SELECTION CRITERIA

We will film American novels, short stories and plays, both classic and contemporary, written by distinguished and recognized authors.  The works chosen will explore and confirm American core values and should recognize not only our diversity, but also the common threads and experiences that bind us together.  These books and stories should have the entertainment value that great writing always brings. 

The writers we have selected, and will select, demonstrate in their work a deep understanding of some aspect of the American experience.  They express a spectrum of perspectives and reflect different regions and different centuries.  They are not all "classics," but they all have lasting value.  We will not avoid complex issues or unpleasant truths, but we believe that the series of films will project an optimistic picture of our nation to viewers both here and abroad.

OUR COMMITMENT

In making these films we will be "collaborating" with great American writers, living and dead.  We commit ourselves to treating their work with the care it deserves.  It will be our goal to surround ourselves with talent with whom we can share  the responsibility for translating these American works from one medium to another.   We recognize that no film can ever (or should ever) be completely faithful to a book or story: film uses a different vocabulary and different story-telling techniques.  But film can illuminate the values and animate the core of a work of literature, and it will be our goal to achieve this illumination in the works we adapt.