WILDWOOD interview with screenwriter Chris Butler

So, Chris, I just want to say the movie is amazing.

Like, all of you guys' movies, I like you.

Like, I saw this with an audience that was absolutely jazzed to see it.

Yeah? Yeah, and everybody loved it, man.

Oh, good.

Oh, that's good to hear.

Thank you.

Oh, no problem.

So my first question is, how did you approach adapting this novel? Because I haven't read the novel.

And now watching the movie, you guys have definitely made me interested in reading this.

So how did you go about, you know, adapting this for, you know, you guys is like you in house?

Well, I have never at that point, because we're going back a few years.

I just finished making Paranorman, which was my first directing job.

It was my first script.

Actually, it was my first full script.

And after that, Travis approached me and he said, I've got a book that you might be interested in.

I would love for the studio to make it.

And I was like, sure.

I saw it as a challenge because I was used to working on my own stuff, but this was someone else's.

And then I saw the book and it's like 500 plus pages.

So it's pretty big.

And I was thinking, ha, now this is going to be interesting.

And it's dense.

There is a lot of mythology and a lot of characters involved.

And a lot of adventure that happens in those 500 pages.