Directing the write stuff

SINGAPORE might not have a Harry Potter or Twilight in the making yet but the gap between the local literary and film scene is closing with the return of Utter, the annual Singapore Writers Festival initiative where homegrown literature is brought to life through other art mediums like theatre or film.

Adaptations of local books have been few and far between through the decades though there are a handful of notable ones including Army Daze, Michael Chiang's rib-tickling National Service tale that was turned into a movie in 1996 and resurrected on stage numerous times since it became a play in 1987; and The Teenage Textbook, Adrian Tan's coming-of-age novel that made it to the big screen in 1998.

Other efforts include AlterAsians, a series of TV movies based on the works of local writers such as Colin Cheong, KK Seet and Simon Tay that were dramatised by filmmaker Lee Thean-Jeen for TV12 (now okto).