Dear Phyllis.
We are two old high school friends, and now film colleagues, in Denmark who are writing you to ask your permission to make film(s) out of your series of books about witches. We have decided to initiate our conversation without any practical considerations since we wanted to ask you personally, if you would consider to work with us, before starting any business proposals or practical considerations. Hence, following are two personal statements for you to understand the deep wish for us both to visualize your books in a Danish context:
I grew up in a co-housing community and was a frequent visitor in my best friend’s house. I remember her father, Jørn E. Albert, typing away on his typewriter in the basement of their house, day and night, translating books from English to Danish. When I was 12 years old, just after my mother moved out of our house to realise her dreams of becoming a psychotherapist, I read your book “The Witch’s Sister”. We found it in my friend’s dad’s collection of books that he had translated. I was completely drawn into the universe of Lynn and Mouse. The way they explored witchery and the unknown together through old books and spying on the world around them. Creating conspiracy theories and trying to understand what was going on. And digging into whether there was more between Heaven and earth than meet the eye.
Only now, as a grown up, I realise that it was not just the scary and breathtaking story about two girls and a potential witch that made me love the books. It was also the story of a family with a mother who was suddenly much less present than before. And the development from being a child to becoming an adult. My friend and I could never really agree on which one of us was Lynn, and which was Mouse, but I do remember that I had glasses. And we both had big sisters. Whom we spied on and who behaved strangely, just like Judith.
We were probably not your typical readers. Or maybe we were? We read the books so many times, while eating bread with jam like Lynn and Mouse. And when we were done reading them, we started listening to them as audio books. About a hundred times. And then we began reading them aloud ourselves, while recording it on our tape recorder. Over and over again. The amazing thing was that we still got scared. But we loved it. At night when I had to go home, my friend had to follow me halfway up the dark path and then we RAN home in opposite directions, screaming.
Maybe getting to know a story this well was the seed to start creating my own stories. I imagined everything in your books, saw the images in front of me and today, I make films. Re-reading the books as a grown up and mother of 3, I suddenly see them in a different light. I identify with the mother. I understand that she needed to find a place out of the home to work. I understand her need to create. Being a mother and an artist can be a hard combination. And this is a layer of your books that I would love to explore more in the film version of the witch books.
Best Regards, Katrine (Director)
Your books have been with me from childhood, and from the beginning of my career, I have had a profound wish to visualize them and make them into movies. I am more experienced now – I know how to write scripts, and my wish has never lessened. I would like a broader part of the world to know how great your books are. I hope it would be possible to try it out – perhaps only in a small country like ours. Just to show your universe to a younger generation, without losing the magic of the books.
Kind regards, Ine (Screenwriter)
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