Trust and collaboration: Adapting ‘Smaller and Smaller Circles’ for film

Would a movie ever do a book justice? Such a question always surfaces whenever a critically acclaimed novel gets a green light for a big-screen adaptation. The news is always thrilling, but "thrill" rightfully suggests a bit of fright. Each reader builds a different world, and it's impossible to please every single one of them.

"Smaller and Smaller Circles" , F.H. Batacan's well-received, internationally published crime novel, is getting the film treatment soon.

Set in Manila, "Smaller and Smaller Circles" follows Jesuit priest Father Gus Saenz, who is called in by the National Bureau of Investigation to track down a serial killer preying on young boys and leaving their mutilated bodies in the Payatas dumpsite.

GMA News Online exchanged emails with Ria Limjap, the writer behind the screenplay for the film adaptation, and discussed the perils and pleasures of her task.

GMA News Online: How did you, the film's director Raya Martin, and F.H.  Batacan coordinate to translate the book to film?

Ria Limjap: On Facebook messenger mostly, because Ms. Batacan is based in Singapore. But we met her in December 2015, along with her literary agent Andrea Pasion-Flores, to bring up the project. Then she visited our set a few times during the shoot when she came to the Philippines last summer.

What do you think is gained when a book is turned into film?

Sometimes a film will lead you to the book—it encourages reading which I think is a wonderful and important thing. For example: my brother, who isn't much of a reader, watched Peter Jackson's "Lord of the Rings" movies and became obsessed with [J.R.R.] Tolkien and read has since read all the books.

Who does the adaptation cater to more: Those unfamiliar with the book or fans of the source material?

Both, I hope. The story is very relevant, the message is universal. We want fans to enjoy the adaptation—we want them to appreciate the characters as they are fleshed out by the actors, to be visually stimulated by the cinematography, to get goosebumps with the music—all these things aren't in the book. Those who haven't read the book—well, I really just want them to enjoy the film, and hope that the story makes them aware of something they weren't aware of before. I hope that's what everyone takes away from it, actually.

As a fan of the book yourself, what was it like seeing the actors involved giving life to the characters you read? Did you get involved in coaching them to match what was in your head or did they have more freedom to do their own take?

When Raya Martin and I were first talking about doing an adaptation, we were thinking of casting and Nonie Buencamino as Father Gus Saenz was the first person who came to mind. Same with Sid Lucero as Father Jerome. Raya has worked with both—with Nonie on his film "How To Disappear Completely" and with Sid on "Independencia." I had worked with Nonie before on "The Inheritance" and I'm a great fan of Sid.

Then we thought of the third element—the girl—who was going to play a tough cookie journalist and former student of Father Gus. Raya and I both love Carla Humphries and thought she would make a great Joanna Bonifacio. She's sweet and funny in real life, and as an actress she's got great timing and courage, I think. Also, she speaks flawless French, which was a huge plus since the character needed to do some lines in French.

The rest of the cast is equally fantastic: we have icons like Bembol Roco, Christopher de Leon, Tessie Tomas; seasoned thespians like Raffy Tejada, Mae Paner, Erlinda Villalobos; and some of the finest young actors around like TJ Trinidad, Cholo Barretto, Alex Medina, Ross Pesigan. There are many other cast members I'm not mentioning here—you'll just have to watch the film! The day we had our reading I was pretty nervous but after two hours and a half and a couple of embarrassing typos in the screenplay, everyone clapped. Our cast is amazing and we are so lucky to have worked with all of them.

Do you think there are scenes that read better on paper than onscreen?

Scenes that read better on paper than on screen—I'm not sure, to be honest. The first draft of the screen play was very different from what we ended up shooting. We would constantly revisit the scenes, and Moira Lang (co-writer) would rewrite dialogue when necessary. Our actors also had their own interpretations on what their characters would say, and how they would say it. It was all done in the spirit of trust and collaboration, everyone had input. We only hope the output works!

Considering the constraints of a movie's running time, a few details in the book may be sacrificed. How did you, perhaps with Ms. Batacan, decide which things to leave out?

Moira had known the author F.H. Batacan since the 1990s, so she was in the loop from the beginning. But Ms. Batacan was not involved in what "to leave out"—those decisions were made by Raya, Moira, and me.

First, Raya came up with the outline based on the book, so that his vision as director is stamped on the blueprint of the project. Then I did the main "translating" from book to screenplay, with Moira coming in to refine scene and dialogue. Ms. Batacan actually gave us a lot of insight into her characters—back stories, inspirations, even dates of birth, middle initials.

Moira worked a lot of it into the script. We had a solid backbone from the novel but we also left enough breathing room to accommodate things that you can never predict: the happy accidents, the dynamics between the cast, the constraints we faced, et cetera. Somehow it all came together.

Very few adaptations remain completely truthful to the source material, with many leaving out scenes or entire subplots. How easily does "Smaller and Smaller" lend itself to adaptation?

I don't think it is possible to adapt a book COMPLETELY into a film—one is literature, and the other is cinema. Inevitably, you will always leave out something that is in the book when you turn it into a screen play and then a film—certain details, scenes and subplots as you put it.

I immediately liked the novel when I first read it in August 2015 (I had not previously read the shorter novella published by UP Press is 2000) and my first thought after reading it is that it would make an amazing film.

We love the story and in adapting it we (Raya Martin and Moira Lang) wanted to stay true to it. We tried to keep in as much as we could but we also changed some stuff. A book is not a film and some things have to be tweaked to fit the medium, I think. At the heart of it, the film version stays true to the book—or at least we tried our best to do so.

Which book-to-movie adaptations have impressed you? Were there any pointers you took from those?

Wow, so [many] adaptations are amazing! I love to read so I'm always excited to see a favorite book turn into a film. The Merchant Ivory films are of course at the peak of the genre. There are a ton of Jane Austen adaptations—I like the costume dramas for sure (I'm looking forward to "Love and Friendship" based on "Lady Susan") but I also love it when they do contemporary adaptations like Amy Heckling's "Clueless" which is based on Austen's "Emma", and the first Bridget Jones movie which is loosely based on "Pride and Prejudice."

There's so much out there—everything from The Lord of the Rings trilogy, to Mike de Leon's "Kisapmata" which is based on  Nick Joaquin's "The House on Zapote Street", to "Trainspotting" by Irvine Welsh which I read after watching Danny Boyle's film first (and understanding the language much better). — BM, GMA News

"Smaller and Smaller Circles" is currently in the final stages of post-production. Follow the Smaller and Smaller Circles official Facebook page for updates.