The General's Daughter

story that dealt with important issues in modern American society. At the same time, the story line, plot, and characters in the novel were easily adaptable to the screen.

The screenplay went through several rewrites, as seems to be the case in Hollywood, and eventually morphed into a highly competent draft by Christopher Bertolini, with some smart doctoring by the always brilliant William Goldman, and a final excellent polish by Scott Rosenberg.

I’m often asked if I have any input into movie scripts adapted from my novels. The answer is, no. Screenwriting is not at all like novel writing, and a screenwriter has to work with a novel that takes ten to sixteen hours to read, and turn it into a screenplay for a movie of about two hours’ length. Obviously, something will be lost in the adaptation, and it’s difficult for a novelist to cut this much from his or her own magnum opus.

I do, however, read the screenplays that have been written of all my novels, in their many drafts, and I offer suggestions. In the case of The General’s Daughter, the final drafts stayed true and close to the substance and intent of my novel.

The first part of the movie was shot in and around Savannah, Georgia, which acted as the setting for the fictional Midland, Georgia, in the novel. My fictional Fort Hadley somehow became Fort McCallum, and Ann Campbell, who is the general’s daughter in the novel, became Elisabeth (Lizzie) Campbell in the movie. It’s not worth wondering about these small changes, and the author is grateful that the movie didn’t become a musical comedy titled Lizzie!

When a film adaptation of a novel gets off to a bad start, it usually stays on that path and ends up as an instant video rental or a video-club giveaway. The General’s Daughter, however, started strong with good support and good ideas from Sherry Lansing, and from Karen Rosenfelt who is an executive vice president of production at Paramount. Next, a producer was chosen—Mace Neufeld. Mace, with his partner, Bob Rehme, have adapted Tom Clancy’s novels to the screen, and Mace himself has many successful films to his credit.

Ironically, Mace Neufeld had read The General’s Daughter when it first came out and made a bid to option it, but was outbid by Paramount. But now Mace and The General’s Daughter have been reunited, so to speak, through Paramount.

The next step was the screenplay, which I’ve mentioned, then came casting, and finding a director. The director chosen, Simon West, made the hit movie, Con Air. He was not considered a natural choice for this kind of movie, but like most creative people, he wanted to do something different. He said, “I really wanted to find a project that was a bit more serious. When The General’s Daughter popped up, I read the book, loved it, and jumped on board.” Simon shared everyone’s enthusiasm for the project, and the results show.

Often, a movie sinks or soars on the choice of the leading man. The character of Paul Brenner in the novel is a wisecracking and slightly smart-assed Irish-American from South Boston. I pictured Bruce Willis for the part and so did a lot of people at Paramount, but Bruce Willis wasn’t available. Then one day, my agent, Nick Ellison, called me and announced that John Travolta had signed for the part. John Travolta? as Paul Brenner? John Travolta is incredibly talented, but I couldn’t see him as the character that I’d created, or even as the character that the scriptwriters had created. But I soon learned what it means when they say that an actor or actress has range and depth.

I recall many years ago that when I heard that Marlon Brando had been picked to play the title role in The Godfather, I thought it was a bad choice. So did a lot of other people who’d read the book. But now, for all time and for all people, Marlon Brando is The Godfather.

The role shapes the actor, and the actor shapes the role. So it is with John Travolta as Paul Brenner. Travolta is Brenner.

John Travolta brought with him his longtime manager, Jonathan Krane, who became the executive producer. Travolta and Krane became involved with the script and also in the casting of the movie.

The leading lady presented a problem of scheduling, and the entire movie had been cast before Paramount was fortunate in signing Madeleine Stowe who starred in The Last of the Mohicans. As with Travolta, I did not picture Stowe as Cynthia Sunhill (now Sara Sunhill) or Sunhill as Stowe. But once again I was pleasantly surprised at how a talented star can mold a part so that it seems a natural choice.

The supporting cast is nothing short of spectacular. James Woods was born to play the part of quirky psychiatrist Colonel Charles Moore, Timothy Hutton is the uptight provost marshall Colonel Bill Kent, James Cromwell, who plays the general, “Fighting Joe” Campbell, told me he was an antiwar activist during the Vietnam War, but he acts like he had been an Army general once, and Clarence Williams III as the general’s aide, Colonel Fowler, is so convincing that you believe he and James Cromwell served together in the military. The alchemy among all these people is every director’s dream.

Last but not least, Leslie Stefanson, who plays the title role of the general’s daughter, is a newcomer to feature films, but the performance she turns in makes her look like a seasoned actress. This is a young woman who has a great film career ahead of her.

I don’t often picture any specific actor or actress playing a part I’ve created in a novel, but I had an eerie feeling when I saw Woods, Hutton, Cromwell, Williams, and Stefanson on the screen. These were the people I’d created, right down to their physical appearances and mannerisms. This is not to say that they didn’t define and expand on the characters and the roles—they did. But they also seemed as if they’d stepped out of the pages of the novel.

The movie was shot during the summer and fall of 1998, and I chose not to visit the set in Savannah during the hot and difficult summer shoot, but I did, with my agent, Nick Ellison, visit the set in October, when the shooting had moved to Los Angeles.

I should point out here that the Department of Defense was not involved with this movie. Mace Neufeld has a good relationship with the DOD from his past films, but he felt that he should not seek government cooperation for this film. He said, “Over the years, I’ve worked with many wonderful people from the DOD who’ve played an invaluable role in certain projects, but I also know when the project is inappropriate and when to back off. It’s a relationship of mutual respect.”

My book was not antimilitary, and neither was the screenplay. But both book and movie raised controversial and sensitive issues that perhaps would make the military uneasy. In any case, shooting a movie about the military without military cooperation can be a little more difficult, and a little more costly. But it also has a liberating effect, both creatively and practically.

This is not to say that there are any glaring lapses of verisimilitude in the movie. In fact, Paramount hired a number of military advisors to ensure military accuracy. I met several of these advisors on the set, and they seemed pleased that their suggestions were acted upon by Mace Neufeld and Simon West.

The chief military advisor was Jared Chandler, a longtime associate of Mace Neufeld’s and a career reserve Army officer. Jared worked on Mace’s Flight of the Intruder and Clear and Present Danger, and was always available on the set of The General’s Daughter when questions of verisimilitude arose. Veterans, like me, who like to pick apart Hollywood’s version of the military, should find little to complain about in The General’s Daughter.

Regarding my visit to the set, these visits can be unhappy occasions. There are legendary tales of East Coast novelists visiting Hollywood—tales that go back, probably, to the days of F. Scott Fitzgerald in the 1920s. Some novelists, like Fitzgerald, are seduced by Tinsel Town and stay on long enough to ruin their careers. Most novelists come, look, and run back to their relatively normal existences.

The movie business is like no other business on this planet, and Los Angeles is like no other city in America. Having said that, I will say that no novelist should miss the opportunity to see his or her novel made into a film.

If fish and houseguests stink after three days, then novelists on a movie set stink after two. I spent two full days on the set, and I was warmly welcomed and just as warmly sent on my way. It was a great visit.

One afternoon, Nick Ellison and I sat with Mace Neufeld and watched about a half hour of cut and edited scenes of The General’s Daughter. As the first scene came up on the video screen, I was anxious, skeptical, and New York cynical. I was prepared to wince. Perhaps even have a cardiac episode. But from the first few minutes, I realized I was watching an exceptional production. The performances from all the members of the cast were enthralling, and the interaction between the actors and actresses was pure magic. When the lights