EXCLUSIVE: David Szalay’s Booker Prize-winning novel Flesh is set to be made into a movie by Conclave producer House Productions. BBC Film and Len Blavatnik’s Access are also on board the buzzy project.
“When something moves from one form to another it is transformed in profound ways, so I’m sure it will be different, but it will be fascinating to see,” the author told Deadline about the film project. “It does have quite a cinematic quality,” he added.
‘Flesh’ is Szalay’s sixth novel and he anticipates having a hand in the movie as it comes together. “I’ve never written a screenplay, so I wouldn’t want to do it on my own, I wouldn’t feel I had the expertise to do that or the experience. But I feel I have something that I could contribute to it and I will probably be in some way involved in the writing.”
‘Flesh’ follows a man named István from adolescence to old age. Beginning in Hungary, the story traces his life’s journey, from his time in the army through to rubbing shoulders with London’s super-rich. “I don’t think I’ve read a novel that uses the white space on the page so well,” said Booker Prize judge and ‘The Commitments’ author Roddy Doyle following its Booker win.
House operates across film and TV, and given the expansive nature of Szalay’s 368-page novel, there were discussions about whether it should be a feature film or a series. “There were arguments on both sides,” the author said. “On the film side, [the argument was] it could be made as a single, impactful work that can be taken in at one sitting… it would be a way of extracting the greatest power from it, and I can see that.”
We hear that İlker Çatak, the German writer-director of Oscar-nominated film The Teachers’ Lounge is talks to direct although not yet confirmed. There was tough competition for the rights to ‘Flesh’, which is published by Simon & Schuster imprint Scribner. Tessa Ross and Juliette Howell’s BBC Studios-backed indie House look to have won that battle. Its other recent film projects include Andrea Arnold’s Bird and Jonathan Glazer’s The Zone of Interest.
While Çatak is not yet confirmed, Szalay would clearly approve if he came on board. “The Teachers’ Lounge is a great film,” he said. “I’ve also seen some of his earlier films and he’s a brilliant fit for the story.”
The Booker Prize is the world’s most significant award for a single work of fiction. There is a long tradition of the winners of the Prize’s, as well as titles from the longlist and shortlist, being adapted film and TV. Notable examples include Michael Ondaatje’s ‘The English Patient’, Sally Rooney’s ‘Normal People’ and ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ by Margaret Attwood.
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