From Book to Big Screen: Rebecca Sonnenshine’s Adaptation Playbook (The Housemaid, The Boys)

Screenwriter and showrunner Rebecca Sonnenshine joins the No Film School Podcast to unpack her career and creative process behind hit adaptations including The Boys and The Housemaid. She shares how she got her start, how she discovered her voice in genre, and the intense pitch process behind landing The Housemaid. Rebecca also offers practical advice for writing contained stories, building a compelling script from source material, and creating work that audiences actually want to watch. She shares how she got her start, how she discovered her voice in genre, and the intense pitch process behind landing The Housemaid. Rebecca also offers practical advice for writing contained stories, building a compelling script from source material, and creating work that audiences actually want to watch.

In this episode, No Film School's GG Hawkins and guest Rebecca Sonnenshine discuss...

• How Rebecca’s early jobs and script coverage experience helped her become a screenwriter

• Why she embraced genre writing and how her perspective as a woman informs her work

• The pitch process for adapting The Housemaid, and how she knew it was the right fit

• How she avoids voiceover and instead finds cinematic ways to externalize internal character thoughts

• The importance of blocking and movement when writing contained, single-location stories

• Her writing habits: page goals, scene sketching, talking out dialogue, and more

• What filmmakers can learn from writing bottle episodes or adapting material

• Why thinking about your audience is key to writing something people actually want to watch

Memorable Quotes:

• "I read something and it either clicks or it doesn’t."

• "Pitching… takes a long time. You need all the twists and turns… but not more than 28 minutes."

• "I don’t love voiceover. So I had to find a device in which we could get some of their thoughts out."

• "Blocking is everything. If you’re not thinking about blocking while you’re writing, then you’re doing your project a disservice."

Guests:

• Rebecca Sonnenshine

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