CONTEMPORIZING THE CLASSICS

About the Book

Contemporizing the Classics: Poe, Shakespeare, Doyle is a how-to on the art and craft of transforming a classic into a feature-film screenplay with a modern storyline.

The introduction probes an issue that weaves throughout: role of artistic license in balancing fidelity to the original versus dramatic needs of the script.

Contemporization of a classic being the most flagrant form of dramatic license, the introduction presents three guidelines for a considered exercise thereof.

Each part debuts a feature-film script that resets a classic work(s) in the present.

Part One offers a contemporary visualization ofMacbeth, in the process turning an Elizabethan tragedy into a dramatic comedy.

Part Two applies the guidelines to several renowned works by Edgar Allan Poe.

Arthur Conan Doyle's The Hound of the Baskervilles having frequently screened as a period piece, Part Three gives the hound a twenty-first century twist.

About the Author

Gregory G. Sarno earned a Doctorate in Jurisprudence from U.C. Berkeley. Admitted to the California Bar, Mr. Sarno authored scores of articles on civil and criminal law. Forsaking the legal arena for screenwriting and fiction, he has written four how-tos for a London film journal, including Contemporising the Classics, 5 ScriptWriter 52 (July 2002).