwriters but was otherwise uninvolved in the filming. For me, that was better. I was deep into a new novel during that period and preferred to concentrate on something that, unlike film, I knew I could do well. Of course I hoped the movies would be as true as possible to my novels, but it is a different medium so differences are inevitable. Someone once asked Harry Crews what a film “might do” to his book, and he answered that a film didn’t change a single word in the book itself. That seems a good attitude for a writer to take.
