Making books into films

'I think that with certain books the characters are inevitably a lot richer - well it depends on which book I suppose - but the stories are more evolved and nuanced than they are in other forms, or with original ideas. I love to read so I thought why not do that which you love...

Because it is so competitive, most certainly for new material, you want to try and get things as early as possible. Often, by the time the book has been published the film rights have been sold. Sometimes the time that is necessary to decide if something is a film or not is lost because everyone is hunting something down, but clearly the key is to find a good (screen) writer and of course a good director to adapt...

I think there are probably some writers who are more cine-literate than in the past and there are many who write, thankfully, in a very un-cinematic way. What's also the case is that the market for books into films has increased and the awareness of the possibility of a book being turned into a film is much greater than it used to be. I think there are some people who write books with the idea that they maybe will become films and I think that is a pity.'

David Heyman, producer of the eight Harry Potter films, in the Bookseller