Watch ‘Under the Bridge,’ ‘Genius: MLK/X,’ ‘Justified: City Primeval,’ and ‘We Were the Lucky Ones’ Writers Talk the Art of Adaptation

When “Justified: City Primeval” premiered last year, the limited series took an unusual approach for an adaptation. The eight episodes adapt the Elmore Leonard novel “City Primeval,” but include Leonard’s character Raylan Givens, who was not in the original story. Timothy Olyphant, who played Givens in the acclaimed “Justified,” reprises the role for the series, and the show acts as a followup to the FX series.

That’s the kind of bold storytelling choice that makes a screen adaptation uniquely its own — and the kind of decision discussed at the Disney Storyteller Panel of drama writers IndieWire hosted at Vidiots in Los Angeles April 29. The panel was part of our “Pass the Remote” series, produced in partnership with Disney. (Sign up for our next panel, for “Abbott Elementary” and featuring Quinta Brunson and the producing team taking place May 20.)

The panel featured four leading writers, in conversation with IndieWire features writer Jim Hemphill: Michael Dinner from “Justified: City Primeval,” Erica Lipez from “We Were the Lucky Ones,” Jeff Stetson from “Genius: MLK/X,” and Samir Mehta from “Under the Bridge.” The foursome discussed their process of adapting the books that inspired their series, and the compromises and challenges that the translation between mediums forced them to overcome.

According to Dinner, the idea to incorporate the “City Primeval” novel into the broader “Justified” canon came from Olyphant, and proved a challenging feat of adaptation.

“Originally I was thinking of adapting it as its own series, as a period piece that took place in the ’80s,” Dinner said. “It was difficult, the right situation was very murky. I was trying to do ‘City Primeval,’ but dropping Raylan Givens into the middle of the landscape and put him at Ground Zero. So it’s a weird hybrid.”

“We Were the Lucky Ones,” on the other hand, is adapted from a 2017 novel by Georgia Hunter, and focuses on a Polish Jewish family separated during World War II and the Holocaust and their quests to reunite after the conflict ends. Lipez referred to the novel as “one of the most incredible stories of a family’s survival” she’s ever read, and said it was the type of story that required a largely faithful adaptation. To manage the scope of the show, Lipez said there was “wrangling” and shuffling of the original story in order to make it work in an episodic format.

“I also sort of recognize in Georgia, I think she has the soul of a TV writer. It was sort of written in a way that really lended itself to a limited series,” Lipez said.

“Under the Bridge” is based on the nonfiction book by the late author Rebecca Godfrey, which tells the story of the 1997 murder of Canadian teenager Reena Virk. The TV series notably features Godfrey as an actual character, with the writing of the book forming one of the show’s main plotlines. Mehta said the show also contains material from Virk’s father’s memoir, and changed the timeline so Godfrey (played by Riley Keough) is investigating the murder right after it occurred.

“So there’s ‘Under the Bridge’ the novel, then there’s ‘Under the bridge,’ the show, which is the writing of that novel, including an additional novel, questioning the novel,” Mehta said.

“Genius” is an anthology series where every season focuses on a different real-life figure. The fourth season takes some inspiration from Stetson’s 1967 play “The Meeting,” about an imaginary meeting between the two pioneering Civil Rights Movement figures Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. Stetson explained that the play served as inspiration for executive producer Reggie Rock Bythewood in shaping the show, and Bythewood got Stetson onboard as a writer for the series. In discussing writing the series, Stetson said that they had to compress their original plans after the episode order was reduced from 10 to eight. While prioritizing what made it onscreen, Stetson said they had to cut huge amounts of material, saying he has six scripts just from what was cut from the pilot.

“I really wanted to do so much with Malcolm’s mother … with Martin’s grandmother,” Stetson said. “What I missed from the series was what was that relationship like, because it’s a very close relationship.”

Discussing the research process into the period, Stetson said they spent two weeks meeting with scholars knowledgable about the time period. Then, every writer did their own reading based on the scholars’ suggestions.

“All the writers really became very close because the material was so moving. We had some young writers that really didn’t know much about the time period at all,” Stetson said. “And as they began to learn it that kind of sparked a greater enthusiasm with all of us together.”

Watch the complete video of the panel above. Read here for a list of upcoming Pass The Remote events, and click here to request an invite for the “Abbott Elementary” panel on May 20.