'Smaller and Smaller Circles' true to book's spirit but offers a different twist, says director Raya Martin

After 15 years, the modern Filipino crime novel "Smaller and Smaller Circles" is getting a big screen adaptation.

Since its publication in 2002, F.H. Batacan's novella has won several awards, been reprinted four times, and gathered quite a following.

The expanded novel published internationally in 2015 inspired the film adaptation to be made.

Set in 1997, the novel revolves around two Jesuit priests, a reporter, and the director of the National Bureau of Investigation, who teamed up to solve the series of killings in Payatas.

Director Raya Martin, who is better known for his experimental and alternative independent films, says Smaller and Smaller Circles is his first mainstream production.

"It's a genre movie, which I've always wanted to make, because I'm not used to it. I've done, like, more experimental, documentary, alternative types of movies," Martin told GMA News Online.

"It's so difficult to make a mainstream movie...the simpler the story is, or the simpler the language of the film that you're trying to make, the more meticulous it becomes," he added.

Martin had to pay particular attention to the details, since the movie was set in the 90s. That meant rewinding time and building the world from the ground up.

"Chatting on mIRC, having a beeper, having more telephone conversations than texting," he listed.

But while he did his best to stay true to the world where the story was set, he did something particularly risky: he switched up the ending.

He said that there would be something for everyone who will watch the film, book fans or not.

"We made sure na super faithful kami doon sa book, kasi may malaking fanbase yung book...[pero] yung second half, yung ending, ibang-iba siya sa book. There's something for everyone and we want people na 'di pa nakakabasa, na nakapanood ng movie to pick up the book and also be as excited to discover the story," Martin said.

"It's different but it stayed true to the spirit of the book," he assured.

Smaller and Smaller Circles stars Carla Humphries, Sid Lucero, Nonie Beuncamino, and Bembol Roco.

It will arrive in cinemas on December 6. —JST, GMA News