Will come to the 34th annual book fair. I am dean of the Honors College here. We are delighted to be able to host this for you this year. And before we get started, there are a couple of people and organizations to thank. This their would not be possible. Ithout our sponsors please, give them a round of applause. Also, we are so fortunate to be a part of a community of people who care about book fairs, literacy, et cetera, we have so many friends of the fair in the audience today, so please give yourselves a round of applause. [cheers and applause] as customary, i ask that you please turn off your cell phone. Know that we will have a q a at the microphone. Please be brief and concise and also i hear the chuckle. I also we will have a signing area to the right of the elevator. Without any further due, this is a particularly special panel a because we have with us, one of the founders of the book fair mitch kaplin. Please give a round of applause. [cheers and applause] thank you. Youre welcome. [cheers and applause] thank you. Thats very kind of you. You know, ive been doing this for 34 years. [cheers and applause] i probably you know, ive been the ed mcman for 5,000 authors and i have never been nervous, this is the first time ive been nervous doing Something Like this. My fellow folks ought to be coming out. [laughter] so as many of you know because i havent kept it a secret. Ive been involved with a film a man who invented christmas. Its a remarkable film and itll be premiering november 22nd, this wednesday night and its really and i had the time of my life doing it. And what i thought we would do at this program is sort of give you a bit of an anatomy of the making of a film from a book. So itll be instructive as to all that happens because we know so many books become films, not an easy process. It took us nine years to get made. Youll understand what it did do that. I will introduce everybody from the panel and show a trail e from the film i just want to say its not the music that youll see in the film, we have michael dana who won the academy for life of pies music during the music but its still a pretty good music, i think. Im going to go and start on this side. This is ian. Yes. [cheers and applause] ian is from the Mob Film Company in london. Not the mob, but the mob. [laughter] film company in london and hes been coproducer since 2009 with us. Hes been known for producing series adaptations. You all know him. Yes . Hes the bestselling, the color of magic and hog father of books and i also had the opportunity to see a documentary which im hope to go bring hoping to bring to miami called cruel and unusual. Documentary of three guys in liz and they were were 40 years in solitary confinement for a crime they did not commit and its a very powerful documentary and we are hoping to bring it to miami. [applause] including don deal me mystery series. [laughter] water to the angels, and the man who invented christmas which is why we are here today. [applause] now, i told you that i started about ten years ago and i could only do this because i started a film Company Along with two local folks and i dont know if they are here but its marvin and lisa who are not with us this afternoon but the real person who i could start with a producer, paula who is right here as my partner. [cheers and applause] my partner in the kaplin company and awardwinning producer in her own write. Literary material which is why we get along so well. Shes taken numerous plays from state screens including something yall know, the search for signs of intelligent life in the universe and the vagina monologue, actually. She also produced Karina Karina with whoopi goldberg. Gerard butler and abigael. Shes now partnering with me obviously, i dont know why she didnt wait but i think we are going to start a good role right now and she you know, our company, shell talk a little bit about it i hope too, in addition to this, we have how many of you read the literary and Potato Peel Society . That will be coming out in april. How many months, 11 months, 14 months in london and dublin trying to get all of this done. She gets my most viable player award for helping. And then we have barrett, our director of the film. Gave him a directors nomination and life on mars garnered the International Emmy for best drama. He followed these with tsunami the you need to know. And robert is also member of the broader family because robert and paul are married as well. So thats a really nice thing. We safe money in hotel rooms. [laughter] right. So i thought what we would do now lower the lights an youll get a sense of the man who invented christmas from the trail. [indiscernible] [applause] thank you. Thats just the beginning of it. A film out of a book, i thought we would start with all of the players who were involved in this very, very and difficult process. Lets start with les who can talk about the material and the book and what drew him to write this book. Well, is this working . Can you hear me out there . Yeah. People often ask me, are you happy with what they did to your book . [laughter] i can say im very happy that my book could be the starting place for what i i think turned out a great film. I had some exposure to the notion that maybe every word in your book will not make its way to the screen and im so tickled that susan, the screen writer from canada and barrett decided to take this book in the direction they did which focuses really on the creative process. When robert first came to me, mitchell told me about your book and i think i can make a film about it. You know its about a guy writing a book. [laughter] hesaid, yeah, yeah, but weve got that covered. Normally you might supposed that what you would see a series of scenes of fellow with paper and what a writer goes through when hes struggling with the process of bringing idea into a form that will actually captivate readers and i think that susan has done a terrific job of imagining the actual interesting things that go on inside a writers head when, what a writer is really doing in most cases in forming a novel is running a little movie inside her head and then if i understand finds the words to get that in paper where people can appreciate it and i think what you see in this film is a very accurate and very entertaining, i have to say representation of what Charles Dickins, goes in one ear and out the ear, a genius like dickins, names, incidents and memories and profound experiences of life and finds a way to weave those all together into a narrative, well n case this turns out to be one of the most popular books ever written. One that 175 years later people still take time at in the Holiday Season to sit down with their families either reread or watch one of the dramatic and representation and while they have a new one to watch because from my money the new favorite scrooge is christopher plummer. Well, i went to graduate school and we didnt spend any time on Christmas Carol because i dont know, i think that my professors thought anything that popular wasnt worthy of serious inquiry to think of that. I thought just the opposite, if anything remains so popular for so long, isnt it worth time to figure it out. When i found out that Charles Dickins had to publish book, they told him to lie down until the urge passed, a ghost story about christmas and he was so upset by that and certain that he had had the best idea to date that he told his agent, i will publish this thing myself and forester said, you dont have any money, dickins, well, forester thats where you come in, helped him raise the funds so that in six weeks write and have illustrated and found deliver advertise and deliver to bookstores in six weeks and sold out all 6,000 copies immediately. Dickins by the way was at the nateer of his career. Famous for having done oliver twist and the old curiosity shop. The last books published had gone terribly for him. He was ready to quit, move to continent and become a travel writer, when i realized how close we came to not having a Christmas Carol, thats when i was convinced that this was a story worth telling. Thank you. [applause] robert, why dont you talk about that story a little bit. Paula. So, yeah, mitch sent me the book and our process is mitch sent me the book and the process is i wake up and there are things in my inbox in santa monica where we live, how about this . This could be a good tv series. This is a great movie. [laughter] there was this book by les and i said, sounds intriguing, send it on but, you know, sent the book, read it and thought, this is great. I have absolutely no idea what to do with it and at that very day, robert, my husband came into the office, i just got a call from the Canadian Broadcast Company and theyre looking for an event film, maybe christmas or Something Like that. [laughter] and i was like what do you think . And it was just curious and robert took it, hes canadian which canadian government actually gives you money to help you make films which the American Government does not and that was really handy being married. And robert ran with it at that point and went out and found the writer susan who is fabulous and started working on putting it together as screen play and first iteration was actually television, it was a short moment and then we looked at it and we thought, you know what, lets lets take a big leap that we can put this out in the theaters and that its going to work at the feature and we took what was tv script and we completely reworked it into a feature script and, you know, compact it into a 90minute piece. Thank you, paula. [applause] yes. We will move to robert. Robert, when you saw that and i know just because i know, we went and jumped through a lot of different hoops and went down a lot of different roads, why dont you talk about some of those and talk about how the mob got involved as well. [laughter] okay. Charles dickins wrote the book in six weeks. It started when i talked to cbc and were looking for a canadian movie, ive never done a Christmas Movie before but i like finding genres and bending them and when i heard about Charles Dickins, my image of Charles Dickins, classic picture of him as old man bent over his desk writing and that was the image i had of him and i started reading the book and here this is, this is a 31yearold, 29 when the process started, you know, young, vital, he was like a literary rock star of his time and so that tied in as using Christmas Carol as the basis and going through dickens imagining a Christmas Carol became something very excited and a way to tell the christmas story but thats different and so that was sort of well researched and i never even knew about and we incorporated a lot of those pieces into the movie. As les was saying, how do you make a story about a writer interesting and i since this was a canadian project, i was looking for a Canadian Writer and susan coin had done a tv series, slings and arrows. A very kind of i dont know if people have seen that. Really talented writer. Magical realism to her work and we we wanted to figure out how to bring this all to life in a movie and make it entertaining and exciting. So we got the canadian government to pay for us to get trip to london, i said it was necessary to do the research and they agreed actually. We met with a lot of dickins experts and we met with simon who is in the movie and we hear stories that dickins use today walk the streets of london, 1015 miles a day and see things and incorporate them in material, that he couldnt start writing a book until he had the characters names, those elements in the movie as well. Just becoming all the different characters and talking to himself in the mirror and taking on all the different voices and becoming different characters. We try today figure out ways of bringing that to the screen. Also to make independent films you need partners and this is about dickins and we were in canada and uk have coproduction agreements which allows you to Work Together and take advantage of each others tax benefits. I was introduced to ian and adam john of the mob and they made an officer we couldnt refuse and so we ended up partnering with them and we scattered locations and long conversation and they say over 9year period this was going to be an event, Christmas Television movie and we had partners in the uk and, tnt was going to do it, evyn and we had such a great script, great idea and said this is too good not to make. Paul came on board and everyone jumped in and four years later we got it made. [laughter] ian can take it from where you started . We started one Conference Call and then two Conference Calls. We have to do this, this is great. We dont know these guys, they are in la and we are in london. Very slowly we started working on the development together. I think what we liked about it was people in uk make stuff dramas about people like Charles Dickins, it wasnt going to be a stuffy period drama, dickins as rock star as the time when you could legitimately come from the u. S. To europe and go home again. Not long before the period. If you came to the u. S. , they couldnt go back because they didnt have the ships to do it. The beginnings of fame and all those kinds of touch points as well. Dickins was the start at the modern celebrity and that felt fresh and interesting and contemporary as well. We just looked at the material and dickins, and just really liked the idea of getting involved in that and we formed a partnership and here we are today to tell you all about it. No, its been a Remarkable Partnership between we have 3 companies, mazer and the mob and Roberts Company and its become a friendship and a family and we want to do more stuff together, clearly. But tell us how barrett got got snuckerred into doing this . [laughter] like a short version of a long version . I think i will do the short version. I always gob smacked its like how does any independent film ever get made. The things that fall into line for nine years. Its extraordinary and the passion behind it and as directors we come at the end and take all the credit and the glory. [laughter] but you know, i came in very last minute and these guys have been working for ten years. I was on a speech in mexico. [laughter] in fact, i kept the cap, my lucky cap. I recommend you go there while its still here and the water levels are low. I would literally having a margarita on the beach and these guys found out that we have a take ian who introduced but ian30 years ago told me how to use the camera. [laughter] it kind of goes back to, you know well back yeah. [laughter] victorian times. But but these guys said we have a script and its, you know, its a very different take on Christmas Carol, its not Christmas Carol, its Charles Dickins meets Christmas Carol and we know that youre a big fan of Christmas Carol and i had been attach today a couple of versions already which had begun for other reasons and so so i said, okay, and i borrowed my sons ipad and downloaded les look and they sent me the script and got transported to victorian Christmas Eve england and six months later im in dublin. What really happened was once we give barrett the script, he couldnt hear us, he was on this island, he had to hike halfway of a mountain and looking for the spot where the cell reception was good. So did you like it . Did you like it . And he said, im in. And honestly, 48 hours later, he was on a plane to vancouver to meet dan stevens who was already attached to play dickins and that had to work, its all about chemistry and people feeling good about working with other people, so barrett just literally jumped on the plane and went to vancouver and dan is shooting tv series and youre squeezing a meeting with barrett and they met and it was just it just really clicked and so barrett was on director and i think what robert four days later, we were scouting in dublin. It was inane. It insane. It moved really quickly. When they go, they go. They go fast and play money. [laughter] maybe we can talk a little bit during q a as well but one thing that i learned, all of the money that you get to make a film, you really dont get it until you start making the film. So the question is, how do you then finance that period before youre making the film . [laughter] david is sitting in the first row, david, wave your hand. This is kind of like honukka. We are shooting in a few weeks. It was coming but it just wasnt there yet. 1843, they were all handmade. All the customs were handmade. You dont buy it off the rack. Thats not the process. We needed money immediately and mitch, we went to mitch and said, mitch, we need like a fairy god mother or father to help us through this. We gave him an amount of money that we could use, itll get us two or three weeks of preproduction and then the money was going to come in. Mitch went to david lee and david asked no questions, we worked on other projects, he wrote out a check. May i say the amount to everybody . No. It wasnt that much. It was going to last us two to three weeks. The oil, its supposed to go for one day but then it goes for two, three, eight. So this money, not so much that david gave us which was supposed to be a little gap ended up getting us through eight weeks of preproduction and at the end of each week, these two brilliant producers would go, who do we not have to pay this week . [laughter] thats how we stretched the money out. I was in dublin but i was getting emails trying to figure all this out, how are we doing all of this and realized when i got to the set that the actors actually and the director, you guys actually started the film not getting paid for that very first week, i think, it was, am i wrong about that, robert. No, just so you know, the money is our promise from a lot of different entities so we actually have the money promised from all the different parties but until everyone signs every contract, it doesnt come to us, so theres this huge promise amount of money but you have to tell that to an actor. We have this money we promised you, work with us, how do you pay for food and all the different things, that was kind of the exercise and unfortunately in a lot of independent films everyone is in this crunch zone. I just want to say a lot of the independent films fall apart around that point. These guys did not let it fall apart. [applause] a remarkable job doing it. Now that you know the process every night ian and i would go on the phone, we are still standing. That was our mantra. Its the aaa of film making, one day at a time. Tells a little bit more about the process. The its very short, a couple of minutes, i thought we would show that and go to q a, we have about 10 to 12 minutes left. Lets see that and i know you may have questions out there as well. So lets, if we can lower the lights and go to that, thatll be great. [inaudible] [indiscernible] [indiscernible] [applause] theyll play in sunset and in the shops of sunset. Those of you watching on cspan, you know, hit your local listings. Probably offered more data come monday so you can go to the website. Youll be able to find out exactly where its playing near you. So any questions, we would be happy to take some. Here come a couple, i see. Thank you, this question is for les. I heard you all talking and seems so torture. [laughter] is this the kind of thing that you go through when you write. At least for you. Hope and torture. [laughter] like dickins you get an idea that you think is full of promise and then the agony comes in always striving to do the best you can to make it manifest and worrying that what youre coming up with isnt quite getting it and as dickins, as dickins says, the first thing was to get the name of the character and hope the characters would begin to tell the story which really does happen despite those who might poopoo the notion. When i saw the first dailies where scrouge comes to life for dickens and wonderful interchange, how delightful to meet you, im sorry, i cant say the same, i knew they got this, i believe its accurate representation of what we go through when we struggle to make something work that we think really is important to make work. Thank you. Thank you. Its a universal story so have you sold International Rights yets . Yes. Twentyfourth of november, london, december, december 1st. Italian version is great, scrouge. [laughter] itll be everywhere. I know that the russians have put in [laughter] they are going to reserve it for next year because they cant dub it fast enough to get in. Maybe we will be sitting in russia next year. I have seen the movie and i got a sneak preview and it was fabulous. Its even better than the preview. Thank you. When i got a pass to see it as i said preview, i was so excited like jumping up and down and calling my friends, it was great, so you guys really nailed it. So youre saying it took nine years from start to finish but you didnt tell us how long the actual filming took, im curious once you got the script . We did it in six weeks. [laughter] and runup to the to shoot itself and runup to christmas 2016 on either side of christmas 2016. And i say in the promotion of it, christmas in the title, we have about six weeks to get a really Good Box Office out of it as well. Everything is six weeks. It was wonderful, the music was wonderful and the story itself and the costume was fabulous, i really enjoyed it. Thank you very much. [applause] i know that we are getting down to the time, i want to thank the guys for being with us. [applause] and i also want to give special shotout to my lovely partner paula who i couldnt do anything without. [applause] how are you able to do this . I have someone i have someone who is a real producer whos on my team. On a personal note, i want to give a shotout to my mother who is right over there. [cheers and applause] [laughter] i also want to thank everybody from Miamidade College for being supportive of not only what we have done today but the book fair. You know in the remarkable week, we have another day ahead of us but we dont. Youve got a marvelous program coming right after ward with bob haas and charles simic. By the way, les will be signing books outside, we have beautiful posters that the rest of the group will be signing out in the signing area as well. The posters are free. Feel free. [applause] [laughter] you want us to get together . [inaudible history bookshelf features writers of the past decade talking about their books. You can watch our weekly series every saturday at 4 00 p. M. Eastern here on American History tv on cspan3. Campaign 2020 team is traveling across the country asking voters what issues the president ial candidates should address. I want a candidate who will advocate for everyone regardless of how old they are, will kind of background they come from, what race or religion they are. I feel like that has not been happening the past few years and we need to get back to a president that will advocate for everybody. Social justice. Do what you plan to do to resolve the issues across the nation. My top issue is wealth and how it affects politics and how money influences our policies. [indiscernible] top issue is not a legislative issue. Transparencyical is our Biggest Issue in washington and government in general. That is something they need to focus on that making sure the American Public really knows whats going on because there are so many hearings and meetings that we can know about that are detrimental to politics. Onthe candidates would focus being upfront about their views and once they get into office, stating whats going on and allowing the public to be more involved in the process. Things could be a lot smoother in washington. Voices from the road on cspan. American history tv products are now available at the cspan online store. Go to cspan store. Org. Check out all of the cspan products. Each week, american artifacts takes you to museums and Historic Places to learn about American History. Here is a brief look at what is airing this sunday night. When talking about victorian prostitutes, we have to leave the hollywood image behind. Its just not accurate. The taurean prostitutes basically ran under the radar. They look like anyone else. There were subtle nonverbal ways you could tell. Women never most left the house unescorted. They had either another woman or a man with them. You can tell if you saw an unescorted woman. Victorian prostitutes also made direct eye contact with men they didnt know. You never approached a man that you had not been approached introduced to. In a large city, a victorian prostitutes would walk down the street by herself, make eye to contact with a man, turn this way or the other way. One of the things they would say is are you sporting . Typically they would be camped outside of the in camera. To be interest with them in winter quarters. Travel with us to historic sites, museums and archives. Artifactsies american. This is American History tv all weekend on cspan3. For 40 years, cspan has been providing america coverage of the white house. So you can make up your own mind. Created by cable in 1979, cspan is brought to you by your local cable or satellite provider. Cspan, your unfiltered view of government. Retired marine corps general john allen shares with military Academy Students the duties of being an officer. The importance of learning military history and respecting americas constitutional principles. This talk was part of the American VeteransCenter Annual conference in washington, d. C. We are indeed and again fortunate to see stars today, lots of them, 4 across each shoulder. We are privilege